Considered Service-specific journals were Journal of Service Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Service Industries Journal, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and Service Science.
For more information about the alert system methodology go here
For all previous alerts go here
Le, K. B. Q., L. Sajtos, W. H. Kunz and K. V. Fernandez (2024): The Future of Work: Understanding the Effectiveness of Collaboration Between Human and Digital Employees in Service, Journal of Service Research, (3784), pp.1
The use of digital employees (DEs)—chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI)—is becoming increasingly common in the service industry. However, it is unclear whether collaborations between the human employee (HE) and DE can influence customer outcomes, and what the mechanisms behind such outcomes are. This research proposes and tests a theoretical model that explains how the communication of HE-DE collaboration in the form of interdependent behavioral cues can influence customer evaluations of the service they received from such a team. Five experimental studies involving a total of 1403 participants demonstrate that making HE-DE collaboration visible to customers during the service encounter can reinforce their perception of HE-DE team cohesiveness and service process fluency, driving satisfaction. The communication of coordination and team goal cues are two strong stimulants that strengthen such impressions. Further, this research also reveals that the HE-DE collaboration (vs. augmentation or substitution) appeals to customers thanks to their perception of a transparent process, which is induced through collaborative cues. This research provides theoretical implications for a transparent collaborative process between HE and DE and practical advice for firms seeking to integrate DE into their organizations’ workflows.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705241229419 [Google]
Timothy Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy, Edward C. Malthouse (2024): Sustainable Service, Journal of Service Research, 27(3727), pp.89-105
This special issue delves deeply into the pivotal challenge of sustainability, using the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact as its foundation. Emphasizing the multifaceted nature of sustainability, the discussion spotlights its interdisciplinary and multistakeholder character, making a strong case that services research should be the epicenter of sustainability research and action. We introduce a new definition of “service sustainability” that brings together diverse fields such as policymaking, engineering, resource management, and education. This definition is not just an academic construct; it carries important managerial and policy implications. Organizations, both in the corporate and governmental sectors, are urged to adapt services that cater to present-day demands with a foresight that ensures the flourishing of future generations. At its heart, this updated approach emphasizes improving services while being aware of the social, environmental, and economic aspects of our connected world.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231208259 [Google]
Leonard Berry, Manjit S. Yadav, Michael Hole (2024): Reclaiming Healthcare’s Healing Mission for a Sustainable Future, Journal of Service Research, 27(3728), pp.6-27
Healthcare in the United States has reached a point where it is unsustainable for the long term, particularly for the poor, the elderly, and healthcare workers (HCWs) themselves. We propose a framework for making U.S. healthcare more sustainable, whereby the service returns to its core mission of healing. The framework casts that healing mission in broadly applicable, practical terms, whereby leaders of healthcare organizations and in the wider for-profit, not-for-profit, and governmental healthcare ecosystem take concrete steps to improve outcomes for patients and HCWs. Those steps involve aligning healthcare resources, incentives, and policies with the core mission of healing and then implementing change in specific ways that particular organizations have already shown are achievable and sustainable. We use those examples to illustrate how healing-oriented innovations in healthcare delivery get deployed and how progress toward sustainability then ensues. Lessons from these efforts can be tailored to individual healthcare contexts and institutions—and then applied on a national scale. The discussed initiatives can also guide the direction of future research on healthcare sustainability.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231198024 [Google]
Martin Mende, Maura Scott, Valentina O. Ubal, Corinne M.K. Hassler, Colleen Harmeling, Robert W. Palmatier (2024): Personalized Communication as a Platform for Service Inclusion? Initial Insights into Interpersonal and AI-Based Personalization for Stigmatized Consumers, Journal of Service Research, 27(3729), pp.49-68
Although calls for inclusiveness in services are becoming more vigorous, empirical research on how to design and implement service inclusion for stigmatized consumers remains scant. This paper draws on key questions of personalization (i.e., who personalizes what for whom ?) to tailor the (a) source and (b) content of marketing messages in order to better include stigmatized consumers. The authors examine this idea in three experiments in healthcare/well-being settings. In terms of message source, the results show that, in interpersonal interactions, service companies can employ the principle of homophily to better engage stigmatized consumers (Study 1). In contrast, homophily-inspired personalized messages to stigmatized consumers can backfire in the context of consumer-artificial intelligence (AI)-interactions (human-to-avatar interactions; Study 2). Moreover, in terms of message content, Study 3 explores how, and under which conditions, companies can leverage thinking AI versus feeling AI for improved service inclusiveness. Finally, the studies point to anticipated consumer well-being as a crucial mediator driving effective service inclusiveness among stigmatized consumers. The results not only contribute to an emerging theory of service inclusiveness, but also provide service scholars and managers with initial empirical results on the role of AI in inclusive services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231188676 [Google]
Julia Fehrer, Joya A. Kemper, Jonathan J. Baker (2024): Shaping Circular Service Ecosystems, Journal of Service Research, 27(3730), pp.124-140
