The rationale

  • Most R&D programs do not address service sectors and activities. However, there is a need to promote service innovation to increase productivity and competitiveness, both in the services sector and within agriculture, mining and manufacturing. Innovation in services needs specific policies that are different than the traditional policies for goods-related innovation. For example, services innovation is more participatory and can linked to social innovation. Both service and social innovations require new forms of interaction between institutions, organization and citizens.

How to address the challenges

  • Understanding how service innovation works and performs.
  • Screening to what extent innovation programs include service innovation.
  • Creating awareness of the importance of service innovation in national agendas.
  • Assessing the right balance between horizontal and vertical policies in services.
  • Launching pilot programs for service and social innovation.
  • Launching R&D and innovation programs adapted to the needs of service companies.
  • Introducing value co-creation principles and practices in public administrations.

The Challenges

  • Improving the quantity, quality and impact of innovation in service sectors.
  • Boosting the transformative power of service innovation in agriculture and manufacturing.
  • Integrating services into national innovation systems.
  • Understand the role of society in co-innovation, user-driven innovation and social innovation.

Our products

  • Diagnosis of service innovation and innovation in services.
  • Identifying the potential for social innovation in public intervention.
  • International benchmarking and best practices.
  • Advice on statistical work for service and social innovation statistics.
  • Expert advice for service and social innovation policies.

Luis RubalcabaDirector

Professor of Economic Policy, Department of Economics and Business Administration, University of Alcalá. Previous academic positions include: visiting Fulbright Schuman Scholar at Boston University, (US), distinguished professor at VTT-Tekes (Finland), honorary scholar at the University of Birmingham (UK) and president of the RESER scientific association (European Association for Services Research). Staff positions at international institutions: The World Bank Group, Washington, DC, USA (2012-2016, specialist within the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice) and European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (2002-2004; policy officer in DG Enterprise and Industry – previously, analyst at Eurostat based in Luxembourg, 1989-1990). He has led projects for some EU governments, business organizations and well as for the European Commission, the OECD, the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank Group. In developing economies, he has been working in countries such as Ecuador, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic, Jordan, and Jamaica. He has published in more than 100 international publications on services.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS

  • Van der Have, R., and Rubalcaba, L. (2016) Social innovation: an emerging research field? Research Policy 45 (9), 1923–1935
  • Rubalcaba, L., Aboal, D., and Garda, P. (2016) Service innovation in developing economies: evidence from Latin-American and the Caribbean. Journal of Development Studies 52(5), 607-626
  • Rubalcaba, L. (2016) Social innovation and its relationships with service and system innovations. In Toivonen, M (ed) Service Innovation: Novel Ways of Creating Value in Actor Systems. Springer. Pp 69-93.
  • Windrum, P. Schartinger, D., Rubalcaba, L., Gallouj, F and Toivonen, M. (2016) The Co-Creation of MultiAgent Social Innovations: A Bridge Between Service and Social Innovation Research. European Journal of Innovation Management. Volume: 19 Issue: 2, 150-166
  • • Maroto, A., Rubalcaba, L, and Gallego, J. (2016) Publicly Funded R&D for Public Sector Performance and Efficiency: Evidence from Europe. R&D Management 46 (S2), 564-578.
  • Rubalcaba, L. (2015) Service innovation for developing economies: Policy rationale and framework. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Vol 51 (3), 540-557.
  • Rubalcaba, L., Aboal, D., Garda, P. (2015) Service innovation in developing economies: evidence from Latin-American and the Caribbean. Journal of Development Studies.
  • Aboal, D., Crespi, G., and L. Rubalcaba (2015) (Eds) La innovación y la nueva economía de servicios en América Latina y el Caribe. Retos e implicaciones de política. CINVE – IDB.
  • Lagunes, H., and Rubalcaba, L. (2015) External sources for innovation in public organizations. The Services industries Journal. 35, 13, 710-727
  • Hipp, C., Gallego, J., and Rubalcaba, L. (2015). Shaping innovation in European knowledge-intensive business services. Service Business 9 (1), 41-55
  • Battisti, G., Gallego, J., Rubalcaba, L. and Wimdrum, P. (2015). Open innovation in services: knowledge sources, intellectual property rights and internationalization. Economics of Innovation and New Technology 24 (3), 223-247
  • Di Meglio G, Stare M, Maroto A, Rubalcaba L (2015). Public services performance: an extended framework and empirical assessment across the enlarged EU. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 33 (2), 321-341.
  • Di Meglio, G., Pyka, A. and Rubalcaba, L. (2015).On the ‘How Many Europes’ Debate: Varieties of Service Economies. Journal of Economic and Social Geography (Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie), 106 (3): 307–320.
  • Rubalcaba, L. and Toivonen, M. (2015). Internationalisation of services: modes and the particular case of KIBS. In Peter Daniels and John Bryson (Eds) The Handbook of Service Business. Edward Elgar.

  • Gallouj, F., Rubalcaba, L., and Windrum, P. (2013) (Eds) Public Private Innovation Networks in Services. Edward Elgar
  • Rubalcaba, L., Gallego, J., and Di Meglio, G., (2013). Social Innovation and Private-Public Innovation Networks in Services. In Ruiz, C. & Parra, C. (Eds) New forms of organization in knowledge-based societies: Social innovation, non-profit organizations and Social Entrepreneurship. Routledge, New York
  • Gallego, J. and Rubalcaba, L. (2013) Cooperation for Innovation in European Firms. In Gallouj, F., Rubalcaba, L. and Windrum, P. (Eds.) Public Private Innovation Networks in Service. Edward Elgar, UK, 139-163.
  • Gallego, J., Rubalcaba, L. and Suarez, C. (2013) Knowledge for Innovation in Europe: The Role of external knowledge on firms’ cooperation strategies. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 2034.
  • Hipp, C., Rubalcaba, L. and Gallego, J. (2013). Services and organisational innovation: The right mix for value creation. Management Decision, 51 (6), 1117 – 1134
  • Rubalcaba, L., Michel, S., Sundo, J., Brown, S., and Reynoso, J. (2012) Shaping, organizing, and rethinking service innovation: a multidimensional framework, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 23 Iss: 5, pp.696 – 715
  • Bryson, J., Rubalcaba, L., Ström, P. (2012) Services, Innovation, Employment and Organisation: Research Gaps and Challenges for the Next Decade. The Services Industries Journal 32, 4, 641-655.
  • Rubalcaba, L. (2011) The challenges for service innovation and service innovation policies. In Promoting Innovation in the Services Sector. Review of Experiences and Policies. The United Nations, UNECE, New York and Geneva, pp. 3-29. (ISBN 978-92-1-117039-9)
  • Rubalcaba, L., Gallego, J., and Gago, D. (2010) On the differences between goods and services innovation. Journal of Innovation Economics Vol. 5: 17-40
  • Rubalcaba, L., Gallego, J, and Den Hertog, P. (2010). The case of market and system failures in services innovation. The Service Industries Journal: Vol 30, 4, 549-566

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