Call for Nominations for the
2025 SERVSIG Best Dissertation Award
SERVSIG is proud to present the Best Dissertation Award that recognizes outstanding doctoral research that demonstrates excellence in originality, rigor, and contribution to service research. The award includes a plaque and spotlight features on the SERVSIG website & newsletter and other publications.
Award, Eligibility, and Selection:
– Candidates must be doctoral students / graduates in marketing or a related field (e.g., consumer behavior, marketing strategy, operations management, organizational behavior, human resources, strategy, finance, information systems, economics, etc.) in a globally recognized university.
– To be eligible, students must (have) successfully defended their dissertation between October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024.
– A nominator must nominate her/his/their candidate by submitting a letter that highlights why the dissertation qualifies for this award in addition to confirming the successful defense of the dissertation (please see details below).
– Self-nominations are not accepted.
– The submission deadline for this award is January 31, 2025.
Previous winners can be seen here.
Submission Details:
A nomination for the Best Dissertation Award must include a summary document and a nomination letter inclusive of the candidate’s CV. The summary and nomination letter must be in English, but the dissertation itself does not need to be in English.
1. Blinded summary of the candidate dissertation, which should describe the framework of their research studies, research questions, hypotheses (if applicable), related literature, data / methodological approach (if applicable), findings, contributions to service theory and practice, and future research along with limitations of the dissertation. Please note: Nominators should provide enough detail for the selection committee to be able to conduct an appropriate evaluation of the work.
– The summary must not exceed 5 single-spaced text pages (not including references, figures, and tables; 12-point Times New Roman font, 1 inch margin).
– Please note that ALL these materials must be submitted in one single blinded file.
– Please follow the formatting guidelines of the Journal of Service Research.
– Submissions that do exceed the above page limit, that do not follow the style guide, or that are submitted as multiple files cannot be considered. Similarly, hard copy submissions cannot be considered.
2. The nomination letter should explain why the dissertation deserves consideration for the award, highlighting its strong foundation within the service discipline, its potential to inspire future studies, contribute to academic dialogue, and advance innovation in the field. The nomination letter must be attached to the submission email. The nomination letter should include the following background information: candidate’s name, phone number/s, e-mail address, the university/school awarding the degree, the date of the successful dissertation defense, name/s of the faculty member(s) on the dissertation committee, the role of the nominator in the candidate’s work (e.g. mentor, supervisor, etc.) and the candidate’s current and future positions.
The candidate’s academic CV is also required and should include both published/accepted work and ongoing projects. For ongoing work, please specify the status of each manuscript (e.g., under review, the journal, and the review round).
Please submit both documents (1. Blinded summary 2. Nomination & CV) in two separate pdf files via e-mail to Kristina Heinonen by January 31, 2025. We will collect the submissions on behalf of the academic selection committee.
If you have any questions about the competition, please contact SERVSIG’s co-chairs Kristina Heinonen and Harrison B. Pugh.
Selection Committee:
SERVSIG would like to thank the following members for their willingness to serve on this year’s selection committee:
– Eric Arnould (Chair) – Finland (chair)
– Roberta Sebastiani – Italy
– Joona Keränen – Australia
– Kris Lindsey Hall – USA
Photo by Kelly Sikkema.