The circular economy (CE) presents an alternative perspective to the linear take-make-use-dispose model prevalent in industrial value chains. CE envisions economies operating like natural ecosystems—restorative and waste-free, underpinned by principles such as reuse, repair, share, and pay-for-use. Surprisingly, although these principles align with the fundamentals of service management, there is limited scholarly exploration of CE within service research. Leveraging service-dominant logic, this study introduces the concept of circular service ecosystems as ideal types of service ecosystems, regenerative, and embedded within nature, where (material, intellectual, digital and financial) resources flow seamlessly within and between nested systems without creating any waste or leakage. By analyzing 3,178 blogs penned by CE experts over 7 years and conducting in-depth interviews with industry specialists, this study offers two significant contributions. Firstly, it presents a process framework elucidating the transition towards circular service ecosystems. This framework explains the emergence of novel circular solutions and service ecosystem properties through processes of de- and re-institutionalization. Secondly, the study identifies six shaping strategies that actors can apply to drive circular service ecosystem transitions. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of circular service ecosystems and CE as promising areas for future service research, providing a comprehensive research agenda to explore these areas in depth.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231188670 [Google]
Katrien Verleye, Arne De Keyser, Néomie Raassens, Alex Alblas, Fernando Caasi Lit, Josephina Cornelia Huijben (2024): Pushing Forward the Transition to a Circular Economy by Adopting an Actor Engagement Lens, Journal of Service Research, 27(3731), pp.141-155
Circular business models (CBMs), such as product-service systems, are rapidly gaining traction in light of a transition to a more circular and sustainable economy. The authors call for a new approach to inform and guide the development and adoption of these CBMs. The main reason is that different actors in the service ecosystems or networks linked to these business models—such as firms, customers, and governmental bodies—may be reluctant to join or even impede the transition to a circular economy. Based upon an abductive analysis of 133 CBM papers with the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) framework as organizing structure, the authors theorize about how to achieve “circular economy engagement” (i.e., an actor’s disposition to embrace CBMs). Specifically, they highlight and illustrate the role of (1) signaling and convincing as motivation-related practices, (2) matching and legitimizing as opportunity-related practices, and (3) supporting and empowering as ability-related practices. The authors provide illustrative cases for each of these practices along with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications and the remaining challenges—all with the key aim to push the transition to a circular economy forward.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231175937 [Google]
Alessia Anzivino, Suvi Nenonen, Roberta Sebastiani (2024): Uncovering the Hidden “Where” of Sustainable Service Ecosystems: The Role of Spaces and Places, Journal of Service Research, 27(3732), pp.3-5
Multiple research efforts are currently unfolding to advance the wide-scale sustainability transformation of services and service ecosystems to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While “how” to create service ecosystems and “whom” and “what” these service ecosystems serve have been receiving increasing scholarly attention, current research leaves the “where” question relatively underexplored. Thus, precise theoretical conceptualizations of the role of spaces and places in sustainable service ecosystem design (SED) are lacking. By longitudinally investigating two in-depth case studies, we illuminate the spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Our findings suggest five spatial mechanisms that enlighten how sustainable SED unfolds in relation to spaces and places. We also identify three tensions that affect the implementation of sustainable SED, each tension having both enabling and constraining manifestations. The study contributes to the service research on sustainability by illuminating the previously under-researched spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Results have implications for a broad set of actors involved in sustainable SED, providing advice on how to design new and utilize existing spaces and places to maximize their potential in addressing sustainability challenges.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231185177 [Google]
Kaisa Koskela-Huotari, Kristin Svärd, Helén Williams, Jakob Trischler, Fredrik Wikström (2024): Drivers and Hinderers of (Un)Sustainable Service: A Systems View, Journal of Service Research, 27(3733), pp.106-123
Making service provisioning significantly more sustainable is crucial if humankind wants to make a serious effort to operate within the boundaries of what the planet can support. The purpose of this paper is to develop a systemic understanding of sustainability in service provision and shed light on the mechanisms that drive unsustainability and hinder service providers in their efforts to be more sustainable. To contextualize our study, we focus on a significant sustainability problem: food waste stemming from food retail at the retailer-consumer interface. We make two theoretical contributions to the service research on sustainability. First, we offer a systemic conceptualization of sustainability in service as a dynamic ability of a focal system (e.g., a service firm) to sustain the system(s) that contains it. Second, we explicate the mechanisms—stocks and flows, feedback and mindsets—that contribute to (un)sustainable service provision as a systemic behavior, and which can thus be used as intervention points when designing sustainability initiatives. Our work also has significant practical implications for food retailers and policymakers working towards reaching UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, as we specify the feedback loops that drive food waste and hinder efforts to reduce it at the retailer-consumer interface.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231176071 [Google]
Emelie Fröberg, Svetlana Kolesova, Sara Rosengren (2024): Does the Label Fit the Channel? How “Bricks” and “Clicks” Influence Demand for Environmental and Social Sustainability Labels, Journal of Service Research, 27(3734), pp.28-48
Service firms are increasingly trying to make their offers more sustainable. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on sustainability in service by investigating the impact of the shopping channel on consumer purchases of alternatives labeled as environmentally and socially sustainable. We theorize that the salience of self-oriented (vs. other-oriented) motives in the online (vs. in-store) channel has a higher fit with self-oriented (vs. other-oriented) benefits signaled by environmental (vs. social) labels, especially for utilitarian (vs. hedonic) products. To test this expectation, we conduct three studies using real-world grocery and beauty retailer datasets that include almost 900,000 purchases either in-store (“bricks”) or online (“clicks”). Using both between-consumer and within-consumer analysis, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. Our conceptual framework and findings suggest that service firms that want to promote environmentally and socially sustainable alternatives will benefit from adapting their strategies to different domains of sustainability labels and shopping channels.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231198027 [Google]
