New service development: User collaboration in a unique process

Although it is true that “in the most advanced service economies such as the USA and UK, services create up to three-quarters of the wealth and 85% of the employment…we know little about managing innovation in this sector” (Tidd and Hull 2003, p. ix). The key research questions of this dissertation are: How are new services developed? What is the role of customer collaboration in new service development? How does the migration of services to web-delivery affect customer collaboration in new service development? .;Propositions about the process of new service development, the role of customer collaboration in service innovation and the change in service innovation as a service migrates to the Internet are explored in two qualitative studies. Grounded study of twenty seven diverse service firms leads to thirty propositions about service innovation and a tentative customer-centric culture-tools-process model of new service development success. A multiple case study of eight financial service organizations whose services have migrated to the Internet supports findings of the grounded study but also indicated changes in service innovation.;Selected hypotheses and a culture-tools-process model of NSD success are tested by a quantitative survey of service firms. Data collected from 211 banks indicates support for the culture-tools-process model and major hypotheses developed from the propositions of the earlier qualitative studies. Both the tested hypotheses and the untested propositions contribute to theory of new service development and customer collaboration in new service development.;After an introduction to the questions and the format of the thesis, a literature review examines research in new product and service development, key differences between goods and services, the impact of the differences on new service development, customer and user input and involvement in new product development and new service development, and the impact of the internet on communication as well as a platform to deliver services. The stated research questions are shown to fit an important gap in new product and service development research.