Paulien de Jong
Department of Social Aspects of Science and Technology,
Vrije University,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
  

Han Brezet
Design for Sustainability Program,
Delft University of Technology,
Netherlands
  

Services represent a significant piece of economic activity. In Western economies the portion of services in the labour force is over two thirds. The growth in economic importance of services is linked to the deployment of information technologies but also human services in general have increased in the last half of the 20th century. Moreover, the dynamic evolution of services and their growing share in the economy is considered one of the hallmarks of the new economy. The claims about future effects have many different aspects, one of the interesting claims is the potential that such shifts will lead to considerable dematerialization. Dematerialization through service innovation is considered beneficial from an environmental point of view. However, the understanding of service innovation is not sufficiently developed in order to guide the development of systems of product service combinations.

The literature is quite clear that there is a continuum between products and services, thus the material content might be low but is still part of services. Increasing investment in information and communication hardware is changing product and processes in sectors as varied as training and education and banking. While these macro changes are rather well understood with regard to the economic side, the actual changes in the product service combinations and the competition between various solutions is rather less documented. Thus a judgment on the factors that would stimulate environmental friendly service innovation is not clear-cut. Our focus is therefore not on the potential of service innovations for dematerialization but on the factors and actors that influence and guide service innovations. For an answer to this question we have been involved in analysis of some Dutch case studies.

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Last updated: 13 November, 2008