Tohid Ghanbarpour, Lawrence Crosby, Michael D. Johnson, Anders Gustafsson (2024): The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Stakeholders in Different Business Contexts, Journal of Service Research, 27(3735), pp.69-88
The authors explore two important topics related to this special issue. One is how corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities impacts stakeholders, more specifically customers and shareholders/investors. Second is understanding customer recognition and demand for CSR activities. Insight into these topics is gained through the study of contextual differences in this value creation. Previous studies suggest that two important contextual differences have the potential to impact CSR-based value creation, the product versus service nature of the firm and whether the firm operates primarily in a business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) channel. The lower innovative capabilities of service firms and the relative intangibility of services should hamper the impact of CSR activities in service versus product contexts. The impact should be higher, however, in a B2B versus B2C context based on the need for greater organizational alignment, adaptation, and relationship-specific investments. Results from a large-scale secondary dataset reinforce prior findings that CSR activities influence firm value through customer satisfaction. Moreover, the results reveal that this effect is weaker for service (vs. product) firms and stronger for B2B (vs. B2C) firms. The findings offer important implications for marketing theory and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705231207992 [Google]
Uhrich, S., R. Grohs and J. Koenigstorfer (2024): Customer-to-customer interactions in the sport fan context: typology, framework (C2CIF) and directions for future research, Journal of Service Management, 35(3789), pp.53-70
Purpose: Social factors, such as fellow spectators in a stadium or other fans sharing their experiences on online platforms, play a dominant role in spectator sport consumption. This conceptual article sets out to achieve three objectives: classify customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in the sport fan context, develop a framework that links the classification of interactions to relevant outcomes and identify areas for related future research. Design/methodology/approach: The authors integrate conceptual and empirical contributions on C2C interactions in the service, marketing and sport management literature. Findings: The article proposes classifying C2C interactions into synchronous multi- and uni-directional interactions as well as asynchronous multi- and uni-directional interactions. The C2C interaction framework (C2CIF) proposes that such C2C interactions have hedonic, social, symbolic and utilitarian value outcomes. It further suggests that physiological, psychological and social processes underlie the co-creation or co-destruction of value and identifies contingencies at both the fan and the brand level. Originality/value: Based on the C2CIF, we identify relevant topics for future research, in particular relating to technology-supported and virtual interactions among fans, fan-to-fan interactions across different countries and cultural backgrounds and fan-to-fan interactions as a way to reduce societal concerns.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-03-2022-0095 [Google]
Ponsignon, F., L. Phillips, P. Smart and N. Low (2024): Designing the service delivery system for prevention-oriented goals: insights from two case studies, Journal of Service Management, 35(3790), pp.22-45
Purpose: This research explores how to design service delivery systems to facilitate a customer experience that enables the realisation of prevention-oriented goals. Design/methodology/approach: Case-based research is undertaken to inform the design of service delivery systems for prevention-oriented consumption goals. Data from multiple informants, from both the provider and customer perspective, in two in-depth case studies, provide empirical insights. Findings: Drawing on customer and provider perspectives, a model of service design for prevention-oriented goals is presented. The model is informed through the identification of service delivery system characteristics (facility layout, staff service orientation, facility appearance and staff presence/appearance) and perceived experience quality dimensions (control, duration, privacy and reliability impressions) that contribute to the fulfilment of prevention-oriented consumption goals. Practical implications: The research affirms that it is critical for organisations to comprehend the goals they want their service delivery systems to enable in the customer experience. Specific attention should be given to the design of facility layout, staff-service orientation, facility appearance, staff presence/appearance to positively impact perceived quality dimensions and to facilitate the realisation of customer prevention goals. Originality/value: The main research contribution lies in the articulation of the design characteristics of the service delivery system that enables a customer experience supporting the fulfilment of prevention goals. The empirical study draws on both customer and organisational perspectives to identify prevention-oriented goals, and corresponding experience quality dimensions, to inform service delivery system design.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-02-2023-0069 [Google]
McDonald, H., S. Dunn, D. Schreyer and B. Sharp (2024): Understanding consumer behaviour in evolving subscription markets – lessons from sports season tickets research, Journal of Service Management, 35(3791), pp.89-107
Purpose: The purpose is to review literature on sports season ticket subscriptions to distil current knowledge and guide future research and practice. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review is conducted of research on sports season tickets, a long-established and innovative subscription category. Findings: In-depth examination of 28 papers showed a focus on drivers of satisfaction, churn and renewal causes, and product utilisation rates. Subscription markets typically involve many “solely loyal” consumers, most purchasing one or two subscriptions in a category. From reduced barriers to entry and exit to “curated” subscriptions, subscription marketing is changing very quickly. Sports marketers build relationships with subscribers using behavioural data, tier benefits to distinguish between casual and subscribing customers, and create recall and scarcity around key aspects of subscription to combat churn and increase utilisation. Research limitations/implications: Scarce research on subscription marketing practices remains the primary limitation. Existing research suggests that strong connections between subscriber and organisation, heavy product utilisation and/or strong barriers to switching drive customer satisfaction and retention. Practical implications: Rapid expansion of subscription products should reduce “excess loyalty”, meaning that subscription models’ main benefit will be limited to reoccurring revenue. Exceptions occur when consumers are heavily connected to the product or have little provider choice, so allocate their category buying exclusively. New subscription products face myriad challenges. Guidance on effective subscription marketing from sports marketing research and practice is outlined. Originality/value: By combining research on market structure, marketing empirical generalisations and subscription marketing, this paper guides future research and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-03-2022-0116 [Google]
