Customer Perceptions of Firm Innovativeness: Insights from Restaurants and Media Streaming Providers

This chapter explores customer perceptions of firm innovativeness in two distinct service contexts—the fast-food and media streaming sectors. By adopting a customer-centric perspective, the study identifies six key dimensions of customer-perceived firm innovativeness based on a study conducted in Finland. These dimensions are product innovation and development, consumer service and experience, strategic positioning, technology integration, marketing and advertising, and environmental concerns and sustainability. Notably, environmental concerns and sustainability uniquely signify innovativeness for fast-food restaurants. In both sectors, product innovation and development emerge as the leading contributor to a firm’s innovativeness. For fast-food restaurants, this is closely followed by environmental concerns and sustainability, whereas technology integration ranks next for media streaming services. An integrative framework illustrates the interconnectedness among these dimensions highlighting the crucial role of strategic positioning in shaping the perceived innovativeness of other dimensions. The interrelated nature of all dimensions offers a holistic view of customer-perceived firm innovativeness. The chapter provides actionable guidelines for firms and poses questions for future research to further explore the customers’ perspective of firm innovativeness, aiming to equip managers with insights to enhance their competitive edge through innovation.