Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Services Marketing.
“Keeping up with Methods – Service Marketing Research updated”
Co-Guest editors: Kuppelwieser V & Klaus P
Deadline: 1 November 2023
Sample sizes influence p-values. If your sample size is small, significant findings might be false findings. If your sample size is very large, unimportant effects will become significant. Small sample sizes may not have enough power to detect real effects…
We are in a replication crisis. Although called for submissions in many journals, replications are still not published in an overwhelmingly huge number. They are needed to proof previous research findings, though (see e.g., Ioannidis 2005). Honestly, would you take a pill because one study has shown it will cure your illness? Would you settle down when your doctor adds that the study was tremendously significant? What if your doctor tells you that his own study ended in a non-significant result? Another example (c.f. Landis et al. 2014): What if a marketing manager was choosing between investing in one of two advertisings? Imagine that one of the ads was relatively inexpensive, say $1,000 per appearance and the other was relatively expensive, $5,000 per appearance. Data from multiple experiments revealed that there was no significant difference of the effects on the aimed outcomes (e.g., brand and product awareness, buying intention). Such results would be quite valuable to company decision makers. Almost unchanged these days, Altman (1994, p. 283) noted: “We need less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons.” Over 20 years later, more than 800 researchers signed a Nature comment on “Retire statistical significance.”
This special issue calls for a better way of using statistics. Applying methods in the field of service marketing has stopped at a point which we all heard of in our university years or decades ago. Some of us hope that they will never need to go back to statistics or research methods and focus on theoretical content. Others are keen on going in statistics and research methods, wondering why we do not possess and apply more sophisticated methods to reflect the society out there. At least, we should find a way to better explain, forecast, and theorize people’s behavior in service marketing research. An alternative method could profoundly impact our research paths or provide new perspectives on theoretical concepts and models. We seek to explore alternative methods in this special issue. Rather than focus on traditional methods and their application, we seek to contemplate, and to call for empirical and descriptive investigations on methodological insights, and perhaps, permanent impact of the suggested method on service research, service management, service systems. Some possible research questions that warrant methodological inquiry include the following topics. Our preference is for empirical work (qualitative or quantitative) rather than conceptual and descriptive studies.
List of Topic Areas
– Are the “old” service methods still applicable?
– Do we really rely on point estimations?
– In the era of high computing power, which methods come up?
– How to optimize explanation of customer behavior?
– What are advantages of the “old” service methods?
– Are they doing better than new approaches?
– What is the purpose of sample size discussions in the light of big data?
– When is a sample representative?
– Is frequentist statistics still up to date?
– What are new approaches that need to be considered?
– How can we provide an easy-to-use tool for service researchers?
– What service methods are relevant or useful for customers experiencing vulnerability?
– How can services be encouraged to use mixed-method or triangulation approaches?
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts.
Deadline: 1 November 2023
Guest Editors:
– Volker Kuppelwieser, NEOMA Business School France
– Phil Klaus, International University of Monaco, Omnes Education Research Center, Monaco
Read the full CFP here.
