Linking new service development and service design: An interdisciplinary service research framework and future directions

Background While systematic knowledge about developing services has been theorized as new service development (NSD) in marketing/management from the mid-1980s, service design (SD) in the design community has been discussed as an area for practice and research from the 1990s. While both disciplines address similar issues associated with developing services, their relationship based on similarities and differences has been unexplored. Recognizing the growing need for interdisciplinary service research, this paper aims to frame a theoretical relationship between both bodies of knowledge. Methods This study begins by reviewing the literature on NSD and SD with a purpose of building an initial comparative framework. Then, to establish the theoretical relationship between both approaches to service innovation, expert interviews with 12 international multidisciplinary professionals mainly in the design and marketing/management/business disciplines were conducted. Results The synthesis of the literature study and expert interviews led to a conceptual framework to link NSD and SD. The framework indicates two different directions for future interdisciplinary service research that involves NSD and SD. To specify these directions, SD could contribute design practices to reframing NSD towards better reflecting service-dominant logic, whereas NSD may provide SD with its organization-related theories to help SD better engage with organizational contexts. Conclusions SD has been criticized for its minimal contribution to service development and implementation, which are mainly driven by organizational processes and practices. Therefore, SD needs to engage with organizational innovation management to contextualize design practices in organizations. In that sense, NSD is an appropriate body of knowledge, which SD could be related with. This paper contributes to establishing an initial interdisciplinary relationship between NSD and SD to promote more interdisciplinary studies.