Innovative firms think global, act local . Cultural modifications were critical in over half the process innovations adopted from abroad. Quality assurance innovations are frequent. 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.