Automotive after-sales-service innovations — An empiric analysis

A vast international literature covers diverse aspects of product innovation, identifying antecedents of success, models, methods and tools. But, there are only few studies giving empiric evidence of the success drivers in service innovation projects. It is still a young research field, which has emerged in recent years and is depicted as having the "Cinderella"-status, having been underestimated for a long time and now getting the appropriate attention (Miles 2000, p. 371f.). It is therefore of utmost importance to understand the common features of as well as the distinctive differences between product and service innovation in order to develop models, methods and concepts for complex service product systems. This article shall provide insights of a multi-methods empirical research on success factors of service innovation in the automotive after-sales services market. This market is of high interest for research as the products offered can be considered as becoming increasingly complex product service systems.