Heere, B., D. Lock and D. Cooper (2024): Brand community formation in service management: lessons from the sport industry, Journal of Service Management, 35(3792), pp.71-88
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to propose an overall framework for brand community formation that separates antecedents that lead to the formation of a brand community from those outcomes that are associated with established communities. Design/methodology/approach: The authors approached this review through an interdisciplinary literature review that delineated psychological, structural and behavioral processes that underline the formation of the brand community, often illustrated by contemporary cases in the sport industry. Findings: The findings outline 18 different constructs, categorized in three overarching dimensions, separating structural, behavioral and psychological constructs. The authors posit these 18 constructs are at the heart of brand community formation. These constructs provide managers with a guide to inform their efforts to form a new brand community. Originality/value: It is emphasized that brand community formation is a complex process that is paradoxical in nature and requires organizations to balance a non-interventionist approach that would allow for consumer empowerment, with a pro-active approach that creates conditions for a successful brand community formation process.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-05-2022-0147 [Google]
Cornwell, T. B., A. Frank and R. Miller-Moudgil (2024): A research agenda at the intersection of sport sponsorship and service, Journal of Service Management, 35(3793), pp.108-126
Purpose: The purpose of this work is (1) to supply a framework of actors in sport sponsorship and articulate the service relationships that support these partnerships and (2) to propose research questions in this space that are unaddressed and forward-looking. Design/methodology/approach: Sponsorship is part of a complex network of actors and service relationships found in sport. The sports team, activity, or event is a sport property, often with long-term and dynamic service relationships. The authors consider how a sponsor’s relationship with the sport property intersects with organizing bodies, venues, communities and society. The authors identify clusters of actors that interact with and influence other clusters (e.g. governing bodies, media, host community and venue/teams/fans) within an ecosystem, paying special attention to aspects of co-creation and co-destruction and the feedback loops that cause them. Findings: Through this analysis, the authors identify areas of needed research at the intersection of sport sponsorship and service. The model synthesizes the literature from service-dominant logic, sports, sponsorship, systems thinking and co-creation/co-destruction research areas. Using the model and relevant cases, the authors can better understand the complexities of sport service relationships and advance research at the intersection of sport sponsorship and service. Originality/value: This is the first sport sponsorship service ecosystem model. It is also the first integration of systems thinking with constructs in sport sponsorship and services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-02-2022-0057 [Google]
Bowen, D. E. (2024): An organizational behavior/human resource management perspective on the roles of people in a service organization context: frameworks and themes, Journal of Service Management, 35(3794), pp.1-21
Purpose: This article overviews some key contributions to service research from the organizational behavior/human resource management (OB/HRM) discipline with its strong focus on the role of employees. This focus complements the Marketing discipline’s heavy emphasis on customers, largely true of service research, overall. Design/methodology/approach: Ten OB/HRM frameworks/perspectives are applied to analyzing the roles of people (with a focus on employees and modest consideration of customers as “partial” employees who co-create value) in a service organization context. Also, commentary is offered on how the frameworks relate to six key themes in contemporary service research and/or practice. The article concludes with five reflections on the role and status of employees in service research—past, present and future. Findings: Employee roles in evolving service contexts; participation role readiness of both employees and customers; role stress in participating customers; an employee “empowered state of mind”; an emphasis on internal service quality; “strong” HRM systems link individual HRM practices to firm performance; service-profit chain with links to well-being of employees and customers; a sociotechnical system theory lens on organizational frontlines (OF); service climate as an exemplar of interdisciplinary research; emotional labor in both employees and customers; the Human Experience (HX); specification of employee experience (EX). Originality/value: Service remains very much about people who still guide organizational design, develop service strategy, place new service technologies and even still serve customers. Also, a people and organization-based competitive advantage is tough to copy, thus possessing sustainability, unlike with imitable technology.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2023-0424 [Google]
Vredenburg, J., S. Kapitan and S. Jang (2024): Service mega-disruptions: a conceptual model and research agenda, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3768), pp.131-144
