Today, we identify service articles published in Marketing, Management, Operations, Productions, Information Systems, and Practitioner-Oriented Journals in the last months.
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Vargo, S. L. and H. Wieland (2026): An update of service-dominant logic: Extending the systems turn, JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, (), pp.
This article advances the theoretical development of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) by deepening its systems orientation and ontological grounding. Drawing on systems thinking and several relational ontologies, it axiomatizes service ecosystems as adaptive, self-regulating systems that emerge through recursive interactions as relational interdependencies of resource integration and service exchange become mutually compelling for value cocreation. This axiomatization clarifies and extends foundational concepts, including relational and systemic value cocreation, distributed agency, service ecosystems, and institutional coordination. Furthermore, the article restates S-D logic’s fourth axiom to explicitly disentangle value creation from its assessment, and from the phenomenological experience of value. Together, these refinements reconceptualize value cocreation as a recursive, system-level process, offering a more dynamic, relational, and temporally unfolding perspective of coordination and transformation that shape the ongoing viability of nested and evolving ecosystems. By elaborating and integrating key theoretical foundations, this work strengthens S-D logic’s role as a metatheoretical foundation for marketing and related disciplines and provides a roadmap for future research in complex, often digitally mediated, environments.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-026-01159-z [Google]
Le, K. B. Q., L. Sajtos and W. H. Kunz (2026): More than a collaborator: the rise of human-machine symbiosis in service frontlines, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 214(), pp.
In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), serving customers together in human-machine teams is becoming more common, but optimizing this teamwork is new and increasingly complex. The traditional concepts of Machine Augmentation (MA) and Human-Machine Collaboration (HMC) do not fully realize the full potential of this new technology. This article introduces Human-Machine Symbiosis (HMS) as a dynamic adaptation process between employees and machines through ongoing service interactions with customers. We conceptualize this process as a higher-order system (including MA and HMS) that builds on co-specialization, co-acting, and is uniquely driven by co-learning – a process comprising three interdependent activities – knowledge sharing, assimilation, and calibration, that jointly shape human-machine team performance over time. This research identifies task decomposability and machine trustworthiness as key facilitators of the co-learning process. Additionally, HMS can also influence firm innovativeness in the long run. The framework offers guidance on how service organizations can benefit from HMS and effectively integrate AI into frontline work.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116261 [Google]
Anning-Dorson, T. (2026): Strength in service: an Afrocentric framework for understanding customer vulnerability, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 216(), pp.
This paper develops and extends strength-based service theory to African service ecosystems by developing an Afrocentric Strength-Based Customer Vulnerability Framework (ASCVF) and translating it into a practical implementation model. Service vulnerability research predominantly reflects Western contexts, creating a significant gap in understanding culturally diverse service ecosystems. This study develops an ASCVF through an iterative, expert-informed qualitative study involving 20 experts across diverse African regions. The framework conceptualizes vulnerability as dynamic and culturally embedded, integrating three components: Dynamic Vulnerability-Strength Pathways, which capture vulnerability’s fluid nature alongside emerging capabilities; Collective Service Ecosystems, which emphasise community-level resources and informal networks; and Holistic Well-being Outcomes, addressing multiple aspects of service value. An accompanying Service Implementation Model converts these insights into practical guidelines for service innovation. Overall, the study contextualises and extends strength-based approaches beyond Western settings, specifying the cultural and collective mechanisms that shape vulnerability trajectories, resilience, and multi-dimensional well-being.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116363 [Google]
Bruder, M. and M. Paul (2026): Service robot failure: The interplay of monetary compensation and voice anthropomorphism, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 214(), pp.
Service robots are on the rise, but still prone to failures. Consequently, practitioners and researchers are interested in how service recovery and robots should be designed to optimize service failure and recovery situations. Key issues are the choice of recovery strategies and the design of service robots, particularly with regard to service robot anthropomorphism. Our results show that an anthropomorphic voice plays no role when monetary compensation is offered, as monetary compensation dominates customer evaluations. However, when firms choose not to provide monetary compensation, using an anthropomorphic voice improves evaluations. Building on social support theory, we show that customer perceived social support mediates this interaction. We show respective effects in five studies with different types of service robots, a male and female service robot voice, and different levels of monetary compensation. Two of these studies underpin the importance of voice relative to appearance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116260 [Google]
Buschgens, M., M. Makkar, B. Figueiredo and J. Lim (2026): Transformative perspectives on housing security and homelessness: a multi-level strengths-based approach to customer vulnerability in marketing and service practice, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 215(), pp.
This research aims to understand how the actions of multiple actors in a service ecosystem can shift from a deficit-based to a strengths-based approach in addressing customer vulnerability. Through a systematic literature review of 57 articles on housing security and homelessness in marketing and service research, this study uncovers actions and interactions across micro, meso, and macro levels, shedding light on how multiple actors can harness strengths to improve secure housing outcomes. The study identifies four strategic directions for shifting perspectives from homelessness to housing security: Dependency to Empowerment, Isolation to Inclusivity and Collaboration, Criticism to Constructive Engagement, and Stereotyping to Holistic Understanding. It introduces a framework for examining co-creation within service ecosystems, emphasising a multi-level strengths-based approach to facilitate interventions of customer vulnerability. This research provides a foundation for actionable strengths-based strategies and future research that can aid policymakers, service providers, and other actors in the housing sector.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116351 [Google]
Ceyssens, C., N. Verhulst and M. Vermeulen (2026): Stimulating older customers’ digital self-efficacy: A strengths-based approach to reduce digital vulnerability in augmented reality, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 216(), pp.
Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly embedded in services, offering older customers opportunities to build on existing capabilities. Yet older customers often experience digital vulnerabilities, undermining their beliefs in their ability to use AR. This paper adopts an explanatory mixed-methods design to study older adults’ digital selfefficacy (DSE) through a strengths-based approach. A survey of 1,032 older adults (Study 1) shows that DSE mediates attitudinal beliefs, control beliefs, and gerontechnology anxiety toward AR. Interviews with older customers and experts within their service ecosystems (Study 2) illustrate how DSE is shaped and co-enabled across individual, social, and service ecosystem levels. Our integrative framework demonstrates that opportunity creation, ability strengthening, and motivation building are the mechanisms through which DSE in emerging technologies is dynamically activated and co-created across various levels. This paper extends the strengthsbased approach to customer vulnerability by reframing older customers’ DSE as a developing strength shaped through a facilitating environment.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116364 [Google]
Choi, W., C. W. Ki and H. Y. H. Lee (2026): AI service robots in physical retail: Can they reduce the intrusiveness of human retail assistants and prevent shoppers from leaving the store early?, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 214(), pp.
