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This paper aims to demonstrate that online complainants’ reactions to a company’s service recovery attempts (webcare) can significantly vary across two different types of dissatisfied customers (“vindictives” vs “constructives”), who have dramatically diverging complaint goal orientations.

Online multi-country survey among 812 adult consumers who recently had a dissatisfying brand experience and turned to a marketer-generated social media site to voice an online complaint for achieving their ultimate complaining goals. Scenario-based online experiment for cross-validating the survey findings.

Results suggest that “vindictive complainants” – driven dominantly by brand-adverse motives – are immune to any form of webcare, while “constructive complainants” – interested in restoring the customer-brand relationship – react more sensitively. For the latter, “no-responses” often trigger detrimental brand-related reactions (e.g. unfavorable brand image), whereas “defensive responses” are likely to stimulate post-webcare negative word-of-mouth.

This research identifies the gains and harms of (un-)desired webcare. By doing so, it not only sheds light on the circumstances when marketers have to fear negative effects (e.g. negative word-of-mouth) but also provides insights into the conditions when such effects are unlikely. While the findings of the cross-sectional survey are validated with an online experiment, findings should be interpreted with care as other complaining contexts should be further investigated.

Marketers have to expect a serious “backfiring effect” from an unexpected source, namely, consumers who were initially benevolent toward the involved brand but who received an inappropriate response.

This research is one of the first research studies that enables marketers to identify situations when webcare is likely to backfire on the brand after a service failure.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the brand communication on social media (SM) made by two- and three-starred restaurants and the customer reaction in terms of engagement effects during a crisis. The research highlights the connections between brand communication and engagement dynamics on Instagram by looking for differences in the strategies of two and three-starred restaurants and by highlighting the changes in the background engagement drivers.

Using data collected from 5,666 Instagram posts by 34 Italian Michelin-starred restaurants, the authors analysed the crisis-driven changes in online communication and customer engagement comparing three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic by applying a linear regression model with fixed effects.

Michelin-starred restaurants changed their strategies of brand communication to overcome the effects of the crisis. The findings highlight the importance of SM as a tool to stay in touch with consumers and the pivotal role of customers in engagement, especially during a pandemic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to investigate the changes in brand communication and the effects on customer engagement during a pandemic, with a focus on Instagram. It contributes to understanding the role of platform and the main drivers of engagement on Instagram, as well as suggesting how managers can improve brand value using SM.

This study explores the levels of Facebook engagement of the two largest Europe-based shipping lines, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), to discover the marketing orientation of the topics advertised and to ascertain whether they tend to be about brand recognition, new transport services, or value propositions for stakeholders.

The Facebook posts of Maersk and MSC were analysed using social media text mining and social network analysis (SNA); in- and out-degree centrality analysis was performed to determine the key terms in their posts. NetMiner software was used to collect the respective data on Maersk and MSC. The inquiry period was set between May 2020 and February 2021.

The results indicated a divergence in their post contents, with higher engagement and a wider, more active follower base for MSC than for Maersk. Maersk primarily posts about logistics services and supply chain solutions. MSC communicates about new and large container vessels. Both companies seek greater brand recognition and information sharing through social media.

These results can be used by the stakeholders to evaluate whether Maersk and MSC truly deliver on their respective value propositions communicated online through their social media engagement. It can also help Maersk and MSC gauge the level of effectiveness of their communication with stakeholders and modify their digital engagement strategy accordingly.

Service research offering a view of both the dark and bright sides of smart technology remains scarce. This paper embraces a critical perspective and examines the conflicting outcomes of smart services on the customer experience (CX), with a specific focus on chatbots.

This study uses empirical research methods to examine a single case study where an online retail service provider implemented a chatbot for customer service. Using discourse analysis, we analysed 7,167 conversations between customers and the chatbot over a two-year period.

The analysis identifies seven general themes related to the effects of the chatbot on CX: interaction quality, information gathering, procedure literacy, task achievement, digital trust, shopping stress and shopping journey. We illuminate both positive (i.e. having a pleasant interaction, providing information, knowing procedures, improving tasks, increasing trust, reducing stress and completing the journey) and negative outcomes (i.e. having an unpleasant interaction, increasing confusion, ignoring procedures, worsening tasks, reducing trust, increasing stress and abandoning the journey).

The paper develops a comprehensive framework to offer a clearer view of chatbots as smart services in customer care. It delves into the conflicting effects of chatbots on CX by examining them through relational, cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions.