Purpose: This paper aims to formally conceptualize service mega-disruptions as any far-reaching and unforeseen general environmental stressor or threat that impacts a service organization’s ability to provide a desired level of service. The authors differentiate sudden large-scale general environmental threats from traditional service failures in scope and scale of impact via number of customers and sectors affected and duration and speed of the disruption. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws from service recovery theory to build a conceptual model of service mega-disruptions. The resulting conceptual model maps service failure recovery strategies against a service mega-disruption recovery approach to examine consumer response to changes in service value. This work further articulates additional research needs including conceptualization, measurement and methods as traditional drivers of service recovery and the value of the service experience change in response to service mega-disruptions. Findings: This work proposes a research agenda to investigate whether service mega-disruptions can bypass the need for service recovery due to a consumer self-moderating process. As past research shows, the less control a service provider has over a failure, the more customers attribute fault to the situation and transfer blame away from an organization. This paper suggests that this self-moderating process disrupts the need for service providers to court forgiveness for a failure with perceptions of similarity and controllability providing an alternate pathway to customer forgiveness. Similarly, it is suggested that service mega-disruptions play a role in transforming service ecosystems into tighter, more contractual systems with less agency for service providers and poorer ability to adjust to market conditions. The duration and longevity of effects on service providers’ control, agency and ability to adjust following a service mega-disruption must be researched further. Originality/value: This paper builds theory to develop a conceptual model of service mega-disruptions and their role in customer engagement and reshaping the service ecosystem. This paper culminates in the proposition of a research agenda that aims to build research capacity among services marketing scholars as service providers’ coordination and market conditions are challenged by service mega-disruptions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0025 [Google]
Tronvoll, B. and B. Edvardsson (2024): Critical examination of academic marketing and service research’s philosophical foundation, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3769), pp.56-70
Purpose: The philosophical foundations determine how an academic discipline identifies, understands and analyzes phenomena. The choice of philosophical perspective is vital for both marketing and service research. This paper aims to propose a social and systemic perspective that addresses current challenges in service and marketing research by revisiting the philosophy of science debate. Design/methodology/approach: The paper revisits the philosophy of science debate to address the implications of an emergent, complex and adaptive view of marketing and service research. It draws on critical realism by combining structuration and systemic perspectives. Findings: A recursive perspective, drawing on structures and action, is suggested as it includes multiple actors’ intentions and captures underlying drivers of market exchange as a basis for developing marketing and service strategies in practice. This is aligned with other scholars arguing for a more systemic, adaptive and complex view of markets in light of emerging streams in academic marketing and service research, ranging from value cocreation, effectuation, emergence and open source to empirical phenomena such as digitalization, robotization and the growth of international networks. Research limitations/implications: The reciprocal dynamic between individuals and the overarching system provides a reflexivity approach intrinsic to the service ecosystem. This creates new avenues for research on marketing and service phenomena. Originality/value: This paper discusses critics, conflicts and conceptualization in service research. It suggests a possible approach for service research and marketing scholars capable of responding to current complexities and turbulence in economic and societal contexts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0002 [Google]
Taylor, J. F., S. E. Beatty and K. J. Roberto (2024): Encouraging prolonged consumption through habit-boosting efforts: conceptualization and research agenda, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3770), pp.28-42
Purpose: This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the prolonged consumption journey and how they are sustained by service providers’ use of habit-boosting strategies. Existing research is critically evaluated, and a research agenda is provided to inspire and guide future research. Design/methodology/approach: This paper develops a conceptual framework that integrates habit and transformative consumer intervention theories with customer journey literature to explain the role of habit in sustaining prolonged consumption journeys. Habit-boosting strategies are introduced as mechanisms for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys. Findings: This paper argues that habit strength is a limited operant resource that often lacks resource integration efficiency and hinders customers’ abilities to sustain prolonged consumption journeys. Four distinct habit-boosting strategies are identified that provide the potential for service providers to facilitate their customers’ prolonged consumption journeys. Originality/value: This study presents a typology of habit-boosting strategies and a research agenda that discusses a range of practically relevant and theoretically insightful contributions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0023 [Google]
McColl-Kennedy, J. R., C. F. Breidbach, T. Green, M. Zaki, A. M. Gain and M. L. van Driel (2023): Cultivating resilience for sustainable service ecosystems in turbulent times: evidence from primary health care, Journal of Services Marketing, 37(3771), pp.1167-1185
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why some service ecosystems are more resilient and, consequently, more sustainable than others during turbulent times, and how resilience can be cultivated to enable pathways to service ecosystem sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: This work integrates disparate literature from multiple service and sustainability literature streams, iterating through constant comparison with findings from 44 semistructured interviews conducted in the context of primary health care clinic service ecosystems. Findings: The authors offer a novel conceptual framework comprising pillars (shared worldview, individual actor well-being and multiactor interactions), changing practices to cultivate resilience through resilience levers (orchestrators, individual actor effort, actor inclusivity and digitaltech–humanness approach), and pathways to service ecosystem sustainability (volume vs value, volume to value, volume and value). The authors demonstrate that service ecosystems need to change practices, integrating resources differently in response to the turbulent environment, emphasizing the importance of a shared worldview across the ecosystem and assessing different pathways to sustainability. Originality/value: This paper offers new insights into the important intersection of service marketing, sustainability and health care. The authors provide guidance to practitioners aiming to cultivate resilience in service ecosystems to achieve pathways to sustainability in primary health care clinics. Finally, implications for theory are discussed, and directions to guide future service research offered.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-03-2023-0100 [Google]