Although in-store shopping has traditionally been viewed as enjoyable, recent industry reports suggest a contrasting reality: consumers increasingly describe it as socially taxing and psychologically stressful. Our preliminary study empirically supports this observation, demonstrating that consumers frequently experience stress-particularly perceived intrusiveness-in physical retail environments during interactions with human retail assistants (HRAs). Importantly, our findings further indicate that this sense of intrusiveness is largely driven by perceived judgment, which in turn triggers emotion-focused coping responses (prematurely leaving the store). Building on these preliminary findings and drawing on Transactional Stress Theory, we conducted five experimental studies in fashion and skincare retail contexts to examine whether artificial intelligence retail assistants (AIRAs) can disrupt this stress process and serve as a more comfortable alternative to HRAs: retail assistant type (HRA vs. AIRA)-* perceived judgment-* perceived intrusiveness-* emotion-focused coping (premature store departure). We also investigated whether service design cues (the presence vs. absence of smile) and consumers’ shopping goal clarity (low vs. high) function as boundary conditions within the proposed serial mechanism. Across five studies, the findings consistently support the proposed serial mediation effect (H2), as well as a direct effect of retail assistant type on store departure (H1). Moreover, the results reveal significant moderated mediation effects involving retail assistants’ smiling behavior (H3) and consumers’ shopping goal clarity (H4). Taken together, these findings suggest that AIRAs can alleviate an often-overlooked source of stress in physical retail environments-namely, the social-evaluative judgment and perceived intrusiveness embedded in human service interactions. These findings offer important implications for both theory and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116244 [Google]
Deng, C. D., Y. P. Chang and L. X. Geng (2026): The loneliness-enhancing effect of anthropomorphism: How anthropomorphic robots increase consumers’ loneliness, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 214(), pp.
As anthropomorphic robots are increasingly used in service settings, understanding their effects on vulnerable consumers is crucial. Based on expectation-confirmation theory, this research explored the effect of anthropomorphic robots in frontline services on transitorily lonely consumers through five core studies. Study 1 found that highly anthropomorphic robots increased loneliness in transitorily lonely consumers. Studies 2a and 2b confirmed this effect across both shorter and longer spans of loneliness. Study 3 identified experiential expectation violations as a mediator, in which robots raised expectations but failed to meet them, intensifying loneliness. Study 4 showed that these robots reduced consumers’ acceptance of robotic services and their attitudes toward the service provider. Human supervision was found to mitigate the negative impacts. This research advances the understanding of robot anthropomorphism, the expectation-confirmation theory, and consumer loneliness, providing practical insights for service robots that better address consumer needs.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116272 [Google]
Goosse, F., W. Hammedi and D. Mahr (2026): Empowering the visually impaired through smart voice assistants: a strengths-based approach to resilience ☆, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 216(), pp.
This study investigates how smart voice assistants (SVAs) can foster resilience among people with visual impairment by serving as strengths-based resources that mitigate vulnerability. Drawing on extensive qualitative data from studies performed with the assistance of three large nongovernmental organizations and adopting a strengths-based approach, we identify resilience pathways in which SVAs play five distinct roles in empowering individuals with visual impairments. Differentiating between congenital, innate vulnerability and acquired blindness, a contingent vulnerability, our findings additionally demonstrate that the time of vulnerability onset affects the development of resilience pathways.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116383 [Google]
Gottschalk, S. A., A. Lorenz-Kornfeld, Y. Oc and N. Eisler (2026): Customer responses to smart shopping carts in supermarkets, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 215(), pp.
Smart shopping carts are a promising in-store innovation, yet little is known about how shoppers use this technology. Adopting a descriptive empirics-first approach, we analyze field data (12,418 shopping sessions) from a major German supermarket to examine how smart cart usage is associated with key metrics such as basket size, basket value, and shopping duration. We find that smart cart usage is associated with higher spending, larger baskets, and longer in-store durations, with patterns varying by context such as time of day and day of the week. Among users, distinct behavioral patterns emerge. For example, shopping list uploaders are associated with higher basket value but smaller baskets and shorter trips, whereas “superusers,” defined by higher interaction levels, are associated with longer durations and more items. By providing behavioral evidence from real-world usage, this study advances understanding of observable shopping patterns among interactive in-store technology users in physical retail environments.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116337 [Google]
Hamdan, Q. and R. P. Fisk (2026): Upframing the strength-based approach: liberating the natural strength of birthright human identitye, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 216(), pp.
This conceptual article upframes the strength-based approach to customer vulnerability to address state-imposed vulnerability. Statelessness occurs when nation-states impose stigmatizing identities, rendering people invisible within service systems, repressing their human strengths, and trapping them in long-lasting, state-imposed vulnerability experiences. Drawing on design science, this article follows a two-step research design. First, the problem frame is conceptualized by elucidating state-imposed vulnerability and introducing the concept of birthright human identity, which we define as the natural strength that enables strengths, mutual responsibilities, and opportunities for humans in the service systems of planet Earth. Second, a conceptual artifact -the upframed strength-based approach- is developed by integrating Transformative Service Research concepts as wisdom levers to dislodge state-imposed identities and wisdom cranes to liberate birthright human identity. These contributions extend the strength-based approach by positioning identity as a foundational strength and enabling service systems to address macro-level, structurally imposed vulnerabilities.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116365 [Google]
Kim, E. E. K., S. H. J. Lee and K. Seo (2026): The impact of power distance belief and relative status on service evaluations, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 210(), pp.
While existing research has examined how the consumer’s power distance belief (PDB) shapes service perceptions, the role of the consumer’s relative status-shaped by reference points such as service providers and other customers-and its interplay with PDB remains largely unexplored. Through three studies, this paper examines how PDB moderates the relationship between relative status and service evaluations, particularly in service failure and recovery contexts. Study 1 demonstrates that PDB amplifies the effect of customer-provider status differences on service satisfaction, with stronger effects for individuals with higher PDB. Study 2 highlights how status, PDB, and compensation type jointly influence service recovery evaluations. Study 3 identifies perceived power as a critical mechanism linking status to entitlement and service recovery expectations, particularly among high-PDB individuals. This research advances understanding of how relative status and PDB jointly shape service evaluations and offers practical guidance for managing customer service interactions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116170 [Google]
Lyu, C. H., Y. Y. Jiang, M. S. Balaji and Y. Wang (2026): Synchronous technology-mediated service experience: conceptualization, scale development, and validation, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 210(), pp.
Synchronous technology-mediated services, such as Airbnb Online Experiences and Amazon Explore, represent a novel form of virtual services facilitated by synchronous technology and local service providers. The emergence of this virtual service not only challenges conventional physical services but also reshapes the landscape of virtual experiences. However, existing scholarly discourse provides limited insights into consumer experiences in this context. Consequently, this research aims to conceptualize, develop, and validate a measurement instrument for consumer experience in synchronous technology-mediated tourism services. Results from three empirical studies resulted in the development of a 21-item consumer experience scale consisting of four dimensions: immersive spatial telepresence, responsive provider engagement, experiential learning enhancement, and virtual co-experience. Additionally, consumer experience measured with this new scale positively impacts consumers’ psychological ownership, repurchase intentions, and recommendation intentions. These findings offer valuable insights for service providers and platforms in enhancing consumer experience and optimizing engagement in synchronous technology-mediated services.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116102 [Google]
Olajuwon-Ige, O. and E. Briggs (2026): Designing and delivering services with stories: how service stories and consumer transportability affect the customer experience and outcomes, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 210(), pp.
Service design scholars and service providers have long explored the application of stories in the design of experiential services to enhance the customer experience. Our understanding, however, of how stories influence the customer experience and customer intentions during the actual delivery of services remains limited. To advance knowledge in this area, we conducted two experiments in which services were designed and delivered with and without stories. The data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Our findings indicate that incorporating a story does enhance the customer experience, but this effect is fully mediated by customer-perceived narrative structure. We also proposed that customer transportability, an individual-level trait, plays a key role in influencing customer-perceived narrative structure, though the evidence supporting this effect was mixed. Overall, our study provides useful insights for scholars and managers on how to more effectively leverage the power of stories to enhance the customer experience.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116169 [Google]
Raciti, M. M. (2026): Indigenous-informed strengths-based approaches to supporting customers experiencing vulnerability in service ecosystems, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 210(), pp.
