Service development: An examination of the service development process using the Norwegian Coastal Voyage (Hurtigruten) as a case study

This paper reports research on a service development study carried out on the Norwegian Coastal Voyage, also known as the Hurtigruten, which is its brand name. The Hurtigruten is an interesting case, as the most well-known tourist-attracting product in Norway. The primary research instrument employed was in-depth interviews with service managers and service personnel employed on the Hurtigruten. The paper shows that service development on the Hurtigruten features a dominant trait of an unstructured process that is explained by three groups of factors: company internal, company external and contextual factors.