Faculty & Research
Key Elements in Service Innovation: Insights for the Hospitality Industry
By: Rohit Verma Ph.D., Chris Anderson Ph.D., Michael Dixon, Cathy A. Enz Ph.D., Gary M. Thompson Ph.D., and Liana Victorino Ph.D.
Executive Summary: Service organizations are constantly attempting to find innovative ways to serve customers more effectively and efficiently. Even though they recognize service innovation as being essential, service organizations also face particular challenges in their innovation efforts. Participants in an industry roundtable on service innovation outlined the elements of and challenges inherent in the process of developing and introducing new services. One of the chief frustrations identified by the participants is that service innovations are easily imitated. Another challenge to service innovation is the real-time nature of introducing new services. The service cannot be tested in a laboratory. At minimum it must be pilot tested with real guests in a real hotel. Moreover, once a new service is rolled out it is difficult to recall. Innovation is most successful in service operations that seek the support of employees for innovations and, beyond that, encourage employees to participate in a culture of innovation.
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- Key Elements in Service Innovation: Insights for the Hospitality Industry By: Rohit Verma Ph.D., Chris Anderson Ph.D., Michael Dixon, Cathy A. Enz Ph.D., Gary M. Thompson Ph.D., and Liana Victorino Ph.D.
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About Rohit Verma Ph.D.
Rohit Verma is an associate professor of service operations management at the School of Hotel Administration, and also serves as the Executive Director for the Center for Hospitality Research. Prior to his current appointment, he was the George Eccles Professor of Management, David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He has also taught MBA and executive development classes at DePaul University, Chicago, IL, University of Sydney, Australia, Norwegian School of Logistics, Norway, Helsinki School of Economics, Finland, and Indian School of Business, India. His research interests include new product/service design, quality management and process improvement, supplier selection strategies, and operations/marketing interrelated issues. He has published over 40 articles in prestigious business journals such as California Management Review, the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Service Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, Production and Operations Management, and other journals. His research has been sponsored by the Hospitality Sales Association International (HSMAI), United States Forest Service, Marketing Science Institute, and various corporations such as CSFB, First Chicago, NCR Knowledge Lab, General Growth Properties, Siemens, Mead Johnson, Kimberley Clarks, Hammerson and others. Verma has received several teaching and research awards including the "Skinner Award For Early Career Research Accomplishments" from the Production and Operations Management Society; "Spirit of Inquiry Award" the highest honor for scholarly activities within DePaul University; “Teaching Innovation Award” DePaul University; and “Doctoral faculty Teaching Award” University of Utah. He serves as the associate editor of Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Sciences; senior editor of Production and Operations Management; and editorial board member of Journal of Service Research, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. He also served as guest editor for four issues of the Journal of Operations Management on topics related to effective management of service businesses.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=179
About Chris Anderson Ph.D.
Chris Anderson is an assistant professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario Canada. His main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works with industry, across numerous industry types, in the application and development of RM, having worked with a variety hotels, airlines, rental car and tour companies as well as numerous consumer packaged good and financial services firms. Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners and he serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the Hotel School he teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=180
About Cathy A. Enz Ph.D.
Cathy A. Enz is the Lewis G. Schaeneman Jr. Professor of Innovation and Dynamic Management and a full professor in strategy. She recently served as Associate Dean for Industry Research and Affairs, and served as the Executive Director of the school’s Center for Hospitality Research from 2000-2003. Dr. Enz has published over eighty journal articles, book chapters, and three books in the area of strategic management. Her research has been published in a wide variety of prestigious academic and hospitality journals such as The Administrative Science Quarterly, The Academy of Management Journal, The Journal of Service Research, and The Cornell Hospitality Administration Quarterly. Dr. Enz teaches courses in innovation and strategic management. In addition, she developed The Hospitality Change Simulation, a learning tool for the introduction of effective change, which is available as an online education program of e-Cornell. Three additional courses in hospitality strategic management will be available through e-Cornell in 2008. Dr. Enz also presents numerous executive programs around the world, consults extensively in North America, and serves on the Board of Directors of two privately owned hotel companies. Prior to her academic activities, Dr. Enz held several industry positions including strategy development analyst in the office of corporate research for a large insurance organization, and operations manager responsible for Midwestern United States customer service and logistics in the dietary food service division of a large U.S. health care corporation. Dr. Enz received her Ph.D. from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, and taught on the faculty of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University prior to arriving at Cornell in 1990.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=27
About Gary M. Thompson Ph.D.
Gary M. Thompson is a professor of operations management in the School of Hotel Administration, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in operations management. Previously he spent eight years on the faculty of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He holds a BS with first class honors from the University of New Brunswick, an MBA from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in operations management from The Florida State University. His current research focuses on optimizing restaurant table mixes, on optimizing conference schedules to improve attendee satisfaction, on course scheduling in post-secondary and corporate training environments, and on the effects on customer service of labor staffing and scheduling decisions. His research has appeared in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Decision Sciences, the Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Naval Research Logistics, Operations Research and other journals. He has consulted for several prominent hospitality companies and is the founder and president of Thoughtimus, Inc., a small software development firm focusing on scheduling products.
For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=84