توسعه خدمات جدید: زمینههایی برای بهره برداری و اکتشاف

The management of new service development (NSD) has become an important competitive concern in many service industries. However, NSD remains among the least studied and understood topics in the service management literature. As a result, our current understanding of the critical resources and activities to develop new services is inadequate given NSD’s importance as a service competitiveness driver. Until recently, the generally accepted principle behind NSD was that “new services happen” rather than occurring through formal development processes. Recent efforts to address this debate have been inconclusive. Thus, additional research is needed to validate or discredit the belief that new services happen as a result of intuition, flair, and luck. Relying upon the general distinctions between research exploitation and exploration, this paper describes areas in NSD research that deserve further leveraging and refinement (i.e. exploitation) and identifies areas requiring discovery or new study (i.e. exploration). We discuss the critical substantive and research design issues facing NSD scholars such as defining new services, choice in focusing on the NSD process or performance (or both), and specification of unit of analysis. We also examine what can be exploited from the study of new product development to further understanding of NSD. Finally, we explore one important area for future NSD research exploration: the impact of the Internet on the design and development of services. We offer research opportunities and research challenges in the study of NSD throughout the paper.

The importance of the service sector is emphasized by virtually any economic measure chosen. By all accounts, services dominate most developed economies given that significantly more than half of these countries’ gross domestic product is in the service sector, and projected economic and job growth through the 21st century is expected to be dominated by services (Pilat, 2000). Concurrent to this growth, the globalization of services and rapid technological progress, afforded by information and communication technology, are increasing the pressures for service firms to compete on new offerings (Menor, 2000). The benefits that accrue from providing new services include: (1) enhancing the profitability of existing offerings, (2) attracting new customers to the firm, (3) improving the loyalty of existing customers, and (4) opening markets of opportunity (Storey and Easingwood, 1999). As reported in a recent study, service firms report that 24.1% of revenues came from new services introduced in the last 5 years and that 21.7% of company profits are derived from these new services (Griffin, 1997b). The management of new service development (NSD) has become an important competitive concern in many service industries (Johnson et al., 2000, Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000, Johne and Storey, 1998, Meredith and Roth, 1998 and Gallouj and Weinstein, 1997). However, NSD remains among the least studied and understood topics in the service management literature despite the plethora of rigorous research and models on product development, especially in recent years. As a result, our current understanding of the critical resources and activities to develop new services is inadequate given NSD’s importance as a service competitiveness driver. Until recently, the generally accepted principle behind NSD was that “new services happen” rather than occurring through formal development processes. Recent efforts to address this debate have been inconclusive, thus additional research is needed to validate or discredit the belief that new services happen as a result of intuition, flair, and luck (Langeard et al., 1986). Cooper and de Brentani’s (1991, p. 77) observation that investigation into why new services succeed or fail is still in its infancy, “approximately where similar research into manufactured products stood in the early 1970s” continues to ring true today—especially in operations management (OM). Compared to physical products, services are generally underdesigned and inefficiently developed (Froehle et al., 2000). Behara and Chase (1993, p. 87) quip that “if we designed cars the way we seem to design services, they would probably come with one axle and five wheels”. Service design and development issues are increasingly being recognized as important to managers. A recent Business Week cover story titled “Why Service Stinks” ( Brady, 2000) posited that companies know how valuable customers are and as a result are more inclined to lavish considerable service only to those most valued customers. Less valuable customers, on the other hand, are served more frugally. The anecdotal evidence