Identifying determinants of success in development of new high‐contact services

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to gain insight into factors that contribute to the success in high contact new service development (NSD) projects.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via questionnaires from hospitality managers knowledgeable about NSD in their organization (sample size =183; response rate 38.1 percent). Discriminant analysis was used to identify the factors that are responsible for successful high contact NSD projects in the hospitality industry.Findings – Research results indicate that seven factors play a distinctive role in the outcome of high contact NSD: market attractiveness, strategic human resource management, market responsiveness, empowerment, training of employees, employee commitment and marketing synergy.Research limitations/implications – This study was conducted in only one industry (hospitality) and one country (Germany) and included only the views of managers.Practical implications – This study outlines the importance of human resource management fact...