Research background

Whenever studying e.g. innovation, new service development or new product development, one encounters a problem of cross-functionality, having to connect the ideologies of different academic fields which are closely related but heading towards different directions, requiring methodological pluralism and non-conventional ways of approaching the topic at hand (Karniouchina et al. 2006, p. 274; Brax 2007, p. 16).

Therefore, it is not sufficient to study new service development from a single academic perspective (marketing, for instance), but to gather the ideologies of different fields.

This may be contradictory to the utmost form of academic vigor, but essential from a practical point of view.

From a practical view, this research has its roots in a managerial problem faced by Data Rangers Oy, a small privately owned company that specializes in monitoring and analyzing information. The company is situated in Helsinki, Finland and employs just over 10 people, serving both international and domestic clients and co-operating with other Finnish high technology and knowledge-intensive organizations. Since its beginning in 2004, Data Rangers Oy has built solutions for data analysis, corporate foresight and other solutions directed mainly to the analytical and data-oriented functions of their clients.

Now the company is striving to build its consulting services to fulfill the needs of their growing customer base. However, the commercialization, design and development of these knowledge-intensive business services have been a daunting task. In short, the

organization strives to understand how new services are developed and designed in the field of knowledge-intensive business services. This presents the first goal for this research:

RG1: Understanding new service development through the eyes of a knowledge-intensive business organization.

As noted before, there is a lack of research in the field of new service development and innovation (Alam & Perry 2002, p. 515; Bullinger et al. 2003, p. 276; Menor et al. 2002, p. 136; Stevens & Dimitriadis 2005, p. 175). The research in the field is divided into different areas of interest, such as innovation management (e.g. den Hertog et al. 2010;

Dörner et al. 2011; Oke 2007; Miles 2008), customer involvement (e.g. Lundkvist &

Yaklef 2004; Martin et al. 1999; Magnusson et al. 2003; Matthing et al. 2004), strategic management (e.g. Alam 2003; Grawe 2009; Kelly & Storey 2000), models of new service development (e.g. Scheuing & Johnson 1989; de Jong et al. 2003; Stevens &

Dimitriadis 2004; Johnson et al. 2000), antecedents of successful service innovations (e.g. Njissen et al. 2006; Menor et al. 2002; Martin Jr & Horne 1992; de Jong &

Vermeulen 2003; Edgett 1994), among others.

All of these subfields do have two main issues in common. First the procedural development perspective, pointed out by Johne & Storey (1998, p. 201) over a decade ago: “it is surprising that there has not been more effort to develop a specific service development model”. Obviously this has changed over the years, but the research still lacks such a paradigm. Second, the traits of successful new service development have evolved through time, but no set of critical success factors have been accepted as an archetype in academic research (e.g. Njissen et al. 2006; Menor et al. 2002; Martin Jr &

Horne 1992; de Jong et al. 2003; Edgett 1994). The possible reason for this lack of paradigms and archetypes is that new service development is such a complex and heterogenic concept, that there is simply no single set of rules and procedures that would work as a standard in service development research and practice.

This research attempts to find the managerial issues and possible key activities that result in successful new service development, but in a more specific field of interest.

Whereas most research in new service development study the concept in general (e.g.

Alam & Perry 2002, p. 515; Bullinger et al. 2003, p. 276; Menor et al. 2002, p. 136;

Stevens & Dimitriadis 2005, p. 175), this research views it through a knowledge-intensive business service perspective. This would help to create a better understanding on how knowledge-intensive business services should develop their new services and what are the antecedents of success in the matter, helping such organization to survive and succeed in the competitive environment. This proposes a second goal for this research:

RG2: Identifying the managerial issues and key development activities of successful new service development in the field of knowledge-intensive business services.

The goals presented here can be translated into research questions, further analyzed in the next chapter.

1.2.1. Research questions

The aforementioned two goals compose the pragmatic for this research answering how new service concepts are designed and developed in the field of knowledge-intensive business services. As such, these goals assist both academic and business worlds that are struggling with new service development as the prevalence of a goods-based view on organizational management hinders the development and research of a more service-oriented perspective to management and innovation (Alam & Perry 2002, p. 515;

Bullinger et al. 2003, p. 276; Menor et al. 2002, p. 136; Stevens & Dimitriadis 2005, p.

175). In order to achieve these goals, a set of research questions is formalized from the goals presented in the previous chapter. The main research question (RQ) responds to both research goals, yielding an understanding on new service development and its managerial issues through the eyes of knowledge-intensive business services. The main research question is then presented as follows:

RQ: How are new services designed and developed in the field of knowledge-intensive business services?

Answering the main research question requires insight on theory and practice related to the following topics; services and the service economy, knowledge-intensive business services, new service development and innovation management, critical success factors and traits of new service development, as well as some subfields of new service development, such as commercialization and service delivery systems. These topics and the main research question can be illustrated through a framework presented in figure 1.

Figure 1: Research questions.

These questions are analyzed and answered through an extensive literature review and a set of empirical research methods, which are further discussed in chapter 1.3. Here it should be pointed out that all of the research questions as such are affected by the concept of knowledge-intensity, which is analyzed in chapter 2.

1.2.2. Scope

As suggested earlier, innovation and new service development studies are broad concepts that are difficult to study as they are derived from different academic fields with different intents and purposes as well as different paradigms and lexicon (Karniouchina et al. 2006, p. 274). This is why the research scope cannot be narrowed down by cutting out fields like marketing, organizational management or service engineering. All of these are essential and used in this research. However, concepts like marketing or strategic management are only seen as supporting academic fields, not as key areas of research.

The focal point of this research and the main field of interest is new service development and innovation which it is further limited to knowledge-intensive business services, giving the research a more specific scope. Moreover, as knowledge-intensive business services are a broad concept, it is further narrowed down by von Nordenflycht’s (2010) categorization (see the full analysis on knowledge-intensive business services in chapter 2.3), including so-called neo-professional service firms and technology developers which have business services as their core offering. This leaves out classic professional service firms, such as law firms, accounting firms and architecture, as well as professional campuses, such as hospitals or universities, helping to provide much more insightful and practical set of findings and implications for the selected organizations.

(RQ): How are new services designed and developed in the field of knowledge-intensive business services?

(RQa): How are new services developed?

(RQa1): What are the main activities of new service

development?

(RQa2): What are the most important managerial issues of new service development?

(RQb): What are knowledge-intensive business services?

(RQb1): How does knowledge-intensiveness

affect new service development?