offered by Brady suggests that service organizations intentionally treat customers unequally. Such practice, from the OM viewpoint, is justified. Consider the early literature in service design that focused on demand management. This research advocates the necessity for matching service offerings with modes or channels of delivery, segmenting customers according to their set of needs or desires for service offerings, then channeling the customer to the delivery mode appropriate to service his/her service needs ( Northcraft and Chase, 1985). Why might the services received vary between customers? Because they have been designed that way. The objective of this paper is to provide a basis for identifying what is understood, hence, exploitable, about NSD and what issues still need to be explored. While we conclude that there are many opportunities to further—and a few challenges that hinder—understanding of NSD, a fair amount of conceptual and empirical investigations exist on this sub-area of service management (see Tatikonda and Zeithaml, 2001, Johnson et al., 2000 and Johne and Storey, 1998). One contribution of this paper is to provide a structured review of the extant research with extensive citations to cross-functional literatures. We hope that this catalog helps researchers locate papers in new areas. We rely upon March’s (1991) notions of exploitation and exploration to highlight the distinction between potential research areas available for leveraging existing knowledge and creating new knowledge, respectively. Emanating from the study of organizational learning, exploitation research activities involve the utilization and refinement of existing knowledge; exploration research activities revolve around the search and discovery of new knowledge. We posit that each of these aspects of exploitation and exploration are essential to an ongoing and future research agenda in NSD. Further, maintaining a balance of exploitation and exploration research efforts is critical to enriching and expanding understanding in NSD. For example, additional utilization and refinement of NSD process models (see Section 2.1) and application of NPD-related tools and knowledge (see Section 3.3) are useful areas for NSD research exploitation. On the other hand, the discovery of guidelines for design-of-implementation in services (see Section 3.4) or the search for understanding of issues complicating the design and development of services on the Internet (see Section 4.2) constitute valuable avenues for future NSD research exploration. The extant conceptual and empirical work in NSD, a transfunctional research topic (Karmarkar, 1996), emanates primarily from service marketing and to a much lesser extent from OM. However, much of that work—especially the empirical—lacks theory. Our underlying focus in this paper on the empirical aspect of NSD research stems from the recognition that the availability of information related to the development process—an increasingly studied topic in OM (Scudder and Hill, 1998)—is a research dilemma requiring collection of data in the field (cf. Clark et al., 1987). Hence, the greatest opportunities for research exploitation and exploration in order to advance understanding in NSD will require empirical effort. Research opportunities (RO) and research challenges (RC) for the study of NSD are offered throughout the paper. ROs represent potential avenues for scholarly work that exploits existing knowledge or explores new knowledge in a particular area. RCs, on the other hand, represent obstacles—substantive and methodological—that potentially limit understanding and theory and impacts the quality of research exploitation and exploration efforts. The remainder of the paper is divided into three major sections. First, we provide a discussion of the substantive issues facing scholars interested in NSD. Namely, scholars must address definitions of what constitutes a new service and NSD, then decide whether to focus on the development process, development performance, or both. We focus some discussion on the OM research addressing these NSD foci. Second, we discuss how our NSD understanding can be increased through exploiting what has been learned from research in the more established field of new product development (NPD). Third, we discuss one critical area for NSD research exploration: how NSD is complicated by the emergence of the Internet. While research exists on how technology has impacted service delivery, little effort has been taken to discuss how technology could potentially impact the design and development of services. We then summarize the ROs in NSD and offer potential future research questions. Finally, we offer brief conclusions about research efforts on the overall, on-going NSD research program.

