New Service Development Projects Research Articles

Value cocreation in new service development: a process-based view of resource dependency

PurposeThis study aims to examine value cocreation in terms of interfirm collaborations between service firms, their business customers and business partners at different stages of a new service development (NSD) process.Design/methodology/approachThe study develops and tests hypotheses that examine the roles played by business customers and partners in NSD, assuming resource dependency of the focal firm during three NSD stages (ideation, development and deployment). Empirical data were collected from 200 NSD projects and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that business customer collaboration has a positive effect on ideation performance and development performance, whereas business partner collaboration has a positive effect on deployment performance. These finding support the notion that the value cocreating roles of business customers and partners vary across NSD stages.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should focus on how business partners can be actively involved in the NSD process and how the interests of different parties can be safeguarded. The use of longitudinal data will allow a better examination of the process dynamics.Practical implicationsThe study provides managerial implications for service managers in terms of acquiring and allocating resources needed from business customers and partners during different NSD stages.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the growing literature on value cocreation in NSD by empirically demonstrating the respective performance contributions of business customers and partners during different stages of NSD. Moreover, the results also shed light on interfirm collaboration mechanisms from the perspective of resource dependence theory.

Paradigm of new service development projects (NSDPs): “One Basket Fits all”

PurposeThe aim of this research is to examine the key determinants influencing the success of new service development projects (NSDPs) across four service typologies context.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used the scenario-based survey method in an NSDP setting. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses based on survey data from 570 managers under four service typologies.FindingsService firms' cross-functional integration (CFI) and internal project team efficiency (IPTE) positively influenced NSDPs. The results also indicated that both technology infrastructure (TI) and IPTE mediated the relationship between CFI and NSDPs. In addition, the mediation effect of TI existed between the relationship of IPTE and NSDPs. Furthermore, the proposed model confirms that, for NSDPs, the role of knowledge-sharing behaviour (KSB), authentic leadership (AL) and firm's culture (FC) across the four service typologies moderated the relationship.Practical implicationsWith a better understanding of the dynamics of the aforementioned variables, service managers and the project team can more effectively develop and execute strategies for an NSDP. The article enables practitioners to expand their current understanding of NSDPs by providing insights of the unique antecedents that are significant for new service development across four service types.Originality/valueThis research is the first of its kind to examine the mediating role of KSB and TI in determining NSDPs. This study provides one of the first empirical examinations on NSDPs in the context of four service typologies from the perspective of a developing country, where the service industry is competitive. The study demonstrates that the critical success factors of NSDPs do not differ across service types, thereby confirming the “One Basket Fits all” assumption in the current NSDP research study.

Do Different Service Types Require Changes in NSD Processes at Industrial Manufacturers - An Empirical Examination of Personal and Digital Services

New service development (NSD) at industrial manufacturers and the corresponding process are topics of growing interest in research. However, it has not been clarified yet if the latter should be customised according to different service types. The scarce attention paid to classifying services in this context is surprising considering the increasing importance of personal next to digital services in the course of the emergence of the latter. We take a step towards closing this gap by empirically examining a potential moderating effect of these two service types on a capability-based NSD process. Since it has been established conceptually so far, its investigation in an abbreviated version constitutes a further element of our study. Based on an analysis of 197 NSD projects, we can support the sequence of that process, however, we cannot, contrary to our assumptions, find a moderating effect of the service types. This result implies that managers should focus on possessing the basic capabilities to successfully pass through the NSD process independent of the services developed.

