To achieve competitive advantage in a service-centered economy, firms increasingly engage

networks of customers, suppliers, governments, and other stakeholders in service innovation

processes. These service innovation networks (SINs) can even address complex service problems,

such as challenges in an aging society. Illustrative are smart home technologies coupled with care

packages from nearby nursing homes to improve elderly people’ well-being while reducing the

nursing home workload.

Recent research, however, suggests that SINs do not always contribute to a better service

innovation performance (i.e., service innovations with better experiences for customers and

efficiency gains for organizations), since managing multi-party interactions is challenging for

organizations and many inter-organizational collaborations fail. Therefore, this research

investigates which capabilities different stakeholders in SINs need in different service innovation

stages to achieve a better service innovation performance.

This research extends the service innovation, capability, and network literature by taking a

longitudinal, multi-party perspective. By conducting qualitative and quantitative studies on SINs in

the healthcare industry, this research also builds on theoretical and methodological expertise

gained during previous research projects and stays abroad. Finally, I can draw from a broad

network of (inter)national researchers and practitioners to bring this research to a good end.