Today, we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems, and Practitioner-Oriented Journals in the last months.
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Tran, H.-A., H. Evanschitzky, S. Ludwig, B. Nguyen, D. Grewal, A. M. Farrell and A.-L. Ackfeldt (2026): How universities can use social media for student acquisition, JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, (), pp.
Higher education institutions face increasing pressure to promote their complex services in competitive global markets, yet they lack evidence-based insights into effective marketing communication strategies. Drawing on signaling theory, the current research examines how universities’ social media content influences student acquisition. Based on interviews with university social media managers, text analyses of more than one million tweets from 94 U.K. universities, and two experiments, the authors outline how universities’ communication content and style choices drive student acquisition. Rather than content focused on the service environment or outcome quality, the study findings indicate that content pertaining to interaction quality has the strongest positive effect on acquisition. Stylistically, an emotional tone enhances the impact of such content, but a cognitive tone is more effective for content about outcome quality; the tone has no significant effect on content about the service environment. Furthermore, external signals offered by third-party rankings moderate these effects: Highly ranked institutions benefit most when they signal environment quality, whereas lower-ranked institutions benefit from emphasizing interaction quality. With such strategic guidance, universities can align their social media content and style and third-party quality signals to optimize student acquisition.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-025-01131-3 [Google]
Chen, Y., X. Yu, Y. Xie, Z. Huang, H. Xie and H. Lou (2026): Monthly plans over lifetime access: how privacy concerns shape subscription preference, MARKETING LETTERS, 37(1), pp.
As people grow more concerned about data privacy, they have become more hesitant to commit to long-term relationships with digital platforms. However, we know little about how these concerns affect their responses to everyday pricing options. Across seven experiments (four preregistered), we show that heightened privacy concern increases preference for subscriptions over lifetime access because it reduces temporal commitment to service providers. This effect weakens when subscriptions require longer commitment. These findings uncover a novel relational consequence of privacy concern, expanding the understanding of privacy spillover effects and offering actionable insights for firms navigating pricing strategy in an increasingly privacy-sensitive marketplace.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-026-09814-9 [Google]
Hsu, Y.-M. (2026): From Capability to Care: Sense-Breaking, Sense-Giving, and Strategic Flexibility as Drivers of Ethical, Autonomy-Preserving AI Personalization, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
AI-driven personalization now structures search, recommendation, pricing, and service across the consumer journey, heightening a core dilemma: maximizing relevance and efficiency without compromising autonomy and trust. This article advances a capability-based account of responsible personalization. I theorize that technology sense-breaking (challenging legacy assumptions) and sense-giving (constructing shared meanings) foster strategic flexibility, which, in turn, enables two outcomes: (a) product/process innovation performance and (b) consumer-facing safeguards that calibrate trust-transparent AI disclosure, adjustable recommendation intensity, and human-override/redress mechanisms. I further argue that transformational leadership amplifies the translation of sensemaking into flexibility, steering reconfiguration toward “engagement without coercion.” A firm-level, multi-respondent survey of Taiwan-based organizations adopting AI/Web3 in marketing and service contexts is used to test a moderated-mediation model with validated multi-item measures and PLS-SEM, alongside power checks, CMV diagnostics, and robustness analyses. By endogenizing UX governance within organizational capabilities and leadership, the study links internal reconfiguration to external consumer dignity, specifying when firms are most likely to implement autonomy-preserving designs. The contribution is a precise, operational blueprint for aligning market performance with ethical experience through capability formation and trust calibration
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70118 [Google]
Ma, C., J. E. Park, A. Fan and L. Wu (2026): Experience Therapy: How Service Experiences Regulate Everyday Negative Affect, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