The Role of User Involvement in the Framing Stage of Service Innovation Projects

As a consequence of the growing importance of services in contemporary economies, and the shift to a service-dominant logic in marketing, new service development (NSD) is unarguably important for a large majority of firms. However, developing new services remains a difficult task and the majority of NSD projects eventually fail. Therefore an urgent need exists to further improve the NSD process. In this article, we focus on improving the NSD process by better understanding the role of user involvement in the innovation framing stage. In this article, our aim is to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework investigating user involvement in the framing stage of service innovation projects by synthetizing key literature. Based on the literature, we observe that (1) the intensity of user involvement in innovation framing is positively correlated with the perceived technological uncertainty; (2) collaboration between user and firm in innovation framing is more intensive in case of continuous involvement than in discrete involvement; (3) collaboration between user and firm in innovation framing is stronger in business to business setting than in business to user setting; (4) user involvement appears to positively affect the degree of acceptance of the proposal, the degree of implementation of the associated NSD project and innovation speed, and finally (5) the degree of user involvement has an inverted-U shaped relationship with the effectiveness of innovation framing.

Does one size fit all? New service development across different types of services

PurposeThe extant new service development (NSD) literature tends to assume that the key practices for NSD identified in one context apply for all services, and has failed to sufficiently consider differences in NSD between service types. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of NSD across different service types.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive, cross-sectoral survey was conducted in seven countries. Data from 1,333 NSD projects were analyzed to empirically derive a service typology and examine if and how different types of services vary in terms of NSD resources, practices, methods, and results.FindingsBased on six service characteristics, the study identifies four service types: routine-intensive, technology-intensive, contact-intensive, and knowledge-intensive services. The study also identifies specific NSD resources, practices, methods, and results that are prevalent across the service typology. The evidence indicates that the use of advanced practices and methods differs dramatically between service types.Practical implicationsThe paper enables practitioners to expand their current understanding on NSD by providing insights into the variability of NSD across service types. The results suggest that either service-type-specific models or a configurable model for NSD should be developed.Originality/valueThis study provides one of the first empirically derived service typologies for NSD. The study demonstrates that NSD resources, practices, methods, and results differ across service types, thereby challenging the “one size fits all” assumption evident in current NSD research.

Applying project management for new service development

Purpose This paper aims to provide an innovative solution on new service development (NSD) implementation by the project management competences and processes of IPMA ICB 3.0 and PMI PMBOK Guide 5th E. Design/methodology/approach By breaking NSD work breakdown structure into five control accounts, each account has its own suggested work packages concluded from reviewed literatures. Findings This research sequentially presents proper PM competences and processes as solutions for these control accounts and their work packages. Research limitations/implications This study was to provide an innovative solution on NSD implementation by the project management competences and processes of IPMA ICB 3.0 and PMI PMBOK Guide 5th E. By breaking NSD work breakdown structure into five control accounts, each account has its own suggested work packages concluded from reviewed literatures. This research sequentially presents proper PM competences and processes as solutions for these control accounts and their work packages. Consequently, we concluded that the PM competences and processes furnish a favorable base where any NSD project is suitable to deploy without compromising its original features. Practical implications Consequently, it is concluded that the PM competences and processes furnish a favorable base where any NSD project is suitable to deploy without compromising its original features.

Unfolding the recipes for conflict resolution during the new service development effort

The management of conflicts that emerge during new service development (NSD) has escaped the attention of scholars. Yet differing conflict management styles (CMS) of team members and dynamics within the team create a complex managerial challenge. Additionally, the broader literature on conflict resolution shows contradictory findings preventing a clear roadmap for practitioner use when such conflicts emerge. This study draws on complexity theory and employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, drawing on data from 543 members of 116 NSD projects, to unravel conflict resolution recipes. The results reveal, in detail, the variety of causal patterns that explain the linkages between individual CMS, the dynamics of the team, and two critical conflict characteristics: conflict intensity and frequency. Implications for theory and practice are identified and discussed.

