Innovation management in information technology service companies in Brazil: planned innovation, rapid application and deliberate a posteriori innovation models

Abstract

Although service innovations present characteristics that make them different from innovation in goods, literature presents traditional innovation management models, such as those following a structured new service development (NSD) process, as valid and applicable to service companies. This article examines this issue in ten Brazilian IT service companies dedicated to software development, system integration, and mobile services development. The results show that reference innovation management models are applicable to service companies, but four other possibilities are also available, and a posteriori innovations can also result from deliberate efforts driven by the firm’s innovation strategy. Innovation management models are unable to capture all diversity that exists in different sectors of activity. Firms that acknowledge service innovation in its multiple dimensions and understand that the traditional innovation process is not the only successful way to develop innovations have a greater set of choices when defining and pursuing their innovation strategies.