Social media use for service innovation in the emerging markets

In today's highly competitive and rapidly changing business landscape, service innovation, or New Service Development (NSD), is a firm's cornerstone of sustainable growth. The study delves into the intricacies of NSD, exploring the process and challenges of using social media to develop new services in emerging markets. Particularly, this research focuses on innovation within the B2B service industry in India's emerging market. The research question that we seek to answer is: 'How do financial service firms use social and digital media to develop new services in the emerging market of India?' Based on the findings, we propose a model of NSD and an efficient process for customer-manager interaction over various social media channels during NSD. On the basis of research findings, we report that a firm must develop a mechanism whereby the needs of the customers are integrated into service innovations. Also, a service firm must develop a systematic process for developing new services targeted at the B2B customers in the emerging market. Many service firms in emerging markets, such as India, are ready for the rapid adoption of the digitization revolution sweeping the country. The article has implications for the theory of NSD and social media marketing. The article also has implications for financial service firms engaged in marketing new services in India and other emerging markets.