The roles of NSD performance and standardized service development processes in the performance of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Despite its importance, for micro, small, and, medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the impact of new service development performance (NSDP) on organizational performance (OP) and the significance of formal or standardized service development processes (SSDPs) remains unknown. This study proposes that NSDP is positively associated with OP and that SSDPs positively moderate this direct effect. These and other hypotheses are tested with data collected from 801 Irish service MSMEs using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis. Our results reveal that a positive relationship exists between NSDP and OP and we report the magnitude of this relationship for micro, small, medium-sized organizations; while the moderating effect of SSDPs was not supported for each of these groups. We thus provide novel empirical insights into service development for MSMEs, where our findings suggest that SSDPs are of particular importance for small organizations.