Service innovation strategy and process: a cross‐national comparative analysis

Only limited attention has been paid to the issue of new service development (NSD) in a cross‐national context. To address this critique of the literature a comparative cross‐national study of NSD strategy and process of financial service firms in Australia and the USA was conducted.

The study employs a cross‐sectional, survey‐based methodology. The US sampling frame included 274 large financial service firms situated in the Northeast region of the USA. The Australian sampling frame consisted of 262 firms situated in the Southeast region of Australia.

The data pattern suggests that the firms in both the countries use different new service strategies to compete in the industry and emphasize different sets of development stages in developing new services.

The analysis has been restricted to two countries: Australia and the USA. This suggests the need for further comparative studies of NSD in other cultures/countries.

The findings of this research support the notion that some of the key NSD practices may be common to all countries and cultures whereas others must be adjusted for national variations. The insights from this study can help service managers from both Australia and the US to better understand and manage their NSD programs in a cross‐national context.

The findings of the research are expected to advance one's understanding of the service innovation process by shedding light on the question of universality of factors and issues that relate to a firm's NSD programs.