The literature has long stressed the importance of complementing different types of innovation strategies to increase firm performance. Such studies, however, have been firmly rooted in the manufacturing sector, and there is a debate on whether the service sector should complement innovation strategies, and on which strategies provide more benefits to service firms. In this paper, we analyze the complementarity between product, process, organizational and marketing innovations in the service firms, and its influence on productivity. Based on a dataset of 2,633 firms sourced from five waves of the Chilean national innovation survey, we show that both service and manufacturing firms complement innovation strategies; however, they differ on the type of strategies pursued. The former relies more on the combination of non-technological innovations (i.e., organizational and marketing). The latter relies more on the combination of technological innovations (i.e., product and process). While complementing organizational and marketing innovations is the preferred strategy pursued by services firms, productivity gains are only obtained through the combination of organizational and process innovation strategies. We contribute to the innovation literature by highlighting the unique features of the service sector and how these firms can boost productivity through complementarity.