This paper assembles key Indigenous concepts and culturally adapts them into resources for use by mainstream services to support all customers experiencing vulnerability. Using Bartlet et al.’s (2012) Two-Eyed Seeing approach, eight influential Indigenous concepts were chosen for their capacity to extend existing service thinking beyond Western assumptions, being: cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), radical hope (Lear, 2006), survivance (Vizenor, 1999), thrivance (Baumann, 2023), relationality (Moreton-Robinson, 2017), storying (Phillips & Bunda, 2018), Dadirri (Ungunmerr-Baumann, 2022) and Indigenous self-determination (Rademaker & Rowse, 2020). Drawing on the author’s lived experience as an Indigenous marketing scholar, eight principles, a micromeso-macro framework, and a reflective questioning tool were developed to assist service marketers. As Indigenous knowledges are inherently strengths-based and holistic, these resources apply across all forms of customer vulnerability and service ecologies. A positionality-informed protocol guides appropriate use across Indigenous and non-Indigenous service contexts. These Indigenous-informed resources provide the opportunity to enrich service ecologies.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116167 [Google]
Ranjan, K. R., S. Rohit and M. Wetzels (2026): Antecedents, outcomes, and contingencies of customer engagement: a meta-analytic review, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 215(), pp.
Customer engagement (CE) has attracted tremendous research interest over the last decade and has gained prominence in practice. Surprisingly, despite the attention, little research offers conclusive evidence on the conceptual scope of CE, its drivers, and outcomes. To this end, we first review CE research to offer a well-delineated understanding of CE, and then conduct a meta-analysis to provide a unified view of its key drivers and outcomes. We also explain how these main-effects vary due to important contextual and study related factors. We conceptualize CE from both psychological and behavioral perspectives and discuss a comprehensive theoretical framework that comprises seven key customer-related drivers, and eight important customer-and firm-related outcomes of CE, which were tested using 1369 specific effect sizes from 349 research papers (using 385 independent studies), with a cumulative sample size of 173,363 respondents. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of our findings and suggest pathways for future research.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116335 [Google]
Rosenbaum, M. S. and K. Passyn (2026): Advancing strengths-based methodologies for transformative service research, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 210(), pp.
A new methodological framework is introduced to advance Transformative Service Research (TSR) concerning consumers experiencing vulnerability. A comprehensive analysis of empirical literature demonstrates the field’s dominant reliance on traditional, primarily researcher-centered methods, such as interviews and focus groups. This methodological narrowness limits the extent to which consumer strengths, resilience, and adaptive practices are captured across issues such as aging, physical disability, and financial insecurity. This work counters the methodological imbalance by delineating five underutilized, participant-centered approaches: participatory action research, grounded theory, storytelling, visual methods, and consumer neuroscience and implicit approaches. These methods are carefully selected to structurally mitigate power differentials, amplify marginalized voices, and reveal embodied or implicit consumer insights. The research provides a systematic roadmap for advancing the use of these techniques in TSR, addressing essential ethical considerations, and offering practical guidelines for inclusive research design. The framework informs future research aimed at better understanding consumer agency, resilience, and inclusion within service systems. Beyond extending TSR’s methodological repertoire, the framework shows how strengths-based approaches reveal new dimensions of vulnerability, thereby advancing theoretical understanding of resilience and inclusion within service systems.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116166 [Google]
Tam, W., O. Merlo and A. B. Eisingerich (2026): How can hedonic digital services enhance consumers’ perceived quality of life?, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 216(), pp.
Hedonic digital services such as games and music streaming claim a growing share of consumers’ time, yet how they shape perceived quality of life remains poorly understood. Across one qualitative and two quantitative studies in gaming and music streaming, we show how distinct service benefits (productivity-enhancing, sensorially pleasing, and cognitively stimulating) enhance perceived quality of life through three mechanisms: dependability, entertainment, and flow. In both contexts, flow contributes over and above dependability and entertainment, and perceived quality of life predicts consumers’ real-money purchase decisions, demonstrating that the well-being a service provides has direct financial consequences for the firm. By integrating flow into the consumer-digital service relationship literature, the research clarifies how functional and hedonic benefits operate through distinct psychological paths, and shows that providers can strengthen well-being and engagement by balancing dependability and entertainment with features that foster flow.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116412 [Google]
Weng, W. M., Z. X. Yang and S. Y. Yu (2026): Price versus service satisfaction: the role of direct and indirect leasing in the B2B sector, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 215(), pp.
This study examines how direct versus indirect leasing influences business tenants’ satisfaction and willingness to renew the lease in the business-to-business (B2B) real estate sector. Using survey data from 303 small and medium business tenants in Shenzhen, China, we find that direct leasing significantly enhances tenants’ price satisfaction, while indirect leasing improves their service satisfaction. In general, indirect leasing leads to lower overall satisfaction, reduced willingness to renew, and less likelihood to recommend. The influence of leasing methods on overall satisfaction, renewal, and recommendation likelihood is moderated by firm characteristics: high-productivity firms (measured by sales per employee) and larger firms (measured by employee size) experience reduced negative effects from the higher costs associated with indirect leasing. This study contributes to B2B marketing and channel governance research by clarifying how leasing governance structures shape multidimensional tenant value beyond rent-level considerations and offers practical implications for landlords and intermediaries to design segment-specific leasing and service bundles in emerging markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116312 [Google]
Bardhi, F., G. Eckhardt and G. Vignali (2026): Access-based consumption revisited, JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, (), pp.
Access-based consumption, defined as transactions that may be market mediated in which no transfer of ownership takes place, is conceptualized by Bardhi and Eckhardt (2012). While it was introduced to explore consumer engagement in the sharing economy, conceptually it challenges the dominant assumption of ownership in marketing. This paper reflects on the impact of ABC and its boundary conditions. We critically interrogate and expand on five challenges of the original concept: the static dichotomy of access versus ownership; its transactional framing; its lack of identity value; its treatment of ideology; and its reliance on one context. We discuss the implications of ABC for marketing research related to: a prosumer role of the consumer; its ambivalent responsibility and governance; the bundled, or layered notions of access/ownership for digital ownership; as well as its implications for platformized consumption, which reinforces its instrumental sociality, and where value is extracted through data rather than ownership.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-026-01176-y [Google]
Juquelier, A., S. Hazée, Y. Van Vaerenbergh and I. Poncin (2026): Automated social presence in artificial agents: A conventional and qualitative comparative meta-analysis, JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, (), pp.
As firms increasingly deploy artificial agents with social capabilities, the effectiveness of automated social presence (ASP), defined as agents’ ability to evoke the perception of interacting with a socially present other, has become a top research priority. However, empirical findings remain mixed and fragmented. This study meta-analytically integrates 165 studies (N = 54,917) to clarify ASP’s effects, underlying mechanisms, boundary conditions, and antecedents. The results reveal that ASP is strongly and positively associated with customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty, and shows a weaker relationship with psychological well-being. A mediation analysis shows that social cognition and psychological ownership drive distinct outcome pathways. Moreover, ASP’s effects weaken in emotionally charged and long-term encounters. Finally, a crisp-set qualitative comparative meta-analysis, using a novel two-dimensional taxonomy of artificial agent design characteristics, reveals how multiple configurations of capability (knowledge domain, interaction modality, interaction flexibility) and identity features (appearance, name, female gender) interact in shaping ASP. These findings refine theoretical understanding of ASP and offer insights for designing artificial agents that evoke ASP.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-026-01177-x [Google]
Mittal, V., S. Singh and A. Malshe (2026): Customer satisfaction: A multi-level framework, JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, (), pp.
