Services Marketing Self‐Portraits: Introspections, Reflections and Glimpses from Experts

Citation

Furrer, O. (2003), "Services Marketing Self‐Portraits: Introspections, Reflections and Glimpses from Experts", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 148-151. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijsim.2003.14.1.148.1

In 1970, services marketing did not exist as an academic field. In 1981, the American Marketing Association organized the first services conference in Orlando, Florida. By 1990, services marketing was a fast‐growing subdiscipline of the broader marketing field (see the review articles by Berry and Parasuraman (1993) and Fisk et al. (1993) for the early development of the field). In 2000, services marketing had become a mature field of research. Maturity is the occasion to look back and think about how we get there and where we want to go next. To achieve that the editors of this introspective gathered ten of the pioneers of services marketing and asked them to offer their perspectives on the foundation, evolution, and destiny of services marketing. The result is a very interesting little book that offers a fresh look at the development of the new field that was services marketing from ten different personal perspectives.

Ray Fisk, Steve Grove, and Joby John have selected ten scholars for this volume based on four criteria:

1. 1.

   (1) they should be among the pioneers who brought legitimacy to the services marketing field;

2. 2.

   (2) they should be among the most prolific authors in the field;

3. 3.

   (3) they should have sustained their involvement in the services field over the years, and therefore who are active participants in the contemporary services research; and

4. 4.

   (4) their research should have been influential across a variety of topics that has been critical to the development of services as an area of study.

Alphabetically arranged, the scholars who met these four criteria and were included in this volume are Leonard L. Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, David E. Bowen, Stephen W. Brown, Christian Grönroos, Evert Gummesson, Christopher Lovelock, A. Parasuraman, Benjamin Schneider, and Valerie Zeithaml. Because of the rigor of these four criteria and the limitation to ten scholars, many worthy services scholars are not included in this compilation, which may open a door for a second volume of these introspections.

The goal of the editors of this volume was to produce a snapshot of the services marketing field’s current state, a reflection of its development, and a glimpse into its future, therefore they asked each of these ten services pioneers to answer to the following six questions:

1. 1.

   (1) What do you consider to be the most uniquely defining characteristics of your approach to services marketing?

2. 2.

   (2) What is your view of the current relationship of services marketing theory and application?

3. 3.

   (3) Who are the marketers whom you are either influenced by or most respects? Are they the same now as in your formative years?

4. 4.

   (4) Which of your writings do you like the most and why?

5. 5.

   (5) What impact would you say your services marketing efforts have had on shaping the field?

6. 6.

   (6) Which directions would you like the services marketing field to take in the future?

Overall, the responses to these questions generated an interesting and provocative commentary on services marketing development and thought through their contrasts and similarities. Because of the richness and the diversity of this commentary, it is impossible (and not even desirable) to summarise the information contained in the answers to all these questions. That is why, among the very interesting answers, I would like to focus this review on those of the sixth question that explore the future of services marketing. Several promising directions for further research are identified. Among them, five directions are common to more than one author:

1. 1.

   (1) the role of technology in changing services marketing;

2. 2.

   (2) cultural differences in customers’ expectations for service and service marketing;

3. 3.

   (3) the importance of services in manufacturing industries;

4. 4.

   (4) the financial quantification of the impact of services marketing; and

5. 5.

   (5) services pricing.

Most of the scholars have identified the role of technology in changing marketing as a direction that the service marketing field should take in the future. Len Berry, Ben Schneider, and Valerie Zeithaml see the implications of the Internet in particular and technology in general for services marketing and service quality as a fertile ground for future research. Steve Brown even notes that technology is the biggest factor that has and will affect the future of services marketing. More specifically, Mary Jo Bitner, Christopher Lovelock, and Parsu Parasuraman also identify the study of service in the context of Internet‐delivered services and related implication issues as an underresearched topic as well as the study of the role of technology in changing how services are delivered, communicated, sold, and supported. David Bowen and Christopher Lovelock acknowledge that e‐commerce and virtual service encounter need to be better understood. Evert Gummesson would like to see more research on the high‐tech‐high‐touch concept.

Global services marketing and the impact of cultural differences in customers’ expectations for service is the second theme that will need more research in the future. Len Berry acknowledges that global marketing of services is underresearched and that cultural differences in customers’ expectations for service and service performance are not well understood. Among the underresearched topics, Mary Jo Bitner identifies the different issues related to the design and delivering of international services. David Bowen identifies the area of cross‐country, cross‐cultural differences in service quality expectations and perceptions as a topic that needs more attentions. Steve Brown also calls for more cross‐cultural research, especially with the barriers falling within the European Union and global service enterprises emerging. “How is service defined and how can it best be delivered in different cultures throughout the world?” is for Ben Schneider one of the questions that could be useful to bring a new twist on the international issue of services marketing.

A third area that needs more research is the services in manufacturing industries. Mary Jo Bitner calls for more research on the importance of services and customer service in manufacturing context. David Bowen would like to understand better how firms move from defining themselves as manufacturing organizations deriving most of their revenue from goods to defining themselves as service organizations deriving most of their revenue from services. Steve Brown and Ben Schneider would like to see scholars pay more attention to the transformation occurring, especially in business markets, with goods‐dominant firms becoming solutions providers. Christian Grönroos argues that physical goods marketing and services marketing will converge and predicts that service‐oriented principles will dominate. Valerie Zeithaml would like to see the services marketing field address the question of the role different technologies will play in dealing with the various aspects of customer service on the Web.

A fourth domain for future research in service marketing is the financial quantification of the impact of services marketing. Mary Jo Bitner identifies the quantification of the impact of service initiatives on performance outcomes of organizations. In the same register, Steve Brown asks: “What are the bottom line implications of services marketing implementations?” Recognizing that businesses are now demanding to know the outcomes of services initiatives, Parsu Parasuraman suggests that more scholarly research is needed to provide guidance to managers and researchers on the assessment of the financial benefits of investing in high‐technology delivery systems. Valerie Zeithaml also asks for more research to show that services marketing is financially accountable. She also acknowledge that some progress has been made in the past ten years in investigating service quality, profitability, and the economic worth of customers, much research remains to be done to validate this early evidence and to build a coherent and integrated body of knowledge.

Finally, services pricing is a fifth area needing more research. Mary Jo Bitner expresses the opinion that services pricing, particularly pricing of complex high‐end services, is still “underresearched”. Christopher Lovelock also recognizes that pricing and auctions are areas that deserve more emphasis.

The reflections and perspectives offered by each of the internationally known scholars in this volume trace the development of services marketing, provide a view of its current state, and furnish a vision of its future. At the same time, the reader is given a glimpse of the personal side of each services expert. As Ray Fisk, Steve Grove, and Joby John put it in their afterword, the reader will find among the themes that emerge from the contributors’ comments, a feeling of enthusiasm, a sense of ownership, a stake in the future, and sense of community among the contributors.

Services scholars and PhD students will find this book interesting and useful because it integrates personal and anecdotic stories with rigorous and insightful ideas about the services marketing field in a concise and well‐written little book. To conclude, Services Marketing Self‐Portraits is a feel‐good read.