Special Issue of the Service Industries Journal
Innovations and Behaviour Change
Guest Editor: Janine Dermody, Oxford Brookes University
Deadline for abstracts: June, 1 2017
Deadline for full paper submission: November, 30 2017
Serious human and ecological problems – on an unprecedented scale – arise from rapidly rising global temperatures, as a result of accelerated (manmade) climate change. These problems are further exacerbated by diminishing finite resources, increasing waste, food & water insecurity and inequality & dispossession.
Decades of research exploring how to address these problems, by changing the behaviours embedded in business, policy-making and consumption, have had limited effect. With these problems reaching crisis point, it is time for innovative thinking and action to advance the development of theory and best practice, in order to significantly advance sustainability behaviours across all facets of service industries.
This special issue seeks to publish research that builds on existing theory and practice to develop new ways of thinking about and enacting behaviour change. Thus emphasis is placed on how research can advance knowledge and practice in generating more innovative solutions to trigger more authentic sustainability behaviours in the service industries, their stakeholders and consumers.
This special issue invites papers from a range of disciplines and methodological traditions, which adopt a critical perspective related (but not limited) to the following topics:
- Critically reviewing current sustainability behaviours in the service industries and/or their customers and the ensuing opportunities/challenges that arise.
- Evaluating the sustainability of consumer’s contemporary sustainable consumption and how it might be strengthened.
- Critically evaluating the contribution of corporate responsibility in advancing sustainability in the service industries and interactions with customers and/or other stakeholders.
- Appraising the barriers impeding innovation and/or behavioural change and how these might be redressed.
- Critically exploring how innovation in the service industries can facilitate the growth of agro-ecological farming and food production for human and societal health and wellbeing.
- Evaluating how service industries are innovating to address the human/ ecological problems (outlined above).
- Critiquing current understanding of behavioural change theory and its contribution in advancing sustainability behaviours; including exploration of different cultures, industries and consumer groups.
- Assessing the feasibility of social currency networks and/or other community initiatives to support local cooperatives and producers.
- Evaluating the responsibilities of marketing in framing/promoting ecological messages to enhance consumption of foods that advance ecological and human health and wellbeing.
- Appraising the feasibility of agro-ecological consumer cooperatives and the contribution they can make in to societal health and wellbeing.
- Critically exploring the role of marketing in advancing sustainability behaviours in B2B and B2C contexts.
- Effectively applying ideas embedded in the circular economy to the innovation and/or change mindset of service industries and/or their customers.
- Successfully overcoming the political and economic tensions that can impede sustainability innovation and its implementation.
- Appraising differences in sustainability behaviours within different cultures and/or service industries.
- Evaluating the interrelationship between food, health, sustainability and consumer and societal well-being.
- Evaluating existing initiatives and/or policies aiming to encourage sustainability behaviours in organisations and individuals and how they can be improved; including examination of different cultures, industries and consumer groups.
- Appraising how stakeholders can be connected to create innovative solutions to advance sustainability behaviours.
- Assessing the acceptance of novel food innovations in addressing food insecurity due to climate change and the feasibility of their integration into the portfolio of mainstream service providers.
- Identify and explore the potential for new services B2B and B2C innovations to facilitate and grow sustainability behaviours.
- Identifying deficiencies in existing research conceptualisation and/or methods and ways in which these can be addressed to significantly advance the evidence base to ‘drive’ innovation for behavioural change.
Submission instructions
Researchers are invited to indicate their interest in contributing to this special issue by sending a 300-word abstract of their proposed paper by June, 1 2017 to Janine Dermody by e-mail at jdermody@brookes.ac.uk
The deadline for full paper submission is November, 30 2017 for standard peer review.
Full instructions for authors are available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=fsij20&page=instructions
Publication for this special issue is summer 2018.
Editorial information
- Guest Editor: Janine Dermody, Oxford Brookes University (jdermody@brookes.ac.uk)
- Editor-in-Chief: Levent Altinay, Oxford Brookes University (laltinay@brookes.ac.uk)
