Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically examine the international marketing and innovation management research on new service development (NSD) in the context of emerging markets (EM). Research on services in EM, a heterogenous set of countries with an increasing contribution to global economic output, is sparse. This paper attempts to underscore the academic and managerial relevance of the field. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of published empirical literature from peer-reviewed journals focusing on an 11-year period, 2010-2020, was undertaken. Further, bibliometric and text mining analyses were conducted using VOSviewer and Leximancer software programmes. Findings This analysis of 36 journal articles reveals that NSD research is a dynamic field with an increasing number of quantitative, multi-country and multi-method studies encompassing a variety of geographical settings and industries. Originality/value Doing justice to this vibrant field of research and its managerial importance, the authors create an overview of existing empirical studies to serve as a repository of knowledge on NSD for both academics and practitioners. Further, the authors offer a thematic and temporal overview of the content of existing studies. Drawing upon the abovementioned, the authors suggest some promising avenues for future research.