Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Services Marketing.
“Absorb, Adapt and Transform: Developing Resilience Capabilities in Service Organisations”
Co-Guest editors J Davey, J Krisjanous, & N Ashill
Deadline: 31 March 2023
The service sector is rapidly developing worldwide, contributing significantly to the growth of the world economy (Menguc et al., 2017). Today, organisations depend on the delivery of exceptional service quality as a means to attract and retain loyal customers (Kasiri et al., 2017; Malhotra et al., 2020). The changing external environment and increasing conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Petricevic and Teece, 2019 begs the question: How do service firms develop resilience? In the management and psychology literature, the concept of resilience has been studied in a wide variety of fields including organisational psychology (Powley, 2009), supply chain management (Sheffi and Rice, 2005), strategic management (Annarelli and Nonino, 2016), and services marketing (Bolton, 2020; Fehrer and Bove, 2022; Sok et al., 2021). In all these fields, resilience is related to the capability and ability of an organisation and the individual to return to a stable state (which may be a new state of normality) after a disruption.
According to dynamic capability theory, organisations need to respond quickly to turbulence and discontinuities to sustain sources of competitive advantage (Teece et al., 1997). The reconfiguration and/or transformation of competences is a critical capability to organisational adaptation during environmental change. Service organisations need to adopt both reconfiguration and transformational strategies to successfully build resilience.
At the individual level, resilience refers to an individual’s ability to adapt effectively and restore equilibrium in the face of severe adversity (Cooke et al., 2019; Sok et al., 2021). It is widely acknowledged that frontline employees (FLEs) or service workers play a critical role in the delivery of exceptional service and customer retention (Jha et al., 2017). However, they experience external and internal pressures daily including discerning customers’ service excellence demands such as customer incivility (Al-Hawari et al., 2020), and pressures from management including performance requirements and uncivil supervision (Han, Bonn and Cho, 2016). Not surprisingly, FLEs often suffer from work-related stress. According to conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989), resilience represents a fundamental psychological resource that can facilitate an individual’s ability to overcome work-related challenges. The resources, individual, relational and organisational, available to FLEs represent the primary building blocks of resilience. At the heart of resilience research is the mediating processes (also referred to as resilience processes or protective resources) which enable individuals to achieve better-than-expected outcomes in the face or wake of adversity (Van Breda, 2018).
This special issue welcomes high quality submissions in the form of conceptual and empirical papers that develop new insights into the concept of resilience in service firms and how service organisations and service workers strengthen and leverage capabilities for resilience.
Suggested areas of interest include (but not limited to) the following
– How service organisations adopt both reconfiguration and transformational strategies to successfully build resilience.
– The effects of workplace incivility on FLE resilience and FLE work outcomes.
– The impact of high-performance work practices on FLE resilience. At the FLE level, studies are required on how service management practices support or undermine resources associated with resilience.
– How service organisations invest in the development of psychological capital and the resilience of FLEs.
– At the organisational level, the costs and benefits of various service management practices on FLE resilience.
– Service innovation is one strategy for coping with increasing disruption, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Heinonen and Strandvik (2020) term this imposed service innovation. Future studies might address how imposed and/or discretionary service innovation facilitates or constrains service employee and service provider resilience capabilities.
– Field et al (2021) in outlining their Service Research Priorities suggest further work on metrics to measure and assess resilience.
– Outcomes of resilience capabilities at organisational and individual levels.
– The role of social and emotional capital on FLE resilience and FLE work outcomes. Research suggests social capital and its mobilisation contribute to positive outcomes during crises (Cheung et al., 2017).
Submissions Information:
The full manuscript must be submitted electronically to the Special Issue tab at Manuscript Central by March 31, 2023.
To be considered for publication, the article must be prepared according to the requirements on the Emerald website. Articles invited for revision must not exceed 40 double spaced pages (9,000 words) including the abstract, references, tables and/or figures with titles not exceeding 9 words. The format should include a structured abstract, use Times New Roman 12-point font, with 1-inch margins surrounding each page of text.
All submissions must be original material not under consideration by any other journal or outlet. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources. Potential contributors can contact the Special Issue editors to discuss their ideas for a paper prior to submitting a formal proposal.
JSM Special Issue Editors:
Janet Davey, Senior Lecturer, Janet.Davey@vuw.ac.nz
Jayne Krisjanous, Senior lecturer, jayne.krisjanous@vuw.ac.nz
Nick Ashill, Professor, nick.ashill@vuw.ac.nz
More info here.
