Purpose In today’s Pakistan, the emergence of new forms of business in collaboration with the mobile service providers is bringing a big difference, not only in every walk of life but also in digital economy of the country. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore what are the factors that determine the success rate of new innovative services in cultural context of mobile service providers of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach Data have been collected from 397 employees of cellular firms of Pakistan by using the simple random sampling strategy. The gathered data were analyzed by using the regression-based process approach of Hayes and Preacher (2014). Findings The results indicated that innovation capabilities and service innovation have significant positive effect on the short-term, long-term and indirect success of the service innovation. It was also found that the service innovation mediates the relationship among the capabilities to innovate and service innovation success rate. The findings of this research work are beneficial for the practitioners of cellular firms of Pakistan. Originality/value The value of this research work is evident from the fact that this research work attempts to address some identified gaps of existing body of literature. This research work provides some key insights for practitioners and also discusses the new avenues for future researches.