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.
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Gustafsson, A., J. Holmqvist and T. Ghanbarpour (2026): An empirics-first approach to problem formulation in service research: an illustration using the Cynefin framework, JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
Purpose- Although service research is an applied discipline, much of the field has emphasized confirmatory inquiry in relatively ordered settings. While such research remains valuable, it is often less well suited to emerging, relational and poorly understood service phenomena. This article therefore argues for an empirics-first approach to problem formulation in service research. Design/methodology/approach- Drawing on the Cynefin framework, the article distinguishes among clear, complicated, complex and chaotic service problems. Using a conceptual approach, it extends Cynefin to service research methodology by showing how different problem contexts call for different forms of theorizing, methodological fit and research design. Findings- The article shows that what constitutes a meaningful contribution in service research depends on the nature of the problem being studied. In relatively ordered contexts, contributions often involve refinement, replication and the specification of contingencies. In complicated contexts, they involve disentangling mechanisms and clarifying trade-offs. In complex contexts, contributions center on sensemaking and explaining emergent practices and processes. In chaotic contexts, contributions often lie in understanding stabilization, adaptation and the restoration of order under turbulent conditions. Originality/value- The article challenges service researchers to move beyond an overreliance on abstract literature gaps and theory-led confirmatory designs. Instead, it advocates careful empirical diagnosis of focal problems as the foundation for producing methodologically rigorous, theoretically meaningful and practically relevant research contributions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-04-2026-0291 [Google]
Hill, R. P. and S. Mady (2026): The intersection of service delivery and public policy, JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to create a forum for understanding how policymakers and the legislative process impact and are impacted by service providers. Design/methodology/approach – This article is conceptual in nature and is based on a web-based literature review through library search engines to uncover the latest service delivery-public policy issues in the United States in three distinct industries. Additional Google searches and examination of policymaker websites were also conducted. Findings – Our conclusions clarify the importance of understanding how the public policy process can have a significant impact on the conduct of service organizations. Originality/value – While public policy is an important topic for service management scholars, this offering provides specificity to how an industry can be reviewed and the conclusions that should be forthcoming.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-09-2025-0468 [Google]
Kurtmollaiev, S. and T. W. Andreassen (2026): Rethinking service management for aging societies: Toward an age-inclusive agenda, JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
Purpose – This article critically examines central service management traditions in relation to older adults. It investigates how their underlying assumptions and design logics align – or fail to align – with the characteristics, constraints, and aspirations of older adults in aging societies, and identifies how service management theory might be revised to become more age-inclusive. Design/methodology/approach – The article adopts a conceptual and critical literature-based approach. It reviews and synthesizes central traditions in service management – including classical service marketing, relationship marketing, service-dominant logic, service design and customer experience, and transformative service research – and evaluates them through insights from gerontology, life-course research, strengths-based, and rights-based perspectives. The analysis is further extended through recent service research on healthy aging, responsible aging, customer-perceived innovativeness, and AI-supported service. Findings – The analysis shows that central service management traditions often rest on assumptions of a relatively autonomous, mobile, cognitively stable, and digitally capable user. When generalized across the life course, these assumptions become age-insensitive and may produce structurally exclusionary effects for older adults. The article identifies recurring limitations related to process standardization, complaint-based recovery, customer lifetime value logic, idealized co-creation, selective user-centered design, and deficit-oriented views of vulnerability. It argues that service management theory can be strengthened through greater attention to person-environment fit, life-course heterogeneity, socioemotional priorities, interdependence, and rights-based accessibility. Practical implications – The article suggests that service organizations should redesign service systems around varying capacities rather than around an implicit “average” user. This includes more flexible service processes, broader evaluative criteria for quality and experience, and recognition of the relational and multi-actor nature of service use in later life. The article also suggests implications for customers, caregivers, policymakers, and regulators, particularly regarding accessibility, consumer protection, digital inclusion, and the governance of AI-enabled services. Social implications – The article highlights that age-inclusive service management is closely tied to participation, equality, dignity, and social inclusion in aging societies. By challenging age-insensitive assumptions in theory and practice, it contributes to broader debates on how service systems can support well-being across the life course and across generations. Originality/value – The article contributes to service scholarship by positioning aging as a lens for critically revisiting the foundations of service management theory rather than a context of application. It offers an integrative framework for identifying age-insensitive assumptions across major service traditions and proposes directions for theoretical renewal grounded in gerontology, life-course thinking, and rights-based approaches.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-05-2026-0421 [Google]
Volkers, M. (2026): Small gestures, big meaning: how healthcare staff engage in patient-directed organizational citizenship behavior to create shared moments of joy, JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
PurposeThis study explores how healthcare staff enact organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in everyday practice, how patients and staff interpret these behaviors and how staff implement them under contextual constraints.Design/methodology/approachA single qualitative case study was conducted in four departments (geriatrics, oncology, spinal surgery, orthopedics) of a German hospital group. Data comprise 48 semi-structured interviews with patients, healthcare professionals and managers, field observations, and document analysis.FindingsThe study finds that OCB consists of symbolically rich behaviors that create moments of connection and joy between patients and staff. Four OCB categories are identified: enhancing physical comfort, providing food and personal items, facilitating activities and engaging in conversation. Four strategies used by staff to engage in OCB under constraints are derived: making time for gestures, responding to opportunities in interaction, improvising when resources are scarce and navigating rules.Practical implicationsTo foster OCB in every day practice, healthcare organizations can create a supportive culture, enable time for patient interaction, provide practical resources and guide staff in balancing discretion with professional boundaries.Originality/valueThis study extends prior literature on OCB by identifying different types of OCB in healthcare, highlighting its symbolic meaning, and shifting the analytical lens from healthcare professionals’ motivations to engage in OCB toward the strategies they use to navigate contextual constraints.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-12-2024-0525 [Google]
Yang, R., W. J. Lee and H. C. Choi (2026): Agentic and communal roles in the autonomous mobility service ecosystem: how assemblage properties drive consumer crafting behavior, JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT, (), pp.
Purpose The autonomous mobility service ecosystem (AMSE) fundamentally reorganizes interactions between consumer, autonomous vehicles, platforms and infrastructure. However, the understanding of consumer crafting behavior, the creative actions consumers undertake to actively shape, modify and redefine their mobility experiences within new urban mobility solutions, remains limited. Employing assemblage theory, this study aims to uncover the mechanisms underlying consumer behavioral changes in the AMSE. Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-method design combining exploratory qualitative and confirmatory quantitative analyses was employed. Study 1 applied semantic network analysis to 4,500 Waymo user reviews to identify consumers’ agentic and communal roles within the AMSE. Study 2 surveyed 338 actual autonomous taxi users to empirically examine how assemblage properties (competence and warmth) mediate the relationship between service quality and consumer responses (i.e. trust and crafting behavior) toward the AMSE. Findings Study 1 reveals that consumers’ agentic and communal roles jointly shape the competence and warmth of the AMSE. Study 2 confirms that (1) perceived assemblage competence develops through both agentic and communal service quality (ss = 0.329, p < 0.001; ss = 0.458, p < 0.001, respectively), (2) perceived assemblage warmth emerges primarily through communal service quality (ss = 0.650, p < 0.001) but not agentic quality (ss = 0.096, p = 0.129) and (3) both assemblage properties mediate the service quality to trust and usage crafting behavior pathway (R 2 = 0.324 for usage crafting). Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically demonstrate how agentic and communal service qualities differentially activate assemblage properties in autonomous mobility service ecosystems, revealing asymmetric mediation effects (communal quality activates both competence and warmth; agentic quality influences only competence). We extend usage crafting theory from behavioral intentions to actual adaptive behaviors among real users, providing stakeholder-specific design guidelines for autonomous mobility adoption.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-11-2025-0586 [Google]
Yoganathan, V., V. S. Osburg and N. Janakiraman (2026): Lending Legitimacy to Corporate Digital Responsibility: Trust in Firm Versus Government Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Services, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(2), pp.313–333
Despite the expanding discourse on corporate digital responsibility (CDR), service firms are not perceived as using AI responsibly. Consequently, customers prefer governments more than firms to regulate AI, whereas AI service firms must strive to achieve legitimacy among customers. To address the dearth of relevant research, we conducted a multimethod investigation comprising four studies. The analysis of multinational survey data and a Facebook Ads experiment showed that customers’ concern about AI (“AI concern”) increases their preference for government regulation versus firms’ self-regulation of AI. In the nine countries sampled, the preference for government regulation was stronger in materialist (vs. post-materialist) cultures and where regulatory quality and technology use were high, but weaker where rule-of-law was high. Subsequently, we examined whether signaling CDR (as self-regulation) and compliance with government regulation mitigate the negative downstream impact of AI concern. When interacting with a custom-built service chatbot, participants’ AI concern reduced their willingness to share data. However, this effect was attenuated by signaling compliance with government regulation (EU AI Act), which also decreased customers’ perceived vulnerability. Hence, rather than positioning CDR efforts solely as self-regulation, AI service firms can build legitimacy by proactively, voluntarily, and explicitly incorporating government regulations into their CDR implementation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705251345097 [Google]
Mende, M., A. Ostrom, J. Baek, D. Shin, S. Lee and M. L. Scott (2026): The 2026 Service Research Priorities: AI-Driven Discovery, Interdisciplinary Influence Dynamics, and the “Interactive Service Scholarship Incubator” for Personalized Priorities, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(3), pp.339–359
This article presents the 2026 Service Research Priorities (SRPs), developed via a hybrid AI-human agenda-setting approach. We construct large-scale concept networks from more than 10,500 service-related articles in core service journals and Financial Times (FT) 50 outlets, and apply machine-learning link prediction to identify high-probability, but underexplored, concept pairs. Fifteen forward-looking themes emerge that fall into four topical clusters: (a) Human-AI Agency, Interactions, and Service Reconfiguration; (b) AI-Enabled Omnichannel Engagement and Ecosystem Orchestration; (c) Responsible, Inclusive, and Resilient AI Service Systems; and (d) Psychological Dynamics of Service Experiences. Comparing the themes’ relevance in the service outlets vis-& agrave;-vis the FT50 journals helps identify where service research currently leads, where it imports from adjacent disciplines, and where cross-fertilization is most promising. Furthermore, we reflect our themes against the 2021 SRPs, distinguishing “emerging,” “evolved,” and “continuing” priorities. Importantly, we also survey the Journal of Service Research leadership to further calibrate and enrich the AI-derived SRPs. Next, we introduce a new descriptive statistic, the “Interdisciplinary Influence Index,” to map which disciplines “drive” a particular service theme within the literature broadly defined. Finally, we provide the “Interactive Service Scholarship Incubator” app that enables scholars to explore the underlying concept network, predicted links, and themes, in light of their own interests and skill sets. Together, these SRPs offer a scalable roadmap for high-impact future service scholarship and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261447646 [Google]
Boissonneault, S., Y. Grégoire, B. Lussier and C. Vandenberghe (2026): Frontline Employee Creativity and Sales Performance: A Multilevel and Dyadic Investigation, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
The current research investigates how frontline employee (FLE) creativity contributes to sales performance through value-based selling and how contextual conditions shape this process. Drawing on Amabile’s Componential Theory of Creativity and the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability framework, we test a multilevel moderated mediation model using data from 252 employee-manager dyads in a Canadian art supply retail chain. Findings reveal that creativity influences sales performance indirectly through value-based selling, supporting a full mediation. In terms of moderation effects, the positive impact of creativity on value-based selling is even stronger when managerial job engagement is high. We note a different moderation pattern for organizational commitment. Indeed, when organizational commitment is high, FLEs sustain strong value-based selling regardless of their level of creativity. However, when organizational commitment is low, creativity becomes a key differentiating factor, enhancing value-based selling. Overall, these findings position value-based selling as the behavioral mechanism through which creativity affects sales performance and clarify the boundary conditions under which creativity has more or less effect on this central mediator. We further discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for frontline service employees.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261449615 [Google]
Cai, S. H., X. Y. Wang, X. Y. Zhou and Z. L. Yang (2026): How Do Institutional Forces Promote Social Actions in Life-Threatening Events?, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(2), pp.298–312
Life-threatening events endanger the survival of community members. During these critical times, service businesses that remain operational face increasingly challenging decisions, including whether to maintain regular operations or adapt their service to meet the community’s evolving needs. From the community’s perspective, such operation decisions may transcend mere business strategy and constitute social actions that serve the public interest. Based on employee scheduling of 19,265 restaurants and bars located in 1,773 U.S. counties, our study shows how regulatory institutional force (existing government small business policies), normative institutional force (civic network), and cultural-cognitive institutional force (cultural tightness) jointly affect these small service providers’ operation decisions regarding proactively reducing or maintaining their work time, at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, reducing work time constitutes a social action that protects public health. The findings suggest that in culturally loose regions, civic network motivates small service providers to reduce work hours. In culturally tight regions with unfavorable small business policies, such a network leads to an increase in work time. Given the close ties between small businesses and local communities, understanding the role of institutional forces can help small service providers align their business strategies with local institutional dynamics during life-threatening events.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705251329518 [Google]
Chaker, N. N., L. Beeler, D. Rangarajan, V. Mehrotra and J. Koponen (2026): Frontline Manager AI Readiness and the Implementation of AI in the Frontlines, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Frontline managers are critical conduits of top-down AI initiatives, such as the implementation of AI systems. Yet, little research explores their role as catalysts or bottlenecks in such implementation initiatives. As such, the purpose of this research is to explore how frontline managers are involved in and impact AI implementation decisions and outcomes. Using a theories-in-use approach, we tap into the mental models of 51 frontline managers and top management executives tasked with implementing AI systems in the frontlines. The findings suggest that a frontline manager’s own AI readiness affects their decision-making regarding the integration of the AI system into the frontline (i.e., decisions about automation, augmentation, and collaboration). These integration decisions then have lasting effects that manifest through long-term outcomes for managers, frontline employees, and customers. Finally, the results reveal two enablers of manager AI readiness (i.e., AI strategic and task alignment) and three enduring AI-centric management strategies used to ensure optimal implementation outcomes (i.e., championing AI engagement, developing AI literacy, and activating AI empowerment). These results provide theoretical insights into how frontline managers serve as implementation catalysts when AI-ready and highlight their critical role in optimizing investments in frontline AI systems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261464323 [Google]
Ergun, D. and C. Schmitz (2026): Hybrid Selling: The Optimal Mix of Face-to-Face and Remote Sales Calls with Existing B2B Customers, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Growing cost pressures and customer demands toward digital engagement at the organizational frontline have accelerated business-to-business (B2B) salespeople’s adoption of hybrid selling, in which the same frontline salesperson combines face-to-face and remote (video or phone) sales calls to service the same customer. However, many salespeople fear that efficiency and potential interaction quantity gains come at the cost of interaction quality losses, potentially harming their customer relationships. We conceptualize hybrid selling and establish its financial and relational consequences based on two field studies with a leading European B2B manufacturer. Study 1 establishes an inverted U-shaped sales performance effect using customer relationship management (CRM) data from 3,565 customers (15,172 interactions). Study 2 matches customer survey and CRM data for additional 651 customers (5,971 interactions) to extend sales performance findings to relationship quality and show that product complexity, customer channel preferences, and salesperson interaction knowledge shape its effectiveness. We find that, in comparison to pure face-to-face selling, the optimal hybrid mix can increase performance by up to 27 percent in some interaction contexts, while in others, a pure remote approach can harm performance by up to 32 percent. Our results provide guidelines for salespeople and their executives when developing effective hybrid selling strategies to improve B2B performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261449559 [Google]
Hamby, A. and T. van Laer (2026): Not Whodunit but Whydunit: Story Characters’ Motivations Influence Audience Interest in Services (vol 25, pg 48, 2022), JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Service providers and consumer well-being advocates often share stories to promote audience interest in relevant behavior. This research examines how characters’ motivations for engaging in service-related behavior in such stories influence consumers’ interest in services. Across five studies, we show that audiences are more interested in services after reading about a character who acts for intrinsically (vs. extrinsically) motivated reasons. We show that this occurs because the audience identifies more with intrinsically motivated characters. We also examine how consequences of characters’ actions (both for others and for themselves when they make miscalibrated decisions) shape an audience’s service interest in targeted ways, specifically encouraging interest in services that help people while avoiding unintended negative consequences. The results of this work suggest that stories can be an effective way to encourage consumers’ interest in services that enhance personal and societal well-being and identify critical story elements that influence their success in doing so.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261467185 [Google]