The negative effect of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence on new service development projects with customer involvement

Purpose – The current study examines the negative moderating effects of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence on the antecedents and consequences of using information provided by customers involved in new service development (NSD). It also examines one way to mitigate the proposed negative effects. Design/methodology/approach – The unit of analysis was NSD projects in which customers had been involved during the development process. A self-administered mail survey was used to collect the data. The proposed model was tested using hierarchical path analysis. Findings – Results show that team’s prior experience reduces the extent to which recorded and shared information from customers involved in NSD is used for project-related decisions during the development process. Findings also reveal that technological turbulence can reduce the positive effect of using information provided from customers involved in NSD on new service advantage and service newness. Finally, results show that involving lead users in NSD can help reduce the negative moderating effects of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence. Originality/value – The literature on information use suggests that availability of information does not guarantee its use. In keeping with this argument, the current study reveals that for NSD projects with customer involvement, team’s prior experience and technological turbulence are part of the challenge of making effective use of the new knowledge that customers bring to the development project. Firms are advised to collaborate with lead users as a way to attenuate this problem.

Customer and employee co-creation of radical service innovations

Purpose – The study demonstrates that firms can effectively involve customers in new service development (NSD) to create radically innovative, high-performing new services. Prior research found no effect of customer involvement on radicalness in NSD programs, but the current study provides evidence that customer involvement in the design stage of NSD projects can increase the radical innovativeness of a new service. Design/methodology/approach – Surveys from 160 firms captured information on the development process, participants and outcomes of recent service innovation projects. Direct effect and mediation hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings – Customer involvement in the NSD process increases the innovativeness of a new service when customers are involved in the design stage and when the influence is mediated by process complexity. Customer involvement in the development stage has no significant effect on service innovativeness. Process complexity also mediates the positive influence of frontline employee and cross-functional team involvement in the NSD process on service innovativeness. Practical implications – To produce radically innovative new services, managers should: focus on customer involvement in the design phase and build an understanding of how the customer creates value-in-context, and use a detailed but flexible development process and provide extensive opportunities for interaction of customers, frontline employees and cross-functional teams throughout the NSD process. Originality/value – The study draws on complexity theory to explain how a complex NSD process enhances participants’ creativity and learning and increases the innovativeness of a new service.

New Service Development in Manufacturing Firms – Similarities and Differences with New Service Development and New Product Development

IntroductionMany manufacturing firms introduce service innovations to satisfy customer needs and grow their business (Gebauer, Gustafsson, & Witell, 2011; Bettencourt & Brown, 2013). For these firms, the installed base of products acts as a platform for selling services to utilize the entire life cycle of the products to increase profits (Wise & Baumgartner, 1999). On the basis of the identification of value for the customer, manufacturing firms develop new services and use different value constellations for service provision (Kowalkowski, Witell, & Gustafsson, 2013). Theoretically, these services should be developed in a state-of-the-art new service development process (Gebauer, Krempl, Fleisch, & Friedli, 2008; Kindstrom & Kowalkowski, 2009); however, what should this process look like? Previous research confirms several important hypotheses about how new product development (NPD) (Griffin, 1997) and new service development (NSD) (Menor & Roth, 2008; Edvardsson, Meiren, Schafer, & Witell, 2013) should be performed - but do these findings hold for NSD in manufacturing firms?To achieve a competitive advantage, manufacturing firms need to innovate both products and services (Gebauer, Gustafsson, & Witell, 2011). Given increasing competition, manufacturing firms are emphasizing the development of new services (Wise & Baumgartner, 1999). Using service differentiation as a competitive advantage requires the formation of new service capabilities (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990), the development of service strategies (Gebauer, 2008), and knowledge of how to organize for NSD (Fischer et al., 2010). However, our scientific knowledge on NSD in manufacturing firms relies on a few conceptual contributions (Kindstrom & Kowalkowski, 2009), case studies (Gebauer, 2007), and cross-sectional surveys (Santamaria et al., 2012). Many of these studies viewed NSD as a strategic maneuver for manufacturing firms interested in services and treat NSD rather superficially. The present study aims to provide additional knowledge about NSD in manufacturing firms summarized in a set of propositions on how to successfully develop and introduce service innovations.An empirical study was performed to investigate the validity of previous findings of NPD and NSD for NSD in manufacturing firms. A survey was performed on 791 NSD projects, including both manufacturing and service firms. The results show that NSD in manufacturing firms is treated in a step-motherly manner. Often, no special unit for NSD exists, a service development strategy is missing, and the NSD process is either not used or was adopted from the product development process. The possibility of succeeding with service innovations in manufacturing firms in the long run under such conditions seems impossible or even a certain road to failure.Theoretical FrameworkNSD in Manufacturing FirmsWindahl and Lakemond (2006) claimed that the research on NSD focuses solely on the service sector, underexposing NSD that occurs in the manufacturing industry. Moreover, most research on NSD focuses on consumer markets rather than industrial markets. However, exceptions exist, such as Atuahene?Gima (1996) who suggests that service and manufacturing firms should focus on similar factors for improving their innovation performance. De Jong and Vermeulen (2003) argued that organizing NSD is an important topic for decision makers in both service and manufacturing firms. However, a service innovation builds on a different logic than a product innovation. This fact forces manufacturing firms with a challenge to manage different innovation logics and development processes. Product innovation concentrates on changes in product characteristics, while service innovation involves changes in the delivery process and client interface (Gebauer et al., 2008). Much knowledge exists on the innovation logic for product innovations and the NPD process. Reviewing the research on NSD in manufacturing firms shows a knowledge gap on what contributes to success with service innovation in the NSD process of manufacturing firms. …

