%0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2014 %T Radical Versus Incremental Innovation: The Importance of Key Competences in Service Firms %A Marit Engen %A Inger Elisabeth Holen %K community innovation survey %K competences %K innovation %K innovation novelty %K services %X Today, innovation often takes place using open practices and relies on many sources for knowledge and information. The purpose of this article is to study how different knowledge-based antecedents influence the ability of service organizations to innovate. Using data about the Norwegian service sector from the 2010 Community Innovation Survey, we examined how three types of competence, namely R&D activities, employee-based activities, and customer-related activities, influence the propensity of firms to introduce radical or incremental innovations. The results show that R&D-based competence is important for service firms when pursuing radical innovations, whereas employee-based activities such as idea collaboration are only found to influence incremental innovations. The use of customer information was found to be an important driver for both radical and incremental innovations. The findings points to managerial challenges in creating and balancing the types of competence needed, depending on type of innovation targeted by an organization. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 4 %P 15-25 %8 04/2014 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/781 %N 4 %1 Lillehammer University College Marit Engen is an Assistant Professor at Lillehammer University College, Norway, where she is also a PhD student at The Centre for Innovation in Services. Her research project focuses on the management of employee-driven service innovation with a particular focus on idea creation in frontline employees and how ideas from the front end are absorbed into the innovation processes in service organizations. She holds an MSc in Marketing from Buskerud and Vestfold University College, Norway, with a specialization in knowledge management. She has worked as an advisor in the tourism sector for several years and has broad experience from projects in both the private and public sectors. %2 Lillehammer University College Inger Elisabeth Holen is a PhD student in the field of public and private service innovation at the Centre of Innovation in Services at Lillehammer University College, Norway. Her research has a special focus on linkages between innovation activity and business performance in service firms, but also on how public policy can stimulate innovation. She holds an MSc in Business and Economics from the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Norway. She is also a co-owner of a milk-producing farm and has experience from agriculture and business consulting, and she has worked with a variety of entrepreneurs as well as established companies. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/781