Customer involvement has been recognized as an important factor for successful service development. Despite its acknowledged importance, a review of the literature suggests that there is little empirical evidence about the effectiveness and outcomes of interacting with customers while developing new services. Similarly, the extant literature shows mixed views about the effect of technological uncertainty on customer involvement and the effectiveness of customer involvement at different stages of the new service development process. Against this backdrop, the present study has three objectives: (1) to investigate the effects of customer involvement on operational dimensions (i.e., innovation speed and technical quality) and market dimensions (i.e., competitive superiority and sales performance) of new service performance; (2) to examine the effect of technological novelty and technological turbulence on customer involvement; and (3) to explore the moderating effect of the stage of the development process on the relationships among technological novelty, technological turbulence and customer involvement, and customer involvement and new service performance. A total of 807 firms with 75 or more employees in a varied set of industries were selected from the Dun & Bradstreet's 2004 listing of Spanish service firms. A questionnaire was mailed to the person in charge of new service development at each company. A total of 102 complete questionnaires were returned. Findings reveal that whereas customer involvement has a positive direct effect on technical quality and innovation speed, it has an indirect effect on competitive superiority and sales performance through both technical quality and innovation speed. The study also finds a positive effect of technological novelty as well as technological turbulence on customer involvement. Contrary to expectations, the study does not find any moderating effects of the stage of the development process. This study has several theoretical and managerial implications. In terms of theoretical implications, the study supports the role of technological uncertainty (novelty and turbulence) as an antecedent to customer involvement. It also provides empirical evidence of the impact of customer involvement on operational and market dimensions of new service performance. In terms of managerial implications, the study offers critical insights on how customer involvement in new service development translates into improved new service performance. Furthermore, it reveals that the importance of customer involvement in technologically uncertain contexts and its impact on new service performance are independent of the stage of the development process, suggesting that managers should involve customers throughout the entire development process.

Purpose-It has been argued that innovation speed has been inappropriately absent in models of market orientation. The present study seeks to provide new insights into whether and how market orientation's three main components: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness affect innovation speed and new product performance, and about the mediating role of innovation speed. Design/methodology/approach-Data were collected from a sample of 247 firms in a variety of manufacturing industries. A mail survey was developed to collect the data. Findings-The results indicate that intelligence generation has an indirect positive effect on innovation speed via intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. Intelligence dissemination influences innovation speed positively, both directly and indirectly through responsiveness. Findings report a curvilinear (J-shaped) relationship between responsiveness and innovation speed. With regard to the effect of the market orientation's components on new product performance, the findings indicate a positive relationship between responsiveness and new product performance. The parameter estimates for the direct paths linking intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination with new product performance were found to be not significant. Instead, the findings show that intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination influence new product performance indirectly through responsiveness. Finally, a positive relationship was found between innovation speed and new product performance. Originality/value-The research makes three important contributions to the marketing strategy and new product development literatures. First, by splitting market orientation into the components of intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness, the study provides a closer examination into the effect of market orientation on innovation speed and new product performance. Second, the results indicate that the effects of intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination on innovation speed and new product performance are mediated by responsiveness to market intelligence. Third, findings support the argument that innovation speed partially mediates the effect of market orientation's three main components on new product performance.

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PurposeThis paper attempts to shed light on the effect of educational programmes aimed at entrepreneurs on innovation and business success.Design/methodology/approachWe use as theoretical framework the theory of planned behaviour. We use a sample of 354 entrepreneurs from Castile and Leon, Spain. To estimate the model we use a path analysis (AMOS 7).FindingsIndividuals who are concerned about further management education and entrepreneurship education show themselves to be more innovative. Moreover, indirectly, by means of the relationship between innovation and success, specific entrepreneurship education contributes to obtaining better business results. However, to have reached high levels of formal education makes entrepreneurs less conformist regarding the activity of innovation. The existence of a direct effect of innovative behaviour on business success is confirmed.Research limitationsThe limitations which our study presents are principally related to the measurement of the variables. Some of the characteristics of education should be studied more deeply.Practical implicationsThe results obtained lead us to recommend that the educational centres and institutions which organise the programmes should give preference to specialised education and less to entrepreneurship education when seeking to reinforce the innovative spirit of the entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThe debate concerning the effectiveness of entrepreneurship educational programmes is still undecided, so much so that both supporters and detractors of entrepreneurship education exist. For that reason, this paper aims to shed some light on the effects of the educational programmes aimed at the entrepreneur.

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