Kaartemo, V., D. Schepis, J. Helmer, S. Nenonen and K. Storbacka (2026): The Influence of Human-GenAI Hybrids on Service System Transformation Mechanisms, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Service research has typically treated technology as a tool directed by human actors to influence service systems; however, the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) challenges this assumption and our understanding of service system transformations. Drawing on information systems (IS) research, we examine how GenAI’s unique capabilities influence service system transformation mechanisms-particularly emergence and phase transitions-yielding three contributions to service research. First, we theorize how human-GenAI hybrids give rise to hybrid intelligence and influence transformation through unplanned, stabilized, and intelligent forms of delegation in service exchange, and through GenAI-enabled capacities of autoreflexivity and autoreformation. Second, we refine the understanding of service system transformation mechanisms by showing how the compound effects of first-order and fourth-order emergence explain the frequency of phase transitions, while heightened reflexivity and reformation influence their speed. Third, we extend service system design research by demonstrating how GenAI can enhance human reflexivity and reformation, challenging human-centric assumptions by positioning human-GenAI hybrids as contributors to service system design. We discuss how managers can strategically mobilize GenAI to influence markets and institutional arrangements. We conclude with future research directions addressing empirical, ethical, and design-oriented questions related to human-GenAI hybrids in service system transformation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261448291 [Google]
Leite, H., A. M. Joubert and I. R. Hodgkinson (2026): The Impacts, Dynamics, and Effects of a Spatially Separated Service for Service Providers and Users Experiencing Vulnerability, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Consumers experiencing vulnerability are prevalent in healthcare contexts across the globe, so it is surprising that such groups do not typically feature in the extant literature on service separation. Telehealth as a spatially separated service offering requires a combined perspective that captures the experiences of both users’ experiencing vulnerability and providers’ delivering the separated service. The inclusion of these actor perspectives with health-related vulnerabilities is essential to fully understand the impacts, dynamics, and effects of a spatially separated service. We address this need by conducting a twelve-month longitudinal qualitative study of an online mental health service in Brazil, drawing on qualitative data from patients experiencing vulnerability and psychologists. Phenomenographic interviews (n = 67) reveal the consequences of spatial separation on service encounter actors, how spatial separation impacts relational dynamics and roles between users experiencing vulnerability and providers over time, and how these service actors overcome challenges from spatial separation for value creation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261444441 [Google]
Li, A. Q., M. X. Huang and X. Y. Chen (2026): The Easier, The Better? How Payment Services Influence the Usage of Offerings, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(2), pp.243–258
Mobile payment services have gradually replaced traditional payment services (e.g., cash) and have become mainstream in some countries (e.g., China and Sweden). Prior research has mainly focused on comparing traditional payment services (e.g., cash and credit cards) and their impact on purchase outcomes (e.g., purchase intention). However, few studies have explored both traditional and non-traditional payment services (e.g., mobile payment services) on post-purchase outcomes (e.g., offering use). Through four experiments, this study reveals how different payment services (cash vs. mobile payment) might affect the usage of products or service offerings, especially in the long term. According to a laboratory field study, mobile payment (vs. cash) as a less (or more) painful payment form may encourage consumers’ short-term offering use, but may negatively affect long-term offering use. Payment pain mediates the relationship between payment services and short-term offering-use intentions, while pain of payment and perceived sunk costs sequentially mediate the effect of payment services on long-term offering use. Finally, an auditory confirmation service was introduced to alleviate the potential negative impact of mobile payment services on long-term offering use. This study enriches the knowledge on payment services and provides insights for mobile payment users.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705251341514 [Google]
Lin, Y. Z. and J. Agarwal (2026): Dual Perspectives of Customer Wait Time Perception: A Conceptual Framework and Meta-Analysis, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.20–37
Past studies on service waits have primarily applied two theoretical perspectives-the expectancy-disconfirmation model and the psychological-cost model-leading to conflicting explanations of how customers react to waits. To reconcile these perspectives, we propose a conceptual framework that integrates the dual perspectives of customer wait perceptions and identify four key moderators that shape which mechanism becomes more influential: wait stage, wait knowledge, wait regret, and wait importance. We validate our conceptual framework through a structural-equation-modeling meta-analysis of 129 studies from 103 articles (672 effect sizes; N = 38,967). Our conceptual integration highlights a coherent system of interdependent mechanisms that shape how customers experience, evaluate, and emotionally respond to waiting. Its validity, however, depends on the efficacy of the moderators. During the wait, subjective time primarily drives psychological cost, heightening anxiety and anger-especially when regret is present. After the wait, subjective time instead shapes how acceptable the wait feels. Disconfirmation becomes more influential when customers have clearer information that strengthens their expectations. When the wait is important, wait acceptability becomes the dominant predictor of service satisfaction. These findings underscore the need to balance strategies that reduce psychological cost and manage expectations, particularly as technology transforms waiting experiences.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261453760 [Google]
Liu, X., J. Y. Mao, D. Ni, J. Quan and X. M. Zheng (2026): The Impacts of Supervisor Support on Employee Service Performance: A Change Perspective, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(2), pp.189–206
Predominantly based on a static perspective, existing studies have documented that supervisor support is a key facilitator of front-line employees’ service behaviors. Incorporating a change perspective, our study examines the effects of daily shift and variability in supervisor support on employees’ service performance at both the within- and between-person levels. We draw on affective events theory to propose positive affect as the underlying mediating mechanism and examine the moderating role of employee self-control capability. We test the hypotheses using data from 56 front-line service employees across 10 consecutive workdays (N = 547) and from their supervisors in the follow-up survey. The results indicate that, at the within-person level, an upshift (downshift) in daily supervisor support is positively (negatively) related to daily positive affect, leading to higher (lower) levels of daily service performance. At the between-person level, variability in supervisor support is negatively related to employees’ positive affect, which in turn, reduces their service performance. A lower (versus higher) level of employee self-control capability at the between-person level enhances the within-person relationship between daily supervisor support change and daily positive affect and the between-person relationship between variability in supervisor support and employees’ positive affect. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705241297298 [Google]
Lv, L. X., T. He, H. Wang and L. P. Wang (2026): Haste Makes Waste: How Faster Responses after Data Collection Trigger Consumer Privacy Concerns and Reduce Positive Reactions, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Empowered by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and data technologies, service personnel can deliver highly personalized communication using automatically acquired consumer data. However, as firms increasingly rely on such data to enhance service efficiency, consumers’ privacy concerns have become more salient. Drawing on the persuasion knowledge model, this research integrates field data with four controlled experiments to examine how response speed following data acquisition influences consumer reactions. We find that faster (vs. slower) responses, defined as those delivered moderately earlier (vs. later) than consumers’ normative expectations in comparable service contexts, attenuate consumers’ positive reactions to marketing communications. This effect is driven by a serial mediation involving perceived firm eagerness to use information and privacy concerns, highlighting privacy concerns as one of the key psychological mechanisms shaping consumer reactions. Importantly, this negative effect is attenuated when firms provide prewarning messages about upcoming data-based communication, when service involvement is low, or in service recovery contexts. These findings suggest that response speed should be managed strategically. While overly fast responses may backfire in high-involvement or routine services, combining fast responses with prewarning strategies can help firms balance efficiency and privacy perceptions in digital service environments.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261447627 [Google]
Neetzow, A., I. Danatzis and J. Möller-Herm (2026): Customer-to-Customer Misbehavior Magnitude: Dimensions and Typology, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
From retail and transport to hospitality and live events, customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions are integral to many service experiences. However, C2C interactions are not always positive, and customers regularly become targets of other customers’ misbehavior. Although such C2C misbehavior has always been a challenge for firms, it has escalated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with incidents becoming not only more frequent but also more intense and severe. However, it remains unknown how customers assess the magnitude of C2C misbehavior. Four studies, including 62 repertory grid interviews using scenario-based and diary-based approaches with international participants from Germany and the United Kingdom, reveal six dimensions that underlie customers’ magnitude perceptions: three intensity-related dimensions that assess the magnitude of the misbehavior itself and three severity-related dimensions that examine the magnitude of the misbehavior’s impact on other customers. Several sorting studies with 99 U.S. participants support the robustness, generalizability, distinctiveness, and hierarchical structure of our identified magnitude dimensions. By uncovering the facets that underlie customers’ evaluations of an incident’s perceived magnitude, our study provides an empirically grounded conceptualization and typology of C2C misbehavior. Managerially, this research enables firms, communities, and governments to monitor and categorize misbehavior incidents more effectively and to develop more targeted mitigation strategies.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261439674 [Google]
Panina, E., E. Jaakkola and H. Terho (2026): From Target Experience to Competitive Strategy: Unpacking Strategic Intent in B2B Customer Experience Management, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, (), pp.
Customer experience management (CXM) is a strategic priority for service firms, yet its conceptualization and implementation in business-to-business (B2B) markets remain underdeveloped. Existing research offers limited insight into the nature of customer experience (CX) as a managerial objective and into competitive CXM strategies. This study addresses these gaps by examining the nature of B2B firms’ target experiences (TXs), defined as the set of customer reactions a firm intentionally seeks to evoke, and how TXs inform CXM strategy. Using an abductive approach, we conducted a qualitative field study of forty-one B2B service providers practicing CXM with strategic intent. Our findings reveal two TX approaches: general TX, emphasizing reactions’ valence (e.g., positive, improved), and specific TX, describing qualitatively distinct reactions (e.g., effortless, caring, inspiring). The findings show how the nature of TXs shapes the execution of CXM, shared CX culture, and CX-based competitive positioning. We further identify two competitive CXM strategies-responsive and proactive-and articulate their conditions and implications. This study advances service research by clarifying CX as a managerial objective, explicating TX’s role within CXM, and introducing a framework for TX-informed CXM strategies. For B2B service firms, the study offers actionable insights to advance differentiation through CX.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261457169 [Google]
Schmitt, B. and S. Y. Hao (2026): Immersive Experience: Aligning Service Design and Psychological Engagement, JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH, 29(2), pp.171–188
This paper conceptualizes immersive experience as a service phenomenon that arises from the alignment of service design (concept, spatial, and interactive design) and psychological engagement and is manifested in contemporary entertainment settings, sports events, retail, and hospitality spaces. Building on this conceptualization, the paper develops a theoretical framework showing how continuous alignment between service design and participants’ psychological processes is dynamically achieved at service delivery in these environments. From the provider side, immersive experiences are curated, technology-mediated, and entertainment-oriented; from the participant side, they elicit patterns of sensory arousal, emotional resonance, and imaginative involvement that evolve in real time as the experience unfolds. At their intersection, immersion emerges as dynamically co-created and characterized by personalized journeys, collaborative sense-making, temporal integration, and value-in-context. Theoretically, the paper advances service research by linking design affordances, alignment, and psychological engagement as mechanisms that explain how immersive experiences emerge and create value. Managerially, the framework suggests service-delivery levers and individual regulatory processes for balancing sensory, affective, and cognitive tensions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10946705261420352 [Google]
Atmaja, F. T., L. Alfansi, E. D. Hadi, M. Salim and A. R. Munir (2026): Unpacking task-technology fit: how hotel booking mobile applications’ agility and resilience strengthen trust and stickiness (Jan, 10.1108/JSM-03-2025-0208, 2026), JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to investigate how the agility and resilience of mobile applications influence task-technology fit and, subsequently, affect trust and customer stickiness in the context of hotel booking mobile applications. It also explores the mediating role of trust in the relationship between task-technology fit and customer stickiness, as well as the moderating role of perceived diagnosticity in the link between task-technology fit and trust. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through an online survey using the tSurvey.id® platform, yielding 510 valid responses from users across Indonesia. The data were analyzed applying partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The findings confirm all hypotheses. Both agility and resilience positively enhance task-technology fit. In turn, task-technology fit positively influences customer stickiness, both directly and indirectly through trust. In addition, perceived diagnosticity moderates the relationship between task-technology fit and trust, such that the effect is stronger when perceived diagnosticity is high. Originality/value This study extends task-technology fit theory by introducing the dynamic capabilities of agility and resilience as novel antecedents, shifting the focus beyond traditional task and technology characteristics. The study also contributes by examining user stickiness as a sustained behavioral outcome of task-technology fit, a relatively underexplored area. Moreover, it identifies trust as a key mediating mechanism and perceived diagnosticity as a critical boundary condition, highlighting that the trust-enhancing effect of task-technology is contingent upon users’ perceptions of information quality.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-05-2026-0402 [Google]
Bagci, R. B. and A. G. Woodside (2026): Who is (un)willing-to-pay-more for e-grocery shopping/delivery services? Answers via symmetric variable relationships and asymmetric case algorithms, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the drivers of consumer willingness-to-pay-more (WTPM) for e-grocery services. Using both symmetric and asymmetric modeling, the study examines how four factors – proactive customer orientation, value co-creation, customer brand engagement and online customer experience – influence consumers’ willingness-to-pay price premiums.Design/methodology/approach This study revisits prior Turkish e-grocery survey data to compare symmetric variable directional relationships (SVDRs) against asymmetric case algorithm models (ACAMs). Empirically, the study uses survey data. The ACAM approach relies on core tenets of complexity theory to go deeper into measuring specific cases willing and (separately) unwilling-to-pay-more for online shopping/delivery services.Findings The null hypothesis significance testing empirically support the positive SVDR hypotheses for the four consumer shopping-service orientations and WTPM for online services. ACAM results: Nearly all cases (i.e. respondents) filtered for high versus scores for both customer brand engagement and general online customer experience have high scores in WTPM for e-grocery services. Case configurations by demographic conditions deepens knowledge of how consumer shopping-service orientations impact who is and who is not WTPM for online shopping-services.Research limitations/implications The study here compares two distinct sets of “theory of mind” theoretical views (matrix versus Boolean based) and empirical findings in examining grocery shoppers willing versus not willing to pay more for e-grocery service.Originality/value This study shows that ACAMs offer a practical approach to empirically test comprehensive algorithm models of customer acceptance or rejection of online e-grocery services. It compares SVDRs using null hypothesis significance tests with ACAMs that rely on odds-ratio based evaluation of predictive accuracy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-08-2025-0561 [Google]
Baric, M., N. Khalid, A. Paraskevopoulou and S. Ali (2026): Digital pathways to inclusion: the role of social media usage and FOMO in shaping service inclusion and disabled tourists’ well-being, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to examine how social media usage (SMU) and fear of missing out (FOMO) influence service inclusion (SI), conceptualized as a second-order formative construct comprising enabling opportunity, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness and how SI subsequently shapes the well-being of tourists with mobility-related impairments. Grounded in social influence theory (SIT) and self-determination theory (SDT), the study explores how digital engagement and emotional responses contribute to inclusive tourism experiences.Design/methodology/approach A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was used. In the quantitative phase, data were collected through an offline survey from 378 tourists with mobility-related disabilities across four major cities in Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants to explore the emotional and contextual dimensions of inclusion and digital engagement.Findings SMU positively influences both SI and FOMO, while FOMO further strengthens SI. SI, in turn, significantly enhances tourists’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Formative measurement results indicate that all four SI dimensions contribute significantly, with fostering happiness and enabling opportunity emerging as the strongest contributors. Qualitative findings reveal interconnected themes that deepen understanding of inclusive tourism experiences, including emotional safety, staff empathy, advocacy behaviour and the empowering role of social media.Originality/value This study advances the literature by identifying SMU and FOMO as socially and emotionally relevant antecedents of SI, and by modelling SI as a second-order formative construct, thereby addressing recent methodological concerns regarding higher-order construct specification. By situating the analysis in a digitally emerging and underrepresented context (Pakistan), the study extends SIT and SDT into the inclusion domain and offers actionable insights for designing more inclusive and empowering tourism services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-05-2025-0345 [Google]