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a central construct in theory and practice; yet its role as a strategic resource is often underappreciated. This article synthesizes the conceptual foundations, measurement approaches, empirical findings, and managerial applications of CSAT research. This article defines CSAT as a post-consumption evaluative judgment of whether customers receive the promised value, and distinguishes it from related constructs such as service quality, engagement, loyalty, experience, and value. Drawing on multiple scales and a comparative study across consumer demographics, we demonstrate that widely used CSAT measures exhibit strong convergent validity. A historical review of the evolution of CSAT research highlights the multi-level nature of the resulting frameworks, providing individual-, firm-, and industry-level insights. Furthermore, we use a large-scale dataset of more than 285 million ratings across 1,126 brands to replicate and extend prior meta-analytic evidence and show that CSAT is robustly associated with customer mindset metrics, accounting outcomes, and stock market performance. Finally, we develop micro-, meso- and macro-level conceptual frameworks and outline a forward-looking, multi-level research agenda to revitalize CSAT scholarship and practice.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-026-01175-z [Google]
Allred, N. and K. P. Winterich (2026): Repair Service Signals: How Brand Repair Services Signal Unused Utility and Increase Product Repair, JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, (), pp.
Over the past several decades, there has been a shift toward disposable consumption resulting in a “throwaway society,” which includes replacing rather than repairing broken durable goods. Third-party repair services exist even as consumers choose to replace over repair, but more brands are offering repair services directly or supporting repair services through certifications. If consumers simply prefer newer products, brand repair services should not deter replacement through promoting repair. However, this research proposes that unlike third-party repair services, brand and brand-certified repair services signal unused utility in non-fully functioning products, increasing repair. This effect is demonstrated across two field studies and four lab experiments. Drawing upon the role of unused utility, the findings show that the signal from brand repair services is not needed to drive repair when consumers have domain expertise or products hold sentimental value as repair occurs in such cases without an unused utility signal from the brand. However, when product upgrades are salient, consumers’ motivation to upgrade attenuates the effect of brand repair services on unused utility, decreasing repair likelihood. This research makes substantive contributions to sustainability efforts to mitigate overconsumption, offers implications for brand and third-party managers, and contributes to signaling theory and unused utility literature.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucag009 [Google]
Rogge, N. D., A. Lamovsek and S. Batistic (2026): AI meets IA: A typology of GenAI-supported work through individual ambidexterity, BUSINESS HORIZONS, 69(4), pp.477–491
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reshapes job roles and creates new challenges for workforce adaptation, managers require a clear framework to navigate this transformation. This study develops a typology of GenAI-supported work grounded in individual ambidexterity (IA), which highlights employees’ capacity to balance exploration and exploitation while navigating competing demands. A thorough review of the literature and empirical examples revealed four GenAIenabled work types: (1) design and innovation, (2) data analysis and insight evocation, (3) customer service and engagement, and (4) content generation and optimization. These work types reflect the interplay of two critical IA tensions: (1) specialization [generalist vs. specialist] and (2) task routinization [routine vs. nonroutine], offering insights into how employees can adapt their skills and roles. Our findings provide actionable recommendations for workforce development, including designing targeted skill-building programs, implementing ethical guidelines, and fostering empowering organizational environments. We address the psychological and procedural challenges of integrating GenAI into workplaces and propose strategies to align workforce transformation with policy objectives. By bridging theoretical insights with practical recommendations, this study provides managers with a structured roadmap for cultivating an ambidextrous and resilient workforce in the era of GenAI. (c) 2025 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2025.06.006 [Google]
Fay, S. and A. Kozehgaran (2026): Learning from service experience ratings: effects on experience quality, credence quality, and customer satisfaction, JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 102(2), pp.353–370
This paper examines the effects of service experience ratings (SERs) in service industries. SERs are defined as consumers’ assessments of a service encounter (typically on a 3-, 5-, or 10-point numeric scale) that are made immediately after the encounter. We conceptualize SERs as being a mechanism for retailers to observe how much effort employees expend on the provision of experience quality. Using a principal-agent analytical model in which the worker provides credence quality for altruistic reasons and SERs enhance customers’ recognition of the experience quality that is delivered, we investigate whether a retailer should solicit SERs, how SERs influence a worker’s expenditure of effort on experience and credence qualities, and the impact of SERs on customer retention. SERs present a fundamental tradeoff between the benefits from heightened customer satisfaction (which generates future profit) and larger costs (due to monitoring costs and additional compensation to induce the worker to exert more effort). We find that soliciting SERs is profitable for a retailer when the cost of administrating surveys is low, most consumers appreciate the effort workers devote to providing experience attributes, consumers expect a low service quality, and satisfied customers generate high future profit. The nuanced effects of SERs lead to several surprising results. For example, it may be optimal for the retailer to respond to higher expectations about quality by providing a lower-quality service. Also, although SERs only assess experience quality, it is possible that SERs may become more beneficial when consumers highly value credence quality. Another intriguing result is that there are situations in which SERs do not enhance a retailer’s profit even if were costless to collect this information. For example, higher worker altruism may eliminate the incentive to collect SERs and, as a result, lead to fewer customers being satisfied with the service.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.12.005 [Google]
Ge, R. C., E. de Haan, P. C. Verhoef and S. Zhang (2026): Location still matters: How geographic proximity between customers shapes repeat purchase behavior in online food delivery services, JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 102(2), pp.315–332
Online food delivery (OFD) services have developed rapidly. By extending service areas, OFD platforms allow restaurants to reach more customers, shifting the focus from the restaurant’s location to the customer’s location. This study investigates the influence of geographic proximity between customers on repeat purchase behavior at a restaurant chain via an OFD service and examines the moderating role of location-specific characteristics from both the supply and demand sides. We analyze 93,987 purchase records from 26,503 customers over a five-month period, sourced from a restaurant chain partnered with an OFD platform. Using a spatial econometric model, we find that customers who live close to one another exhibit similar repeat purchase behavior, which is consistent with prior research on adoption. We extend prior research by showing that on the supply side, offline competition from food retailers like supermarkets or from physical restaurants weakens the proximity effect. In contrast, online competition from other restaurants that offer home delivery intensifies the proximity effect. On the demand side, business density amplifies the proximity effect. Our findings can help restaurants and OFD platforms better leverage geographic proximity between customers to promote repeat purchases.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.12.002 [Google]
Testa, D. S. and K. Slaton (2026): The future is phygital: integrated content analysis of current retail strategies and future priorities across digital, physical, and phygital modalities, JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 102(2), pp.566–581
The aim of this research is to identify current strategies and future priorities within slow-moving consumer goods (SMCG) retail as they relate to physical, digital, and phygital modalities, enabling us to draw insights relating to the future of the metaverse in retail. Within our exploration, we analyzed published reports of internal retail stakeholders including brands and retailers, and external retail stakeholders including professional service firms and consumers. Results indicate current strategies emphasizing digital engagement, enabling self-expression and individualization through the metaverse and digital assets. However, an impending shift for future priorities integrates physical and digital to create phygital experiences. Thus, stakeholders expect that the future of metaverse retailing lies in integrated experiences, including physical and digital touchpoints, for an immersive experience.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2025.04.006 [Google]
Gnewuch, U. and F. Reinkemeier (2026): OVERCOMING BREAKDOWNS IN CUSTOMER-CHATBOT INTERACTION: DESIGN AND IMPACT OF COLLABORATIVE REPAIR STRATEGIES, MIS QUARTERLY, 50(2), pp.497–526
When chatbots are deployed to automate customer service, it is nearly inevitable that situations will arise in which they struggle to understand customer requests. Unfortunately, the onus of resolving such conversational breakdowns tends to fall on either the customer or the chatbot alone, turning customerchatbot interaction into a frustrating and often unsuccessful guessing game. Despite indications that customers would be open to collaboration, we know little about repair strategies that involve the customer and chatbot working together to resolve breakdowns. Our research addresses this gap by investigating the design and impact of collaborative repair strategies in customer-chatbot interaction. Drawing upon an integration of the theory of least collaborative effort with research on human-machine communication and customer service chatbots, we propose a novel repair strategy design; we instantiated it in the chatbot of a large insurance company and conducted a naturalistic summative evaluation through a randomized field experiment. Overall, our results suggest that a collaborative repair strategy can lead to more breakdowns being resolved and mitigate the negative impacts of breakdowns on key customer outcomes. Our research offers a new way of thinking about customer-AI service interactions by shifting the narrative from confrontation to collaboration, extends the theory of least collaborative effort by integrating the perspective of customer-chatbot interaction, and provides in-depth insights into breakdown and repair in real-world conversations between customers and chatbots.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2025/18742 [Google]
Li, Y. J., S. Yao, Z. B. Wang and Y. Q. Guo (2026): To Adopt or Not: The Paradox of AR Fitting Technology in Retail Channels, INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH, (), pp.
