Services Marketing in the Hospitality Economy: An exploratory study

Meeting the challenges of an unstable and unsettled environment is not easy. The recent impacts on the hospitality services economy of changing technology, mergers of institutions, increasingly demanding consumers and increased competition have created an atmosphere of volatility and rapid change. In order to survive in this demanding market place, service organisations have only one choice, to successfully develop and launch new services. However, the failure rate of new service projects is high, because the knowledge on how new services should be developed is limited. Unfortunately, unlike tangible new product development practices which have the benefit of extensive research into how successful new products are developed, the service sector has only recently begun to explore ways to ensure the success of new services. Therefore, this study focuses on a better understanding of how successful new hotel services are developed and investigates 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 for further research.