A primary developmental challenge for both local services firms and the offices of foreign corporations is to institute adequate quality assurance and customer ser-vice standards. Governmental support for the adoption of international quality assurance standards, such as ISO 9000, can be very helpful in increasing competitiveness and supporting the ability to innovate. Organizational change backs innovation. While innovations in service concepts and delivery processes clearly outweighed innovations in organizational support systems, changes in organizational procedures were also important. The most common area of organizational change was in the training and performance expectations of staff.
Innovation benefits domestic customers as much as export markets.
Most of the innovations described provided a positive benefit for domestic customers as well as in export markets. Governments are often unaware of innovation among their own services exporting firms. Responses of no known innovations came only from government ministries, while trade associations in the same countries cited many innovations. The apparent lack of awareness of innovation on the part of government officials may be a cause for concern. An increasing number of countries offer incentives to encourage innovation and help underwrite research and development costs.