Fitting rooms in brick-and-mortar stores play a critical role in shaping the consumer experience. Unlike online retailing, the long service times in fitting rooms often lead to congestion in a physical store, which lowers the service satisfaction of consumers. To address this challenge, a growing number of fashion brands are adopting augmented reality (AR) fitting technologies, enabling consumers to virtually try on garments and thus bypass traditional waiting periods. Despite these advancements, AR technologies often fall short of providing an accurate representation of how clothing fits, resulting in potential mismatches between consumer expectations and the actual product. This paper investigates the impact of integrating AR fitting technologies into physical retail stores-an area that remains underexplored in the current literature. We introduce a queueing-gametheoretic model that captures the operational dynamics of AR applications in congestionprone systems, wherein both the substitution and complementarity effects are considered. Our results are as follows. First, although AR technology serves as a complementary service to traditional fitting rooms, its adoption may lead to a decline in retailer revenue- even when implementation costs are excluded-particularly in markets of intermediate size. Second, for fixed-price clothing (e.g., luxury brands), adopting AR fitting applications can simultaneously enhance both retailer revenue and consumer surplus when the market size is large, leading to a win-win situation. However, for adjustable-price clothing (e.g., fast-fashion brands), adopting AR technology may trigger a higher price, reversing the benefits of AR on the consumers. As a result, a lose-lose situation may be caused by introducing the AR channel: an analog to the Downs-Thomson paradox. Furthermore, we caution that a higher level of AR technology may inadvertently intensify its negative impact. To validate the robustness of our main insights, we further extend our analysis to settings with online AR, retailer competition, and dynamic decision making, among others.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.1425 [Google]
Yuan, L., A. Kim, M. Seymour and A. R. Dennis (2026): Celebrity-as-a-Service: Trust and Willingness to Use Digital Twins for Customer Service, JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS, 43(2), pp.335–367
A digital twin is an artificial intelligence (AI)- or human-controlled avatar that replicates a specific person’s identity. While organizations have used digital twins of employees (e.g. digital doctors answering patients’ questions), a more common use is celebrity-as-a-service, where digital twins of celebrities interact with customers. Unlike traditional celebrity endorsements in marketing videos, these digital-twin agents interact directly with consumers. Although digital twins do not enhance the underlying AI or human agents’ capabilities, their appearance as a specific person can influence users’ perception. Across two experiments, we found that when a digital twin resembled a celebrity, regardless of whether it was AI- or human-controlled, it was perceived to be more capable, benevolent, and trustworthy, leading to greater user engagement. Even when errors occurred, the celebrity’s likeness reduced negative reactions, suggesting that celebrity effects can buffer against algorithm aversion. Practically, digital celebrity twins offer business value comparable to traditional celebrity endorsements, influencing user trust and service adoption despite identical underlying performance.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2026.2647472 [Google]
Eva, N., E. M. Hunter, M. J. Neubert and M. Wood (2026): Signalling servant leadership: How followers interpret leader behaviours, JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, (), pp.
Based on over 25 years of studies on servant leadership and multiple meta-analyses, we can safely say servant leadership positively affects individuals, teams, and organizations. Yet to reap these benefits, followers need to recognize leaders’ behaviours as servant leadership. Because serving others requires time and energy, leaders may bear the costs of servant leadership without generating its benefits when those efforts go unrecognized. To address this concern, we draw on signalling theory to examine how leaders convey servant-oriented intentions through observable, costly behaviours. We test our hypotheses across three experiments, two conjoint analyses and one between-subjects video-based study to examine how followers interpret multiple leader and organizational signals. Our findings help explain the behaviour-perception mechanism through which leaders come to be recognized as servant leaders, while highlighting the complexities leaders face in signalling their intentions to followers. We show that leaders signal servant leadership through observable, costly service-oriented behaviours, such as helping followers grow and succeed, and need to engage in these behaviours frequently and consistently. We further show that the efficacy of these signals depends on followers’ levels of prosocial motivation and the signalling environment in which the leader operates, providing evidence of how followers interpret multiple signals.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.70116 [Google]
Masorgo, N., D. D. Dobrzykowski, C. S. Tang and B. S. Fugate (2026): There Is More to Crowdshipping Than Money: Understanding How Operational Characteristics Influence Driver Behaviors, JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, 72(5), pp.710–729
The increasing cost of last-mile delivery has motivated omnichannel grocery retailers to implement crowdshipping. Crowdshipping is a platform-based last-mile delivery model that relies on engaging drivers who are independent contractors to quickly accept delivery tasks. While studies often focus on the impact of monetary incentives, we draw on perspectives from the service operations literature to explore the moderating effect of three theoretical mechanisms (effort efficiency, uncertainty, and utility), on the curvilinear relationship between monetary incentives and driver engagement. Specifically, we test how delivery density, delivery type (attended vs. unattended), and time of the day interact with monetary incentives to influence driver’s task acceptance response time. Econometric analyses of a dataset comprising about two million observations from a US Fortune 100 grocery retailer’s crowdshipping platform confirm the “diminishing negative” effect of remuneration on task acceptance time. More importantly, we reveal that task operational characteristics affect how monetary incentives influence task acceptance time. While task density and unattended deliveries amplify the curvilinear relationship, evening tasks flatten it and are accepted slower than those scheduled in the daytime. Our findings suggest that drivers evaluate tasks based on perceived effort, uncertainty, and utility, offering valuable insights for platforms and future research.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joom.70046 [Google]
Baghirov, F. (2026): AI vs. human in customer service: how attribute type changes the game, MARKETING LETTERS, 37(1), pp.
