The purpose of this paper is to integrate existing streams of literature in service innovation and services marketing and adopt an internal perspective of the new service development (NSD) process by discussing the role of some intra‐organizational contingencies that determine NSD project performance.
This paper develops a number of propositions applicable to new service development projects, in order to shed light on how internal team dynamics and contextual antecedents of service innovation affect NSD project performance.
The importance of adopting an internal market orientation (IMO) for new service development performance is illustrated. The role of intrateam contingencies, such as trust, relationship conflict and political activity and some contextual antecedents, such as resource allocation effectiveness and efficiency and cross‐functional integration for NSD project performance are also discussed.
This study is clearly a fruitful path of exploration ahead to help NSD project managers understand the importance of the internal environment for NSD performance. Moreover, different proxies of NSD performance are suggested in order to identify organizational gains stemming from NSD initiatives.