Barros-Arrieta, D., S. W. Rayburn and M. Giraldo (2026): Value facilitation practices in micro and small enterprises: empirical evidence from the tourism industry, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, 40(6), pp.788–807
Purpose This study aims to examine the value facilitation practices of tourism-based micro and small enterprises (MSEs), using practice theory as its theoretical framework.Design/methodology/approach A multiple case study approach was used, incorporating ethnographic and netnographic methods. Three tourism-based MSEs in northern Colombia were analyzed over an eight-month period.Findings The findings indicate value facilitation in tourism-based MSEs occurs through six interconnected practices: materializing strategic thinking, connecting with industry stakeholders to strengthen the tourism offer, designing an enjoyable service atmosphere for customers, transferring useful information and knowledge to customers, and customizing and managing customer experiences. The final practice emerges as the linkage among all other practices. The findings expand the understanding of value facilitation as an iterative process that goes beyond the provider-independent sphere due to direct and indirect interactions with customers during service processes.Originality/value This study focuses on value facilitation from the framework of practice theory. The findings expand understanding of the role of MSEs as value facilitators, helping to clarify academic debate concerning the role of service providers in value generation from a service-logic perspective.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-04-2025-0263 [Google]
Brochado, A., S. De Vos, B. Qesja, S. Soleimani, S. R. B. Ahmadi, K. A. Haykal, G. Lipnickas, J. Harris and S. R. Hill (2026): Is phygital the new normal? A literature review of the evolution of services marketing, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose: This study aims to explore how recent research has reflected the evolving role of phygital strategies in services marketing and defined avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach: The review covered 105 papers from the Scopus database, published in English between January 2017 and August 2025. Narrative and supplemental semantic analyses were conducted of their abstracts to find key themes and concepts. Findings: The results reveal that phygital experiences are at the core of this literature. Research on this topic is closely connected with customer journeys and marketing and retailing strategies and facilitated by technological innovations and methodologies. The findings stress sectoral applications (e.g. luxury branding, tourism and culture), societal outcomes (e.g. well-being) and emerging areas including phygital metaverse retail and avatars. The results further highlight that phygital studies are fundamentally consumer-centred and technology-enabled and that they are progressively expanding into new sectors and well-being domains. Originality/value : This review systematised dispersed insights and developed a structured roadmap for expanding theoretical, managerial and societal perspectives on phygital transformations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0709 [Google]
Bui, H. B. H. and N. H. Le (2026): The emotional effects of pre-service imagination on co-created value and co-innovation. An empirical study in the tourism sector, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose In tourism services, there is often a time gap between when customers book a tour and when it starts. This study aims to examine the effects of customers’ preservice imagination on their future-oriented emotions and subsequently on dual service outcomes during the in-service stage. Specifically, the study elucidates how imagination evokes anticipatory and anticipated emotions and how these cognitive and affective preexperiences drive cocreated value (CCV) for customers and co-innovation behavior (CIB) that benefits the firm.Design/methodology/approach Drawing on service-dominant logic (SDL), supplemented by individual-level theories such as flow theory, social exchange theory and appraisal theory of emotions, this study proposes a structural model to depict the link between the preservice phase and the in-service encounter. This model was then tested by two-wave survey data (i.e. before and after the trip) from 294 tourists in Vietnam.Findings The findings indicated the critical roles of customer imagination in triggering anticipated and anticipatory emotions and directly fostering customer CIB. Anticipated and anticipatory emotions affect CCV but do not directly influence CIB. Moreover, CCV was the influential factor motivating customers’ CIB.Originality/value First, this study enriches SDL by extending value co-creation beyond provider-customer interactions to customers’ preservice sphere, introducing imagination as a distinctive resource that generates anticipated and anticipatory emotions and primes customers’ in-service engagement. Second, by linking preservice imagination to in-service value experience and co-innovation, the study advances tourism research with a novel conceptualization of customer contributions that bridge stages and foster collaborative value creation and provider innovation.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2026-0023 [Google]
Casalegno, C., L. Iaia, B. Morelli, M. Tamiazzo and M. Pironti (2026): Phygital museum experiences for Gen Z: investigating cultural engagement drivers across physical and digital domains, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study examines how phygital museum experiences – hybrid interactions that blend physical and digital dimensions – can engage Generation Z by reactivating the inspirational function of museums in the Experience Economy. It aims to understand how immersive technologies can shape cultural relevance, emotional salience and relational engagement for digital-native audiences.Design/methodology/approach A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was adopted. A Delphi study involving 15 multidisciplinary experts informed the development of the protocol. Subsequently, a field study was conducted at the MAUTO museum in Turin, involving 12 Generation Z participants experiencing AR/VR exhibits. Pre- and post-experience focus groups were analyzed using Leximancer semantic mapping and thematic coding, triangulated with structured observations.Findings Data and interviews reveal a transformation in how Generation Z perceives museums: from static, obligatory spaces to potential arenas of personal inspiration, if mediated through relational, multi-sensory and co-creative phygital tools. However, participants also identified limitations of phygitality, including reduced social interaction, emotional detachment and a lack of sensory depth. Authenticity, shareability and narrative flexibility emerged as key drivers of engagement. Synthesized through 7Es framework (Experience, Exchange, Extension, Emphasis, Empathy, Emotional touchpoints and the Emic/Etic process), the findings explain the main engagement trade-offs across physical and digital domains introducing “relational immersion” as a condition for meaningful phygital cultural engagement.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to investigate Generation Z’s cultural engagement through a phygital lens in the museum sector. It offers actionable insights for service managers on designing emotionally resonant and socially connected phygital experiences, redefining museums as inspirational platforms for digital-native generations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0666 [Google]
Ezzaouia, I. (2026): An extended privacy calculus model for AI-driven digital marketing: understanding consumers’ data-sharing decisions, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This paper aims to extend the privacy calculus model to explain consumers’ intention to disclose personal data in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital marketing environments. It investigates how AI-specific benefits and risks, mediated by trust, shape consumers’ data-sharing decisions, addressing a critical gap in understanding privacy behavior in complex, algorithmic contexts, while highlighting the implications for AI-enabled service experiences.Design/methodology/approach A research model integrating nine constructs, namely, information sensitivity, data control, personalization, customer support, loyalty rewards, perceived benefits, perceived privacy risks, trust and intentions to reveal personal data, was developed. A structured questionnaire collected 257 valid responses and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling to examine the relationships among constructs.Findings Trust plays a central role in consumers’ willingness to share personal data in AI-driven digital marketing. Perceived benefits, including personalization, responsive customer support and loyalty rewards, positively influence trust, while lower perceived privacy risks, shaped by information sensitivity and data control, enhance trust. Trust thus mediates the effect of both benefits and risks on data-sharing intentions, demonstrating how AI-enabled services can shape customer engagement and perceived service value.Practical implications The findings provide actionable guidance for managers and platform designers by highlighting the importance of transparent data governance, user control practices and value-driven AI personalization strategies to build trust and encourage voluntary consumer data sharing in AI-enabled digital marketing environments.Social implications By demonstrating how trust mediates consumers’ responses to AI-driven data practices, this study informs broader societal and policy discussions on ethical AI deployment, emphasizing the need for transparency, consumer empowerment and responsible data use to reduce privacy concerns and protect digital autonomy.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to systematically incorporate trust into the privacy calculus within AI-driven digital marketing. It demonstrates that trust acts as a decisive filter through which AI-enabled benefits and perceived privacy risks are translated into data-sharing behavior, offering both theoretical and managerial insights for addressing the AI-driven privacy paradox and highlighting contributions to the design and management of AI-driven services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-12-2025-0884 [Google]
Gallarza, M. G., B. Tubillejas-Andrés, H. Calderón-García and J. Stanton (2026): The consumer value of mindfulness practice as a transformative service experience, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to explore mindfulness practice as a transformative service experience, examining its consumer value and its effects on satisfaction, quality-of-life and eudaimonic well-being.Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-methods approach was used, combining qualitative insights from a focus group, in-depth interviews and expert consultations with a quantitative survey of 201 mindfulness practitioners. By using partial least squares, the intra- and inter-perspective of the theoretical model were analyzed.Findings Results confirm that mindfulness practice generates multidimensional consumer value, structured into functional, social, hedonic and altruistic dimensions. This value influences satisfaction, which impacts quality-of-life and eudaimonic well-being. Satisfaction acts as a key mediator, reinforcing mindfulness services’ transformative role.Research limitations/implications Findings highlight the need to consider multidimensional consumer value in transformative service contexts. This study reinforces satisfaction’s mediating role in transformative service research models and advances methodological applications using hierarchical modeling and confirmatory composite analysis.Practical implications Mindfulness and wellness services should emphasize value dimensions beyond functionality, particularly the hedonic and altruistic aspects, to enhance transformative outcomes. Designing emotionally resonant, ethically grounded experiences supports long-term integration into users’ daily lives.Social implications Mindfulness services foster personal growth, compassion and connectedness, contributing to mental resilience and the well-being of society at large. They represent a valuable tool in advancing public health and holistic quality-of-life goals.Originality/value This study extends consumer value research by conceptualizing and validating mindfulness practice as a transformative service. It integrates mindfulness into the transformative service research framework, offering a novel perspective on value creation in service experiences.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-03-2025-0158 [Google]
Gao, R. Y. and K. D. Yu (2026): Biophilic leisure engagement in shopping mall: the roles of emotional pleasure, arousal and place dependence, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Shopping mall are increasingly adopting biophilic design, transforming commercial centers into urban leisure servicescape where consumers come to shop and to experience natural scenes. This study aims to examine how biophilic mall characteristics foster Biophilic Leisure Engagement (BLE) through consumers’ emotional responses and place dependence. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data from consumers who had experienced biophilic shopping mall and applies partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed Biophilic Leisure Engagement Model. Findings The findings show that visual naturalness, spatial aesthetics and natural soundscape quality are important characteristics of biophilic malls that shape consumers’ emotional responses and BLE. Emotional arousal has a stronger association with place dependence and BLE than emotional pleasure, suggesting that curiosity, excitement and exploration are central to sustained engagement in biophilic mall environments. Place dependence also mediates the relationship between emotional responses and BLE, explaining how positive experiences can develop into sustained engagement with the servicescape. Originality/value This study defines and operationalizes BLE as a distinct form of consumer engagement in nature-integrated commercial servicescapes. It extends servicescape and biophilic design research by clarifying how natural scene characteristics, emotional responses and place dependence jointly explain consumers’ sustained leisure engagement in biophilic shopping mall.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-12-2025-0887 [Google]
Guiñez-Cabrera, N., T. Zapata-Soto, A. Fernández-Arenas and A. Figueroa-Pinela (2026): “The widows of Cornershop”: organizational legitimacy and customer experience in the transition to Uber Eats, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, 40(6), pp.824–835
PurposeThis study aims to examine how organizational legitimacy operates as a mechanism shaping customer experience during digital platform integration, focusing on the transition from Cornershop to Uber Eats in Chile. It analyzes how pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy influence users’ evaluations of value, trust and attachment.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative abductive research design was used, drawing on 20 semistructured interviews with former Cornershop users who experienced the migration to Uber Eats. Thematic analysis was conducted using institutional theory as the interpretive lens, enabling the identification of legitimacy-based mechanisms underlying service experience evaluations.FindingsThe findings show that the transition generated a progressive erosion of organizational legitimacy. While pragmatic legitimacy (efficiency and convenience) initially sustained continued platform use, the erosion of moral legitimacy (relational care and fairness) and cognitive legitimacy (cultural identity and familiarity) led to emotional detachment, reduced trust and diminished symbolic value. Even when functional performance was maintained, the loss of ethical and cultural alignment weakened customer attachment and belonging.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a single case within a Latin American context, which may limit generalizability. Future research could extend these findings through cross-national comparisons and by examining legitimacy-value relationships using mixed-method or longitudinal designs.Practical implicationsOrganizations undergoing mergers, rebranding or platform integration should preserve symbolic and cultural elements, ensure transparent communication and maintain relational proximity to prevent the erosion of legitimacy.Social implicationsThe findings highlight that digital platform transformations can disrupt not only service performance but also social trust and community belonging. In Latin American contexts, maintaining cultural identity, ethical sensitivity and relational practices is critical to sustaining platform legitimacy and fostering socially embedded service relationships.Originality/valueThis study conceptualizes organizational legitimacy as a mechanism shaping customer experience during digital platform transformations. It demonstrates how pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy interact, showing that functional performance alone cannot compensate for the erosion of relational and symbolic legitimacy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-04-2025-0237 [Google]
Gustafsson, A. (2026): Unmanned, not unmanaged: phygital service design for enhanced retail experience and well-being, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This paper reconceptualizes unmanned formats as phygital organizations that delegate operational, cognitive, emotional and stewardship tasks to customers. Situated within the Phygital Service Research (PSR) paradigm, it aims to examine how this customer-as-worker model shapes trust and service outcomes, and identifies human-digital mechanisms that resolve the autonomy-assurance tension.Design/methodology/approach A multi-actor, multisource qualitative study in Sweden combined semi-structured interviews with operators across nine unmanned formats, Subjective Personal Introspection (SPI) journeys, netnography of public discussions and secondary materials. Data were analyzed via thematic analysis using a PSR-aligned human-first logic.Findings Results reveal a causal model where Role Delegation via Self-Service Technology (Antecedent) activates two core mechanisms: Assistive Transparency and Concierge and Behavioral Governance. These mechanisms shape Trust and Well-being outcomes (Perceived Competence, Autonomy, Security), moderated by boundary conditions (Location, Social Cohesion, Tech Maturity). Hybrid human-digital configurations (e.g. remote concierge, scheduled presence) and trust-by-design (predictive assistance, transparent automation, one-tap reporting) mitigate burden, reduce incidents, and enhance autonomy, competence and reassurance.Originality/value The paper contributes the Conceptual Model of Phygital Governance and Well-being, distinguishing the phygital customer-as-worker from physical and pure-digital contexts. It integrates Service-Dominant Logic, PH-CX and Competence-as-Recognition within the PSR framework to deliver mechanism-based design guidance that prioritizes human-first outcomes over efficiency optimization.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0693 [Google]
He, K., X. W. Wu and J. Y. Liao (2026): Enhancing live streaming commerce performance by building consumer trust: the interplay between streamer expertise, social support and platform service quality, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to explore the formation of consumer trust in streamers within the live commerce context and its subsequent impact on purchase intentions. It specifically investigates how streamer expertise and social support contribute to building trust and examines the moderating role of live commerce platform service quality in the trust-purchase intention relationship.Design/methodology/approach Grounded in trust theory, this research uses a quantitative approach based on survey data collected from 456 participants in live e-commerce audiences. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships among streamer expertise, social support, consumer trust in streamers and purchase intentions, as well as the moderating effect of platform service quality.Findings The empirical results indicate that both streamer expertise and social support significantly enhance consumer trust in streamers, which in turn positively affects their willingness to watch and purchase. In addition, the quality of live commerce platform services is found to strengthen the relationship between streamer trust and consumer purchase intentions, highlighting its role as a critical moderator.Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by offering a nuanced understanding of the antecedents and consequences of streamer trust in live commerce, a previously underexplored area. Its originality lies in the integration of streamer, platform and community factors into a unified trust model. The findings provide actionable insights for streamers and platform managers, helping them design more effective trust-building strategies and service enhancements to foster consumer engagement and sales performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2025-0875 [Google]