This research examines how AI chatbots and human representatives influence customer conversion through two core social-perception dimensions: warmth and competence. Across two studies using real conversational data and an experiment, the findings show that human agents elicit higher warmth, while AI chatbots demonstrate greater competence. Warmth has a stronger effect on customer conversion than competence. Attribute type-search, experience, and credence-moderates these effects: AI competence is most beneficial for search tasks, whereas human warmth is most beneficial for experience and credence tasks requiring trust and reassurance. This study provides an incremental, evidence-based contribution by showing when AI or human service modes are more effective in driving conversion, without relying on untested psychological mechanisms. The findings offer practical guidance for designing hybrid customer-service strategies in AI-integrated environments.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-026-09822-9 [Google]
Chen, W. Y., R. Z. Yuan and M. J. Liu (2026): Companionship as Service: The Psychological Efficacy of Commercialized Interactions in Reducing Loneliness, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Loneliness is a pervasive public health concern, yet the efficacy of emerging commercial interventions remains understudied. Paid companionship service-transactional, stranger-based encounters designed to provide connection-represents a novel market response, but their psychological impact is less understood. We conceptualized this emerging service as a market-mediated relational exchange, a unique service logic that leverages transactional efficiency to deliver the high-intensity relational value. This research employed a mixed-methods design to investigate the psychological pathways through which this service operates. A qualitative study (Study 1) first explored consumers’ lived experiences with commercialized interactions, uncovering a spectrum of potential mechanisms and contextual contingencies. Among these, the mediating role of state social connection and the moderating influence of social presence emerged as the most empirically pivotal and theoretically robust pathways for loneliness reduction. Subsequently, two experiments (Study 2) rigorously tested the hypothesized mechanisms. Results demonstrated that paid companionship significantly reduced immediate feelings of loneliness compared to control conditions. This effect was statistically mediated by an enhanced sense of state social connection. The service’s efficacy was, however, context-dependent: the presence of an out-group audience (a form of social presence) moderated the effect, amplifying the reduction in loneliness. Our findings also highlighted its potential long-term challenges driven by consumers’ boundary work to navigate between market and social logics, including the risks of emotional dependency and diminishing marginal utility over time. This research provided the first empirical evidence for the psychological efficacy of paid companionship, detailing both its immediate restorative benefits and its contextual and temporal limitations.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70162 [Google]
Chen, X. Y., M. X. Huang and X. D. Xie (2026): Do Not Think Ahead of Me: High-Personalization Chatbots Can Backfire During the Goal Formation Stage, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), firms are eager to harness the power of AI for customer service by deploying high-personalization chatbots to actively capture real-time consumer behaviors and provide personalized services across the decision stages. Prior research has highlighted the benefits of chatbot personalization and regards it as a firm’s competitive advantage. However, consumers do not seem to favor high-personalization chatbots throughout different decision stages. Across five studies, this research demonstrates that high-personalization chatbots may backfire in the goal formation stage. However, this is not the case for consumers in the goal fulfillment stage. The authors reveal the underlying mechanism, namely reduced decision autonomy driving this adverse effect, and demonstrate the moderating effect of whether consumers have interdependent selves (vs. independent selves). These findings suggest that it is vital for firms to carefully adopt high-personalization chatbots and consider the specific decision stages in chatbot deployment, particularly the goal formation stage.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70189 [Google]
Meyer-Waarden, L. and J. Cloarec (2026): The Contextual Autonomy Principle: When and Why Social Service Robots Are Perceived as Ethical, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
As social service robots move into both public and private settings, perceived ethicality becomes a key condition of adoption. We propose that the same robotic capability can acquire different ethical meanings depending on context, governance form, and social presence. Across three studies, we show that restaurant (vs. home) deployment increases perceived ethicality, which in turn increases intention to use. We further show that human-in-the-loop oversight is evaluated as more ethical than full autonomy in the home, whereas the reverse emerges in restaurants, primarily when social presence is high. Guided neural topic modeling further reveals that practical utility is more salient in homes, whereas dining innovation is more salient in restaurants. These findings advance a contextual autonomy principle, position perceived ethicality as a legitimacy judgment that links context and governance to adoption, and identify social presence as the condition under which robot governance becomes morally diagnostic.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70222 [Google]
Miederer, S., K. Gelbrich, H. Roschk and M. Hosseinpour (2026): Agent-Related Perceptions of Automated Versus Human Agents and the Role of Task-Related Risk: A Meta-Analysis, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Firms often seek to replace human agents (HAs) with automated agents (AAs) for customer service, but customers still tend to react more negatively to AAs than to HAs. This meta-analysis examines agent-related perceptions (i.e., humanlikeness, warmth, and competence), which represent the key upstream customer reactions shaping downstream responses. Specifically, it clarifies the hierarchy of these perceptions and examines the moderating effect of task-related risks (i.e., functional, psychological, and social) on these perceptions. Meta-analytic path modeling with subgroup analyses, including 1191 effect sizes, provides novel insights. First, there is indication that perceived humanlikeness is not a prerequisite for perceived warmth and competence; all three perceptions emerge in parallel. Second, tasks entailing functional or psychological risk largely weaken the negative perceptions of AAs (vs. HAs). For psychologically risky tasks, AAs are not perceived as less competent than HAs. Tasks entailing social risk largely strengthen the negative perceptions of AAs (vs. HAs). These findings challenge two prevailing assumptions in the services marketing literature: that customers favor humans over AAs simply because they are not humanlike and that risk generally discourages AA usage. The results have important managerial and future research implications.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70216 [Google]
Olya, H., A. Nazifi, B. Taheri and H. Y. Li (2026): When and How Does Generative AI Outperform Human Agents in Service Recovery?, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Exploring the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in service failure and recovery (SFR) remains a growing area of research. However, understanding how generative AI (GenAI) performs in SFR remains unknown. Using a multi-method approach comprising two preliminary studies (qualitative interviews and a lab experiment) and four online experiments in different live streaming contexts, we investigate the impact of GenAI compared with human agents on consumer repurchase intention, following single and double deviations. Drawing on Cognitive Appraisal Theory (CAT), we show that GenAI, compared with human agents, leads to higher repurchase intention after a single failure. Conversely, human agents generate higher repurchase intention after a double deviation. We identify empathy and compensation as moderating factors in a double deviation context. Specifically, a high level of empathy leads to GenAI outcomes on par with those achieved by human agents, and compensation enhances recovery outcomes for GenAI beyond those of human agents. These effects are mediated by promotion emotion, while rival mechanisms (i.e., frustration and helplessness) are ruled out. These findings offer actionable guidance to live-streaming platforms, game developers, and online event organizers on using GenAI for single failures and human agents for complex double deviations, enhancing promotion emotion and repurchase intentions.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70159 [Google]
Qian, Y. M., C. Velasco and X. A. Wan (2026): The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Co-Experience on Consumer Loneliness: The Role of Culture and Experience Valence, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
This research investigates whether AI-mediated co-experience can alleviate consumer loneliness and improve service evaluations and examines how these effects vary across cultural contexts. Drawing on social presence theory, cultural dimensions theory, and attribution theory, we examine the role of culture in shaping consumer responses to AI co-experience across both positive and negative service contexts. Study 1 shows that AI co-experience enhances service satisfaction, with collectivist consumers reporting lower loneliness and stronger continuance intention than individualistic consumers. Study 2A replicates these findings in a negative service context using national-level cultural comparisons. Study 2B extends the research by operationalizing culture through individual-level measurement of cultural values and introducing responsibility attribution as an additional moderator, revealing that external attribution leads to more favorable consumer responses. This research extends the co-experience framework to the AI service domain, advances cultural frameworks by theorizing culture as a moderator, and offers implications for culturally adaptive AI service design.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70190 [Google]
Veflen, N., L. Witell and L. Fuglsang (2026): Loneliness and the Customer Journey: Toward a Framework for Customer Experience Management, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
How can customer experience (CX) frameworks be used to understand and support service firms to mitigate loneliness and social isolation? This paper addresses this question by developing the Lonely Customer Journey, a conceptual framework that uses the Touchpoints-Context-Qualities (TCQ) framework (De Keyser et al. 2020) to theorize how loneliness and social isolation fundamentally reshape the goals, context, and experiential qualities in the customer experience. Loneliness is a chronic or recurrent subjective deficit in relationship quality, whereas social isolation reflects an objective lack of social ties; crucially, these conditions activate distinct psychological mechanisms, including the self-preservation motive, that subvert the rational, purchase-oriented customer assumed by standard CX models. The paper reconceptualizes the customer journey as a path-to-belonging rather than a path-to-purchase and argues that everyday customer experiences, such as shopping and dining, are used by consumers as low-risk arenas for social connection and emotional regulation. Grounded in the TCQ framework, this paper develops four customer experience management strategies: INTERACT (proactively managing social interaction), COCREATE (proactively managing cocreation of meaning and wellbeing), RESPOND (reactively managing choice and relational quality), and RESPECT (reactively managing privacy and autonomy). A central theoretical contribution is the proactive reactive axis as a novel, generalizable organizing principle for CX management strategy, applicable beyond loneliness to other contexts of customer vulnerability. The strategies are designed as principles that create value for the individual customer (enhanced wellbeing and belonging), the service firm (increased loyalty and lifetime value), and society (reduced public health burdens).
