Service design integration with business development: Six Finnish case studies of digital service development

As a complex ecosystem, the global digital environment includes actors and stakeholders with diverse values and distinct mindsets. In this research, we examine the digital ecosystem in the Finnish context of a business-led research and development (R&D) consortia (Need for Speed [N4S]), focusing on the early phases of research. The aim is to propose an iterative action research and case study framework for developing the Finnish digital business ecosystem with the use of service design thinking and tools.

Service design is the methodology and process of enabling co-creation activities during all steps of the design process, concept generation and prototyping before the launch of a service. The theoretical framework utilized in this research is cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which suggests the starting point for a more practical strategic tool.

Theory-based data analysis is applied to data on design methods used in service design cases with six companies, including co-creation workshops, reflective interviews, observation, visual documentation and rough service prototyping. The company cases were conducted by the Service Innovation Corner (SINCO) laboratory at the University of Lapland in 2013 and 2014. Two case companies operate in the customer service field in tourism, two in manufacturing and two in the software industry.