Inter-functional coordination for new service development

This research endeavors to enhance the understanding of inter-functional coordination in the process of new service development (NSD). Through a mixture of inductive and deductive approaches in- depth case studies are conducted involving five successful service organizations and fifteen NSD projects. The determination of coordination mechanism is a function of the degree of fit novelty and the NSD phase. A mixture of iterative and set- based concurrent engineering methods is used to increase the stability and precision of coordinated information. While the downstream activities are not flexible enough to cope with last minute changes from upstream, the organization aims to work in settings where the fast evolution of upstream information is possible. This paper bridges the gap in knowledge in the understudied research area: the applicability of coordination and concurrence methods developed for manufacturing product development to services, in particular, patterns of functional coordination for new service development and realization.