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70220 [Google]
Wang, L. Y. and E. Y. Chan (2026): Crowded Out: Social Crowding Reduces Tipping, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
This research examines how social crowding impacts tipping behavior in service settings, proposing that crowding reduces tipping by diminishing empathy toward service workers. Across three studies, we tested this hypothesis using diverse methodologies and settings. Study 1, conducted online, demonstrated that participants exposed to crowded environments tipped less in a hypothetical scenario, with reduced empathy mediating this effect. Study 2, a field study at a stadium in Indiana, replicated these findings in a real-world context, showing that crowding lowers empathy and tipping in high-density settings. Study 3, conducted at a food court in Melbourne, Australia, revealed that enhancing perceived control mitigates the negative impact of crowding on empathy and tipping. Together, these studies provide robust evidence that crowding diminishes prosocial financial behavior via reduced empathy. The findings have important implications for managing service interactions, highlighting strategies to sustain tipping in crowded environments by enhancing empathy and customer control.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70207 [Google]
Xiao, H. W., A. Kurmanov, Y. X. Chen and Y. Y. Wu (2026): Social Versus Emotional Loneliness: Diverging Consumer Responses to Anthropomorphic AI Service Robots, PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, (), pp.
Anthropomorphic design strategies are widely employed in AI service robots to deliver social benefits, such as alleviating loneliness. However, prior research has yielded mixed findings regarding how loneliness shapes consumer responses to anthropomorphic AI service robots. Across four studies, we show that these mixed findings can be reconciled by distinguishing between social and emotional loneliness. Emotionally lonely consumers respond less favorably to anthropomorphic AI service robots than socially lonely consumers. This effect is mediated by rumination. Because emotional loneliness reflects an intimacy-domain self-discrepancy, anthropomorphic robots that resemble human companions can make unmet intimacy needs more salient and trigger rumination about the absence of close companionship, thereby leading to less favorable responses. Furthermore, robot role framing serves as an important boundary condition of this effect: it emerges when the robot is framed as a companion but is attenuated when the robot is framed as an assistant. These findings advance consumer-service robot interaction and compensatory consumption research by demonstrating that loneliness subtype shapes how consumers interpret anthropomorphic cues, with rumination explaining why the same robot design can produce divergent responses.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.70236 [Google]
Athey, S., J. C. Castillo and B. Chandar (2026): Service Quality on Online Platforms: Empirical Evidence About Driving Quality at Uber, MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 72(5), pp.
Online marketplaces have adopted new quality control mechanisms that can accommodate a flexible pool of providers. In the context of ride-hailing, we measure the effectiveness of these mechanisms, which include ratings, incentives, and behavioral nudges. Using telemetry data as an objective measure of quality, we find that drivers not only respond to user preferences but also improve their behavior after receiving warnings about their low ratings. Furthermore, we use data from a randomized experiment to show that informing drivers about their past behavior improves quality, especially for low-performing drivers. Lastly, we find that UberX drivers exhibit behavior comparable to that of UberTaxi drivers, suggesting that Uber’s new quality control mechanisms successfully maintain a high level of service quality.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01043 [Google]
Hu, M., J. F. Wang, H. D. Wen and Z. P. Zhang (2026): Shared or Solo? Platform Pricing and Rider Choices in Ride-Hailing, MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, (), pp.
As ride-sharing becomes an integral part of ride-hailing platforms, understanding its operational and economic implications is crucial. Although shared rides can improve system efficiency and reduce congestion, they also introduce trade-offs, such as longer wait times and rider discomfort. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic queueing model to examine how a platform operating with one of three objectives, i.e., volume, revenue, or social welfare maximization, sets prices for solo and shared rides, while self-interested riders decide whether to request a ride and, if so, whether to share. Our analysis uncovers a counterintuitive pricing pattern in stark contrast to the standard pricing theory: a platform that aims to maximize volume or social welfare may charge higher prices for both solo and shared rides than when it pursues revenue maximization. Because ride-sharing expands service capacity and improves society-wide service access (particularly for riders not so sensitive to the discomfort of sharing), a volume-maximizing platform and a social planner tend to induce more ride-sharing than a revenue-centric platform. Increased ride-sharing, in turn, further relieves platform congestion, decreases riders’ average wait times, and boosts their willingness to pay for both shared and solo services. That said, a platform may shut down shared services in small markets with low arrival rates of riders, as the extended rider-pairing process can make the entire system less efficient than one with only solo services. Finally, although ride-sharing always (weakly) enhances a specific targeted performance metric desired by the platform, its effect on rider welfare is more nuanced. Under volume or revenue maximization, ride-sharing expands service access and benefits riders overall. However, under social welfare maximization, it may reduce total rider surplus, as the platform restricts service access to prevent excessive discomfort borne by sharing riders from outweighing the overall gains in the platform’s operational efficiency. We calibrate the model and illustrate our insights using the Chicago ride-hailing data.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.04324 [Google]
Noh, D., T. I. Tunca and Y. Xu (2026): Evolution of Ride Services: From Ride Hailing to Autonomous Vehicles, MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, (), pp.
