Entrepreneurial new service development strategies: identifying critical success factors

Abstract

The quickly shifting nature of the business environment generates ambiguity in the market place and poses a significant risk for decisions that will be made in the future. Managers do not know which factors are really key ingredients for the innovation process and how to allocate their resources to improve the success of service projects. This article aims to develop a predictive model which identifies the critical factors that impact the success of New Service Development (NSD) and promotes the entrepreneurial ecosystems in hospitality. In‐depth, systematic interviews with hotel managers from all over Greece, based on questionnaires, were used to look into a total of 178 service projects. Factor and discriminant analysis were employed to evaluate the relative significance of the important factors of successful NSD and to determine whether new hotel services in Greece will succeed or fail. This research led to the creation of a prediction model that takes into account the unique qualities of services and can highlight the difference between new hotel services that are successful and those that aren't, which support managers to improve the NSD process, increase service performance and therefore enhance entrepreneurial ecosystems. The findings conclude that hotels offering more successful innovative services enhance specific ecosystem‐related value. In the context of tourism, which mainly contributes to the Greek economy, service innovation might bring a competitive advantage to all the entities involved increasing the collaboration among actors, the level of employment and hotels' competitive advantage.