In today’s fast-paced and high-pressure society, maintaining emotional well-being requires effective strategies for managing everyday negative affect. This research examines the role of service experiences in reducing negative affect and introduces experience therapy as a novel strategy for affect regulation. Through a series of studies, we assess the effectiveness of experience therapy and investigate how different service experiences-varying in levels of personal effort involvement and social involvement-contribute to negative affect regulation. The findings demonstrate that experiences requiring high personal effort and social involvement are particularly effective in alleviating negative affect, especially among emotionally stressed individuals. These effects are mediated, respectively, by the underlying psychological mechanisms of increased self-efficacy and social support. This research advances theoretical understanding of service experiences and negative affect regulation, and offers practical guidance for designing emotionally restorative service encounters and well-being oriented programs.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70116 [Google]
Pauser, S. and U. Wagner (2026): Selling With Negative Emotions-Better Than None? Nonverbal Expressiveness During Sales Presentations: An Experimental Approach, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Nonverbal communication represents a driving force behind successful selling. Drawing on the Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model, this research investigates the impact of salespeople’s nonverbal expressiveness (manifested through dynamic facial, bodily, and vocal cues) and customer responses in a selling context. Innovative techniques for dynamic and holistic measurement of nonverbal signals are employed in a sales context, including facial recognition software, body action and posture coding, and voice analysis. A program analyzer traces customers’ real-time responses during exposure to videotaped sales presentations. Findings from large-scale experimental studies are reported. Study 1 manipulates nonverbal expressiveness (IV: dynamic vs. restrained) and shows that expressive presentations lead to more favorable customer evaluations (DVs). Positive facial expressions-such as happiness-and direct head orientation significantly improve customer responses. Moreover, in line with findings in negotiation contexts, this study shows that under certain conditions, subtle displays of negative emotions-such as anger-can elicit positive responses in personal selling contexts. Study 2 manipulates product type (IV: hedonic vs. utilitarian) and finds that nonverbal expressiveness is more influential for hedonic offerings. This research provides novel insights into the complex dynamics of nonverbal communication and offers managerial guidance on effectively managing such behaviors in sales interactions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70117 [Google]
Velasco, C., K. Motoki, O. Petit, A. N. Andersen, M. Alaei and A. Gustafsson (2026): The Rise of Human-Computer Integration in Marketing: A Theory Synthesis, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Human-computer integration (HCInt) technologies, which merge human bodily, cognitive, and sensory functions with computational processes, are reshaping the foundations of consumer experience. Unlike traditional human-computer interaction, HCInt entails adaptive and reciprocal coupling through AI-driven augmentation, wearables, muscle-computer interfaces, and brain-computer implants. This article offers the first marketing-oriented conceptualization of HCInt, bridging marketing, psychology, and human-computer interaction research, and clarifying how these technologies, progressing from external systems to embedded interfaces, transform consumption by altering embodiment, perception, and agency. Employing a theory synthesis approach, the paper integrates dispersed insights from human-computer interaction, psychology, and marketing. The resulting model distinguishes between fusion (technology as bodily extension) and symbiosis (adaptive human-AI co-regulation) and explains how these integration modes operate through neurocognitive mechanisms of embodiment, peripersonal space, and bodily self-consciousness to generate experiential coupling in the customer journey. The model yields new theoretical linkages between technological integration and embodied consumer experience, identifying both opportunities (inclusion, personalization, experiential continuity) and challenges (privacy, inequality, and threats to mental integrity). The paper thereby advances theory by extending embodiment and customer-experience frameworks to the domain of HCInt and delineates a foundation for future empirical and ethical inquiry into this emerging form of technologically mediated consumption.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70115 [Google]
Bhoumik, K., L. Fang and R. Igarashi (2026): Robots with hearts: How in-store AI’s task types impact brand attitude and ethicality, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 206(), pp.