Introduction to JAME Special Issue on QUIS 13

We welcome you for the fourth time to a special issue on QUIS. Quis (Quality in Services) is an organization founded in 1988 by service researchers at Arizona State University, Karlstad University, and Warwick Business School who wanted to bring together the growing international community involved in studying services marketing and management. QUIS has grown over the years to now be considered as the world's leading biannual symposium on service research and brings together the best interdisciplinary academic research and management practice from around the world. This year's symposium, QUIS 13, drew more than 200 attendees from over 30 countries presenting 130 competitive papers. It was held in June, 2013 at Karlstad University which was also the site of the first QUIS conference in 1988.In this issue we again offer five of the best papers that we think will be of interest to our readers as management scholars. Emphasizing the world wide interest in services and the management of service organizations, these papers we selected are written by authors from six different nations, none of which is the United States. These show the importance and extent of the work being done outside the USA on services. The first two papers are focused on the increasing research interest in how manufacturing organizations are expanding their strategic focus to incorporate the service component of their product offerings. The first of these is "A Novel Categorization of Industrial Services- Analysis of Service Offerings of Manufacturing Companies" by Heini Lehtonen and Hanna Kostama of Aalto University's School of Science in Finland. This paper presents a managerially oriented, yet theory-based, industrial service classification that can be used as a practical tool for structuring, analyzing, comparing and communicating industrial service portfolios that the authors term COIN. The second paper on the topic of integrating services into a product organization's innovation strategy is "New Service Development in Manufacturing Firms: Do the Basic Rules Apply?" by Lars Witell, Linkoping University, Sweden, Bo Edvardsson, Karlstad University, Sweden, Thomas Meiren, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Germany, Adrienne Schafer, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland. The purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses about new service development (NSD) in manufacturing firms. This study investigated 785 NSD projects to learn the role of the NSD strategy, how to use resources, how to organize, and the development process to use. …

Antecedents and consequences of using information from customers involved in new service development

