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The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations.

Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multiple questions for each topic are proposed to guide research efforts. The topics and questions, while wide-ranging, are only representative of the many ongoing research opportunities related to service operations.

The field of service operations has many interesting research topics and questions that are largely unexplored. Furthermore, these research areas are not only increasingly integrative across multiple themes within operations but often transcend functional disciplines. This creates opportunities for ever more impactful research with a greater reach throughout the service system and suggests that service researchers, regardless of functional affiliation, can contribute to the ongoing conversation on the role of service operations in value creation.

Leveraging the collective knowledge of the JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel to expand on the research themes generated from the Delphi study, novel questions for future study are put forward. Recognizing that the number of potential research questions is virtually unlimited, summary questions by theme and topic are also provided. These questions represent a synopsis of the individual questions and can serve as a quick reference guide for researchers interested in pursuing new directions in conceptual and empirical research in service operations. This summary also serves as a framework to facilitate the formulation of additional research topics and questions.

Extant manufacturing strategy research dichotomizes the trade‐off model and the cumulative model, but fails to explain each strategic result. The purpose of this paper is to propose four key antecedents of a trade‐off versus a cumulative model by manufacturing business units (MBUs), and in turn, their association with business performance.

The authors first review literature pertaining to the history and major themes of manufacturing strategy. Next, the authors present a theoretical model with explanations of the methodology and research design used. The model is empirically tested, and conclusions, managerial implications, and future research opportunities that stem from this research effort are provided.

Strategic time orientation, as well as manufacturing practices of supply chain integration intensity and advanced manufacturing technology, are empirically found to be associated with MBUs' combinative competitive capabilities. More specifically, manufacturers following these practices are more apt to realize higher levels combinative capabilities, as depicted by the cumulative model.

The paper shows that these manufacturing practices may extend the time within which the MBU reaches its capability frontiers, and therefore, increase the odds that it can exploit its current resources. Moreover, MBU size negatively moderates the relationship between advanced manufacturing technology and the cumulative model.

The purpose of this paper is to identify research themes in service operations that have great potential for exciting and innovative conceptual and empirical work. To frame these research themes, the paper provides a systematic literature review of operations articles published in the Journal of Service Management (JOSM). The thorough review of published work in JOSM and proposed research themes are presented in hopes that they will inspire impactful research on service operations. These themes are further developed in a companion paper, “Service operations: what’s next?” (Field et al., 2018).

The JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel conducted a Delphi study to generate research themes where leading-edge research on service operations is being done or has yet to be done. Nearly 700 articles published in JOSM from its inception through 2016 were reviewed and classified by discipline focus. The subset of service operations articles was then further categorized according to the eight identified research themes plus an additional category that primarily represented traditional manufacturing approaches applied in service settings.

From the Delphi study, the following key themes emerged: service supply networks, evaluating and measuring service operations performance, understanding customer and employee behavior in service operations, managing servitization, managing knowledge-based service contexts, managing participation roles and responsibilities in service operations, addressing society’s challenges through service operations, and the operational implications of the sharing economy. Based on the literature review, approximately 20 percent of the published work in JOSM is operations focused, with earlier articles predominantly applying traditional manufacturing approaches in service settings. However, the percentage of these traditional types of articles has been steadily decreasing, suggesting a trend toward dedicated research frameworks and themes that are unique to the design and management of services operations.

The paper presents key research themes for advancing conceptual and empirical research on service operations. Additionally, a review of the past and current landscape of operations articles published in JOSM offers an understanding of the scholarly conversation so far and sets a foundation from which to build future research.

This paper coins the construct of Service Orientation (SO) and empirically develops its measurement in the context of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce. SO is operationally defined as the business' overall propensity for delivering service excellence. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that multi‐item measurement scales have sufficient psychometric properties of validity and reliability to be useful for theory building and testing.

The authors followed Menor and Roth's two‐phased approach to develop new multi‐item measurement scales. First, the authors reviewed the literature, held structured interviews with managers and performed six independent rounds of item‐sorting analyses to obtain insights for the initial measurement model specification. Second, survey research procedures were employed to develop and refine a questionnaire to collect data on a sample of senior managers of 181 US businesses that implemented B2B e‐services. The psychometric properties of the SO dimensions were confirmed using structural equations modeling.