Huang, J. W. (2026): Customer incivility, surface acting, burnout and well-being in gen Z hairdressers, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study, grounded in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, explores how customer incivility (CI) affects Generation Z hairdressers’ subjective well-being (SWB) through surface acting (SA) and personal burnout (PB). It also examines whether social support (SS) moderates the relationship between SA and PB. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 462 frontline hairdressing practitioners from 62 salons in Taiwan. Established scales measured CI, SA, PB, SS and SWB. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4 with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), bootstrapped mediation/moderation tests (5,000 resamples) and Q & sup2;-based predictive assessments. Findings CI was positively linked to SA (ss = 0.573, p < 0.001) and PB (ss = 0.198, p < 0.001), whereas SA was negatively linked to affective SWB (ss = -0.274, p < 0.001). Bootstrapping confirmed a significant indirect effect (CI -> SA -> PB -> SWB), in line with COR’s loss-spiral theory. SS buffered the SA-PB relationship. Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional design limits causal inference, and the Taiwan-based Gen Z sample may restrict generalizability. Future studies should use longitudinal or experimental approaches and examine other service contexts and resource variables. Practical implications Managers should reduce CI through customer conduct policies and incivility-response training, and strengthen SS via supervisor feedback, peer networks and recovery opportunities. Social implications Fostering supportive workplace climates can sustain the well-being of young service employees, reduce turnover and enhance service quality. Originality/value This study integrates sequential mediation and moderation into a single COR-based model in an aesthetic, high-contact service context, extending theorizing to a generationally distinct workforce that values authenticity.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-08-2025-0568 [Google]
Hyodo, J. D., B. Simpson and J. Choi (2026): When it hurts to ask: consumer reactance to tip prompts, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Digital payment systems have expanded tipping into contexts where tipping norms are unclear. This paper aims to examine when and why prompting consumers to tip leads to negative consumer responses.Design/methodology/approach Across two pilot studies and four scenario-based experiments (total n = 1,274), the authors examine consumer reactions to the presence versus absence of a tip prompt across normative and non-normative service contexts. The authors draw on social norms theory and psychological reactance to test boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms.Findings Tips prompted in non-normative contexts (e.g. caf & eacute; drive-thrus) harm satisfaction, brand attitudes, word-of-mouth, and repatronage intentions. These effects are driven by consumer reactance arising from perceived threats to autonomy and norm violations. Reinforcing consumers’ sense of choice, such as through frontline employee intervention, mitigates these effects.Research limitations/implications The authors extend tipping and service marketing literature by shifting focus from tipping magnitude to the act of soliciting a tip, and by identifying context normativity as a critical boundary condition and reactance as a key psychological mechanism underlying negative responses to tip prompts in non-normative settings.Practical implications Managers in industries where tips are non-normative should carefully consider the decision to implement tip prompt procedures as well as the service scripts frontline employees use.Social implications Negative consumer responses to tip prompts in non-normative contexts could eventually shift responses to all tip prompts, ultimately destabilizing revenue streams for businesses and the earning potential of low-wage employees.Originality/value This research extends tipping and service marketing literature by shifting focus from tipping magnitude to consumer responses to being solicited for a tip. It highlights context normativity as a critical boundary condition and identifies reactance as a key psychological mechanism underlying negative responses to tip prompts in emerging service settings.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2025-0087 [Google]
Laud, G., W. W. C. Leo, C. Ranaweera and S. K. Roy (2026): Exploring relationship orientations in human-robot value co-creation interactions, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to propose a unique set of nine relationship orientations for human-robot value co-creation to enable effective coworking between humans and robots in service systems.Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon the value co-creation literature and fundamental interpersonal relations orientation theory (FIRO), the authors apply a projective technique of in-depth interviews with frontline employees (FLEs) and consumers to theorize nine human-robot co-creation orientations.Findings The nine orientations provide an innovative lens for understanding how human value co-creators perceive human-robot coworking relationships. They illustrate how the relational needs of each service actor, including inclusion, control and affection, are met. Building on the FIRO framework, the authors advance key propositions for each relationship orientation.Research limitations/implications This research contributes to the emerging field of human-robot integration by developing a distinct set of relationship orientations that highlight expectations of robots’ roles from the perspectives of FLEs and customers. In doing so, it advances a relational lens on human-robot value co-creation and extends robotic role theory by linking relationship orientations to role interface, enactment and suitability in service contexts.Practical implications The findings help inform how robot orientations can be operationalized to develop service processes that integrate robots effectively, optimize human-robot collaboration and balance the contrasting expectations of FLEs and customers, while also showing how these orientations function across high- and low-contact services to provide actionable guidance for configuring robot roles.Originality/value The study develops human-robot value co creation relationship orientations and propose how these orientations informs service process design, guide human-robot collaboration and shape the expectations of FLEs and customers. The authors also outline a future research agenda to support deeper integration of robots into collaborative service contexts and provide practical guidance to design robot roles.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-05-2025-0303 [Google]
Lecointre-Erickson, D., S. Adil, L. Khan, K. S. Agbokanzo, M. Bassily and S. Méatchi (2026): Human-centric experience in phygital retail: a sentiment-based comparison of hybrid and traditional touchpoints, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Consumers are increasingly seeking seamless shopping experiences that integrate physical and digital touchpoints, leading to the rise of phygital retail environments. However, how consumers perceive and evaluate experience dimensions in phygital vs traditional retail settings remains underexplored. This study aims to decode consumer perceptions by comparing phygital and traditional retail touchpoints using sentiment and thematic analysis of Google Reviews.Design/methodology/approach This study uses social data analytics, leveraging sentiment and thematic analysis of Google Reviews to compare consumer experiences across phygital and traditional retail environments.Findings The results support distinct experience dimensions associated with phygital and traditional retail touchpoints. In line with the phygital experience framework, interaction between the shopper and frontline sales employees is a fundamental connector in a phygital environment.Research limitations/implications This study relies on publicly available Google Reviews, which may not fully capture all aspects of consumer experiences. Future research could integrate survey-based data or experimental studies to validate findings. Additionally, the study primarily focuses on sentiment and thematic analysis, leaving room for deeper predictive modeling of consumer preferences.Originality/value This study contributes to phygital retailing literature by offering a comparative sentiment-based perspective on consumer experiences in phygital and traditional retail environments. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to decode consumer perceptions through Google Reviews using sentiment and thematic analysis. This research provides actionable insights for retail managers seeking to optimize both digital and physical touchpoints.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0708 [Google]
Li, Y. and H. Y. Ha (2026): From escalation to dissipation: the temporal dynamics of brand hate following service failure and recovery, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose-This study aims to examine how brand hate evolves during service recovery in the online travel agency (OTA) context and investigates how perceived fairness, customer forgiveness and brand betrayal shape brand hate at different recovery stages. In doing so, this study challenges the common assumption that firms’ recovery efforts uniformly diminish brand-related negative responses. Design/methodology/approach-This study adopts a longitudinal design and collects three-wave time-lagged data from repeat OTA customers who experienced service failures and subsequent recovery efforts. This study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine stage-specific relationships among the key constructs across recovery stages. Findings-The results reveal that brand hate follows an inverted U-shaped trajectory over time, intensifying during the early and intermediate recovery stages before declining in the later stage. Perceived fairness influences brand hate differently across recovery stages rather than remaining constant. Reductions in brand betrayal weaken brand hate in later stages, whereas customer forgiveness exerts its strongest influence in the early stage of recovery. Overall, brand hate does not dissipate immediately; instead, it gradually attenuates through stage-specific psychological mechanisms. Originality/value-This study advances service recovery research by conceptualizing brand hate as a dynamic, stage-dependent affective state. By adopting a process-oriented perspective, it explains when and how brand hate weakens over time and offers theoretical and managerial contributions to the service recovery literature.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2026-0001 [Google]
Liu, M. Q., X. F. Zhao and Z. Li (2026): Customer evaluation formation in airline ticket blind box services: the moderating role of destination uncertainty on value cues, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose – Airline ticket blind box services have emerged as a novel service format in which customers purchase a ticket before the destination is revealed. This research aims to investigate how customers form service evaluations when core outcome information is intentionally withheld. Specifically, it examines how customers rely on utilitarian and hedonic value cues, and how perceived destination uncertainty changes the evaluative weight of these cues. Design/methodology/approach – To test the proposed model, this research adopts a sequential multi-method design consisting of a survey-based study and a follow-up scenario experiment. Findings – Both utilitarian value cues (e.g. monetary savings and choice efficiency) and hedonic value cues (e.g. perceived surprise, perceived enjoyment and social interaction) positively influence customer satisfaction, which in turn enhances repurchase intention. More importantly, perceived destination uncertainty weakens the effects of monetary savings and choice efficiency, while strengthening the effects of perceived enjoyment and social interaction. The experiment further shows that destination uncertainty increases perceived loss of control when utilitarian attributes are emphasized, whereas it enhances excitement when hedonic attributes are emphasized. Originality/value – This research contributes to service evaluation research by identifying a value-based evaluation process in uncertainty-driven services where core outcome information is intentionally withheld. This research also extends prior work on uncertainty by demonstrating that destination uncertainty asymmetrically changes the evaluative weight of utilitarian and hedonic value cues, highlighting its dual role of uncertainty as both a potential source of risk and a driver of experiential appeal.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-08-2025-0516 [Google]
Luo, L. (2026): Aligned to decide: how information structure and staff recommendation reduce overload in older consumers?, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Consumers often face dense and complex product information in offline retail settings. While managing such information is a universal challenge, what remains less understood is how these environments shape decision-making specifically among older consumers. Drawing on information processing and decision complexity perspectives, this study aims to examine how attribute alignability and staff recommendation type influence perceived overload and subsequent purchase behaviors.Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies tested a moderated mediation framework. Study 1 manipulated attribute alignability to examine its effect on perceived overload and purchase outcomes. Study 2 investigated how the interaction between attribute alignability and staff recommendation type (feature selling vs benefit selling) affects perceived overload and decision-making.Findings Study 1 demonstrates that nonalignable attributes increase perceived overload, whereas alignable attributes reduce cognitive burden, with perceived overload mediating the effects of alignability on purchase deferral and purchase intention. Study 2 shows that feature selling systematically elevates perceived overload regardless of alignability, whereas benefit selling does not, resulting in indirect effects of alignability on decision outcomes only under feature selling.Originality/value By integrating information structure with interpersonal guidance within the framework of information overload, this research advances understanding of how older consumers navigate complex retail environments. The findings not only fill a critical gap in consumer decision-making literature but also offer actionable insights for retailers to design interventions that reduce cognitive burden and enhance decision confidence.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-12-2025-0910 [Google]
Matthews, D., S. R. Hill and A. Tombs (2026): Serving through stigma: the passing drivers and well-being outcomes for young non-heterosexual men in service work, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the drivers influencing frontline service employees’ passing behaviors in customer interactions (i.e. when they present to customers as heterosexual) and the impacts that passing in these interactions has on employees’ well-being in line with SDG 8.Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted convergent interviews with a sample of 13 young non-heterosexual men with experience working in frontline service roles in Australia and New Zealand.Findings Employees consider customer-oriented, role-oriented and self-oriented factors when deciding whether to pass in customer interactions. Findings also reveal a well-being “double bind” for employees; passing negatively impacts well-being as employees struggle with their self-authenticity and self-consistency, while not passing exposes employees to harmful incidences of enacted and felt stigma.Social implications Stigmatization from customers hinders non-heterosexual employees’ realization of decent work in line with SDG 8. Service managers must work to create safe working spaces for non-heterosexual employees to achieve decent work.Originality/value This study expands on research examining how stigma management behaviors in collegial relationships affect the well-being of non-heterosexual employees by exploring the potential role of customers in perpetuating non-heterosexual employees’ experiences of vulnerability.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2025-0140 [Google]
McCauley, B., A. Berndt and M. Helmefalk (2026): Managing phygital experiences in grassroots esports: human-centered orchestration in the Swedish LAN-scape, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to examine how grassroots esports organizers manage Local Area Network (LAN) events as sustainable phygital experiences, addressing a gap in Phygital Service Research (PSR) by exploring how community-driven actors achieve seamless physical-digital integration under resource constraints.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 28 Swedish LAN organizers. Data were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis guided by Batat’s (2022) Phygital Customer Experience (PH-CX) framework and Baudet and Parmentier (2025) four phygital strategies.Findings Five key management dimensions are identified – Managing Interaction, Managing Time and Space, Managing Cooperation and Competition, Establishing Phygital Foundations and Sustaining Phygital Communities. Through these dimensions, the study introduces “human-centered phygital orchestration”: the process through which actors coordinate social interactions, multisensory environments and temporal flows to achieve seamless physical-digital integration through community practices rather than technological sophistication.Practical implications Grassroots LAN organizers should prioritize cross-platform community engagement, multisensory environmental design and institutional partnerships. Policymakers should recognize grassroots esports events as culturally significant infrastructures for digital inclusion and youth engagement.Originality/value This is the first study to apply PSR to grassroots esports, extending the PH-CX framework beyond commercial contexts. It proposes “human-centered phygital orchestration” as a novel concept for advancing PSR in community-driven, resource-constrained service ecosystems. This research was conducted as part of the American Phygital Association Summit 2025, sponsored by the American Institute of Business Experience Design (AIBXD) – New York. The submitted research was funded by the Media, Management and Transformation Center at J & ouml;nk & ouml;ping International Business School and there are no conflicts of interest to declare. We sincerely appreciate the valuable feedback provided by anonymous reviewers, editors, colleagues and esports industry practitioners on an earlier version of this work.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0700 [Google]
Schleimer, S. C. (2026): Experiences in a human-centric phygital space: the meaningful impact of second-hand, luxury fashion virtual communities, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to investigate a second-hand fashion, virtual community dedicated to a luxury brand around a decentralised, human-centric service-scape and how this impacts consumers’ online and offline experiences, well-being and fashion consumption. Combining physical and digital service realms and positive luxury research, the study adds to the understanding of how meaningful services are delivered and consumed in user-driven, phygital brand communities and the positive impacts they have on community members.Design/methodology/approach The study centres on 30 one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with women aged between 25 and 57, who were actively engaged in a second-hand fashion virtual community (dedicated to one fashion brand) at the time of the study. Data were examined using abstraction, comparison and integration of the data followed by a thematic analysis.Findings The findings reveal several novel aspects about the service environment of a human-centric, phygital (second-hand) brand community. The community shifts traditional roles and responsibilities of service through decentralised engagement and circular consumption models of members, which ultimately lead to a novel, social access to and relationship with the fashion brand. The results also reveal how the community combines meaningful and sustainable online and offline experiences for individual members and the community.Practical implications The findings have several key implications: For fashion brands, the findings highlight essential, missed learning opportunities from community-driven brand experiences and offer guidance on meaningful, future services marketing. For consumers, the findings point to the benefits of consuming luxury fashion through dedicated second-hand fashion, phygital communities – they can lead to positive online and offline experiences and a sustainable, community-led relationship with a brand.Social implications This study shows how second-hand, phygital service communities dedicated to fashion brands can lead to meaningful individual and community experiences that connect members to both the brand and each other. The findings also suggest these communities can have a positive impact on consumers’ personal lives that lead to more sustainable, circular fashion consumption.Originality/value The study shows how human-centric, phygital service environments, in the form of second-hand luxury fashion communities, can have a successful, hybrid embodiment by members. Ultimately, these communities can lead to positive, individual and community experiences and more sustainable consumption.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0655 [Google]