Purpose– The current research aims to analyze antecedents and consequences of using the information provided by customers involved in new service development (NSD). It also seeks to examine the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the antecedents and consequences of information use.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected from service firms in a variety of industrial sectors. Unit of analysis was a NSD project in which current or potential customers were involved during its development process. A self-administered mail survey was used to collect the data. A total of 102 complete questionnaires were returned. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares.Findings– The results indicate that the instrumental use of the information collected from customers involved in NSD can lead to higher service advantage and service newness and in turn to higher market performance. Findings reveal that higher recording and reviewing of information collected from customers involved in NSD result in greater use of the information during the NSD process. An important result is that under technologically turbulent environments, recording and reviewing information from customers involved in NSD is less likely to result in a higher instrumental use of such information. Finally, the authors' results show that when technological turbulence is high the instrumental use of information from customers involved in NSD has lower value for both service advantage and service newness.Originality/value– Findings confirm the importance of customer involvement for NSD in a business context. Using the information from customers involved in NSD to resolve specific problems or make decisions regarding NSD projects can result in enhanced service performance. Moreover, information processing capabilities are key antecedents to instrumental information use. Finally, managers should be aware of the potential negative effect of technological turbulence.

Analyzing the sustainability of a newly developed service: An activity theory perspective

New service development (NSD) is the process of creating new services to fulfill target customers' needs. It is essential that an NSD project team cooperate across organizational boundaries and various disciplines to achieve the sustainability goal of an NSD project. This study adopted Activity Theory to understand dynamics of complex service innovation system and model the actions taken by different entities in telehealth service projects, in which we identified important contradictions that affect the sustainability of newly developed services. Based on multiple case study findings, this research identified challenges for these new service development projects such as user needs identification, the involvement of emergent technology and collaboration between entities from different industries. This study contributes to the NSD research by proposing five propositions which could be used for guiding stakeholders to effectively manage NSD projects to offer sustainable newly developed services.

Identifying some internal S/F factors of NSD project performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to integrate existing streams of literature in service innovation and services marketing and adopt an internal perspective of the new service development (NSD) process by discussing the role of some intra‐organizational contingencies that determine NSD project performance.Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a number of propositions applicable to new service development projects, in order to shed light on how internal team dynamics and contextual antecedents of service innovation affect NSD project performance.Findings – The importance of adopting an internal market orientation (IMO) for new service development performance is illustrated. The role of intrateam contingencies, such as trust, relationship conflict and political activity and some contextual antecedents, such as resource allocation effectiveness and efficiency and cross‐functional integration for NSD project performance are also discussed.Originality/value – This study is clearly a fruitful p...

Fatores de sucesso na inovação em serviços: um estudo qualitativo do desenvolvimento de complexos serviços no contexto colaborativo

New Service Development (NSD) has become increasingly complex, involving a network of partners that work together along the process. Several factors contribute to NSD success, but the role these factors play and their evolution along the different stages of the NSD process are not well understood. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of four shopping mall projects in different stages of the NSD process. This study analyzes how NSD success factors evolve along its different stages from the perspectives of both developer company and partners in the network. The study results indicate that some NSD success factors cross cut all stages of the process, whereas other change. Study findings also show that NSD success factors are viewed differently from developer and partner companies. These findings indicate that networks should evolve along the NSD project.

Employee Collaboration, Learning Orientation, and New Service Development Performance

Businesses rely on knowledge interfaces to gather and integrate knowledge that drives innovation and builds competitive advantage. But key knowledge interfaces such as cross-functional teams (CFTs), frontline employees (FLEs), and learning orientation have not shown consistent effects on innovation outcomes in prior research. This study addresses that problem by testing a mediation model that extends the service-dominant logic service innovation framework developed by Ordanini and Parasuraman. Based on analyses of 160 new service development (NSD) projects, the authors find that CFTs, FLEs, and learning orientation consistently influence NSD sales and process efficiency outcomes when they first create a service having (1) superior attributes and expert frontline employee service delivery (service marketability) and/or (2) a well-targeted launch with formal promotion to internal and external markets (launch effectiveness). Those NSD project characteristics in turn yield favorable new service performance results. Specifically, service marketability and launch effectiveness mediate the influence of CFTs on NSD outcomes. Launch effectiveness mediates the influence of learning orientation, and service marketability mediates the impact of FLEs. In ranking the organizational resources, the study finds that CFTs and learning orientation have greater effect on NSD sales performance than do FLEs. The results highlight the importance of aligning CFTs, FLEs, and learning orientation with NSD project characteristics in order to maximize sales performance and process efficiency.

