Service Innovation through Storytelling

The project aimed at researching the hypothesis that tools and principles for telling visual stories (storyboard, buildup in the cinematography, staging and dramaturgy in dramatics or narration and backstory in literature) used in the Creative Industries (e.g. theatre, film, design, arts and letters) can offer an important contribution to the process of service innovation and can turn a service into an even more „interesting“ service.

The identification and analysis of those tools and methods led to a prototype methodology for the development of services. Togehter with the companies taking part in the research project, new service offerings were planned and developed by adopting this methodology. The service offering were tested by means of actors (Service Theatre) in a Service laboratory („ServLab“, Fraunhofer IAO, Germany).

The insight gained from these pilot projects is the basis for the main objective: the development of a toolbox for developing services using storytelling. The toolbox offers insight into the stage of the service innovation process and shows which tools can be adopted in order to create „better“ service innovation offerings.


Focus of Research FSP Visual Narrative & Explanation
Reasearch Team Roman Aebersold (Lead) / Adrienne Schäfer / Nicole Foelsterl
Partners Hochschule Luzern – Wirtschaft / Fraunhofer IAO / SUVA – D4 Business Center Luzern / Siemens Schweiz AG, Automation & Drives / Esther Knaus AG
­Status in progress
Financing KTI – Agentur für Innovation and Business Partners
Lectures and Publications _  A. Schäfer, R. Aebersold, Applying Storytelling in the Service Innovation Process – Findings from a Case Study in K . Abdul Samad, P. Troxler, P. Wolf (Ed.), Knowledge Board's third eBook, Supporting Service Innovation through Knowledge Management: Practical Insights and Case Studies, Espoo 2008 / A. Schäfer, A. Zimmermann, Serviceinnovation through Storytelling, Proceedings of the AMA SERVSIG International Research Conference, Liverpool 200