Leino, H. M., J. Davey and R. Johns (2024): Service system resilience under resource scarcity: from vulnerability to balanced centricity, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3772), pp.113-130
Purpose: Disruptive shocks significantly compromise service contexts, challenging multidimensional value (co)creation. Recent focus has been on consumers experiencing vulnerability in service contexts. However, the susceptibility of service firms, employees and other actors to the impacts of disruptive shocks has received little attention. Since resource scarcity from disruptive shocks heightens tensions around balancing different needs in the service system, this paper aims to propose a framework of balanced centricity and service system resilience for service sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a conceptual model process, the paper integrates resilience and balanced centricity (method theories) with customer/consumer vulnerability (domain theory) resulting in a definition of multiactor vulnerability and related theoretical propositions. Findings: Depleted, unavailable, or competed over resources among multiple actors constrain resource integration. Disruptive shocks nevertheless have upside potential. The interdependencies of actors in the service system call for deeper examination of multiple parties’ susceptibility to disruptive resource scarcity. The conceptual framework integrates multiactor vulnerability (when multiactor susceptibility to resource scarcity challenges value exchange) with processes of service system resilience, developing three research propositions. Emerging research questions and strategies for balanced centricity provide a research agenda. Research limitations/implications: A multiactor, balanced centricity perspective extends understanding of value cocreation, service resilience and service sustainability. Strategies for anticipating, coping with and adapting to disruptions in service systems are suggested by using the balanced centricity perspective, offering the potential to maintain (or enhance) the six types of value. Originality/value: This research defines multiactor vulnerability, extending work on experienced vulnerabilities; describes the multilevel and multiactor perspective on experienced vulnerability in service relationships; and conceptualizes how balanced centricity can decrease multiactor vulnerability and increase service system resilience when mega disruptions occur.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0024 [Google]
Lee, C. and L. Kahle (2024): Services as emulation marketing: conceptualization and concerns, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3773), pp.103-112
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce emulation marketing as an important strategy to consider for services marketing researchers and practitioners, given the ability to plant an aspirational goal in consumers’ minds. Building on theories of lifestyle, values, self-concept and others, this conceptual paper presents the case for emulation marketing as an important consideration within services marketing. Design/methodology/approach: To explore mechanisms that will define service research in the future, this conceptual paper reviews the literature across the spectrum of social comparison and learning, social adaptation, conformity, values, persuasion and role modeling. The authors analyze existing theories while proposing a new mechanism, emulation, to advance research in service literature. Findings: This paper suggests mechanisms to promote emulation in services marketing through the consumer decision process. A research agenda for future work is provided with emphasis on lack of emulation, emulation and status, emulation and aging, emulation and technology, emulation and linguistics and the dark side of emulation. Within each area, a series of considerations are discussed. Originality/value: This paper introduces emulation as an important mechanism within services marketing. It offers a research agenda focused on a variety of emerging areas in the field. The paper contributes to services marketing and future research by proposing a novel approach, via emulation, to services marketing.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0022 [Google]
Gleim, M., H. McCullough, O. C. Ferrell and C. Gabler (2024): Metaverse: shifting the reality of services, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3774), pp.13-27
Purpose: This research aims to focus on the impact of the metaverse on services marketing. After reviewing the past, current and anticipated future of the metaverse, the authors offer multiple research opportunities in accordance with theories germane to the services literature. Design/methodology/approach: The current research uses a conceptual approach focused on key service theories and their relevance in the metaverse. Findings: The metaverse presents a new paradigm of the customer experience, thus providing an opportunity for service researchers to advance this developing field. Further, the potential shortcomings of existing theory are explored, both within and external to services, to discover important areas for service scholars to examine. This results in research opportunities and questions for scholars to pursue as the metaverse continues to develop and shape consumer experiences. Originality/value: Technological advancements have enabled the service sector to grow and thrive in the metaverse. It is evident that despite the metaverse’s growth, there remains a tremendous amount left to examine. Existing theories need to be reexamined and modified, or alternative theories reviewed to inform service research on the metaverse. Thus, the present research seeks to provide insight into opportunities for theory development by service researchers and identifies important areas of future scholarly work on the metaverse.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2023-0021 [Google]
Giebelhausen, M. and T. A. Poehlman (2024): Permissibility vs. Feasibility: AI in service from a CX perspective, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3775), pp.87-102
