Narrative approach to innovation

INUSE seminar October 17, 2013Open Innovation House, Aalto University

Mari HolopainenAalto University School of Science mari.holopainen@aalto.fi

15.11.2012

INNOPEX – Service innovation from the provider perspective and as a customer experience• Innovation traditionally

defined as a process or an output from the provider perspective.

• An integrative approach to service innovation research.

• Exploration of employees’ and customers’ experiences and narratives of new services.

• Realized in 2010-2012 in collaboration with Aalto University, Hanken School of Economics and University of Helsinki.

• Staff: Dr. Minna Autio, Dr. AnuHelkkula, PhD candidate Mari Holopainen, PhD candidate Kaisa Huttunen

• Master’s thesis by PirkkaKaijanen

The scope

• Research questions – How do customers’ experiences of a new service differ from the

’official’ view of a company and from employees’ experiences? – What are the benefits/challenges of the new service

exprerienced by customers and employees?

• Methods– 65 employee and customer interviews– Thematic interviews and combining narratives with critical

events and metaphors to analyze service experiences (Helkkulaand Pihlström, 2010).

Data

• The new services we explored– Electronic billing for small-sized enterprises – Internet-based shopping service for metals and construction

materials– Trade union services – Interior decorating electronic service – Online application and decision concerning indemnities

Theoretical lenses

• Phenomenology: experiences as individually subjective and socially inter-subjective (e.g. Husserl 1960).

• S-D logic: value is experiential and co-created within social networks (Vargo and Lusch 2008).

• Narrative: essential in perceiving the world and bringing different layers of meaning into dialogue (e.g. Abbot 2008: 3; Czarniawska 1998).

• Cultural marketing and consumer research (e.g. Moisander & Valtonen 2006)

– Marketers are regarded as designers of consumer tastes, wants and needs– Consumers as active players that shape and negotiate the meanings of products, services

and brands– Culture always shapes peoples’ habitus or strategies for action and understanding (Bourdieu

1984[1977])

From disinterest to glorification – corporate, employee, and customer narratives on a new insurance e-service July 5, 2013, EGOS Montréal Sub-theme 35: Organizations and their Consumers: Bridging Production and Consumption

Mari HolopainenAalto University School of Science mari.holopainen@aalto.fi, @mariholopainen

15.11.2012

Holopainen (2013): ‘From disinterest to glorification –corporate, employee, and customer narratives on a new insurance e-service’

EGOS 2013, Montréal

• Innovation is often understood in one specific way from a particular storyteller’s perspective.

• An insurance e-services innovation as presented by the official corporate voice, employees and customers.

• Interviews and the ‘official’ corporate narrative publicly presented in the texts of the company’s annual report and websites.

• Identification of dominant narratives.