Employee Collaboration, Learning Orientation, and New Service Development Performance

Abstract

Businesses rely on knowledge interfaces to gather and integrate knowledge that drives innovation and builds competitive advantage. But key knowledge interfaces such as cross-functional teams (CFTs), frontline employees (FLEs), and learning orientation have not shown consistent effects on innovation outcomes in prior research. This study addresses that problem by testing a mediation model that extends the service-dominant logic service innovation framework developed by Ordanini and Parasuraman. Based on analyses of 160 new service development (NSD) projects, the authors find that CFTs, FLEs, and learning orientation consistently influence NSD sales and process efficiency outcomes when they first create a service having (1) superior attributes and expert frontline employee service delivery (service marketability) and/or (2) a well-targeted launch with formal promotion to internal and external markets (launch effectiveness). Those NSD project characteristics in turn yield favorable new service performance results. Specifically, service marketability and launch effectiveness mediate the influence of CFTs on NSD outcomes. Launch effectiveness mediates the influence of learning orientation, and service marketability mediates the impact of FLEs. In ranking the organizational resources, the study finds that CFTs and learning orientation have greater effect on NSD sales performance than do FLEs. The results highlight the importance of aligning CFTs, FLEs, and learning orientation with NSD project characteristics in order to maximize sales performance and process efficiency.

Frontline employees’ collaboration in industrial service innovation: routes of co-creation’s effects on new service performance

“…Thus, the literature provides several examples of firms that have taken advantage of FLEs' potential to generate successful service innovation ideas, for example, Singapore Airlines, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Tata Global Beverages in customer service markets (Lages and Piercy 2012), or Accenture Limited, BT Global Services (Smith and Mindrum 2008), HCL Technologies (Ramdas and Gajulapalli 2008), and RiteSolutions (Hoyt and Rao 2006) in business services markets. Moreover, other studies, such as Melton and Hartline (2013) and Ordanini and Parasuraman (2011), also illustrate the impact on NS success of a more in-depth collaboration with FLEs during the NSDP.…”

“…Second, this study answers calls in the literature for more robust and comprehensive models for investigating the effects of employee-driven service innovation (Kesting and Ulhøi 2010;Melton and Hartline 2013;Menor et al 2002). We examine, for the first time, the impact of FLE co-creation on internal and external service innovation performance measures (Hoyer et al 2010;Umashankar et al 2011).…”

“…Thus, FLE co-creation involves the joint work of FLEs with the firm's internal R&D/development team to integrate FLEs' knowledge and expertise into the NSDP, from the initial idea selection to the market launch of the NS. In this way, the research acknowledges that FLEs constitute a relevant knowledge interface for the organization, and that FLE co-creation constitutes a key knowledge transfer mechanism for supporting successful service innovation (Melton and Hartline 2013;Ordanini and Parasuraman 2011).…”

“…The explicit consideration for the first time in the literature of customer-related outcomes (Lages and Piercy 2012) enlarges our understanding of FLE co-creation effects under the customer-centric perspective suggested by S-DL. Third, our model expands on the Ordanini and Parasuraman (2011) and Melton and Hartline (2013) framework, exploring two routes of FLE co-creation effects. The routes allow a deeper understanding of (1) how the NS performance measures interrelate, (2) the indirect effects of FLE co-creation, and (3) the relative importance of each path for achieving NS market performance (Fig.…”

NuServ modelio taikymas inovatyvios paslaugos plėtros procese

“…Inovacijų plėtros procesą bei inovatyvios paslaugos ir/arba produkto plėtrą analizuoja gana gausus būrys užsienio (Bailey, Neilsen, 1992;Liemens, Moenaert, 2000;Lager, Hörte, 2002;Jayasimha, ir kt., 2007;O'Sullivan ir kt., 2009;Bergfors, Larsson, 2009;Kleijnen ir kt., 2009;Duverger, 2012;Scutelnicu, Ganapati, 2012;Skaalsvik, Johannessen, 2013;Melton, Hartline, 2013; ir kt.) ir Lietuvos mokslininkų (Strazdas, Bareika, 2011;Baležentis, Žali-maitė, 2011;Strazdas, 2011;Liutkutė, Vijeikis, 2012;Stepanovas, Ostašenkovaitė, 2013;ir kt.…”