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Viewpoint: getting your qualitative service research published

Maria Holmlund (Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland)
Lars Witell (Department of Business Administration, Linkopings Universitet, Linkoping, Sweden)
Anders Gustafsson (Department of Marketing, Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway)

Journal of Services Marketing

ISSN: 0887-6045

Article publication date: 11 February 2020

Issue publication date: 20 March 2020

888

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide authors with guidelines for carrying out excellent qualitative service research. It describes the features that editors and reviewers use to evaluate qualitative research and pinpoints what authors can do to improve their manuscripts for publication.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper identifies five features of excellent qualitative service research – relevance, rigor, integrity, narration and impact – and describes them with a focus on what they mean and what authors can do to meet these standards.

Findings

The paper suggests that manuscripts are often rejected because they fail to meet key standards of excellent qualitative research. It calls for more discussion on research methodology and research ethics, especially when service research strives to make a difference such as investigating critical service contexts or dealing with vulnerable participants.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to a better use and application of qualitative research methodology. It focuses on specific actions that researchers can take to improve the quality of their service research manuscripts.

Keywords

Citation

Holmlund, M., Witell, L. and Gustafsson, A. (2020), "Viewpoint: getting your qualitative service research published", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 111-116. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2019-0444

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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