Bridging the gap between brand strategy and customer experience

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the development and evaluation of a process model to transform brand strategy into service experiences during the front end of new service development (NSD). This is an important yet poorly understood transformation that occurs early in service development projects. The paper also aims to describe the theoretical basis for this transformation, and introduces a process model that has been developed to understand and assist with this. Further, it seeks to describe early evaluation results and reflections upon its use.Design/methodology/approachA research through design approach using participatory co‐design led to the development of the new process. The development was iterative and carried out together with three service providers. The process model was evaluated using a combination of qualitative methods, including interviews, observation and participatory observation.FindingsThis work underlines the importance of aligning the customer experience to the company brand and suggests how this can be achieved. A key element in this is the development of a service personality and consideration of service touch‐point behaviours through a combination of analytical work and experience prototyping. The suggested process model has received positive evaluation when used in commercial projects, in terms of brand congruence, project team cohesiveness and experiential result. The work advocates tighter integration between brand management and NSD, and has identified multiple issues regarding the content of a service brand strategy. These include the ways in which a brand department should communicate its brand strategy, and how it should be involved in NSD projects to ensure brand alignment.Research limitations/implicationsThe evaluation of the model has limitations, both in terms of number of cases and downstream/long term effects. This should therefore be considered an initial evaluation of the model, requiring further verification.Practical implicationsThe paper describes a structured three‐stage experience‐centric process that improves brand alignment in projects. Further, the work shows that brand specifications for services should increasingly focus upon desired customer experiences, service touch‐points and touch‐point behaviours rather than the current focus upon visual identity.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to suggest a process that transforms a brand strategy into customer experiences during NSD. It also adds original insights into the transition from brand to concept, bridging branding, service design and NSD.

Performance effects of involving lead users and close customers in new service development

Purpose – Customer involvement has been recognized as a key factor for successful service development. One important aspect affecting the outcome of new service development (NSD) projects in whose development customers are involved is the choice of the appropriate participating customer. This study aims to examine the effect of two customer characteristics (relational closeness and lead‐userness) on four indicators of new service performance.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses data from 102 NSD projects. Covariance‐based path analysis is used to test the model.Findings – The results reveal that involving close customers in the NSD process has a positive direct effect on service advantage and speed to market and a positive indirect effect on market performance. The involvement of lead users, on the other hand, has a positive effect on service newness and service advantage, and a negative effect on market performance.Research limitations/implications – The focus on Spanish companies puts constraint...

Evaluation of new service development strategies using multicriteria analysis: predicting the success of innovative hospitality services

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into criteria that contribute to the success in new service development (NSD) projects in the hospitality economy. The results of the exploratory study are conducted in a precise predictive model for the successful hotel services. The analysis is based on data collected via in depth structured interview with questionnaires from hotel managers knowledgeable about NSD in their organization. A multicriteria methodology is used to examine the potential of a predictive model for successful NSD projects in the hotel sector. A comparative analysis with other popular classification methods is also performed.

Identifying determinants of success in development of new high‐contact services

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to gain insight into factors that contribute to the success in high contact new service development (NSD) projects.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via questionnaires from hospitality managers knowledgeable about NSD in their organization (sample size =183; response rate 38.1 percent). Discriminant analysis was used to identify the factors that are responsible for successful high contact NSD projects in the hospitality industry.FindingsResearch results indicate that seven factors play a distinctive role in the outcome of high contact NSD: market attractiveness, strategic human resource management, market responsiveness, empowerment, training of employees, employee commitment and marketing synergy.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was conducted in only one industry (hospitality) and one country (Germany) and included only the views of managers.Practical implicationsThis study outlines the importance of human resource management factors in high contact NSD success. Findings from previous NSD success studies in low contact service industries have been only partly confirmed.Originality/valueThis study expands the scope of NSD research.