Shabnam, S., S. K. Roy, Y. S. Roten, G. Singh, T. Suh and H. R. Li (2026): Transformative phygital service research (TPSR): an agenda for future research, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose – This paper aims to develop a transformative phygital service research (TPSR) framework to explain how hybrid physical-digital service systems shape consumer well-being, autonomy, dignity and inclusion. While prior phygital service research (PSR) advances understanding of hybrid experiences and human-centred ecosystems, key ambiguities persist around agency, governance and interpretive labour in algorithmically mediated interactions. Existing frameworks address value co-creation but lack clarity on how digitally enforced rules and redistributed labour drive transformation. TPSR addresses this gap by theorising contradiction-driven processes through which human-AI arrangements and socio-technical dynamics produce both empowering and erosive outcomes in phygital service environments. Design/methodology/approach – Using a theory synthesis approach (Jaakkola, 2020), this conceptual paper integrates literature from phygital services, PSR, transformative service research (TSR), service-dominant logic (SDL), socio-technical systems and activity theory (AT). AT is used as the explanatory foundation to conceptualise how mediated action, contradictions, algorithmic governance and expansive learning influence transformation in phygital ecosystems. The paper develops a conceptual architecture distinguishing antecedent system configurations, mediating mechanisms, transformative outcomes and failure conditions and advances theoretically grounded propositions to support future empirical investigation. Findings – The TPSR framework shows that transformative outcomes in phygital environments arise from interactions among artefacts, governance rules, communities and labour divisions within hybrid activity systems. It identifies three discontinuities: algorithmic mediation of agency, digitally enforced rules and non-human interpretive labour. Transparent algorithms enhance autonomy and trust, while opacity reduces control. Adaptive governance fosters inclusion; rigid rules intensify exclusion. Immersive mediation can boost engagement or cause overload. Redistributed human-AI labour reshapes trust and well-being. Contradictions within these systems trigger learning processes that yield empowering or erosive outcomes, depending on governance quality, participation and context, extending TSR, SDL and PSR. Originality/value – This paper advances the first contradiction-driven conceptual framework of TPSR. Rather than positioning phygitality solely as an experiential or operational phenomenon, TPSR conceptualises phygital services as evolving socio-technical activity systems that condition human capability, inclusion and dignity through mediated interactions. By specifying theoretical mechanisms, boundary conditions and potential reversal pathways, the framework extends PSR and transformative service scholarship and provides a robust conceptual foundation for future empirical research and the design of equitable, human-centred phygital service ecosystems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0679 [Google]
Shang, Q., D. L. Ying and H. J. Fu (2026): The role of service robots’ empathy in shaping consumers’ privacy concerns – a privacy calculus perspective, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Privacy concerns represent a critical barrier to consumers’ acceptance of service robots. Existing literature has extensively examined the influence of service robots’ external characteristics and technical functionalities on consumers’ privacy concerns, yet the role of empathy remains underexplored. Drawing on privacy calculus theory (PCT), this study aims to explore how service robots’ empathy affects consumers’ privacy concerns, examining the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions.Design/methodology/approach To empirically validate the model, four scenario-based experiments were conducted in diverse service contexts involving 670 participants. Study 1 established the direct impact of service robots’ empathy on consumers’ privacy concerns. Studies 2 and 3 examined perceived privacy risk as a mediating variable. Study 4 examined the moderating effect of information sensitivity.Findings High-empathy service robots significantly reduce consumers’ privacy concerns by lowering their perceived privacy risk. This mitigating effect, however, is moderated by information sensitivity: while empathy effectively alleviates privacy concerns in low information sensitivity contexts, its impact is significantly weakened when consumers are confronted with highly sensitive information.Originality/value This study reveals empathy as a previously overlooked antecedent of privacy concerns in human-robot interaction, extends the affective dimension of PCT by incorporating empathy into risk assessment and reveals the boundary condition of information sensitivity. These findings present managerial insights for enterprises deploying service robots in contexts with varying information sensitivity.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0603 [Google]
Sharma, T. G., M. Gupta, V. C. Thomas and B. Sivakumaran (2026): Examining online reviews and ratings by B2C and B2B customers: do digital service failure type and customer experience matter?, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose The remarkable growth of digital services has been marred by widespread failures faced by users and the subsequent fallouts for these firms. Despite the enormous negative impact of these digital service failures on the firms as well as the customers, limited attention has been paid to investigating their consequences. This study addresses this gap. This study aims to examine the impact of these digital service failures faced by B2C and B2B customers – segments with varying consumption goals, on online reviews and ratings posted by them. Importantly, it maps the role of “cognitive” and “affective” customer experience dimensions, in these relationships.Design/methodology/approach The context chosen for the study was mobile payments, where service failures can be critical. The study involved scraping review data from a widely used mobile payment application in an emerging market, India, to obtain data from B2C customers (n = 22,771 observations in the B2C G Pay app) and B2B customers (n = 1,008 observations in the B2B G Pay app). The proposed hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling.Findings Functional, service, system and information failures led to negative ratings and reviews for B2C customers, and these relationships are mediated by negative affect and cognitive experience dimensions, for functional, service and information failures. In contrast, for B2B customers, only service and functional failures significantly predict negative reviews and ratings. However, the mediating mechanism was found only for the relationship between service failure and ratings in the B2B segment.Research limitations/implications As the study relies on data from one application in a single digital service i.e. mobile payment service, future research could extend this work by examining multiple applications across different digital services.Practical implications Managers may monitor all types of failures for B2C customers to avoid negative customer experiences and subsequent firm outcomes. For B2B customers, attention should be paid primarily to functional and service failures.Originality/value Our research adds to the growing literature on digital services by studying the effects of digital service failures on online ratings through the mediating roles of negative affect and cognitive experiences. Uniquely, our work considers both (B2C and B2B) customer segments’ responses to digital service failures.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-03-2026-0274 [Google]
Shi, W. H., L. E. Huang, Y. W. Hu and N. Jia (2026): Unpacking complaint contagion in social networks: the moderating roles of network prominence and customer dependence, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose-While customer complaint behavior is a critical issue for service firms, existing research has primarily focused on individual-level drivers and overlooked its social contagion mechanism. This paper aims to explore whether exposure to peers’ complaints in social networks influences an individual’s complaint behavior, and further clarify the moderating roles of network prominence and customer dependence in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach-The empirical analysis uses longitudinal data from a provincial branch of a major Chinese cellular company, covering 4,579 customers over 13 months. The authors construct 13 monthly social networks based on customers’ call interactions, and use Cox proportional hazards models to test the hypotheses. Findings-Results indicate that complaint exposure has a positive impact on an individual’s complaint behavior. Network prominence negatively moderates the relationship between complaint exposure and individual complaints while customer dependence positively moderates it. These findings remain consistent across robustness tests. Additional analyses further reveal that the effect of complaint exposure declines over time, and is more pronounced under extreme exposure conditions. Practical implications-The outcomes provide actionable strategies for service firms to optimize complaint management. Firms should establish real-time social listening systems to monitor complaint clusters in social networks, implement targeted interventions for low-network-prominence customers and strengthen proactive engagement with high-dependence customers. Originality/value-This study enriches the customer complaint literature by uncovering the social contagion mechanism of complaint behavior. It also extends Social Learning Theory to the domain of customer complaints by identifying network prominence and customer dependence as boundary conditions, and provides robust empirical evidence using large-scale longitudinal network data.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2025-0780 [Google]
Shin, M., T. S. Legendre and S. P. Doudna (2026): Conceptualizing restorative luxury services: insights from the spa industry, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose The purpose of this research is to explore how customers cope with resource depletion through luxury service experiences and introduce a conceptual framework for restorative luxury. The conceptual model demonstrates how luxury service experiences support coping with resource depletion and facilitates resource restoration. The conceptual framework also delineates that the restorative luxury process is a precursor to transformative well-being experiences.Design/methodology/approach The luxury spa industry was chosen as the context of this research in developing the conceptual framework of restorative luxury experience. Using a qualitative approach, the authors examine insights from 21 experienced spa managers through in-depth interviews, applying hermeneutic interpretivism to understand customer experiences.Findings Findings of this research reveal that customers use dual coping strategies, engagement and disengagement coping, through luxury spa services, leading to cognitive, emotional and physical restoration, termed restorative luxury experience. This process fosters self-restoration across body, mind and spirit and justifies the prohibitive cost of luxury spa services, encouraging repeat patronage.Originality/value This study advances transformative service research (TSR) by introducing restorative luxury, a novel framework that reconceptualizes luxury services as vehicles for enduring eudaimonic well-being, highlighting a previously underexplored pathway for human flourishing in the luxury context. By applying conservation of resources theory, it further advances TSR by conceptualizing the service encounter as a process of personal transformation rather than mere reciprocal exchange.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-06-2025-0366 [Google]
Soon, P. S. and W. M. Lim (2026): Augmented reality as a supplementary service in the phygital marketplace: Evidence of hedonic primacy and social influence variability, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Augmented reality (AR) has diffused as a supplementary service in phygital retail, yet evidence on what it changes in consumer evaluation remains thin. The goals of this research are twofold: first, this research aims to examine whether AR differently shapes hedonic and utilitarian attitudes and second, this research aims to test whether normative social influence and informational social influence shift the relationship between bidimensional attitude toward AR and desire to use AR.Design/methodology/approach Two experiments compare an AR app condition with a non-AR mobile site condition. Study 1 assigns 224 participants to Sephora Virtual Mirror or a non-AR Sephora mobile site (cosmetics as a hedonic, public-facing, non-durable category). Study 2 assigns 194 participants to Ikea Place or a non-AR Ikea mobile site (furniture as a utilitarian, private-facing, durable category).Findings AR experience strengthens hedonic attitude in both product categories, whereas utilitarian attitude shows no comparable increase. Normative social influence weakens the link between hedonic attitude toward AR and desire to use AR in the cosmetics context while informational social influence strengthens the same link in the furniture context. Hedonic attitude and utilitarian attitude each predict desire to use AR.Originality/value Self-regulation theory frames desire as the motivational mechanism that connects evaluations of AR to use. Evidence of hedonic primacy challenges the common assumption that AR earns adoption mainly through utilitarian improvement in decision-making. The opposing moderation effects reject a single social strategy for AR across categories. Normative social influence can dampen hedonic motivation in cosmetics, whereas informational social influence can amplify hedonic motivation in furniture, which implies that phygital brands should design AR social cues to match the product category rather than rely on uniform social endorsement features.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0687 [Google]
Tsiotsou, R. H., A. Papastathopoulos and A. Boukis (2026): Unveiling the drivers of remote employees’ intentions to use home as a service consumption hub: a configurational approach, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, 40(10), pp.113–129
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward in-home service consumption in the context of post-pandemic remote work. Drawing on the Push-Pull-Mooring framework, the authors bridge the services marketing literature with human resource and organizational behavior perspectives by adopting a configurational approach.Design/methodology/approach A survey of 245 UK-based remote workers was conducted. Data were analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify multiple equifinal configurations of work-from-home psychological effects, individual motivations and home quality perceptions that drive in-home service consumption.Findings Multiple alternative sufficient configurations reveal distinct combinations of hedonic, functional and convenience motivations, home quality, boundary control and psychological work-related factors, underscoring configurational trade-offs and substitution effects in shaping consumer attitudes and intention behavior. The findings of this study confirm complex interactions that extend beyond conventional linear, net-effects models.Practical implications This study highlights the growing importance of home as a consumption hub amid increased remote work. This paper offers insights for service providers to segment remote workers and tailor their service design, communications and offerings accordingly. Policymakers and marketers can better support well-being and sustainable consumption by addressing boundary management and loneliness.Originality/value This research extends the Push-Pull-Mooring framework to a residential, non-commercial consumption setting and integrates the psychological consequences of remote work with in-home service consumption using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis’ configurational approach.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2025-0862 [Google]
Valentini, T. and C. Roederer (2026): Understanding frontline employee phygital experiences through service-dominant logic and job demands-resources model, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This paper aims to introduce the concept of frontline employees’ phygital experience (FEPE) as a human-centered and integrative framework for understanding frontline work in phygital service ecosystems. Addressing the fragmentation of research across service marketing, organizational behavior and occupational psychology, the authors develop a multi-domain conceptualization that captures how frontline employees experience digital connectors across self-oriented, other-oriented, organizational and brand domains. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a theory synthesis approach, this conceptual study integrates service-dominant logic and the job demands-resources model to construct a synoptic framework that explains how digital connectors operate as ambivalent operand resources shaping frontline employees’ experiences. Findings The FEPE framework positions frontline employees as actors within service phygital ecosystems. Digital connectors activate or deplete employees’ operant resources across cognitive, affective and conative dimensions. By distinguishing job resources from job demands configurations across four experiential perspectives, the framework links digital connectors to employee well-being or ill-being and value co-creation or co-destruction. Research limitations/implications This paper advances the phygital service research literature by integrating service-dominant logic and the job demands-resources model to conceptualize the FEPE as a dynamic resource integration process. Future research is invited to examine these trade-offs, exploring how digital connectors may benefit certain role dimensions while simultaneously hindering others. Originality/value This paper introduces the FEPE framework, offering a novel, multilevel perspective on how digital connectors enable and constrain frontline employees’ operant resources. Unlike prior models that focus on customer experience or digital efficiency, the FEPE framework conceptualizes employees as co-creators of value whose experiences span individual, interactional and organizational domains. It advances service-dominant logic and job demands-resources theory by linking resource mobilization to well-being and value co-creation in a phygital service ecosystem.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-10-2025-0733 [Google]
Vinoi, N. and A. Shankar (2026): How service robot design shapes moral disengagement during service failures, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to investigate how service robot design characteristics influence the propensity for moral disengagement during service failures. Specifically, it examines how two key design characteristics, appearance (humanoid vs android) and interaction style (warm vs competent), influence moral disengagement and further tests the moderating role of service failure severity and the mediating role of interactional justice.Design/methodology/approach Six scenario-based experimental studies were conducted across multi-country participant samples. Studies 1-4 examined these relationships in healthcare settings, while Studies 5-6 investigated these relationships in hospitality settings.Findings Most of the studies, humanoid-competent service robots evoked higher moral disengagement than other design combinations. Service failure severity strengthened these effects in health care but not in hospitality, suggesting that moral justification processes are heightened under high-stakes conditions. Interactional justice fully mediated the effect of service robot appearance on moral disengagement, but it did not mediate the effect of interaction style.Research limitations/implications While the study offers valuable insights into robotic ethics and human-robot interaction, its reliance on scenario-based experiments limits its ability to fully capture real-world complexities. Future research should explore the long-term implications of moral disengagement toward service robots.Originality/value This research enhances the existing literature on human-robot interaction by expanding the understanding of moral disengagement processes involving non-human entities. It also provides practical guidance for service robot manufacturers in designing and supporting the development of policy frameworks to promote responsible human-robot interactions in different industries.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2025-0117 [Google]
Xu, J. and M. Liu (2026): Can employee service adaptivity promote customer citizenship behavior? The roles of interpersonal trust and self-serving attribution, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose Customer citizenship behavior is an important yet difficult-to-cultivate source of customer-driven value in service settings. Grounded in attribution theory, this study aims to investigate the influence of employees’ service adaptive behavior on three forms of customer citizenship behavior (feedback, advocacy and helping) and explores the mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying this relationship.Design/methodology/approach A multi-method approach was adopted, combining a questionnaire survey with a scenario-based experiment. The survey provided customer-reported data to examine the hypothesized model, whereas the experiment enabled causal inferences through a 2 & times; 2 between-subjects design. Specifically, employees’ service adaptive behavior (high vs low) and customer self-serving attribution (high vs low) were manipulated, and their effects on affective trust, cognitive trust and three forms of customer citizenship behavior were observed.Findings First, employees’ service adaptive behavior significantly fosters customers’ affective and cognitive trust. Second, affective trust robustly predicts customers’ feedback, advocacy and helping behaviors, while cognitive trust drives feedback and advocacy but not helping behavior. Third, affective trust mediates the links between service adaptive behavior and feedback, advocacy and helping, whereas cognitive trust mediates only the relationships with feedback and advocacy. Fourth, customer self-serving attribution significantly moderates the effects of service adaptive behavior on both affective and cognitive trust.Originality/value This study identifies employee service adaptive behavior as a key antecedent of customer citizenship behavior, extending understanding of how frontline actions influence customer discretionary behaviors. It contributes to trust research by distinguishing affective and cognitive trust and revealing their distinct mediating roles. It also shows that customer self-serving attribution weakens the positive effects of adaptive behavior on trust, highlighting boundary conditions that shape the effectiveness of employee service adaptive behavior.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-09-2025-0597 [Google]
Yousaf, S., K. K. C. Park, K. Hwang and J. M. Kim (2026): How dark triad language shapes credibility and helpfulness in online movie reviews?, JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, (), pp.
