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Introduction
The core offerings of service firms are often intangible and are regarded as "service products" or products ([44] Oke, 2004). The term "service product innovation" is used interchangeably with the term "product innovation" in the service innovation literature. Service product innovations are "new developments in the core offering of service companies" ([45] Oke, 2007). In the financial sector, some examples of service product innovations include new credit card offerings or mortgagee or loan options ([45] Oke, 2007). For the remainder of this paper, "products" mean service products.
The involvement of front-line employees is considered at the heart of the product innovation process ([54] Schneider and Bowen, 1984). The management support is instrumental in encouraging employees' participation in the development process. In innovative organizations, strong organizational culture and supporting structure help in nurturing the innovative potential of employees. The risk taking behavior is encouraged and employees do not fear from failure. Another key element in successfully developing product innovations is the presence of a product champion ([11] De Jong and Vermeulen, 2003). A product champion is someone who helps in nurturing and protecting new products during development from idea stage to launch ([39] Martin and Horne, 1995). Also, managing of the development process is a cross-functional endeavor in which employees from different support areas cooperate ([9] Dayan and Di Benedetto, 2009). The front-line employees are at the forefront of development process as they have direct interaction with retail customers, hence are the most likely to perceive their changing needs ([10] De Brentani, 2001). Prior research has shown that innovative organizations encourage their employees to develop external contacts in order to identify potential opportunities because they are often the first to learn about the actions of competitors ([31] Hooley and Mann, 1988).
In order to study the development process of product innovations, many authors have proposed models ([7] Bowers, 1986; [14] Donnelly et al. , 1985; [35] Johnson et al. , 1986; [53] Scheuing and Johnson, 1989). Many of these scholars have drawn heavily on initial models developed by [6] Booz, Allen and Hamilton Management Consultants (1982). Service firms tend to use somewhat of a formal process comprising of different stages ([18] Edvardsson et al. , 1995). The complexity of the development process is more...