Process reference frameworks: how the IT Infrastructure Library promotes service innovation
By: Mauricio Marrone
Tags: Itil, Academia, Information Systems

Summary of Iden, J., Eikebrokk, T.R., Marrone, M. (2020) Process reference frameworks as institutional arrangements for digital service innovation. International Journal of Information Management 54 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102150

Increasingly, Information systems (IS) organisations aim to co-create digital services with customers. This process of co-creation occurs within a ‘service ecosystem’, which comprises “resource-integration actors connected by shared institutional arrangements” (Vargo & Lusch, 2016, p.16).

The institutional arrangements connecting actors within a service ecosystem are assemblages of shared norms, rules, meanings, symbols and practices. These assemblages enable and constrain human action and coordinate interactions.

The Process Reference Framework (PRF) is such an assemblage, of best practice processes utilised to build a process- and service-oriented organisation. One example of a PRF is the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

In a study designed to test the relationships between ITIL implementation and its outcomes, and in particular to investigate how the ITIL influences organisations’ ability for service innovation, 159 member companies of IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) chapters in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were surveyed.

The study was based on 6 hypotheses (see figure 1 below). Firstly, that ITIL implementation enhances the digital service climate and secondly, that there is a positive relationship between ITIL implementation and the co-creation of digital services. The third and fourth hypotheses were that digital service climate enhances digital service co-creation and digital service innovation. The fifth hypothesis was that co-creation enhances digital service innovation and the sixth that ITIL implementation enhances digital service innovation. Four control variables were also included, as factors that may influence ITIL implementation. These were:

· experience with ITIL (measured as years since the ITIL implementation was initiated);

· personnel resources (measured as the number of employees on staff);

· business sector (measured as whether the IS organization is owned by the government (1) or a private (2) company); and

· the country in which the IS organization is located

Figure 1: Research model and hypotheses (Iden, Eikebrokk & Marrone, 2020)

All six hypotheses were supported by the survey results, confirming that PRFs stimulated a positive digital service climate and digital service co-creation, inducing organisational changes that increase innovation capabilities. According to Jia et al. (2008), the digital service climate is defined as “IT professionals’ shared perceptions of the practices and behaviours in their workplace that support the provision of IT service to business customers.”

Previously, it has been unclear whether the digital service climate is created by the ITIL or whether it precedes any such intervention. This study suggests that the climate is influenced by ITIL. When PRFs become systems structurally and relationally embedded in the service ecosystem, they can positively influence transformations from technology-oriented to innovation-, service-, and customer-oriented organisational cultures.

PRFs such as ITIL may therefore enable transformation, by helping companies to establish efficient working practices and shared norms and rules. This can enhance an organisation’s process and service orientation, increasing its capability to innovate and cooperate with customers.