Purpose This study aims to investigate how dark-triad-consistent linguistic markers in online movie reviews relate to credibility signals and perceived helpfulness within a digital customer-to-customer service encounter.Design/methodology/approach Using data from Naver.com, the authors examined platform credibility signaling and socially evaluative engagement (likes and dislikes) by performing textual content analysis of dark-triad-consistent linguistic markers at the review-text level using the Language Inquiry and Word Count method (Pennebaker et al., 2015). A follow-up experiment was performed on 240 participants, who were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 4 (Type of reviews: Neutral vs Psychopathy-framed vs Machiavellianism-framed vs Narcissism-framed) between-subjects design.Findings Reviews containing higher levels of narcissism-consistent and Machiavellianism-consistent linguistic markers were more likely to be classified as netizen-type (unverified) reviews on Naver, which functions as a platform-level credibility signal; the association for psychopathy-consistent markers was not statistically significant. Machiavellianism-consistent language was positively associated with both likes and dislikes, indicating polarized engagement. In the experiment, reviews framed with dark-triad-consistent language were rated as less authentic, less credible and less helpful than neutral reviews, and lower perceived authenticity mediated these effects.Originality/value By combining large-scale field data with an experiment, this study shows how dark-triad-consistent language functions as an observable review-text signal in a digital customer-to-customer service encounter that shapes platform classification, two-sided engagement (likes and dislikes) and reader judgments of authenticity, credibility and helpfulness. The authors treat dislikes as an unhelpfulness (disapproval) outcome (labeled “unusefulness” on the platform) that is not the inverse of helpfulness, because disapproval requires an affirmative negative evaluation and can co-occur with approval, thereby capturing approval-disapproval and polarization dynamics.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-07-2025-0451 [Google]
An, H., Y. X. Shi, Z. P. Guo, B. Zhang and L. L. Yu (2026): Which is better? Matching effect on feedback content and source: Gen AI vs. human leaders in driving work engagement, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI; e.g. ChatGPT, DeepSeek) is increasingly being integrated into performance feedback systems in service organizations, operating alongside human leaders as a dual-source feedback mechanism. Yet the effects of Gen AI feedback on employee work engagement remain unclear. This study addresses the central question of whether and how the matching between feedback source (Gen AI vs. human leaders) and feedback content (positive vs. negative) differentially influences employee work engagement?Design/methodology/approach We report three scenario-based experiments with a pooled sample of 736 valid responses to test our hypotheses. The study examines the matching effects between feedback source (Gen AI vs. human leaders) and feedback content (positive vs. negative), and investigates the psychological mechanisms through which these effects influence employee work engagement by considering regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) and self-efficacy.Findings The results reveal a significant matching effect: Gen AI paired with negative feedback and human leaders paired with positive feedback form complementary pairings that more effectively enhance employee work engagement. Further analyses indicate that the mediating role of promotion-focused and prevention-focused regulation, as well as the moderating role of self-efficacy.Originality/value By integrating signaling theory and regulatory focus theory, and considering the dehumanized nature of Gen AI, this study uncovers the differentiated strengths and complementary relationship of Gen AI and human leaders as feedback sources. The findings advance theoretical understanding of human-AI collaboration in organizational contexts and offer practical guidance for designing dual-source feedback systems that optimize employee engagement.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-11-2025-0452 [Google]
Kim, D. and T. Yoo (2026): Beyond reputation and status in hotel management: Social activities as strategic service resources, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose Drawing on social identity and sensemaking theories, this study examines how CSR engagement and a society-oriented organizational identity relate to hotel revenue and survival as strategic service resources. Specifically, it tests whether these social activities partially offset disadvantages associated with limited reputation or status by providing alternative identity- and meaning-based cues within service ecosystems.Design/methodology/approach The study employs a multi-source dataset comprising 229 South Korean hotels. Hotel-level financial performance, CSR engagement, and status indicators are obtained from the 2018 Korea Hotel Association listings; customer-based reputation measures are derived from 2018 Tripadvisor ratings; and organizational survival is verified using Google Maps operational status in 2023. Hierarchical models estimate the associations between CSR/society-oriented identity and performance, conditional on hotels’ reputation and status.Findings The results show that both CSR engagement and a society-oriented identity are positively associated with hotel revenue and survival. Importantly, these relationships are significantly stronger for hotels with lower reputation or status. Consistent with social identity and sensemaking perspectives, social activities function as compensatory mechanisms that supply meaning-rich identity cues when performance- or hierarchy-based signals are weak.Originality/value This study advances service research by integrating social identity and sensemaking theories to distinguish between externally conferred social evaluations and internally constructed social resources. By providing evidence that CSR and society-oriented identity operate as contingent strategic resources rather than uniformly effective performance drivers, the study reframes how hotels with limited reputation or status can mobilize social activities to support value co-creation, performance, and survival within service ecosystems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-09-2025-0345 [Google]
Ma, J. X., D. P. Zhang and W. L. Zhang (2026): Effect of word-of-mouth acquisition methods on consumer purchase regret following service failure, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose While much research has focused on how word-of-mouth (WOM) content affects consumers’ purchase intentions and post-purchase emotions, little attention has been paid to the impact of WOM acquisition methods. Drawing on attribution theory, this study explores the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which different WOM acquisition methods (active seeking vs. passive receiving) influence consumers’ purchase regret after a service failure. Design/methodology/approach This study tested the hypotheses through three experimental studies. Study 1 explored whether actively sought versus passively received WOM affects consumer regret after making a purchase based on WOM through an imaginary scenario with 180 participants. Study 2 recruited 210 participants for an online scenario experiment to investigate the mediating mechanism underlying the effect of WOM acquisition methods on purchase regret. Study 3 recruited 352 valid participants for a similar online experiment to examine the moderating role of WOM source type. Findings Through three experimental studies, we found that passively received WOM leads to higher purchase regret than actively sought WOM. Additionally, the tendency to attribute responsibility plays a mediating role in the relationship between WOM acquisition methods and purchase regret. Furthermore, the type of WOM source (quantity-sourced vs. quality-sourced) moderates the relationship between WOM acquisition methods, the tendency to attribute responsibility, and purchase regret. Originality/value This study refines the literature on the impact of WOM and provides guidance on how companies can reduce consumer purchase regret.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-09-2025-0354 [Google]
Mousa, S. and T. Bouraoui (2026): Resilience in service innovation ecosystems: adaptive capacities, co-creation and institutional agility amid external shocks, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose-The study seeks to explain how service innovation ecosystems (SIEs) develop resilience when confronted with external shocks. While resilience has often been examined at the level of individual firms or supply chains, far less is known about the processes and mechanisms that allow multi-actor service ecosystems to absorb turbulence, adapt collaboratively and institutionalise new practices. Design/methodology/approach-Drawing on a qualitative, multiple-case study design, the research investigates five service sectors-Fintech, HealthTech, Tourism, Higher Education and Logistics-that have faced significant disruptions. Data were collected through 25 semi-structured interviews with ecosystem actors, complemented by secondary documents and analysed using Gioia’s methodology to trace the emergence of themes and aggregate dimensions. Findings-The analysis reveals that resilience in SIEs unfolds as a temporal and recursive process moving through improvisation, adaptation and institutionalisation. Actor-level improvisations provide the raw material for ecosystem change, digital modularity enables scaling and stabilisation and institutional agility and flexibility determine whether emergent practices gain legitimacy and permanence. Sectoral comparisons illustrate that resilience mechanisms vary across contexts, with distinct enablers and trade-offs in each industry. The findings highlight both the positive pathways and the unintended consequences of resilience strategies, such as risks of fragmentation, legitimacy erosion or digital exclusion. Originality/value-The study advances service theory by integrating service-dominant logic, complex adaptive systems theory and dynamic capabilities into a stratified framework of ecosystem resilience. It contributes a temporal model that explains not only what resilience is in service ecosystems but how it is built, scaled and institutionalised. For managers and policymakers, the paper provides sector-specific and risk-aware recommendations to strengthen resilience in digitally dependent and shock-prone service markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-06-2025-0231 [Google]
Nguyen, D., S. Teo and J. Wen (2026): Cultural and psychological mechanisms explaining the relationship between supervisor incivility and hospitality employees’ work engagement, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose Much research has predominantly focused on customer incivility in hospitality management literature. This research proposes a conceptual framework to examine how supervisors’ power distance orientation impacts employees’ perceptions of supervisory incivility, a sense of helplessness, and their work engagement. Psychological distress was hypothesized to intensify the helplessness-engagement relationship.Design/methodology/approach Through the integration of Conservation of Resources and Social Information Processing theories, we employed a dyadic approach to collect from 200 matched responses between frontline hotel service employees and their direct supervisors from Chinese hotels.Findings We find a sequential mediation mechanism showing a positive association between supervisors’ power distance orientation and supervisor incivility rated by employees, which increases learned helplessness and subsequently decreases work engagement. Psychological distress significantly strengthens the learned helplessness-work engagement relationship, amplifying negative outcomes of supervisor incivility.Originality/value Our study contributes to an underexplored stream of culturally sensitive research by demonstrating how supervisors’ power distance orientation – deeply embedded in cultural norms – shapes employees’ perceptions of supervisor incivility and its consequences in hospitality settings. It advances cultural psychology in hospitality management by identifying individual-level power distance orientation as a driver of supervisory incivility. It also positions the interplay of learned helplessness and psychological distress as psychological conditions intensifying the adverse impact of supervisor incivility on frontline service employees’ work engagement. The findings generate novel ideas for psychologically and culturally attuned leadership training practices and mental health interventions within the high emotional labor settings.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-10-2025-0394 [Google]
Tiwari, V. (2026): Integrating physiological disruptions into service theory: a person-environment fit perspective on service experiences across time zones, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, (), pp.
Purpose Service research has largely overlooked how customers’ physiological conditions influence their ability to engage with service environments. This study examines jetlag as a form of physiological disruption and investigates how circadian misalignment influences tourists’ involvement in tourism activities, perceived service experience quality, and satisfaction. By integrating person-environment (P-E) fit theory with Social Zeitgeber theory, the study conceptualizes jetlag as a boundary condition that constrains customer engagement with service environments.Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 1,178 international travelers across three travel contexts involving varying levels of time-zone disruption: long-haul travel to North America, medium-haul travel to Oceania and domestic travel within India. The proposed conceptual model was tested using structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between jetlag, tourist involvement, service experience quality, satisfaction and the moderating role of vacation duration.Findings Jetlag reduces cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement in service encounters, lowering perceived service quality and satisfaction. While longer vacations provide partial relief, physiological disruption still constrains active participation, revealing limits to conventional service assumptions.Research limitations/implications The study focuses on satisfaction and does not examine loyalty, word-of-mouth or long-term behavioral outcomes. Future research could explore how physiological disruptions influence broader customer behaviors and engagement across different service contexts.Originality/value This research is among the first to conceptualize jetlag as a service phenomenon and extend P-E fit theory to include biological constraints. It contributes to service theory by demonstrating how human physiology interacts with service environments, providing actionable guidance for managing customer well-being and engagement across global contexts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-08-2025-0339 [Google]
Wei, S., Y. Lu and L. X. Su (2026): A meta-analytic study on the relationship between service innovation and firm performance, JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, 36(4), pp.655–680
Purpose This study aims to identify conditions under which service innovation is positively or negatively related to firm performance.Design/methodology/approach Based on Teece’s (1986) profiting from innovation (PFI) framework, the present study examined the moderating effects of the degree of service economy, technological turbulence, market orientation, frontline employee commitment, leadership, and learning orientation between service innovation and firm performance. Specifically, this study conducted meta-analytic research on 198 independent samples from 72 studies via meta-regression and subgroup analysis.Findings Service innovation is positively related to firm performance, particularly pronounced in nations with a low degree of service economy compared to those with a high degree. Moreover, we observe a nuanced shift after the COVID-19 pandemic, where the positive effect of service innovation on firm performance diminishes in nations with a lower degree of service economy, while it becomes more pronounced in nations with a higher degree. Furthermore, when a service company does not have a strong market orientation, effective leadership, or committed frontline employees, service innovation does not increase firm performance.Research limitations/implications The number of sample studies in certain subgroup conditions is small. For example, there were only three sample studies in the strong learning orientation group. Future research should examine the moderating effects of the moderators when a sufficient number of sample studies in this field have accumulated.Practical implications Service companies can benefit more from service innovation in a nation with a low versus high degree of service economy before the COVID-19 pandemic, but less so after the pandemic. Additionally, service companies must prioritize market orientation and build effective leadership and strong employee commitment before initiating service innovation.Originality/value The results enrich our understanding of the relationship between service innovation and firm performance by clarifying the conditions under which service innovation may increase or decrease firm performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-06-2025-0238 [Google]
Alam, S. and M. Z. Chishti (2026): Biotech-enabled and neuroadaptive robotics in sustainable elderly tourism services: a delphi and PLS-SEM approach, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Ensuring sustainable and inclusive service delivery for older adults is a critical challenge in the tourism industry. While service robots are increasingly integrated into tourism operations, limited research examines how leadership and technological innovation jointly promote sustainable outcomes. This study investigates how Green Transformational Leadership (GTL) facilitates the development of neuroadaptive capability (NC) and biotech sensing capability (BSC) in intelligent robotics to enhance eco-operational sustainability (EOS) and improve elderly well-being (EWB). A three-round Delphi study with fifteen interdisciplinary experts refined nine indicators tailored to elderly-focused ecotourism settings. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) on data from stakeholders in Kunming, China, results show that GTL significantly strengthens NC (beta = 0.664, p < 0.001) and BSC (beta = 0.137, p < 0.01), which together enhance EOS. EOS positively affects EWB and indirectly contributes to green competitive advantage. Findings demonstrate how leadership-driven robotic innovation fosters eco-intelligent, inclusive, and sustainable tourism services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2694023 [Google]
Aljarah, A., C. Rodriguez-Sanchez, L. O. Fedorova and S. A. Soomro (2026): The nexus between corporate AI social responsibility and ethical AI brand advocacy: do ethical brand identification and AI learning anxiety matter?, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
The scope of corporate social responsibility now extends beyond the environmental and social domains to encompass firms’ accountability in the ethical and beneficial use of artificial intelligence (AI). This study investigates the nexus between corporate AI social responsibility (CAISR) and ethical AI brand advocacy. The study uses data from a sample of coffee shop customers in Germany. The findings reveal that CAISR positively influences ethical AI brand advocacy. This relationship is mediated by ethical brand identification. Moral identity strengthens the positive effect of CAISR on ethical AI brand advocacy, whereas AI learning anxiety weakens it. The indirect effect of ethical brand identification on the relationship between CAISR and ethical AI brand advocacy is stronger under high moral identity than under low moral identity. However, it is directionally weaker under high AI learning anxiety, though this difference did not reach statistical significance in the moderated mediation test, rendering the result inconclusive.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2684027 [Google]
Arici, H. E. (2026): AI-driven solutions for promoting customer inclusivity in service industries: a systematic review, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
This study provides a systematic review of scholarly research on artificial intelligence and customer inclusivity in service industries. It maps the intellectual structure and emerging trends surrounding inclusive AI deployment in service contexts. Drawing on 87 peer-reviewed articles published up to 2025, the review employs co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and qualitative content coding. The findings reveal a growing yet fragmented body of knowledge, particularly in how inclusivity, defined across physical, digital, emotional, and cognitive dimensions, is conceptualised and operationalised. While AI technologies hold significant promise in improving accessibility, personalisation, and responsiveness, they also risk exacerbating algorithmic bias, emotional exclusion, and socio-cultural insensitivity. This review synthesises sector-specific challenges across healthcare, hospitality, retail, and finance and proposes a multidimensional framework that integrates the ethical, behavioural, and technological dimensions of inclusivity. The study concludes with a prioritised research agenda and practical recommendations for developing inclusive, human-centred, and context-sensitive AI applications in service systems. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(AI)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)2025(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)87(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2687791 [Google]
Arici, H. E. and M. B. Saydam (2026): Researching vulnerable populations in hospitality and tourism: a methodological review, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Despite growing academic and industry interest in vulnerable populations, methodological development within hospitality and tourism (H&T) research has remained limited. This study addresses this gap by systematically reviewing the methodologies used in studies of vulnerable populations in the H&T context. Akin to the analysis of 150 articles published in SSCI-indexed journals, the review examines how vulnerability is conceptualized and investigated across economic, physical, cognitive, social, and cultural dimensions. The findings indicate a strong reliance on conventional data collection approaches, primarily structured surveys and standard interview techniques, often applied without sufficient adaptation to participants’ specific capacities or vulnerabilities. Although qualitative and participatory methods are discussed in the literature, their practical implementation remains inconsistent. Key gaps include the limited inclusion of cognitively vulnerable individuals’ perspectives and the scarcity of longitudinal research designs. The study underscores the ethical importance of inclusive methodological practices and highlights the need for more flexible and interdisciplinary approaches.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2675934 [Google]
Canhoto, A. I., F. Filippaios and M. Johnson (2026): Navigating generative AI in service research: the effectiveness-legitimacy matrix, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Generative AI is rapidly reshaping academic work, including in service research. While existing guidance predominantly focuses on task-level applications and individual best practices, less attention has been paid to the institutional and normative conditions under which service scholars’ generative AI use becomes appropriate or problematic. Drawing on a socio-technical perspective, this paper develops the Effectiveness-Legitimacy Matrix (ELM), a typology that analyses generative AI use in service research along two conceptually distinct but interrelated dimensions: effectiveness (the fit between technological capabilities and research task characteristics) and legitimacy (the alignment with institutional rules and professional norms). The ELM identifies four configurations (aligned, misguided, norm-breaking, and dead-end use), each associated with distinct methodological and governance implications. The paper offers a diagnostic framework to guide responsible integration of generative AI in service research and outlines a research agenda to understand its long-term epistemic consequences for the services research community. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)(sic) – (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(Effectiveness-Legitimacy Matrix, ELM), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic): (sic)(sic)(sic) ((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic))(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)((sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2702956 [Google]
Chang, S. F., J. X. Li and Q. J. Yuan (2026): AI-expressed empathy in misaligned recovery: consumer forgiveness following recommendation failures, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
