In this opening article, the authors describe the background of this special issue. Service innovations are now required for both economic growth and social well-being improvement. The aim of the special issue is to encourage new perspectives and practical ideas to realize them. Two invited papers suggest frameworks to achieve service innovation on the basis of Japanese global competitiveness: infrastructure technology and hospitality services. The topics of five accepted papers include R&D personnel's innovations for service business, the model of customer relationships for service innovation, business processes for service sustainability, followership management in organizations, and a new educational service. These articles provide new lenses for thinking about and for practicing service innovation.