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Customer misbehaviour, i.e. behaviour within the exchange setting that deliberately violates the generally accepted norms of conduct in such settings pose a problem for service organizations in several ways. Hitherto much research on customer misbehaviour has focused on psychological explanations and individual characteristics. This study broadens the perspective by taking structural factors of the service system into account. The purpose is to complement the existing literature on customer misbehaviour by investigating how the design and functioning of the service system influences the prevalence of customer misbehaviour.

A critical incident technique was adopted to collect and analyse qualitative data from frontline employees who work on board buses, trains, trams and in metro in the Swedish public transport system.

The study shows that many incidents are triggered by features of the service system. Specifically, three dimensions (service regulations, service resources, and service practice) of the service system are brought forward. The study suggests that customer misbehaviour is caused by an inherent paradox between pre‐planned, standardised, mass service solutions and ambitions to adopt a customer orientation.

By bringing forward the interactive role of the service system and its functionality the study complements previous research and contributes to a more complete understanding of customer misbehaviour, in particular within the context of system dependent services.

This paper aims to study front-line employees’ contribution to service innovation, when they contribute and how they are involved in service innovation.

The paper draws on a multiple-case study on service innovation in four organizations with extensive front-line employee involvement. The main data collection methods are interviews and observations.

The paper suggests that front-line employees contribute customer knowledge, product knowledge and practice knowledge during five phases of the service innovation process – project formation, idea generation, service design, testing and implementation – and that front-line employee involvement ranges from active to passive.

Statistical generalization of the results is needed.

The paper reveals that early and active front-line employee involvement in the service innovation process creates conditions for a positive contribution to service innovation.

The paper suggests that early and active knowledge contributions by front-line employees to the service innovation process are associated with the creation of attractive value propositions.