In recent years, the ride service industry has been evolving rapidly, driven by disruptive technologies such as mobile apps, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Whereas platform-based decentralized ride-hailing (RH) companies have gained significant market share, vertically integrated robotaxi services using emerging AVs are starting to enter the market. In this paper, we aim to provide insights about the evolution and the future of ride services, studying these two competing business approaches. We game-theoretically model and analyze the competition between a platform-based RH firm and an AV-based ride-service firm. Although the AV model has a capacity commitment advantage, we find that, in larger markets with sufficiently patient customers, the RH firm surprisingly gains the upper hand in competition, having higher market share and profits as well as lower service delays and higher prices even if it has a cost disadvantage. Further, entry of the AV firm into a market with an RH monopolist incumbent may reduce total vehicle supply and increase customer wait costs. We also find that, when customers are impatient, the entry of a high-cost AV firm may lead to a decrease in social welfare despite introducing competition, suggesting that regulators should be careful about introduction of robotaxi services in a market if they are not sufficiently cost-efficient. From a broader perspective, our results demonstrate that platform business models may have significant strategic advantages over firms with traditional vertically integrated models under competition, and loss of platforms’ dominance in a market may result in welfare losses.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2025.02733 [Google]
Bouzada-Novoa, V. and M. Rey-García (2026): Social enterprises as key actors in the emergence of circular service ecosystems: A service-dominant logic approach☆, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 136(), pp.167–180
The circular economy is generally regarded as a means to tackle the climate crisis, though the social mechanisms required to ensure a just green transition remain unclear. Social enterprises are key actors in this effort, blending environmental and social goals and providing circular services whilst also creating jobs and integrating vulnerable segments of the population into the workforce. This study adopts the service-dominant logic as a theoretical framework to understand the nested, overlapped, and emergent nature of the service ecosystems in which social enterprises operate in this transition to a circular economy. Through qualitative case study research in the textile and electrical waste streams, we identify social enterprises as generic actors with embedded reflexivity and we expand the concept to ‘ecosystem reflexivity’ as a fundamental prerequisite for intentional systems shaping with two dimensions: cross-ecosystem reflexivity, enabling institutional learning across service ecosystems, and nested-ecosystem reflexivity, facilitating actors to reconcile conflicting institutional logics and paradoxes. This research enriches industrial marketing literature by empirically unveiling the institutional dynamics at play in the transition towards a just circular economy whilst also offering policy and strategic insights for preserving ecosystem viability.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.06.003 [Google]
Lexutt, E. and K. Rigopoulos (2026): Networking profiles of salespeople across the servitization stages: A configurational analysis, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 135(), pp.108–124
Servitization requires business-to-business (B2B) companies to overhaul their operations, with the sales team becoming a critical focus. Despite the acknowledged importance of salespeople in this product-to-service transition, a gap remains in understanding the specific skills and behaviors needed for successful sales at different servitization stages. This study investigates how successful salespeople configure their networking skills and behaviors across different servitization stages. Using a neoconfigurational approach and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze data from 307 B2B salespeople, our findings reveal that sales performance hinges on a salesperson’s networking profile aligning with the company’s servitization stage. Specifically, professional and digital networking behaviors are paramount in stages emphasizing the product or services supporting the product (SSP), while internal networking skill becomes necessary for success in stages focusing on services supporting the client (SSC). Our study advances sales research by demonstrating the causally complex, configurational nature of sales performance and contributes to the theoretical consolidation of the servitization field by highlighting different sales requirements across distinct servitization stages. For managers, we develop a framework to guide the precise hiring, training, and management of sales teams, offering a clear roadmap for enhancing performance at different servitization stages.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.04.005 [Google]
Mishra, R. and R. K. Singh (2026): Exploring AI-enabled digital service platform adoption in industrial business-to-business firms through a mixed-method approach, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 135(), pp.279–298
Despite the increasing applications of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital service platforms in business-tobusiness (B2B) industrial marketing, studies in this domain remain limited, especially in the context of AIenabled platforms in industrial settings and emerging economies, such as India. To address this gap, the present study employs an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. In the first phase, exploratory focus group interviews were conducted with industry practitioners to identify context-specific factors influencing the adoption of AI-enabled digital service platforms. Thereafter, using the insights from this phase, a conceptual model was developed that extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by incorporating perceived service quality and transformational leadership. In the second phase, the proposed framework was empirically analysed using survey data from 300 industrial B2B firms through covariance-based structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived service quality significantly influence user attitudes, while perceived service quality, subjective norms, and attitude shape the behavioural intention to adopt AI-enabled digital service platforms. The study also suggests a mediated relationship between transformational leadership and attitude, facilitated by the perceived ease of use and usefulness. Furthermore, the research highlights the mediating role of attitude in the relationship between perceived service quality and the intention to use these platforms. The study contributes by extending TAM and TPB through the integration of transformational leadership and service quality, and by contextualising AI-enabled platform adoption within an emerging market B2B industrial setting and provides actionable guidance for practitioners and decision-makers.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.04.003 [Google]
Naidoo, V. (2026): The dark side of AI-enabled industrial service recovery: The erosion of trust and customer engagement, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 135(), pp.205–223
AI is increasingly embedded in industrial service recovery processes. Yet its use in industrial contexts, especially regarding its potential dark side consequences for customer relationships, remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap through a three-study investigation. Study 1, a field survey, shows that greater AI involvement increases customer over-reliance, which in turn reduces trust and customer engagement. Study 2, an experiment, demonstrates that customers penalise failures attributed to AI involvement more harshly than human-caused failures. Our analyses show that this penalty can be reduced when governance mechanisms are in place, particularly when human oversight is visible (e.g., human-in-the-loop interventions), with similar but smaller effects observed for algorithmic explanations. Study 3, a two-wave field survey over a 24-month period, shows that over-reliance evolves into complacency, which subsequently undermines trust and engagement, and that governance safeguards weaken this longitudinal pathway. Together, these findings advance theory by integrating automation bias, algorithm aversion, and relational governance into a unified process model of AI-enabled service recovery, showing that AI shapes customer relationships through both behavioural and attribution-based pathways over time. For managers, the results highlight that AI does not automatically enhance relationships; instead, firms must actively design governance mechanisms that maintain oversight, transparency, and accountability.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.05.004 [Google]
Nijssen, E. J., H. Terho, J. Keränen and M. van der Borgh (2026): Enhancing sales performance of product-service systems: The role of value-based selling, price bundling, and value tools☆, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 134(), pp.421–433
Many industrial firms struggle to sell their product-service systems (PSS) and solution offerings profitably. While prior research has underscored the role of value-based selling (VBS) in selling PSS, it has provided little insight into pricing in this context. This study examines the interplay between VBS, price bundling, and value tools when selling PSS and solutions. Building on signaling theory, we argue that VBS acts as a signal that helps customers accept a solution price bundle by focusing their attention to the total value-in-use of the bundled solution rather than its individual components. This, in turn, drives service ratio and customer growth performance. Value tools facilitate this process. To test our research hypotheses, we conduct a multi-industry survey and use a mediationmoderation model to analyze the data. Our findings show that price bundling mediates the relationship between VBS and service ratio, and that value tools boost the final step of this link. In turn, VBS and value tools directly affect customer growth performance. This study advances VBS research by explaining how VBS and organizational value assessment tools enable effective use of price bundling as a pricing mechanism to drive PSS sales performance in B2B markets.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.03.006 [Google]
Rietdijk, B. (2026): The negative synergistic effects and consequences of digital Servitization barriers, INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 136(), pp.34–52
Developing a digital servitization business model presents inherent complexities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), owing to the intricacies of digital technologies, multifaceted product-service offerings, and the unique characteristics of SMEs. Consequently, SMEs often encounter substantial barriers to digital servitization. These digital servitization barriers, however, do not exist in isolation; rather, they interact in reinforcing ways that existing research has yet to fully capture. This is of concern because overlooking their interplay limits our understanding of the full scope of challenges SMEs face in pursuing digital servitization. To advance research on digital servitization barriers, our multiple-case study of eight SMEs in the Netherlands explores how the interplay between digital servitization barriers affects digital servitization. Our findings reveal that the interplay among digital servitization barriers in SMEs gives rise to decision paralysis, work overload, priority displacement, and lock-in effects. Together, these negative synergistic effects significantly slow down digital servitization efforts, leading to stagnation and path dependency. This study extends the literature on digital servitization barriers by highlighting their negative synergistic effects and consequences, thereby offering new insights into their impact on digital servitization.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2026.05.013 [Google]