The authors empirically confirm the nomological network of SO as a third‐order latent variable comprised of five combinative service competency bundles: service climate; market focus; process management; human resource policy; and metrics and standards. Together these bundles provide a holistic and integrative representation of the general operating environment's orientation towards customers and a business' general propensity to deliver service excellence. Importantly, the measurement structure of service orientation was found to be invariant for both goods producing and service firms.

The proposed metrics are a useful benchmarking tool for practitioners from both manufacturing and service firms to use to monitor and improve their business's SO.

The paper is believed to be the first to operationally define and measure SO in the context of B2B e‐commerce.

Manufacturers are in the midst of one of the most significant transformations in history. The kaleidoscopic nature of the global economy has created an environment of unprecedented hyper‐complexity and dynamic change. So much so that the rules of the competitive game are shifting faster than managers can react to them. Moreover, these dynamics bode continuous sea changes in work and sources of value‐added. Looking to past solutions for rationing resources and controlling costs is not an option. The drivers of change indicate one point: Successful manufacturers tomorrow will not look much like those of today.

Technologies for the delivery of financial services, such as ATMs, home banking and other self‐service media, are having a profound impact on the design of retail banks' delivery systems. The results of an empirical study based on a probability sample survey of 117 US retail banks, in which the channels of delivery for typical banking products are investigated, are presented. Several of the basic assumptions of a conceptual framework depicting the relationships between service contents characteristics and service delivery channels are tested. Specifically, this article considers how banking services (transactions and enquiries) generally vary according to the type of delivery channel emphasised by the bank for its target market (industrialisation level) and according to the number (span) of delivery channels available to the customer. It also shows the relationship between these two key factors in delivery system design, industrialisation and span.

This paper provides a cross‐country examination of service management practice and performance of service organizations in the UK, USA and Germany. The findings reported are based on a sample of firms from the international service study (ISS) from four service sectors: financial services, professional services, hotels, and utilities. The paper argues that generally there are differences in services management practices and performance and, more specifically, that service quality performance may be explained by the nature and market dynamics of the service sector within the individual countries.

The Knowledge Factory is a metaphor to describe an accelerated learning organization. World‐class manufacturers are gearing every aspect of their business, from the shop floor to administrative offices, toward the rapid acquisition and deployment of knowledge. This article, based on an extensive research project to identify and interview best‐in‐class operations, provides conceptual guidelines and action steps for organizations striving to practice knowledge‐based competitiveness.

This paper aims to analyze manufacturing strategy process (MSP) from a knowledge‐based view (KBV) of the firm. MSP considers the ways that manufacturing organizes its resources in order to create/strengthen manufacturing‐related capabilities. In this context, managers often are under pressure to find quick answers in highly complex environments. By viewing MSP as a knowledge creation process, managers may choose a company's objectives based upon previous experiences and knowledge. MSP addresses the level of planning and decision making related to building competitive operations capabilities over the long term.

A survey research was used to make cross‐country comparison. The constructs were empirically confirmed in both country samples, attesting to measurement invariance. The proposed model was tested in both samples and analyzed the differences between them.

The results suggest that knowledge is a key resource in MSP in both samples. Resource‐based orientation presents higher levels of influence over MSP in Brazil. In the Spanish sample the influence of external knowledge in MSP and market performance is more relevant.

One limitation of this study is that the Brazilian sample is located in a specific region and therefore some regional characteristics may be present. Another limitation was the use of a questionnaire in two different countries that was originally developed in a non‐native language.

As a practical implication, manufacturing should seek to integrate the strategic process in order to be more responsive in dynamic environments.

The paper uses a cross‐country sample for scale validation, which is rare in management research. Manufacturing strategy process was analyzed from a knowledge‐based view, bringing new possibilities for academic studies. For managers, the paper highlights the importance of manufacturing developing a proactive role through knowledge integration in cross‐functional activities during the strategic process.

This paper addresses, from a knowledge management perspective, the following question: How are companies choosing the information that is considered more important for the management of the manufacturing process? We analyze empirically, from a strategic approach, how different types and sources of information may influence information characteristics like accuracy, access, and timing. In addition, we also evaluate how information is related to manufacturing competencies and performance. The results indicate that customer‐focused information and information technologies (IT) are the most important aspects that influence information characteristics.