Recently, many firms have reshored manufacturing activities back to their home countries to increase customer perceptions of product quality. However, there is no evidence that relocating production to the home country improves customer-perceived quality. This study intends to address this gap by assessing the variations between pre- and post-reshoring product quality, as perceived by domestic customers.

Data were collected through a questionnaire, which used the case of an Italian fashion brand that had reshored its manufacturing from Romania to Italy as the stimulus. Two analyses of the collected data (n = 399) were conducted, applying both 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design and partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM) multigroup analysis.

Reshoring increased the level of perceived product quality only for customers that both were aware of the firm's past offshoring decision and had high levels of affective ethnocentrism. For all other customers, no significant variations between pre- and post-reshoring product quality were observed.

This study challenges previous findings, revealing that only a minor share of customers perceived products to be of higher quality after reshoring.

Increasing customer-perceived quality may not be a sufficient motivation to select the reshoring strategy. In addition, when announcing reshoring strategies, producers should appeal to customers' emotions and not use rational arguments about objective product quality.

This is the first study to assess variations between pre- and post-reshoring customer-perceived quality and to identify factors that explain such variations.

The aim of this paper is to explore whether open innovation is emerging in the Italian fashion industry.

Based on available studies on innovation and open innovation, we first identified the main facets of open innovation within the industry investigated, such as the process of searching for new ideas, the involvement of external partners in the new product development process and the use of collaboration mechanisms between supply chain partners. Starting from these findings, the authors designed a semi-structured questionnaire that was used as a guideline for 15 case studies, carried out in the Italian fashion industry.

The outcomes from the case studies allow drawing some conclusions about the emergency of open innovation in the fashion industry and the related patterns.

Given its exploratory nature, this study is expected to start a debate about open innovation in the fashion industry, as well as to encourage future studies in this field.

The authors systematically review empirical dyadic service encounter research published in top-tier journals between 1972 and 2022.

The authors employed bibliometric techniques, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis to map schools of thought and research frontiers within the dyadic service encounter literature. In total, the authors analyzed 155 articles. To ensure inclusion of high-quality research, the authors screened articles from 139 journals with “4” or “4*” ratings on the 2021 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) journal list, in addition to articles published in three service sector-specific journals: Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Service Theory and Practice.

The authors' co-citation analysis identified four distinct clusters within the dyadic service encounter literature: (1) shaping and explaining service encounters; (2) emotions in service work; (3) modeling, manipulating and measuring encounter service quality and (4) emotional labor and regulation in dyadic service encounters. Furthermore, the authors' bibliographic coupling analysis generated three research clusters: (1) service encounter characteristics; (2) emotions and emotional labor and (3) service encounter interaction content.

The authors' comprehensive review synthesizes knowledge, summarizing similarities among research clusters within the service encounter realm. Noteworthy are research clusters that clarify the emotion-based underpinnings and reciprocal nature of behaviors and emotions within dyadic encounters. By conducting complementary bibliometric analyses, the authors trace the evolution of the service encounter literature, providing an overview of the present state of dyadic service encounter research. These analyses offer valuable insights into the current landscape of the field, identifying future dyadic service encounter research opportunities.

This paper aims to explore the current and future roles of augmented reality (AR) as an enabler of omnichannel experiences across the customer journey. To advance the conceptual understanding and managerial exploitation of AR, the paper aims to synthesise current research, illustrating how a variety of current applications merge online and offline experiences, and provides a future research agenda to help advance the state of the art in AR.

Drawing on situated cognition theorising as a guiding framework, the paper reviews previously published research and currently deployed applications to provide a roadmap for future research efforts on AR-enabled omnichannel experiences across the customer journey.

AR offers myriad opportunities to provide customers with a seamless omnichannel journey, smoothing current obstacles, through a unique combination of embedded, embodied and extended customer experiences. These three principles constitute the overarching value drivers of AR and offer coherent, theory-driven organising principles for managers and researchers alike.

Current research has yet to provide a relevant, conceptually robust understanding of AR-enabled customer experiences. In light of the rapid development and widespread deployment of the technology, this paper provides an urgently needed framework for guiding the development of AR in an omnichannel context.

This study aims to explore past and present service research and to provide a future research agenda for service researchers by presenting a big picture of the intellectual connections and emerging topics in the discipline.

This study is an empirical analysis of citations and cocitations on a sample of 5,837 articles published in leading service journals (from 1981 to December 2020). Network analysis was adopted to analyze the data. This study is exclusive in conducting the inquiry at the individual publication level, rather than using the normal aggregated author co-citation analysis approach.

