Application of Design Thinking for Service Innovation: Current Practices, Expectations and Adoption Barriers

There is an increasing interest from both academics and practitioners on the application of Design Thinking (DT) for innovation efforts. This study explores the current real-life application of DT within five large Dutch multinationals for service innovation projects. It aims to develop an understanding of how and why DT is applied, and what the benefits and challenges are of the adoption. Based on existing literature, five propositions are developed that guide the data collection and analysis for eight case studies on service innovation projects where DT was applied. The results show that DT is applied as a mindset or 'way-of-thinking', supported by methods, processes and tools. Expected benefits that drive its application are increased customer value delivered by service innovations, as well as an improved ability to deal with complexity. Adoption of DT is hampered by the individual's understanding of DT as well as uncertainty avoidance. Based on the discussion of these findings within the extant literature, we propose a model comprising four interconnected factors driving DT adoption.