RESER SMALL RESEARCH GRANT

RESER can offer grant of up to a maximum of 3,000 Euros to a group of RESER members (at least three members) who wish to develop a grant application, to undertake a small research project or to organise a series of events to examine a research issue of collective interest.

On the name of Reser council G.Rusten has transmitted to Pr Jean Philippe, University of Aix en Provence (France) the decision of the council :

It was established that the topic of the proposal " Demand as a driving force of Service Innovation" is highly relevant and deserves to be explored more thoroughly, especially based on evidence and case studies. The project proposal was appreciated also due to the fact that it offers opportunity to include more RESER teams into the large questionnaire survey and research on the topic in the second stage.

Institutions and participants to this research
• University of Brasilia, Brazil: Pr. Eduardo RAUPP de VARGAS, Marina Figueiredo MOREIRA
• University of Paul Cézanne Aix Marseille III (CERGAM): Pr. Jean PHILIPPE, Minh Huan LUONG,
• University of Toulouse 1(CRM): Pr. M-C MONNOYER, Sid Ahmed GOZIM,
• Coordinator : Pr. Jean PHILIPPE

The "Demand as a driving force of Service Innovation" project

1. Reasons for application
All developed and emergent economies have felt the impact of crisis in 2009 and are looking for a new type of growth less productive of carbon. Service innovation is put to the forefront of this new thinking. Research on service innovation has been in progress for ten years, but our knowledge of service innovation is still incomplete. TEKES Finish Institute analysis on US service innovation on the 2005-2007 years establishes a certain number of key elements :
- Customer is the new central point of innovation and has taken the place of competitors to settle the overall strategy and the innovation strategy of firms.
- Entrepreneurship is a driving force of innovation in service sector where the capital needs are less important than in manufacturing.
- Most innovations are substitute for others tasks in the value chain.
- Communication and information technologies are essential for service innovation.

French researches on service innovation have shown the technical aspects of service innovation but also the importance of innovation in process and organization. (DJELLAL F., GALLOUJ F. GALLOUJ C, 2005, 2007 ).
Service innovation has mainly been studied as a resulting process in firm of R&D, or ongoing transformation in service offer. The role of demand, although recognized has never been thoroughly investigated. Our objective is precisely to establish the link between the demand and service innovation in three dimensions: the international demand, the public demand through public tender and the technological demand through service linked to new products. The linkages between demand and innovation are obvious when we observe firms behaviors: firms must satisfy hard to please clients private or public, in a global competitive context.

2. Type of application and proposed time table

Our plan is to do the case studies during the first 2010 semester and organize, during the RESER conference a seminar about demand as determinants of service innovation. As a final output of this grant we will produce a report under the RESER name.

3. Expected results
These case studies will help us to obtain after a new funding to carry a questionnaire survey on a large scale. We plan to organize, during the RESER conference a seminar about demand as determinants of service innovation. As a final output of this grant we will produce a report under the RESER name. It seems to us that this subject is central for many RESER teams whose members have contributed to the research on innovation or internationalization of services in their own country (Granada, Tampere, Manchester, Lille, Aix en Provence, Toulouse, Essen, Bergen, Birmingham): we expect to launch a large questionnaire survey with a RESER collective support if we get the appropriated funding.

for 2010

Details on the application process