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The identification of new service opportunities: a case-based morphological analysis

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Abstract

Typically, firms try to differentiate their products through the integration of innovative services. For this reason, much recent research into new service development has focused on methods of identifying and generating new service ideas. The most prevalent method for generating a new service is a morphological analysis that decomposes a system into several dimensions and values, and then recombines those values to generate new services. Despite the popularity of morphological analysis, how to build morphological matrix has been an area of subjective expert judgment. In this paper, we focused on the possibility to utilize the big data to the morphological analysis to address the subjective morphological building process, by suggesting a case-based morphological analysis. By employing case-based reasoning and network analysis, firms can easily identify direct and indirect clues for the new services and integrate these results to the morphological building processes. To support this approach, this study first employs a case-based reasoning strategy to collect and identify similar services, and then assesses the patterns in those services through network analysis. By engaging in network analysis, firms can identify key aspects of new services, and determine what kinds of keywords or aspects should be employed for the dimensions and values of morphological matrices.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Korea Sanhak Foundation (KSF) in 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial and Information Systems Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 172 Gongreung 2-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul, 139-746, Republic of Korea

    Hakyeon Lee, Hyejong Min & Youngjung Geum

  2. Faculty of Military Studies, Chungnam National University, 99, Daehak-ro(St), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Hyunju Seol

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  1. Hakyeon Lee
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  2. Hyunju Seol
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  3. Hyejong Min
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  4. Youngjung Geum
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Correspondence to Youngjung Geum.

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Lee, H., Seol, H., Min, H. et al. The identification of new service opportunities: a case-based morphological analysis. Serv Bus 11, 191–206 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-015-0300-3

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