Purpose: This paper aims to provide researchers and practitioners with a consumer-focused alternative for considering the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into services. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews and critiques the most popular frameworks for addressing AI in service. It offers an alternative approach, one grounded in social psychology and leveraging influential concepts from management and human–computer interaction. Findings: The frameworks that dominate discourse on this topic (e.g. Huang and Rust, 2018) are fixated on assessing technology-determined feasibility rather than consumer-granted permissibility (CGP). Proposed is an alternative framework consisting of three barriers to CGP (experiential, motivational and definitional) and three responses (communicate, motivate and recreate). Research limitations/implications: The implication of this research is that consistent with most modern marketing thought, researchers and practitioners should approach service design from the perspective of customer experience, and that the exercise of classifying service occupation tasks in terms of questionably conceived AI intelligences should be avoided. Originality/value: Indicative of originality, this paper offers an approach to considering AI in services that is nearly the polar opposite of that widely advocated by e.g., Huang et al., (2019); Huang and Rust (2018, 2021a, 2021b, 2022b). Indicative of value is that their highly cited paradigm is optimized for predicting the rate at which AI will take over service tasks/occupations, a niche topic compared to the mainstream challenge of integrating AI into service offerings.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-06-2023-0210 [Google]
Furrer, O., M. Landry and C. Baillod (2024): Managing customer-to-customer interactions: revisiting older models for a fresh perspective, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3776), pp.71-86
Purpose: This study aims to develop a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) management, by revisiting three older services marketing models: the servuction model, the services marketing triangle and the services marketing pyramid. Design/methodology/approach: Noting the lack of theoretical frameworks of CCI management, this study adopts a problematization approach to identify foundational services marketing models, question their underlying assumptions, develop an alternative conceptual framework and evaluate its adequacy for CCI management, on the basis of a systematic literature review and content analyses. Findings: By revisiting the assumptions underlying three relevant models in the light of the present-day, technology-infused service environment, this study proposes a four-triangle CCI management framework encompassing four specific modes of CCI management: managerial decisions by the firm; frontline employees; the design of the physical environment; and technology. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the triadic relationships involving the focal customer, other customers and the four modes of CCI management. Building on these findings, this study concludes with an extensive research agenda. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first scholarly effort in services marketing literature to provide a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of CCI management. With its basis in foundational models, the new framework is well-suited to address future challenges to service marketplaces too.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2023-0048 [Google]
Dickson, P. R. (2024): The turbulent future of expertise and training markets, Journal of Services Marketing, 38(3777), pp.43-55
Purpose: To explain how technology will replace a great deal of human labor in knowledge markets using a theory of reasoned action applied to demand and theories of procedural rationality, cost structure and system dynamics applied to supply. Design/methodology/approach: Two illustrative scenarios are presented. The first is a third-party Best Treatments site, and its effect on the expert advice pharmaceutical representatives provide doctors. The second scenario is an online higher education business course module with embedded AI. Findings: Both scenarios demonstrate the advantages of online expertise and teaching platforms over the in-person alternative in variable and marginal cost, ease and convenience of use, quality conformance, scalability, knowledge reach and depth and most importantly, speed of evolutionary adaptability. Despite such overwhelming advantages, a number of reasons why the substitution might be slowed are presented, and some strategies firms might adopt are discussed. Opportunities for service scholars to confirm, challenge and extend the conclusions are presented throughout the paper. Originality/value: Increasing cost structure and adaptability advantages of online technology and AI over in-person delivery of expertise and training services are demonstrated. It is also demonstrated that the innovation-imitation cycle is accelerating because of exogenous innovation in knowledge access and online influence networks and an endogenous effect where imitators accelerate their innovation that drives innovators to accelerate their innovation, which drives imitators to further accelerate their imitation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-08-2023-0301 [Google]
Sajtos, L., S. Wang, S. Roy and C. Flavián (2024): Guest editorial: Collaborating and sharing with AI: a research agenda, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(3778), pp.1-6
Mulcahy, R. F., A. Riedel, B. Keating, A. Beatson and K. Letheren
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-01-2024-324 [Google]
Khan, A. W. and A. Mishra (2024): AI credibility and consumer-AI experiences: a conceptual framework, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(3779), pp.66-97
Purpose This study aims to conceptualize the relationship of perceived artificial intelligence (AI) credibility with consumer-AI experiences. With the widespread deployment of AI in marketing and services, consumer-AI experiences are common and an emerging research area in marketing. Various factors affecting consumer-AI experiences have been studied, but one crucial factor – perceived AI credibility is relatively underexplored which the authors aim to envision and conceptualize. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a conceptual development approach to propose relationships among constructs, supported by 34 semi-structured consumer interviews. Findings This study defines AI credibility using source credibility theory (SCT). The conceptual framework of this study shows how perceived AI credibility positively affects four consumer-AI experiences: (1) data capture, (2) classification, (3) delegation, and (4) social interaction. Perceived justice is proposed to mediate this effect. Improved consumer-AI experiences can elicit favorable consumer outcomes toward AI-enabled offerings, such as the intention to share data, follow recommendations, delegate tasks, and interact more. Individual and contextual moderators limit the positive effect of perceived AI credibility on consumer-AI experiences. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the emerging research on AI credibility and consumer-AI experiences that may improve consumer-AI experiences. This study offers a comprehensive model with consequences, mechanism, and moderators to guide future research. Practical implications The authors guide marketers with ways to improve the four consumer-AI experiences by enhancing consumers’ perceived AI credibility. Originality/value This study uses SCT to define AI credibility and takes a justice theory perspective to develop the conceptual framework.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2023-0108 [Google]