Recent advancements in robotics and conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) have expanded their capability to handle complex customer interactions. As businesses integrate robots for consumer encounters, they must decide how to allocate tasks between in-store AI and human employees. While previous research has examined consumer responses to AI, limited attention has been given to how different task distributions influence consumer attitudes. Through four experimental studies, we demonstrate that assigning empathetic (vs. mechanical) tasks to in-store AI while relegating mechanical (vs. empathetic) tasks to human service employees leads to diminished brand attitudes and negative perceptions of brand ethicality. Furthermore, the impact of AI task type on brand attitude is amplified for small brands, indicating a moderating role of brand size. Our findings highlight an intricate ethical dilemma: despite AI’s growing capabilities to automate socioemotional tasks, this can be perceived as ethically problematic compared to automating chores that frees human labor.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115923 [Google]
Zhang, J., L. Liang, G. F. N. Mvondo and B. Niu (2026): The shorter the response time, the higher the customer satisfaction? An empirical study of online medical consultation services, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 205(), pp.
The increased demand for e-health services has accelerated the development of online medical consultation platforms (OMCPs). In contrast to offline service contexts, delays in physicians’ responses can occur throughout the asynchronous online service process and affect customer satisfaction. Despite the considerable attention that OMCPs have received in the literature, the impact of physicians’ response time at different stages of the service process remain underexplored. Drawing on signalling theory, we investigate the joint effect of positive and negative signals that response time has on patient satisfaction. Using a transaction-level consultation service dataset from an OMCP in China, we find inverted U-shaped relationships between response times before and during the service process and two dimensions of patient satisfaction (attitude and efficacy). A patient’s regional affiliation and familiarity with a physician strengthen the curvature of such relationships, while the physician’s professional status has the opposite effect.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115903 [Google]
Ghili, S., V. Kumar and F. Teng (2026): Spatial Distribution of Access to Service: Theory and Evidence from Ride-Sharing, MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, (), pp.
We study access to ride-sharing across geographical regions using both theoretical and empirical analyses. We specifically model and examine the effects of economies of density in ride-sharing. Our model predicts that (i) economies of density skew access to ride-sharing away from less dense regions; (ii) the skew will be more pronounced for smaller platforms (i.e., “thinner markets”); and (iii) ride-sharing platforms do not find this skew efficient and thus, use price and wage levers to mitigate (but not eliminate) it. We show that these insights are robust to whether the source of economies of density is the supply side or the demand side. We then calibrate our model using ride-level Uber data from New York City. We use the model to simulate counterfactual scenarios, offering a quantitative evaluation of our theoretical results and informing platform strategy and policy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.02699 [Google]
Peura, H. and S. A. Yang (2025): Platform Expansion Through Asset Provision: Ownership, Commitment, and Flexibility, MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, (), pp.
Service platforms connect consumers to independent providers, who typically deliver the service using their own assets (e.g., ride-hailing with suitable vehicles). To expand their services, platforms have introduced programs aimed at attracting prospective providers who lack the requisite assets. These programs diverge in terms of asset ownership and contract structures. In platform financing, the platform offers to finance providers’ asset investments, serving as an alternative to bank loans. Under employment and rental schemes, by contrast, the platform itself invests in assets and offers them to providers through long-term employment-like contracts or short-term rentals. We develop a game-theoretical model to study the viability and relative performance of these mechanisms. With bank financing as benchmark, we find that although each mechanism can be profitable, they also face distinct challenges. For example, platform financing often fails to benefit the platform in its simple interest-only form and instead requires payments tied to providers’ on-platform performance. Comparing these mechanisms highlights a tradeoff between the platform committing to a mutually beneficial contract with the providers and leveraging their flexibility as independent service providers. Consequently, the platform prefers the strongest commitment option- employment-when demand is high and investment cost is low and turns to the flexible financing or rental options as demand weakens or investment cost increases. Additionally, we find that minimum-wage regulation could benefit not only service providers but also the platform, particularly under financing or rental. Finally, when the providers’ outside options rely less on access to assets, employment gains ground as the preferred expansion strategy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00170 [Google]
Teixeira, R., A. V. Roth, J. B. Santos and D. Moore (2026): Exploring the B2B buyer’s service facilities network: Characteristics and implications for service availability in technology-enabled services☆, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 132(), pp.183–197
This study highlights the B2B buyer services facilities network and how these networks influence service delivery and performance. The buyer’s network is a critical contingency because the supplier delivers its services inside the buyer’s buildings and depends on integrating buyer and supplier resources (e.g., electronic devices) for continuous delivery. Building on supply chain management literature, we identify five attributes-number of facilities, geographic distance, geographic density, variety, and volume of services-to characterize buyers’ service facilities networks. We analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from Brazil’s largest telecom supplier, using secondary data from 143 buyers, 21,808 services, and 3562 facilities to propose a taxonomy of B2B buyers and show how the supplier’s service availability and recovery processes varied across buyer types. We focus on technology-enabled services, which require considerable resources from buyers’ facilities and are exposed to the effects of the buyer’s service facilities network. Our findings contextualize design concepts, offering a comprehensive view of B2B buyers, their complex idiosyncrasies, and how their facilities network affects service availability and suppliers’ decisions in the “last mile” delivery context. We respond to calls to incorporate complex thinking into generic service theory and create contextualized knowledge to support service practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2025.12.001 [Google]
Wang, L., N. Huang, Y. He, D. Liu, X. Guo, Y. Sun and G. Chen (2025): Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistant in Online Shopping: A Randomized Field Experiment on a Livestream Selling Platform, INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH, 36(4), pp.
