Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Services Marketing.
“Phygital Service Research for Positive Marketplace Experiences: Integrating Physical and Digital Realms with Human-Centric Approaches”
Co-Guest editor: Batat W
Deadline: 30 September 2025
The digital revolution has introduced “phygital” spaces, blending physical and digital elements to create unique consumer experiences. This has led to the “phygital research paradigm” (Batat, 2024), which studies consumer behaviors and experiences in these hybrid environments. It is closely linked to service research, providing a framework for understanding service delivery and consumption in blended spaces. By focusing on all stakeholders in the service ecosystem, this paradigm aims for positive impacts at individual, community, and environmental levels. The phygital research paradigm significantly contributes to the field by offering a comprehensive guide for studying phenomena in phygital settings. It emphasizes human-centricity and positive community and environmental impact, enriching our understanding of service experiences and promoting methodological diversity (Kozinets, 2023).
This special issue introduces Phygital Service Research (PSR), exploring the intersection of physical and digital service realms through human-centric strategies to drive positive transformation. PSR is key to creating satisfactory experiences that deliver value across online and offline platforms. Service providers are encouraged to place customers at the center of their offerings, focusing on positive impacts generated through interactions across platforms to achieve a competitive advantage. PSR aims to create a human-centric blend of physical and digital experiences to improve the quality of life for individuals, including consumers, employees, suppliers, and stakeholders. Although the term “phygital” has been around for some time (e.g., Ballina et al., 2019; Talukdar and Yu, 2021; Banik, 2021), it has often been limited to immersive technologies like VR and 360-degree video. Scholars have proposed categorizing immersive extended reality technologies to extend customer experiences from physical to digital and their implications for service management (Batat and Hammedi, 2023). However, these works primarily focused on technology integration rather than a comprehensive analysis of the phygital realm and the place of humans within it.
An academic definition of the phygital as a holistic ecosystem, placing humans at its center, ensures a seamless transition and value delivery between physical and digital spaces (Batat, 2022). This definition led to the establishment of a new phygital research paradigm, providing scholars with the foundations to conduct research in hybrid settings. Since then, PSR has become a research priority in the field of service, gaining attention across industry, academia, and government. Phygital services play a pivotal role in driving positive transformation for businesses and service providers. By rethinking strategies and designing service experiences across physical and digital spaces through a human-centric approach, service providers can achieve positive outcomes and sustainable growth. This approach considers customer satisfaction, seamless technology integration, stakeholder well-being, and spatial and environmental impacts. There is growing interest in phygital service research for human-centricity and positive impact, addressing questions like: How can we design human-centric experiences through phygital services? How can we enhance service access, quality, and productivity through phygital integration? How can we blend physical and digital services for positive individual, environmental, and social impacts? PSR represents a holistic approach to positive business models that connect physical and digital realms by placing humans at the center. It goes beyond traditional service measures like quality, satisfaction, and loyalty, fundamentally transforming service providers’ strategies and mindsets for positive outcomes and sustainable growth. PSR aims to be inclusive of diverse disciplines, methods, and units of analysis, focusing on successful technology integration and a holistic human-centric approach for positive impact.
List of Topic Areas
– Exploring how to design service experiences that prioritize human needs and behaviors in blended physical and digital environments.
– Investigating how services are delivered and consumed in phygital spaces and the impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.
– Examining the role of immersive technologies (e.g., VR, AR) in enhancing consumer experiences and the balance between technology and human-centricity in the service field.
– Analyzing how phygital services can contribute to positive outcomes for communities and the environment.
– Exploring the unique behaviors and paradoxical actions of consumers in hybrid phygital service settings.
– Promoting methodological diversity and triangulation in studying phygital phenomena in service research.
– Understanding the role of various stakeholders in the service ecosystem and their impact on service delivery and consumption in the phygital realm.
– Exploring strategies for service providers to leverage phygital integration for a competitive edge.
– Investigating how phygital services can improve the quality of life for individuals, including consumers, employees, and other stakeholders.
– Identifying emerging trends and innovations in the field of phygital services and their potential impact on service research and practice.
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process. Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 05/05/2025
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/09/2025
Guest Editors
Dr. Wided Batat, Professor of Marketing, University of Lyon 2, France
