The service industry is of fundamental relevance for the economies of
industrialized countries, as the service industry produces the highest
growth in the gross domestic product. In this regard, new service
development ( NSD) represents a critical resource for competitive
survival and a decisive factor of growth in the service industry.
However, service firms across many industries are increasingly faced
with the challenge of determining how best to manage their development
of new service offerings. Although researchers have shown growing
interest in NSD issues, this area is still underutilized. Furthermore,
although the heterogeneity of the service industry has been emphasized
for years, the current body of research on NSD mainly focuses on
specific service environments, providing data that are often not
comparable across different service sectors. Additionally, there is no
study to date that comprehensively examines innovation activities and
the relevance of service innovations' success factors within different
service industries. The aim of this exploratory study is to establish a
more balanced picture of the nature of innovation activities in terms of
NSD characteristics and success factors in the heterogeneous service
industry. From this perspective, this paper begins with an examination
of the factors that contribute to the success of NSD. Based on a
meta-analysis of new service success factor studies, 17 different
success determinants are classified and aggregated to service-related
success determinants. Subsequently, a cluster analysis of 1016 service
companies is used to identify different service innovation types. For
the service sector, four service innovation types are determined:
efficient developers, innovative developers, interactive adopters, and
standardized adopters. Furthermore, based on interviews with service
innovation managers, the previously identified success factors are
examined for each innovation type using a standardized survey. Finally,
based on the results of this exploratory study, the paper concludes with
recommendations for NSD management and research propositions for each
service innovation type. These propositions support innovation managers
to successfully manage service innovations for the innovation type they
are operating in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]