Value cocreation in new service development: a process-based view of resource dependency
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 23 November 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine value cocreation in terms of interfirm collaborations between service firms, their business customers and business partners at different stages of a new service development (NSD) process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study develops and tests hypotheses that examine the roles played by business customers and partners in NSD, assuming resource dependency of the focal firm during three NSD stages (ideation, development and deployment). Empirical data were collected from 200 NSD projects and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that business customer collaboration has a positive effect on ideation performance and development performance, whereas business partner collaboration has a positive effect on deployment performance. These finding support the notion that the value cocreating roles of business customers and partners vary across NSD stages.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should focus on how business partners can be actively involved in the NSD process and how the interests of different parties can be safeguarded. The use of longitudinal data will allow a better examination of the process dynamics.
Practical implications
The study provides managerial implications for service managers in terms of acquiring and allocating resources needed from business customers and partners during different NSD stages.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the growing literature on value cocreation in NSD by empirically demonstrating the respective performance contributions of business customers and partners during different stages of NSD. Moreover, the results also shed light on interfirm collaboration mechanisms from the perspective of resource dependence theory.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was substantially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 71602159) and China Post-doctoral Science Foundation (grant number 2019M663770).
Citation
Wang, Q., Oshri, I. and Zhao, X. (2022), "Value cocreation in new service development: a process-based view of resource dependency", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 1, pp. 184-208. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2020-0319
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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