Services marketing in the hospitality economy: An exploratory study

Meeting the challenges of an unstable and unsettled environment is not easy. The recentimpacts on the hospitality services economy of changing technology, mergers of institutions,increasingly demanding consumers and increased competition have created an atmosphere ofvolatility and rapid change. In order to survive in this demanding market place, serviceorganisations have only one choice, to successfully develop and launch new services. However, thefailure rate of new service projects is high, because the knowledge on how new services should bedeveloped is limited. Unfortunately, unlike tangible new product development practices which havethe benefit of extensive research into how successful new products are developed, the service sectorhas only recently begun to explore ways to ensure the success of new services. Therefore, this studyfocuses on a better understanding of how successful new hotel services are developed andinvestigates the factors, which have impact on success or failure in new service development (NSD)in the hotel sector. The results of the exploratory study are summarised in a conceptual model forfurther research.