Selecting promising business ideas for innovative IT services

Purpose Much research has been dedicated to the screening of new product ideas. Far less is known, however, about how to select the most promising new service ideas. Moreover, the specific characteristics of business services are rarely taken into account. This paper aims to investigate this issue. Designmethodologyapproach Based on an extensive literature review and on a case study in the businesstobusiness information technology industry, this paper therefore develops a screening method with which to assess and select new business service ideas. Findings The study surprisingly reveals that the customers' view is rarely included into the valuation of new service ideas in management practice, although customer involvement is largely claimed in the literature. The supposition is that customer involvement is seen as difficult and costly in practice. Originalityvalue The paper proposes an effective and manageable tool to assess new business service ideas that also allows for easy involvement of customers into the screening process.