A summary of areas for NSD exploitation and exploration research opportunities, potential research questions, and referent literature is offered in Table 4. Table 4. Summary of NSD research opportunities, research questions and referent literature Research opportunities Suggested research questions Referent literature Comments RO1: Develop more precise classifications of what constitutes a new service and, as a result, uncover how each of these types of new services differ On what dimensions can service offerings be considered new? Johnson et al. (2000) The extant research is still largely conceptual in nature and based on anecdotal evidence What are the characteristics of “internal newness” and “external newness” for services? Kellogg and Nie (1995) How do radical and incremental new services differ? Lovelock (1984) Tatikonda and Zeithaml (2001) Tax and Stuart (1997) RO2: Clarify the tactical or strategic nature of the research contribution given the different research traditions in service development and service innovation What are the critical strategic and tactical issues related to NSD? Barras (1986)∗ Asterisked references (∗) represent service innovation-oriented studies; much of the tactical related research focuses on service design issues; recent research (e.g. Verma et al. (1999)) begins to bridge service tactics and strategy issues Are there successful NSD strategies? Chase and Tansik (1983) How applicable are service classification schemes in the tactical and strategic design of service concepts? Gallouj and Weinstein (1997)∗ Menor (2000) Northcraft and Chase (1985) Pullman et al. (2001) Sunbo (1997)∗ Shostack, 1984 and Shostack, 1987 Verma et al., 1999 and Verma et al., 2001 RO3: Understand the NSD process stages/activities and characteristics of successful NSD execution What impact does the degree of newness have on the process of NSD? Bitran and Pedrosa (1998) Johnson et al. (2000) provide a comprehensive review of the NSD process literature; much of the OM research in this area is conceptual or based on small-sample field work Are there common stages of NSD and are these always necessary? Bowers (1985) How formalized does the NSD process need to be? Deszca et al. (1999) What activities are necessary for successful NSD execution? Johnson et al. (2000) Tatikonda and Zeithaml (2001) RO4: Address the widespread (or selective) importance and applicability of effectiveness and competitiveness performance metrics to measure and assess NSD efforts How should NSD performance be measured? Cohen et al. (2000) This area has received conceptual, descriptive, and normative treatment in the NPD literature; recent empirical NSD investigations (e.g. Froehle et al. (2000)) suggest that process-based performance impacts outcome-based performance Are NPD metrics applicable to NSD? Cooper and Kleinschmidt (1995) When should process-based or outcome-based performance metrics be used? Froehle et al. (2000) Are process-based metrics related with outcome-based metrics? Menor (2000) Storey and Easingwood (1999) Voss et al. (1992) RO5: Investigate in greater detail the operational antecedents of NSD performance Are there common antecedents for NSD success? Brown and Eisenhardt (1995)∗ Asterisked references (∗) review NPD research; much of the service marketing NSD literature addresses the NSD antecedents issue in piecemeal fashion; research on the operational antecedents of NSD performance are emerging (e.g. Menor (2000)) How applicable are findings on antecedents of NPD success to the study of NSD? Cooper et al. (1994) What types of marketing and operations interface exist in NSD and what role does this interface play? de Brentani (1995) Froehle et al. (2000) Krishnan and Ulrich (2001)∗ Menor (2000) Schilling and Hill (1998)∗ Tatikonda and Montoya-Weiss (2001)∗ RO6: Developing techniques for more effective and efficient “tangibilizing” of service concepts How are service concepts actually mapped in practice? Chase and Stewart (1995) Conceptual research in this area focuses on techniques to map out the service delivery system; more recently, efforts to align operational design issues with customer preferences have emerged (e.g. Verma et al. (1999) How are operational issues aligned with customer requirements? Shostack, 1984 and Shostack, 1987 Do efforts to “tangibilize” service concepts differ depending on what type of NSD effort is undertaken (e.g. radical versus incremental)? Verma et al. (1999) RO7: Determine the specific operational impact that differentiating characteristics of services have on the NSD process What impact do service characteristics have on the effectiveness of antecedents in NSD? Cooper and de Brentani (1991) Investigating the characteristics of services that differentiate them from physical goods is common; research focused on the operational issues and service characteristics interaction is lacking How does the NSD process differ given particular characteristics of a service? de Brentani and Cooper (1992) Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2001) RO8: Investigate how NPD tools such as concurrent engineering and QFD are applicable, or are modified to be applicable, to NSD Are there service analogs to NPD tools such as concurrent engineering and QFD? Behara and Chase (1993) Little of the extant NSD literature is directed at the NSD activity level; hence, few descriptive studies focused on the tools employed for successful NSD exist How are (or might) NPD tools modified for use in NSD? Griffin and Hauser (1993) Nevins and Whitney (1989) Swink (1998) RO9: Develop and apply the concept of architecture and modularity to NSD projects and the NSD process What aspects of the service concept can be modularized? Bitran and Pedrosa (1998) Some conceptual work suggest the importance of platforms and modules in NSD; little descriptive work has been done addressing these issues in NSD What common service architectures exist? Meyer and DeTore, 1999 and Meyer and DeTore, 2001 How beneficial are issues of service architectures and modules to the NSD process? Henderson and Clark (1990) Sanderson and Uzumeri (1996) Tatikonda (1999) Ulrich (1995) RO10: Conceptualize and test DFI tools and procedures in NSD To what degree have the extant service design guidelines been employed in practice? Chase and Stewart (1995) There are a few service design guidelines that are focused on facilitating greater ease in service delivery (e.g. Chase and Stewart (1995)); formal tools and procedures focused on NSD are few What tools and procedures exist for quick ramp-up of a new service? Khurana and Rosenthal (1997) Northcraft and Chase (1985) Nevins and Whitney (1989) RO11: Apply models of entrepreneurship to NSD for e-services, considering the implications for service quality and building customer loyalty How are new e-services designed with respect to building service quality and customer loyalty? Novak et al. (2000) Service marketers have quickly focused attention on service quality and customer loyalty issues related to the Internet; no systematic research on applying entrepreneurial models to NSD for e-services exists What resources are necessary for e-service quality design and development? Reichheld and Schefter (2000) Rust and Lemon (2001) Zeithaml et al. (2000) RO12: Assess the process difference of NSD for services competing in “fast clock-speed” environments What constitutes effective NSD processes for e-services? No systematic research on the NSD process for e-services currently exists How critical is speed of NSD in the development of e-services? RO13: Explore the ways outsourcing of e-service functions modifies the NSD process What is the impact of outsourcing NSD activities in e-services? Hallowell (2000) Based on Hallowell (2000), aspects of navigation, information content, customer support and delivery—critical components of the e-service customer experience—may be outsourced; applied to NSD, the outsourcing issue has received no systematic attention RO14: Analyze the dynamics of e-service NSD in the presence of competing physical-services What activities of NSD are best outsourced? Are e-service designs and development best achieved if based on physical-service designs and development efforts? Heim and Sinha (2001) Heim and Sinha (2001) present a conceptual framework discussing bundles of physical goods, off-line services, and digital content; few frameworks exist in classifying different types of e-services; identification of e-service types is necessary prior to any study of e-service NSD dynamics Additional research questions are posed in Section 4.4 Table options As noted in Table 4, this paper has highlighted a number of areas for further exploitation and exploration in the study of NSD and offered a number of research opportunities and challenges that may facilitate or hinder ongoing and future NSD investigation efforts. As we have suggested, technology is changing the way services are both delivered (Dabholkar, 2000, Dabholkar, 1994 and Haynes and Thies, 1991) and designed (Gaimon and Napoleon, 2000). Hence, the role technology plays in NSD is one critical area requiring further exploration. The substantive issues discussed in 2 and 3 highlight the prevalence of the process- and practice-focus for much of the operations-based NSD research. However, opportunities exist along either foci to explore the design and development of service experiences (Gupta and Vajic, 2000 and Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Further, the impact of this customer–supplier relationship common in most services, which is the basis for service supply chains (Sampson, 2000), deserves scrutiny. In short, we hope to have demonstrated the ample opportunities that exist for empirically studying NSD from an operational perspective. What is offered in this paper represents the views of the three authors and is in no way intended to be comprehensive. Others may differ in their assessments and hopefully add to the catalog of research opportunities and challenges offered here. Early NSD research was largely service marketing driven; however, emphasis on the operational issues and their implications for NSD is becoming increasingly relevant. Further, informing NSD research from the operational perspective adds credence to the growing recognition and requirement for a more interdisciplinary focus on this important service competitiveness driver. Some of the NSD research opportunities raised here will require careful detailed conceptualization, extensive field protocol and survey instrument development, creation of reliable and valid measures, and access to knowledgeable NSD respondents and informants. In short, research opportunities—and challenges—abound for rigorous NSD empirical research. While much work is needed to better our understanding of NSD to be of greater assistance to practice, one inescapable fact remains: survival for many services rests on their ability to respond to the tenet of “innovate or die.” It is our hope that these research opportunities offered here lead to more effort in understanding the NSD phenomenon.