New industrial service development: Scenarios for success and failure

Abstract

As industrial services become an increasingly important and dynamic economic sector, new services represent a key source of growth for firms. But innovation is risky and complex, involving major resource investments and a high rate of failure. Studies show that managers reduce the complexity surrounding individual decisions by viewing these in a “gestalt” or situation-specific mode. Hence, knowing the types of new service development situations, or scenarios, that typically lead to success and failure is an important requisite for making superior decisions. By synthesizing the attributes that define new service development within the firm, this article reports on five new service development scenarios that characterize a large sample of industrial service ventures. The five scenarios, three of which are associated with success and two with failure, can shed light on the types of new industrial service development situations that managers typically face and on the factors or combinations of factors that are linked to their likelihood of success.