The findings reveal that the main themes of service research centered on customer satisfaction, service quality, service-dominant logic, methodological foundations, market orientation and service encounter. Also clarified is the periphery domain that may become more important in the future (i.e. technology). The findings also present anchor points for conceptual framing and conceptual development – five main themes that are momentous to navigate theory discovery and justification in the knowledge domain.

It calls for a more academic effort to evaluate the service research by considering different epistemological paradigms, such as positivism, monologic and hermeneutic, to better understand the process and progress of the discipline.

Through exploring the transformation of service research into a customer-centric model and technology-based service logic, this study offers possible implications for practitioners and further research areas for service researchers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use a citation, cocitation and network analysis to examine service research published in leading service journals. This study provides a significant contribution to the theory by combining main conceptual areas and interests in the given discipline.

Este estudio explora la investigación de servicios pasada y presente y proporciona una agenda de investigación, presentando un panorama general de las conexiones intelectuales y los temas emergentes en la disciplina.

Este estudio es un análisis empírico de las citas y co-citas sobre una muestra de 5.837 artículos publicados en las principales revistas de servicios (1981–2020). Se utilizó el análisis de redes para examinar los datos. Este trabajo es único en la realización de la investigación a nivel de publicación individual, en lugar de utilizar el enfoque habitual de análisis de co-citación de autores agregados.

Los resultados revelan que los temas principales de la investigación sobre servicios se centran en la satisfacción del cliente, la calidad del servicio, la lógica del servicio dominante, los fundamentos metodológicos, la orientación al mercado y el encuentro de servicios. También se clarifica un ámbito periférico que puede adquirir mayor importancia en el futuro (la tecnología). Los resultados también presentan puntos de anclaje para el encuadre y el desarrollo conceptual de diversos temas importantes.

Este estudio es el primero que utiliza un análisis de citas, co-citas y redes para analizar la investigación en servicios publicada en las principales revistas de servicios. Proporciona una importante contribución a la teoría al combinar las principales áreas conceptuales y los intereses de la disciplina.

Mediante la exploración de la transformación de la investigación en servicios en un modelo centrado en el cliente y en la lógica de los servicios basados en la tecnología, este estudio ofrece posibles implicaciones para los profesionales y nuevas áreas de investigación para los investigadores.

Se reclama un mayor esfuerzo académico para evaluar la investigación de servicios considerando diferentes paradigmas epistemológicos, como el positivismo, el monologismo y la hermenéutica, para comprender mejor el proceso y el progreso de la disciplina.

本研究旨在探索过去和现在的服务研究, 并通过展示该学科的知识联系和新兴主题的全局, 为服务研究领域的学者提供未来的研究议程。

本文是基于1981年到2020年12月期间发表在五个领先服务类期刊上的5,837篇文章进行引用和共同引用的实证分析, 并采用网络分析法对数据进行分析和分类。这项研究的独到之处在于在单个出版物层面上进行调查, 而不是采用正常的汇总作者共被引分析方法。

我们的调查结果显示, 服务研究的主题主要集中在顾客满意度、服务质量、服务主导逻辑、方法论基础、市场导向和服务遭遇。同时, 还阐明了未来可能变得更加重要的外围领域（即技术）。研究结果还提出了概念框架和概念发展的锚点–概念图的五个主要主题对导航知识领域的理论发现和论证至关重要。

本研究首次使用引文、共同引文和网络分析来考察发表在领先服务期刊上的服务研究。它结合特定学科的主要概念领域和兴趣, 为理论研究做出了重要的贡献。它还确定了我们在服务学术研究中已知和未知的内容。

通过探索服务研究转变为以客户为中心的模式和基于技术的服务逻辑, 本研究为从业者提供了启示, 也为后续服务研究指引了值得进一步研究的领域。

本文呼吁更多的学术研究通过考虑不同的认识论范式, 例如实证主义、一元论和解释学来评估服务研究, 以便更好地了解该学科的过程和进展。本文还呼吁未来研究可以尝试填补本文研究结果提出的知识空白。

This study aims to analyze how different room-committing practices affect the occupancy and profitability of hotels and it critically reviews the role of minimum-length-of-stay (MLOS) requirements given these findings.

The approach uses statistical analysis of simplified contexts to develop understanding, and simulations of more complex situations to confirm the relevance in realistic contexts.

The study demonstrates that proper solutions of the room-committing problem improve occupancy and profitability, in particular, for hotels working in high-season and high-occupancy situations. Smart committing algorithms diminish the role of MLOS requirements. More demand can be accepted without sacrificing late-arriving long reservations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work, building upon a previous one cited in this paper, is the first to rigorously study the room-committing problem and to demonstrate its relevance in practical situations and its implications on MLOS rules.