AI-mediated recommendation recovery represents a misaligned recovery context in which a failure of algorithmic preference understanding is followed by AI-mediated emotional recovery. After consumers receive an unsuitable recommendation, an AI customer-service agent attempts to express understanding and concern, raising a theoretical question: when can AI-expressed empathy become psychologically supportive after AI has failed to understand consumers’ preferences? Drawing on forgiveness theory and the stress-buffering hypothesis, we argue that AI-expressed empathy fosters consumers’ willingness to forgive when it is appraised as socially present and emotionally supportive, thereby relieving post-failure stress. Across three scenario-based experiments in online shopping, travel planning, and online learning (N = 705), AI-expressed empathy increased consumers’ forgiveness intentions through perceived social presence and perceived stress relief. This process was stronger for consumers with a communal relationship norm orientation and under high failure severity. The study explains how AI-expressed empathy can support affective-relational recovery in AI-mediated recommendation failures. AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic): (sic)AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)?(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)705(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)AI(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)-(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2696499 [Google]
Chen, F. and X. M. Yin (2026): How AI-powered marketing technology use fosters strategic capability via cross-domain resource integration, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Although AI-powered Marketing Technology (MARTECH) is widely adopted in the digital era, existing research has largely focused on its operational efficiency at the organizational level, leaving it unclear how individual employees leverage MARTECH to build strategic capability – a critical gap in the micro-foundations of digital transformation. Drawing on integrated self-control theory (ISCT), this study proposes a moderated mediation model in which work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) and nature exposure at work (NEAW) serve as sequential mediators, with creative self-efficacy (CSE) as a moderator. Using a three-wave research design and empirical evidence from a sample of 328 sales employees, this study reveals the cross-domain mechanism through which MARTECH use influences sales employees’ strategic capability. Results show that MARTECH use positively influences strategic capability, and this relationship is mediated both independently and sequentially by WCBA and NEAW – revealing an ‘outside-in’ cross-domain pathway from WCBA to NEAW. Moreover, CSE strengthens the positive effects of MARTECH use on both WCBA and NEAW. These findings demonstrate how employees integrate resources across work and non-work domains to build strategic capability, and offer practical guidance for organizations to support voluntary after-hours MARTECH use, incorporate nature into workplace design, and foster creative self-efficacy.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2703783 [Google]
Gui, C. L., X. Q. Wang, S. R. Ai, A. M. Deng and X. H. Wang (2026): Victim-centric perspectives on abusive supervision within hospitality organizations: a meta-analysis, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
This study uses a meta-analytic approach to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and employee antecedents and outcomes from the victim’s perspective. Data from 84 independent studies with 26,693 employees were collected and analyzed to examine hypothesized relationships and how they are influenced by institutional factors, including labor rights and power distance culture. Results show that abusive supervision is closely associated with various employee outcomes. Specifically, abusive supervision has the strongest effect on employees’ affective/strain-related outcomes, followed by cognitive and behavioral outcomes, with a relatively weaker impact on attitudinal outcomes. Moreover, the study found that the negative impacts of abusive supervision were partially moderated by labor rights and power distance culture. By providing the first meta-analysis on abusive supervision in hospitality, this study provides valuable insights for future research and practice, aiming to improve the theoretical understanding and practical strategies for managing abusive behavior in the workplace. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)84(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)26693(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic))(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)/(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2703781 [Google]
Gürlek, M. (2026): Green organisational culture: conceptualisation, scale development, and validation, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Green organisational culture is gaining more attention as it transforms environmental sustainability from a formality into an understanding that captures the soul of organisations and becomes a strategic priority for organisations. However, the green organisational culture still lacks a robust conceptualisation and measurement scale. In order to fill this gap, this study aims to conceptualise the green organisational culture and develop a scale for it. Four consecutive studies were conducted within the scope of the study; one of them was qualitative and three of them were quantitative. In the first study, qualitative research was conducted to reveal the nature of green organisational culture. For this purpose, data were gathered from the managers of some green hotels. In the following study, the scale was refined, validated, and its nomological validity was tested. Data for quantitative studies were collected from the managers and employees of these hotels. As a result, a 36-item scale consisting of 9 dimensions was developed. This study is expected to make a unique contribution to the literature as the first and most comprehensive study aiming to develop a green organisational culture scale.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2664587 [Google]
He, M. Q., T. D. P. Thi and N. T. Duong (2026): Understanding AI virtual try-on adoption and continuance: a multi-study approach, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
This study examines consumer behavior toward AI-powered virtual try-on platforms in beauty and fashion e-commerce using a dual-phase, mixed-method U&G framework. A qualitative phase (n = 15) supported candidate construct seeding, followed by a two-wave, temporally separated SEM survey design (T1 = 380; T2 = 347) to reduce common method bias. The first phase (T1) examines initial adoption intentions, revealing that convenience, entertainment, and perceived personalization positively drive usage intention, while enjoyment negatively moderates personalization due to hedonic expectation saturation – where highly entertained users emphasize exploratory self-presentation and cognitive fluency over outcome-driven personalization. The second phase (T2) investigates post-adoption continuance behavior, showing that information seeking, appearance enhancement, and social influence positively drive continuance intention, moderated by trust in AI output, forming a reinforcing AI-trust loop. This study refines U&G by incorporating hedonic saturation and AI-trust reinforcement, offering both theoretical and practical insights for immersive retail design in emerging digital markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2679543 [Google]
Hu, J. J., R. Lyu and G. F. Zhou (2026): When helping violates the rules: mindfulness-contingent effects of pro-customer deviance on employee service innovation, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Frontline employees in hospitality frequently engage in pro-customer deviance (PCD) – behaviors that violate organizational norms to enhance customer value. Such paradoxical conduct embodies simultaneous pressures for compliance and responsiveness, raising important questions about its role in service innovation. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping and self-regulatory theory, this study develops a moderated mediation model to examine how PCD influences employee service innovation through distinct cognitive mechanisms. Using time-lagged, multi-source data from employee-supervisor dyads in the hotel industry, the findings show that PCD fosters innovation among high-mindfulness employees but constrains it among those low in mindfulness. Moreover, paradox mindset and self-regulation impairment serve as mediators, reflecting dual cognitive pathways that explain these divergent outcomes. By conceptualizing PCD as a paradoxical stressor, this study enriches understanding of how frontline employees cognitively manage service paradoxes and provides insights for promoting innovation within compliance boundaries. (sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)-(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic):(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic);(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2702957 [Google]
Latif, M. S., G. Li, I. H. Bokhari and M. M. Hasan (2026): How AI compassion drives co-creation in digital health services, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
This study, grounded in service-dominant logic, examines how perceived AI compassion in online health communities is associated with user value co-creation behavior. Based on survey data from 338 older Chinese users, the findings show that AI compassion is positively associated with gratitude, which in turn is linked to co-creation behaviors such as participation and citizenship. The indirect effect is significant, supporting gratitude’s mediating role. Furthermore, user loneliness operates as a key boundary condition, weakening the positive relationship between AI compassion and gratitude and thereby attenuating the overall indirect effect. The study offers a novel, service-oriented account of AI as an affective actor, conceptualizing AI compassion as an operant resource that can foster healthier community ecosystems through the emotional mechanism of gratitude. The findings provide practical implications for designing compassion-competent and hybrid human-AI services that may support sustained user participation in digital health platforms.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2697068 [Google]
Liu, G. G. and P. Benckendorff (2026): ‘Simulate’ to ‘stimulate’: generative AI for causal and anticipatory service research, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Service research faces a temporal paradox: the futures most needing investigation often emerge faster than the methods available to study them. A central constraint is methodological lag, reflected in the limited capacity to create controlled variation in rapidly evolving service contexts. This paper treats Generative AI (GenAI) as a governed infrastructure for stimulus design in causal service research. It introduces CAUSAL (Conceptualize, Align, Utilize, Scrutinize, Assure, Legitimize), a six-phase protocol specifying how GenAI can responsibly generate, verify, and disclose research stimuli under controlled variation. CAUSAL distinguishes two pathways aligned with causal identification logic. In experimental designs, GenAI supports identification by generating parameterized, multimodal stimuli that vary only in focal elements while minimizing and empirically assessing non-focal variation. In quasi-experimental and observational designs, GenAI supports measurement and stimulus standardization, reducing noise without creating identification, which remains a function of research design and random assignment. The paper integrates GenAI into stimulus design while preserving the distinction between stimulus control and causal identification. The protocol provides actionable guidance, reporting standards, and decision rules that lower barriers to multimodal stimulus construction. Finally, the paper clarifies the inferential boundaries of anticipatory service research, identifying when stimulus sophistication enhances behavioral realism and when it amplifies speculative responding.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2684022 [Google]
Ng, M. (2026): Conceptualizing negative customer engagement: scale development and validation, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Despite the growing significance of negative customer engagement (NCE), existing measurement approaches remain limited in conceptual grounding and multidimensional coverage. This study develops and validates a multidimensional scale for NCE, encompassing negative attention, negative beliefs, negative affect, and negative behavioral intention. NCE is conceptualized as a reflective-formative, higher-order construct. Initial items were generated through a systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews. After preliminary testing, the instrument was administered to a large sample and refined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, yielding a psychometrically sound 17-item scale. Nomological validity was supported by a significant positive relationship between NCE and negative word-of-mouth (WOM). The multidimensionality of the scale enables researchers and managers to identify diverse patterns of customer negativity and to design targeted intervention strategies. This study advances engagement theory by conceptualizing NCE as a complex, multi-dimensional construct, and addresses previous measurement limitations through a systematic development and validation process.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2677655 [Google]
O’Cass, A., S. Sharifi, V. Siahtiri and A. Saniee (2026): Customer participation in service recovery: accounting for the role of customers’ perceived control and empowerment in hotel services, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Customer participation in service recovery is common, yet little is known about how different participation roles shape recovery evaluations. This gap is especially salient in hotels, where recovery often unfolds under time pressure and heightened emotions. We conceptualize participatory service recovery as involving two distinct customer roles: solution identification and solution implementation. Across three studies, we examine how these roles shape recovery satisfaction and whether perceived control and psychological empowerment help shape these effects. Study 1 uses the critical incident technique to identify role-specific participation behaviours and customers’ interpretations of their recovery involvement. Studies 2 and 3 use scenario-based experiments to test the effects of role-specific participation on recovery satisfaction and to examine a process linking solution identification, perceived control, psychological empowerment, and satisfaction. Results indicate that role-specific participation matters. Solution identification is associated with stronger recovery evaluations, but these benefits attenuate when customers are also required to implement the recovery. The findings are consistent with a process in which solution identification enhances perceived control and, in turn, psychological empowerment, particularly when implementation participation is absent. These findings suggest that participatory recovery should be understood not only in terms of how much customers participate, but also what role they perform. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic): (colon)(sic) (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)1(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)2(sic)(sic)(sic)3(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2695293 [Google]
Polat, I., R. Arica, O. Çakir and C. Çobanoglu (2026): Service co-creation and innovation in shaping airline passenger experience value, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
The airline industry is undergoing a profound digital transformation, marked by the widespread adoption of self- service technologies, data-driven personalization, and AI-enabled service tools. Yet these advancements have not consistently translated into improved customer experiences, revealing a gap between technological innovation and passengers’ lived service perceptions. Although Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) recognizes customers as co-creators of value, the process through which co- creation contributes to experiential outcomes remains insufficiently specified, particularly in complex service environments such as commercial aviation. This study builds on SDL to examine how customer co-creation bridges this gap by shaping perceived service innovativeness and, ultimately, the overall travel experience. Using survey data from 413 airline passengers and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings show that co-creation significantly enhances perceived service innovativeness, which emerges as the strongest predictor of customer experience. Perceived service innovativeness also partially mediates the relationship between co-creation and experience, suggesting that passenger participation activates innovation mechanisms that meaningfully enrich the travel journey. The study clarifies the relationship between co-creation, innovation, and customer experience and highlights the importance of integrating passengers into service development to ensure that technological investments yield value.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2675932 [Google]
Raza, M., M. I. Arfeen, M. I. Ishaq, A. Gul and T. Saleem (2026): Cyber incivility, cyberslacking, and negative reciprocity: moderation of digital well-being, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
The increasing use of digital communication in service organizations has introduced new workplace challenges, including cyber incivility, which can damage professional relationships and undermine employee performance. This study examines the effect of cyber incivility on cyberslacking, defined as employees’ use of the internet for non-work-related purposes during working hours. Drawing on social exchange theory, the study proposes a moderated mediation model in which negative reciprocity mediates the relationship between cyber incivility and cyberslacking, while digital well-being acts as a moderator. Data were collected through a three-wave, time-lagged survey of 394 public sector employees in Pakistan. The results of SmartPLS 4 analysis show that cyber incivility directly predicts cyberslacking and also indirectly influences it through negative reciprocity. Digital well-being weakens the direct relationship between cyber incivility and cyberslacking, but it does not significantly moderate the indirect relationship. This study contributes to the services management literature by explaining how digital mistreatment can lead to counterproductive workplace behavior. It also offers practical insights for promoting workplace civility and strengthening digital well-being in service organizations. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic);(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)'((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic))(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)394(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).SmartPLS 4(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)’, (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)’.(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic);(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2705880 [Google]
Umrani, W. A., U. Ahmed, O. R. Syed, R. A. Abdallah and S. Mustafa (2026): How inclusive leadership sparks service innovation: an uncertainty reduction perspective, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Grounded in Uncertainty Reduction Theory, this study examines how inclusive leadership fosters employees’ service innovation behaviour. Using a three-wave time-lagged design, data were collected from 347 frontline hotel employees in the hospitality sector in the Sultanate of Oman and analysed using PLS-SEM. The findings indicate that inclusive leadership positively influences service innovation behaviour both directly and indirectly through voice climate and creative self-efficacy. While the direct effects of innovation climate and creative self-efficacy on service innovation behaviour were not supported, the mediation results reveal significant indirect effects. In addition, innovation climate strengthens the relationship between inclusive leadership and service innovation behaviour. Theoretically, this study advances the literature by positioning inclusive leadership as an uncertainty-reducing mechanism that enhances predictability and confidence in employees’ innovative actions. Practically, the findings suggest that leaders who demonstrate openness, accessibility, and support can cultivate a climate that encourages employee voice and builds creative confidence, thereby promoting sustainable service innovation. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(Uncertainty Reduction Theory), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)347(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(PLS-SEM)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2662277 [Google]
Zhou, J., H. Y. Wang, Y. W. Lu and Y. Zhang (2026): Good stress or bad stress? A dual-pathway model of how AI-induced technostress shapes employee resilience, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
While AI is increasingly integrated into workplaces in the service industry, the mechanism by which AI-induced technostress shapes frontline employees’ adaptability remains unexplored. Drawing on the theory of stress and coping and conservation of resources theory, we examine the dual effects of AI-induced technostress – comprising technostress creators (AI-related job demands and pressures) and technostress inhibitors (organizational AI-related stress-relieving practices) – on employee resilience. We draw on evidence from three scenario-based experiments and a three-wave, multisource survey, yielding a total sample of 1,108 employees. The findings show that AI-induced technostress creators (AITC) undermine employee resilience (ER) by inhibiting job crafting (JC), whereas technostress inhibitors (AITI) enhance ER by facilitating it. We find that organizational support (OS) positively moderates the relationship between AITC and JC. However, contrary to our expectations, OS negatively moderates the link between AITI and JC. Furthermore, we unexpectedly found that family support (FS) weakens the effect of JC on ER. This study is among the first to examine both negative (technostress creators) and positive (technostress inhibitors) AI-induced stressors on ER via JC, while clarifying the boundary roles of OS and FS in shaping this adaptive process.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2681051 [Google]
Zhou, J., Y. Zhang and H. Y. Wang (2026): Development of the artificial intelligence powered service innovation capability scale, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
With the growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the service sector, there is increasing interest in understanding firms’ capabilities to innovate through AI. However, research on AI-powered service innovation capability (AISIC) remains limited by the lack of validated measurement instruments. This study addresses this gap by developing and validating a multidimensional scale to assess AISIC. Based on semi-structured interviews and three multi-source field studies, yielding a total sample of 848 employees, we provide evidence for the scale’s content, factorial, discriminant, convergent, and predictive validity. The final 9-item scale captures AISIC as a higher-order construct comprising three dimensions. Results show that the AISIC scale demonstrates strong psychometric properties and significantly predicts key organizational outcomes. This study offers a practical tool for assessing the extent to which organizations are equipped to drive service innovation through AI, contributing to both theory development and managerial practice in AI-powered service contexts.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2681048 [Google]
Zhou, Q. S., A. T. Yang, M. C. Zhao and Y. L. Xu (2026): How engagement metrics shape consumer decision-making in livestream commerce, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
Although on-screen engagement metrics (e.g. viewer counts, comments, and likes) in Livestream Commerce strongly correlate with sales, the soaring costs of traffic acquisition and the ambient noise of potential metric inflation cast doubt on their true Return on Investment. This study examines whether these metrics possess a genuine psychological persuasive effect beyond a simple mathematical scale effect. A randomized experiment (N = 495) confirms that high engagement metrics enhance Perceived Collective Engagement (PCE), increasing purchase intention via trust in the streamer and perceived product risk. Crucially, while product knowledge attenuates PCE’s effect on product risk, it does not weaken its effect on trust. Theoretically, this research validates Social Proof’s resilience in low-trust environments and refines the Elaboration Likelihood Model by demonstrating the object-dependent nature of social cues. Practically, the study warns that without a foundational trust infrastructure, inflated metrics merely provide a scale effect rather than a genuine persuasive advantage.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2686716 [Google]
Ziba, B., S. Katircioglu and N. Taspinar (2026): US AI media attention and state-dependent spillovers across AI markets, SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, (), pp.