Fiestas Lopez Guido, J. C., J. W. Kim, P. T. L. Popkowski Leszczyc, N. Pontes and S. Tuzovic (2024): Retail robots as sales assistants: how speciesism moderates the effect of robot intelligence on customer perceptions and behaviour, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(3780), pp.127-154
Purpose Retailers increasingly endeavour to implement artificial intelligence (AI) innovations, such as humanoid social robots (HSRs), to enhance customer experience. This paper investigates the interactive effect of HSR intelligence and consumers’ speciesism on their perceptions of retail robots as sales assistants. Design/methodology/approach Three online experiments testing the effects of HSRs’ intellectual intelligence on individuals’ perceived competence and, consequently, their decision to shop at a retail store that uses HSRs as sales assistants are reported. Furthermore, the authors examine whether speciesism attenuates these effects such that a mediation effect is likely to be observed for individuals low in speciesism but not for those with high levels of speciesism. Data for all studies were collected on Prolific and analysed with SPSS to perform a logistic regression and PROCESS 4.0 (Hayes, 2022) for the mediation and moderated-mediation analysis. Findings The findings show that the level of speciesism moderates the relationship between HSR intellectual intelligence and perceived competence such that an effect is found for low but not for high HSR intelligence. When HSR intellectual intelligence is low, individuals with higher levels of speciesism (vs low) rate the HSR as less competent and display lower HSR acceptance (i.e. customers’ decision to shop using retail robots as sales assistants). Originality/value This research responds to calls in research to adopt a human-like perspective to understand the compatibility between humans and robots and determine how personality traits, such as a person’s level of speciesism, may affect the acceptance of AI technologies replicating human characteristics (Schmitt, 2019). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present research is the first to examine the moderating role of speciesism on customer perceptions of non-human retail assistants (i.e. human-like and intelligent service robots). This study is the first to showcase that speciesism, normally considered a negative social behaviour, can positively influence individuals’ decisions to engage with HSRs.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-04-2023-0123 [Google]
Chandra, B. and Z. Rahman (2024): Artificial intelligence and value co-creation: a review, conceptual framework and directions for future research, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(3781), pp.7-32
Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant impact on value co-creation (VCC). However, a study providing a comprehensive summary of the current state of the art and common ground of the two fields is missing. The current study aims to fill this gap by conceptualizing the role of AI in VCC and customer decision-making. Design/methodology/approach The study reviews literature on VCC and AI together, including a total of 108 articles. To bring the literature together, the authors adopted the antecedents-mediators-outcomes framework and narrative approach that helped them develop a framework by integrating the antecedents, mediators and outcomes of AI-facilitated VCC. Furthermore, the authors also operationalized existing literature to facilitate an understanding of the role of AI in customer decision-making. Findings The study, in addition to identifying the common theoretical grounds of VCC and AI (human behavior, cognition and social interactions), operationalizes AI functionality, its characteristics and customer characteristics as the antecedents of AI-facilitated VCC. Moreover, based on literature, on the continuum of low-to-high involvement, four types of decision-making were identified as mediator of the relationship between AI characteristics, customer characteristics and VCC. Additionally, the authors found different categorizations of AI in literature as archetypes to support various forms of VCC. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature of VCC and AI by construing a comprehensive framework for analyzing AI’s impact on VCC, envisioning customer–AI interaction as continual exchange of advantages in which characteristics of AI and customers play a critical role in customer decision-making and shaping VCC.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2023-0097 [Google]
Blümel, J. H., M. Zaki and T. Bohné (2024): Personal touch in digital customer service: a conceptual framework of relational personalization for conversational AI, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 34(3782), pp.33-65
Purpose Customer service conversations are becoming increasingly digital and automated, leaving service encounters impersonal. The purpose of this paper is to identify how customer service agents and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) applications can provide a personal touch and improve the customer experience in customer service. The authors offer a conceptual framework delineating how text-based customer service communication should be designed to increase relational personalization. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a systematic literature review on conversation styles of conversational AI and integrates the extant research to inform the development of the proposed conceptual framework. Using social information processing theory as a theoretical lens, the authors extend the concept of relational personalization for text-based customer service communication. Findings The conceptual framework identifies conversation styles, whose degree of expression needs to be personalized to provide a personal touch and improve the customer experience in service. The personalization of these conversation styles depends on available psychological and individual customer knowledge, contextual factors such as the interaction and service type, as well as the freedom of communication the conversational AI or customer service agent has. Originality/value The article is the first to conduct a systematic literature review on conversation styles of conversational AI in customer service and to conceptualize critical elements of text-based customer service communication required to provide a personal touch with conversational AI. Furthermore, the authors provide managerial implications to advance customer service conversations with three types of conversational AI applications used in collaboration with customer service agents, namely conversational analytics, conversational coaching and chatbots.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-03-2023-0098 [Google]
