{"id":15370,"date":"2026-03-24T17:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/?p=15370"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:55:26","slug":"reflections-on-our-service-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/2026\/03\/reflections-on-our-service-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Our Service Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guest article from Arne De Keyser, recipient of the 2025\u00a0SERVSIG Emerging Service Scholar Award<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was invited to write this blog post after receiving the Emerging Service Scholar Award in 2025. I have to admit, I am still genuinely humbled by this recognition. Being offered an open slot in the SERVSIG newsletter made me reflect not only on this award, but also more broadly on the community that has shaped so much of my academic journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 15 years, I have had the privilege of being part of the service community. During that time, I have met many wonderful colleagues, many of whom I am now able to call friends. What has always struck me is how welcoming and supportive this community is. It is a community I care deeply about and one I hope to remain actively involved in for many years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, I also see several developments that may put pressure on our community in the years ahead. I do not write this as a cause for panic, nor do I claim to offer empirical evidence for the points I raise. Rather, these reflections are based on many conversations I have had with colleagues across the field. My intention is simply to invite reflection on how we can continue to grow and thrive as a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two challenges stand out to me in particular (ignoring the whole AI craze for just a moment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first concerns how we come together as a community<\/strong>. Our field is fortunate to have several excellent conferences and gatherings: Frontiers in Service, SERVSIG, QUIS, La Londe, The Naples Forum on Service, and smaller-scale events such as Let\u2019s Talk About Service. These events are invaluable. They are spaces where ideas take shape, collaborations begin, and long-term academic relationships (and friendships) are built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, over time, it has become increasingly difficult to attend all of these events. In many universities\/institutes, colleagues are facing budget cuts, whether at the university level or more broadly at the national level. At the same time, travel and accommodation costs have risen substantially. For many of us, attending conferences is no longer simply a matter of interest or availability, but increasingly one of financial trade-offs. On top of that, some institutions are introducing CO2-related travel constraints (there is definitely a strong argument for this!), which may further limit conference participation. As a result, the cohesion of our community may gradually come under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This raises an important question: how do we preserve the value of in-person exchange while keeping our events accessible and affordable? There may be no easy solution, but I believe it is worth reflecting on possible alternatives. Should we consider lower-cost venues, more modest conference formats, or simpler conference dinners? Could some social events be made optional rather than bundled into conference registration (while recognizing that such events often play an important role in fostering cohesion and connection within the community)? Could we think more creatively about budget-friendly accommodation options, such as student residences? Relatedly, should we think more carefully about travel support for doctoral students, early-career scholars, and colleagues working in lower-funded contexts? Is there also a stronger role publishers could play in supporting these events? At the end of the day, they profit directly from our exchanges, while also benefiting from the free peer-review work that sustains our field. Could we further coordinate the timing and location of conferences more strategically, or rotate deliberately across regions, so that participation becomes more feasible for a broader group of service scholars? In light of the increasing choice stress many of us experience, it may also be worth asking whether some events could be more closely coordinated, or in some cases even combined, so that participation becomes less of a trade-off. None of these ideas is without limitations, but I do believe the conversation is worth having.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second challenge<\/strong> is that we need to remain in touch with colleagues in adjacent fields such as marketing, information systems, management, operations, and organizational behavior. The service perspective has much to offer these communities, and at the same time, our own work can only benefit from engaging with theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the reasons I have changed my own conference strategy in recent years. Whereas I used to attend two service-specific conferences, I now try to combine one service conference with one broader disciplinary conference. This year, for example, I will attend EMAC (I fully realize that being able to attend two conferences a year is a privilege!). Other options, depending on one\u2019s research interests, might include Winter or Summer AMA, ACR, SCP, Marketing Science, the Academy of Management Meeting, or the International Conference on Information Systems. I consistently find these broader conferences highly inspiring. They expose me to new conversations, theories, and methods, while also giving me the opportunity to bring service research into those spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That motivation also underlies my involvement, together with Jenny van Doorn and Nicole Hess, in co-chairing the EMAC Service Special Interest Group. Our goal is to strengthen ties between the service community and the broader marketing field. If we want service research to continue shaping conversations in journals such as JM, JAMS, and JMR, then fostering connections with these communities matters. Engaging across communities helps us stay intellectually open and better positioned to contribute to broader academic debates. It also exposes us to the kinds of theoretical and methodological perspectives that are often important in gaining access to these outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me be clear: this is not a criticism of our own conferences and journals. On the contrary, I believe the service field has built a strong and distinctive journal and conference portfolio that continues to make an important contribution. But staying connected to adjacent fields can only strengthen our work. We also have to recognize that UT Dallas journals such as JM, JMR, JCR, JAMS, MISQ, AMR, AMJ, and MS remain top outlets for many in our community. These outlets are often more widely recognized in school-level evaluations and rankings than our service-specific journals. Having more service scholars publish in these top journals, alongside our service-specific outlets, would also reflect positively on our field by increasing its visibility and influence in the broader academic conversation. I am convinced that service journals would benefit from this as well and gain further recognition in the ranking systems, which have historically been slow to change. These ranking, sadly, fail to fully reflect the quality and influence of some of our journals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not pretend to have definitive answers to either of these challenges. But perhaps that is exactly why they deserve our collective attention. If the service community is to remain vibrant and impactful, we need to keep thinking carefully about how we connect and how we position ourselves in the wider academic landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel fortunate to be part of this community. It has given me far more than I can express in a short blog post. My hope is that we continue to invest in what makes it special, while also adapting thoughtfully to the realities ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Arne De Keyser
Professor of Marketing
EDHEC Business School


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Guest article from Arne De Keyser, recipient of the 2025\u00a0SERVSIG Emerging Service Scholar Award. I was invited to write this blog post after receiving the Emerging Service Scholar Award in 2025. I have to admit, I am still genuinely humbled by this recognition. Being offered an open slot in the SERVSIG newsletter made me reflect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15374,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15370\/revisions\/15374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}