Livestream technology enriches consumers’ online shopping experience, enabling streamers to demonstrate products in real time while interacting with a large number of consumers for product sales. However, tension arises between streamers’ constrained service capacity and consumers’ individual service demands on livestream selling platforms. Streamers can only handle a finite number of interactions and inquiries because of time and capacity constraints, whereas consumers expect immediate, tailored responses. In this work, we examine whether and how an artificial intelligence-powered streaming assistant (termed “AI streaming assistant”), which helps consumers with interactive chat-based support for information acquisition and processing, can mitigate this tension in livestream selling. We report a randomized field experiment on a leading livestream selling platform, where the consumers in the treatment group had access to an AI streaming assistant during livestream sessions and the control group did not. Our results reveal that implementing an AI streaming assistant increases sales by 3.00% and reduces the product return rates by 12.55%. Our exploration of plausible mechanisms suggests that access to an AI streaming assistant increases consumers’ perception of intelligent information provision (and, in parallel, interruption), which in turn reduces (and increases) uncertainty in decision making. Overall, the benefits of the AI streaming assistant’s intelligent information provision outweigh its interruptions, subsequently increasing consumers’ purchase intention and decision-making confidence. We also differentiate and explore two distinct modes of human-AI interaction, AI’s proactive and reactive interactions, and our correlational results show that these interaction modes reinforce each other in increasing purchases and reducing product return rates. This study contributes to the literature on human-AI interactions, livestream selling, and product returns in online commerce. Our findings also provide actionable implications for online commerce platforms in designing and implementing AI artifacts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0103 [Google]
Bonnett, A. W., G. R. Heim, P. Kesrit and S. J. Lee (2026): Hospital diversity management programs: community diversity factors and patient experience outcomes, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS & PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
PurposeThis study explores how hospital diversity management programs (DMPs) associate with hospital operations performance outcomes. We consider the interplay between staff diversity programs, community demographics and hospital patient experience metrics.Design/methodology/approachThe study reviewed literature on effects of patient and healthcare workforce diversity on patients and employees. We analyzed panel data merged from the American Hospital Association (AHA), the United States Census Bureau, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). We examined how DMPs associate with hospital patient experiences.FindingsThe findings reveal DMPs are significantly associated with several patient experience metrics. Interactions between DMPs and county diversity are often positive and significant. Robustness runs suggest a slightly lower marginal payback to DMPs when a county’s diversity is above its state’s median diversity.Originality/valueThis study is among the first healthcare OM research to conceptualize the DMP notion and to empirically analyze longitudinal associations of DMPs with patient experience metrics. The findings inform researchers and administrators, addressing ongoing contemporary discussions surrounding organizational diversity management. DMP empirical findings help to build realistic administrator expectations about the benefits of DMP efforts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-10-2024-0889 [Google]
