The main objective of this paper is to improve the understanding of the phenomenon of innovation in service companies. It focuses on the idea that in order to study and understand how innovation processes take place, a more in depth study of these companies was required. Several case studies were conducted in five different service enterprises in the sector of telecommunications and computer-related activities. To describe the innovation process, the concept of "Chain of Innovation" proposed by Hansen and Birkinshaw (2007) was applied, i.e. an expanded view of the phenomenon of innovation that forms a type of chain composed by the following phases: generation of ideas; conversion (selection of ideas, including the selection, financing, and development), and diffusion. Through the cases studied, it can be seen that innovation in services follows a similar logic to that found in the literature for physical goods, especially concerning the use of the Stage-Gates' classic model proposed by Cooper (1993).
Innovation; Service Companies; Value chain innovation
