摘要：This article describes a research on improvements resulting from the implementation of electronic ticketing system in two cities and a metropolitan region of Rio Grande do Sul. This study was designed to identify whether such improvements are perceived as innovation in services. Initially, we built a theoretical framework which enabled to define the characteristics of innovation in services that guided the search for information and data. These latter gave support to the comparison between the characteristics of the ticketing system and the constructs which define innovation in services. Having defined the cases, instruments were built to collect the data which, in their turn, resulted in qualitative information comprised by interviews and documents analyzed with the application of content analysis. Benefits obtained with the ticketing system were compared to excerpts from renowned authors in the field of innovation, in order to demonstrate the innovative features of such benefits. Finally, comparison allowed inferring that electronic ticketing, in addition to providing improvements in the management of ticket operations and the business as a whole, also comprises a means to achieve innovation rather than being an innovation per se.
关键词：Inovação em serviços. Bilhetagem eletrônica. Transporte público urbano.;Inovação em serviços. Inovação. Transporte público.
