Service Innovations within Extended Responsibilities - a study of post-retail initiatives in the textile and clothing industry

Sammanfattning: Abstract Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate businesses with Service Innovations (SI) that take voluntary Extended Responsibility (ER) in the post-retail textile and clothing industry. Through an investigation of multiple cases the research describes various existing Service Innovations and explains how they affect Extended Responsibilities. Furthermore it investigates if the degree of openness of Extended Responsibility activities has an impact on the Service Innovation of a business. Methodology - This study is based on a qualitative, multiple case study design. The empirical data were collected from 7 semi-structured interviews with textile companies representing the 2 defined critical case criteria. The interviews were transcribed, coded and analyzed using a comparative analysis approach. The main limitations of the study are the limited amount of cases as well as the focus on post-retail activities, which does not consider Extended Responsibilities in former product stages. Findings - The findings of the analysis are presented case by case and subsequently grouped to more general model. Service Innovations that cover Extended Responsibilities can be applied in 3 recognized business patterns: Traditional service provider, networks and platforms. Traditional service provider are the least open and innovative but cover the most responsibilities. Networks are more open and innovative than traditional service provider but the service experience and the collective learning is still limited to the networker and its partners. The partners do not share a service experience. Networker are not limited to own products which is why they take less responsibilities than traditional service provider. Platforms are the most open and innovative form of Service Innovations. However they only take informative responsibility. Nevertheless they facilitate a framework for others to take Extended Responsibilities. Contribution - This paper contributes to the Academia by investigating voluntary Extended Responsibility schemes that include any actor in the value chain and by giving new insights in post-retail initiatives in the textile industry in the form of services. Practical contributions are made by analyzing the connection of two phenomena for competitive advantage. The investigated cases can be role models for entrepreneurs as well as established companies.