Investigating The Role Of Customers In Service Innovation

In this article, we investigate to what extent research libraries involve users in services innovation and what are these user roles. By drawing on earlier research on innovation, new product development and new service development we look at the theoretical possibilities for drawing on users in service innovation. Results from a case study show that libraries are making some attempts to draw on users in service innovations. We found that the library involves users in three ways:" customer as user", however mainly in an indirect form;" customers as a resource" and "customer as co-creator; the latter is though at an infant stage. The main conclusion is that there are unexplored possibilities for user involvement in service innovations in research libraries. The explanation seems to rest on a conservative view from the library on user's visions and the methods in use for approaching and revealing user input.