Customer-Perceived Innovation Takes the Stage at Frontiers in Service 2026
At Frontiers in Service 2026 in Helsinki, members of the Innovation Index Coalition contributed to the international service research conversation with three presentations closely connected to the Coalition’s work on customer-perceived innovation. The conference brought together service researchers from around the world to discuss current developments in service, technology, sustainability, customer experience, and innovation. Across the program, the customer perspective was a recurring theme, making it a natural setting for research linked to the Innovation Index Coalition. Three Coalition members presented work on behalf of their research teams: Lluís Santamaría, Darius-Aurel Frank, and Timothy L. Keiningham. Their presentations addressed different parts of the same broader question: how do customers perceive innovation, and how do these perceptions shape value for firms and society?
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Lluís Santamaría presented the paper “Diverse Paths to Innovation: A Taxonomy of Perceived Firm Innovativeness Drivers,” developed together with Lola C. Duque and Werner H. Kunz. The study focused on the different routes through which firms can become perceived as innovative by customers. This topic is central to the Coalition’s work, as it moves the discussion of innovation beyond patents, R&D spending, or internal activities and toward what customers actually recognize and value.
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Darius-Aurel Frank presented “The ChatGPT Effect: Evidence from 50,000 Consumer Evaluations of AI-Enabled Services,” developed together with Lina Fogt Jacobsen, Tobias Otterbring and Werner Kunz. The presentation connected directly with current debates about AI in service contexts. It highlighted that the use of AI alone does not automatically translate into perceived innovation. What matters is whether customers experience AI-enabled services as value-creating.
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Timothy L. Keiningham presented “Communicating for Impact: A Longitudinal Examination of Environmental and Social Messaging, Customers’ Social Innovativeness Perceptions, and Customer Satisfaction,” developed together with Bart Larivière, Edward Carl Malthouse, Lerzan Aksoy, Forrest Morgeson, and Gina Woodall. The study linked environmental and social messaging to customers’ perceptions of social innovativeness and satisfaction, showing how sustainability-related communication can shape how innovative firms are perceived to be.
Taken together, the three presentations showed the breadth of the Coalition’s research agenda. Customer-perceived innovation was discussed in relation to firm innovativeness, AI-enabled services, environmental and social communication, and customer satisfaction. The shared message was clear: innovation becomes meaningful when customers notice it, understand it, and experience it as valuable.
The contributions at Frontiers in Service 2026 also showed how the Innovation Index Coalition continues to connect national innovation index work with broader academic debates. By bringing customer-based firm innovativeness measurement into conversations on AI, sustainability, and service transformation, the Coalition further strengthened its role in advancing an outside-in view of innovation.