Purpose: The extant new service development (NSD) literature tends to assume that the key practices for NSD identified in one context apply for all services, and has failed to sufficiently consider differences in NSD between service types. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of NSD across different service types. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive, cross-sectoral survey was conducted in seven countries. Data from 1,333 NSD projects were analyzed to empirically derive a service typology and examine if and how different types of services vary in terms of NSD resources, practices, methods, and results. Findings: Based on six service characteristics, the study identifies four service types: routine-intensive, technology-intensive, contact-intensive, and knowledge-intensive services. The study also identifies specific NSD resources, practices, methods, and results that are prevalent across the service typology. The evidence indicates that the use of advanced practices and methods differs dramatically between service types. Practical implications: The paper enables practitioners to expand their current understanding on NSD by providing insights into the variability of NSD across service types. The results suggest that either service-type-specific models or a configurable model for NSD should be developed. Originality/value: This study provides one of the first empirically derived service typologies for NSD. The study demonstrates that NSD resources, practices, methods, and results differ across service types, thereby challenging the “one size fits all” assumption evident in current NSD research.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of proto-institutions that are new institutional subsystems that subsequently affect the current institutional arrangements in the evolution of service ecosystems.Design/methodology/approach: To shed light on the mode of action of proto-institutions, the authors investigate the changes of three service ecosystems in Italy: the health care ecosystem, the food-supply ecosystem and the urban mobility ecosystem.Findings: First, the paper elucidates how changes of service ecosystems are triggered by megatrends that are external to specific service ecosystems. Second, the study empirically shows how service ecosystems and their institutional settings change through the establishment of proto-institutions.Originality/value: Responding to recent calls to investigate in more detail how actors challenge dominant social patterns and to conduct research to better understand how changes at the level of individual actors may lead to shifts within overall service ecosystems, this paper is one of the first to empirically study the relationships between phenomena that are external to service ecosystems, the emergence of proto-institutions and the resulting changes of institutional arrangements.

Little is presently known about customers’ expectations and the unspoken relevant factors which lead them to prefer or not sustainable luxury products. This study aimed to deepen the understanding of luxury consumers’ implicit intentions towards sustainability by using, for the first time, a neuroscientific approach applied to the luxury fashion domain. A greater cortical activity related to cognitive and emotional aspects was hypothesized for luxury sustainability-oriented consumers than for non-sustainability-oriented subjects when presented with sustainability-related cues. Sixteen luxury consumers were divided into two groups according to their sensitivity towards sustainability issues. They were asked to observe a set of 10 stimuli depicting sustainability issues and then to interact with a salesperson while their cortical activity was recorded by an electroencephalogram (EEG). Frequency band analysis revealed higher levels of beta, delta, and theta band EEG activity in temporoparietal than frontocentral areas when observing pictures related to sustainability and a specific right temporoparietal theta band activation for the Nonsustainable Group. An increased level of knowledge of sustainability themes was confirmed by the correct detection of stimuli valence and a significant presence of delta power when the salesperson explained the brand’s sustainable policy. The specific brain responses related to sensitivity towards sustainability and the different effect of knowledge on sustainability topics based on group differences are discussed here in light of emotional behavior.

Recent developments in management have highlighted the need for research on corporate sustainability strategies at the value chain level and in particular in the context of franchising. Although franchising is a widespread phenomenon, there is little empirical evidence of how companies approach the issue. By employing a multi-method research approach, this study explores the importance that franchisors assign to sustainability and the way they deal with it. Our findings show that franchisors adopt three main different sustainability strategies, with an increasing relevance of social sustainability as an enabler of environmental sustainability. The study sheds some light also on the interplay between the franchisor–franchisee relationship features and the company's approach toward sustainability. Preliminary propositions are presented as a starting point for further research in this area.

This article advances a conceptualization of service innovation as socially constructed through resource integration and sensemaking. By developing this view, the current study goes beyond an outcome perspective, to include the collective nature of service innovation and the role of the social context in affecting the service innovation process. Actors enact and perform service innovation through two approaches, one that is more concerted and another that emerges in some way. Each approach is characterized by distinct resource integration processes, in which the boundary objects (artifacts, discourses, and places) play specific roles. They act as bridge-makers that connect actors, thereby fostering resource integration and shared meanings.