In manufacturing innovation, new products (and processes) are typically highly tangible and visible.
This is often not the case with services. Some service innovations are highly visible, especially where
delivery of the product is involved (ATMs, etc.). However, frequently it is not so much a physical
product but a much more intangible characteristic of a new service, like a new idea or concept how to
organise a solution to a problem. Although a particular service concept may already be familiar in
other markets, the key thing is that it is novel in its application within a particular market. As usual in
innovation research, there are thorny problems concerning when a product, function or concept is
really new. Judgements can vary according to whether and when it is new to the providing firm, new
to the client, to the regional, national or global market and whether it involves new logic or scientific
knowledge. Although not all service innovations have such a strong conceptual element, conceptual
innovations are much more likely to be found in service firms (or better service functions) than in pure
manufacturing firms. Such innovations are usually highly intangible – meaning that while in some
cases the service itself may have quite tangible elements, the new features are less to do with material
artefacts, etc.