What prepares service entrepreneurs to innovate?

Service entrepreneurs continue to drive the global economy, but the ability of these entrepreneurs to sustain economic growth depends on their entrepreneurial innovativeness. Yet what prepares service entrepreneurs to innovate remains underexplored in entrepreneurship literature. Informed by contingency theory, this study explores entrepreneurial readiness to innovate. Based on semi-structured interviews with 30 Kuwaiti service entrepreneurs, the study finds seven core themes for a NES-CAFE multi-factor model. The themes involve: (i) a triad of NES ( n iche and need-noticing, e cosystems and environment-enabling and s pirit and success-seeking) contingency factors for entrepreneurial innovativeness, along with (ii) a tetrad of CAFE ( c ompetences and cultivating connections, a wareness and analysing advancements, f earlessness and forgiving failures and e xperiences and embracing evolutions) determining factors of entrepreneurial readiness to innovate. Theoretically, the study contributes to a contingency theory of individual-level entrepreneurial readiness for service businesses with personal, entrepreneurial and societal dimensions. By theorising on readiness as a critical antecedent for entrepreneurship in the service sector, our findings reveal that service innovation is contingent upon an alignment between entrepreneurial readiness and innovativeness. Managerially, our research recommends the cultivation of regional policies for entrepreneurial spirit among citizens and entrepreneurial orientations for developing fearlessness, experiences and awareness within service entrepreneurs.