Intensive Business Service Firms Research Articles

The Impacts of Customer Interaction and Social Capital on New Service Development Performance

Customer interaction has a positive impact on new service development of firms. Nowadays, in the networked economies and societies, the importance of social capital as related to new service development performance is also becoming prominent. However, the existing literature does not reveal much about the relationships among the three variables. Based on customer cooperation innovation theory and new service development theory, this paper tested hypotheses by using the empirical data of 219 knowledge intensive business service firms in the Pearl River Delta of China. The study finds that customer interaction has a distinct positive impact on new service development performance; and social capital has a distinct positive impact on new service development performance. Furthermore, social capital plays a regulatory role in the relationship between customer interaction and new service development performance. By exploring the issues above, the paper will enrich research in the area of service science, especially new service development in China. Meanwhile, our findings will help managers to improve new service development performance by utilizing customer interaction and social capital.