The paper examines whether U.S. media attention to artificial intelligence (AI) is associated with equity-market spillovers in a state-dependent manner and whether AI-intensive sectors are disproportionately exposed during extreme market conditions. We construct a U.S. AI Media Attention Index (US-AIMAI) using a coverage-frequency-based approach that captures daily variation in AI-related news coverage in U.S. media. Using daily log returns from 03 January 2020-16 December 2025 for the KBW NASDAQ Financial Technology Index, the Nasdaq CTA Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Index, the MSCI Semiconductor and Semiconductor Equipment Index, and US-AIMAI, we estimate a quantile-based connectedness framework sensitive to tail dynamics. Results reveal pronounced nonlinearity: connectedness is muted near the center but intensifies in joint tails and across quantile regime shifts. Semiconductor spillovers are stronger and more persistent than those from AI-enabled FinTech. Overall, AI-related media narratives act as a regime-contingent risk amplifier, weakening diversification during heightened market stress.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2026.2696025 [Google]
Abdallah, T., R. L. Bray, H. Choi and V. Glinskiy (2026): The Impact of Market Growth on Delivery Speed: Evidence from JD.com, SERVICE SCIENCE, 18(2), pp.
This paper examines how rapid market expansion in e-commerce platforms can generate disparities in customer experience, focusing on fulfillment speed as a key operational outcome. Using granular order-level data from JD.com, we document a robust negative relationship between customer tenure and delivery time; newer customers systematically receive slower deliveries than legacy customers. We show that this lifetime effect is not explained by differences in customer preferences, order composition, or SKU availability but instead reflects frictions in the supply chain network. In particular, newer customers are more likely to reside in recently entered or logistically peripheral areas, where fulfillment infrastructure is less developed. Even after controlling for routes and urban context, the delivery gap persists, driven primarily by longer last-mile segments. We further show that regions with more centralized hub-and-spoke network structures exhibit larger disparities in delivery performance, whereas more decentralized configurations yield more uniform outcomes across cohorts. Together, these findings highlight the operational challenges of matching fulfillment capacity to demand in a spatially expanding market and underscore the need to align logistics strategy with patterns of customer growth.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2023.0081 [Google]
Kim, S. T., B. Palese and G. Piccoli (2026): Why Not All Managerial Responses Are Created Equal: A Causal Investigation of Their Effect on Online Review Systems’ Users, SERVICE SCIENCE, 18(2), pp.
Strategic and effective use of online review systems is a critical challenge for firms in the service industry, which can only participate in these systems while abiding by each system’s unique rules and designs. Through an experimental study, we extended the theoretical understanding and explored the practical benefits that firms can receive by writing managerial responses. We showed that topic-congruent responses have a strong positive influence on users’ purchase intention through increased trust and major trust antecedents, such as perceived diagnosticity and social presence. In positive reviews, both perceived diagnosticity and perceived social presence were significant mediators. On the other hand, for negative reviews, the only significant mediation was through perceived social presence. Our work complements previous research on personalized managerial responses, which mostly depends on archival data and does not provide causal insight into the individual mechanism behind the positive effects of writing managerial responses for the firm. The results of our study are useful to any firm that wants to optimize its managerial response strategy in online platforms by providing a detailed explanation of how potential customers can be influenced by the different strategies. We also expand the existing knowledge of how consumers develop trust and purchasing intentions in an electronic commerce environment when exposed to different managerial response strategies.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2024.0160 [Google]
Lai, C. Y., J. Yu, C. H. Lee, G. Y. Wang, S. A. Perdana, T. H. Chen and T. S. Yeh (2026): Shall You Get an Invasive Examination? An AI-Driven Risk Stratification Model for Individuals with Suboptimal Health Status, SERVICE SCIENCE, (), pp.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping healthcare as a service system in which people, processes, and digital technologies cocreate value. This study conceptualizes AI-driven risk stratification not merely as a predictive classifier, but as a governed service mechanism that supports proactive patient-centered resource allocation under real-world clinical constraints. We instantiate this perspective through a long-term chronic disease follow-up service for individuals with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). MASLD is a prevalent chronic metabolic condition associated with elevated colorectal adenoma risk. Using routine, noninvasive health examination data, the service supports a risk-stratified follow-up plan. The proposed framework integrates knowledge-guided attention, explainable AI, and threshold governance to align model behavior with clinical reasoning and operational priorities. The framework further links calibrated risk estimates to decision curve analysis to support transparent, capacity-aware screening decisions, enabling healthcare providers to prioritize invasive examinations for high-risk individuals whereas reducing unnecessary procedures for lower-risk populations. Empirical evaluation using 3,971 colonoscopy cases from a health examination cohort demonstrated strong recall-oriented screening performance together with clinically interpretable decision support. Accordingly, the study provides a transferable framework for AI-enabled healthcare service redesign, supported by knowledge-aligned decision making, governed resource allocation, and explainable transparency for accountability in a long-term chronic disease follow-up plan.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2025.0067 [Google]
Liu, M., Y. M. Bai, M. Qi and Z. J. Shen (2026): Inventory Management with Transformer: Automated Decision Making for Order Timing and Quantity, SERVICE SCIENCE, (), pp.
We design an automated decision-making system for inventory management using a Transformer-based neural network. Leveraging contextual information and historical data, the system makes two key decisions: (1) order timing and (2) order quantity. To accommodate random vendor lead times, we develop an imitation-learning framework, in which the Transformer imitates ex post optimal decisions computed from historical data to directly output inventory actions. The model adopts the GPT-2 architecture-an off-the-shelf large language model-for efficient fine-tuning under the inventory context. Our framework, InventoryGPT, addresses challenges faced by large e-commerce platforms that manage millions of stockkeeping units while serving customers with stochastic and nonstationary demand and leadtime patterns. By incorporating rich contextual data, the model learns to improve service levels and reduce costs. Empirical results using real-world data from a leading e-commerce platform show that InventoryGPT outperforms traditional and state-of-the-art benchmarks. Moreover, by carefully designing the Transformer’s input and output structures, the proposed InventoryGPT model achieves good interpretability. Our study highlights the potential of Transformerbased neural networks for large-scale decision making in service operations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2024.0236 [Google]
Miao, Y. H., C. Zlhang and Q. C. He (2026): Network Design and Service Operations for Heart Transplant Under Preservation-Extending Technology, SERVICE SCIENCE, 18(2), pp.
Despite efforts to increase the heart supply for transplantation, nearly 68.9% of donor hearts were unused. Current emphasis is placed on the information asymmetry between transplant candidates and the allocation system. Recently, a disruptive technology called the Organ Care System (OCS) has been shown to significantly extend heart preservation time. To improve heart utilization, this study develops an analytical and operational framework that jointly considers information asymmetry and OCS deployment. For patient self-selection of transplant centers with private information, we propose an incentive-compatible mechanism that encourages candidates to adhere to their declared willingness. For OCS deployment with a limited financial budget, we design a transplant network that maximizes patients’ social welfare. Theoretical analysis for small-scale transplant networks identifies equilibrium transplant menus, encompassing transplant rates and waiting times, for each transplant center. Specifically, we find that time-insensitive patients on the queue may be strategically delayed from receiving transplants when the sensitivity gap between patient types is small. This sensitivity gap is determined by the heart supply and the rate of time-insensitive patients. Case studies show that the OCS technology can improve social welfare and reduce organ wastage. Moreover, time-sensitive patients benefit more than time-insensitive patients. Empirical evidence confirms the existence of strategic delays, as verified in the theoretical analysis.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2024.0187 [Google]
Noham, R. and K. Smilowitz (2026): Dynamic Scheduling of Recurring Multisession Appointments with Heterogeneous Clients, SERVICE SCIENCE, (), pp.
Clients seeking paramedical and rehabilitation services require recurring treatment sessions over an extended period. Unlike single-visit problems, these services must assign each accepted client to a fixed, recurring day-time slot that remains occupied throughout the treatment program. This structure creates long-term capacity commitments that limit future scheduling flexibility and complicate acceptance decisions, particularly when clients differ in availability and required program durations. Motivated by an early intervention program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays, we study scheduling policies designed to address this combination of heterogeneity, uncertainty, and recurrence constraints. We model the multisession appointment scheduling problem as a Markov decision process in which requests arrive sequentially and decisions must consider both immediate feasibility and the long-term implications of blocking a slot across many periods. Our analysis identifies key structural elements of the scheduling decision, including a slot-selection guideline that assigns accepted clients to the least popular feasible slot and a duration-based threshold that characterizes acceptance behavior. These insights highlight the value of preserving flexibility and anticipating demand when scheduling recurring appointments under uncertainty. Building on these results, we develop a heuristic that groups schedule states into occupancy categories and applies simplified acceptance thresholds. Computational experiments show that this anticipatory approach outperforms first come, first served benchmarks, particularly when slot popularity is uneven or program durations vary widely. Whereas we do not model health outcomes directly, prior research links improved access, timely initiation, and continuity of care with better therapeutic results, underscoring the broader potential impact of more efficient scheduling.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2026.0025 [Google]
Soltani, M., A. Khademi and J. P. Kharoufeh (2026): Near-Optimal Replacement Policies for Offshore Wind Farms, SERVICE SCIENCE, (), pp.
We consider the problem of optimally maintaining an offshore wind farm wherein wind turbines progressively degrade over time because of normal usage and exposure to a randomly varying environment. The turbines exhibit both economic and stochastic dependence due to shared maintenance setup costs and their common environment. However, even modestly sized farms can be difficult to analyze because of dimensionality considerations. Our aim is to identify near-optimal replacement policies that minimize the total expected discounted setup, replacement, and lost production costs over an infinite time horizon. The problem is formulated using a Markov decision process model that becomes intractable as the number of turbines increases. Therefore, we introduce a novel value function decomposition within the approximate linear programming (ALP) framework that exploits the unique features of the problem. Using a column generation algorithm to solve the dual of ALP (DALP) formulation, we establish lower and upper bounds for the value function, enabling us to quantify the optimality gap, which is under 1% for homogeneous farms and between 4% and 6% for heterogeneous farms. Furthermore, we bound the optimality gap between the exact value function and the approximate one using the optimal solutions of the dual of the linear programming formulation and the DALP formulation. Finally, we provide conditions under which an optimal policy can be retrieved from the approximate value function. Our results offer invaluable guidance to wind farm operators on managing the high costs of offshore wind farm maintenance. Because a significant portion of wind energy costs are linked to the replacement of major components, near-optimal replacement policies may help reduce these costs and make wind energy more cost-effective. Through sensitivity analyses, we explain the impact of three key factors-the environment, shared setup costs, and the number of turbines-on the characteristics of these policies. Additionally, we provide insights into the structure of the near-optimal policies and explain nonintuitive behaviors within the context of offshore wind turbine farms.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2025.0001 [Google]
Sun, H., J. H. Zhao, H. Yang, S. H. Wang, H. Balakrishnan, T. W. Malone and H. Wang (2026): Vehicle-Based Multi-Services for Future Smart Cities, SERVICE SCIENCE, 18(2), pp.
Vehicles are crucial for sustaining socioeconomic activity and improving quality of life in modern cities by offering diverse services. These include passenger mobility, goods delivery, information acquisition, and acting as mobile servers such as food trucks and mobile lockers. At the same time, they also contribute to traffic congestion and air pollution. This tension fosters the rise of urban resource-conserving and sustainable service solutions. In this article, we introduce the concept of “Vehicle-Based Multi-Services” (VeMuS), in which a single vehicle offers multiple services simultaneously. Drawing on practical use cases, we examine service classification and integration for vehicles and the potential for the synergy effect and multitasking. We construct a general framework to study VeMuS and propose research questions in three key components: VeMuS design, VeMuS operations, and VeMuS evaluation. This article highlights the potential of VeMuS to create more sustainable, efficient, and adaptable urban services for future smart cities.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2025.01532026INFORMS [Google]
