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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that mall shoppers who participate in a mall’s experiential offerings, including entertainment and activities, do not necessarily exhibit more favorable attitudes or behaviors toward the mall than mall shoppers who do not participate in these offerings.

This study employs survey methodology from a sample collected in an expansive regional mall that offers customers experiential activities.

The findings show that mall shoppers who partake in mall-based activities are less satisfied, are less likely to spread positive word of mouth, and have lesser desire to return to the mall than shoppers who do not partake in these activities. The findings also reveal that mall expenditures are the same between shoppers who partake in mall activities and those who do not.

Researchers have argued that malls can compete with digital retailers by offering shoppers experiential activities. Although segments of shoppers partake in these activities, this study finds that experiential investments do not result in significant favorable shopper outcomes.

Mall developers that implement experiential offerings as a means to combat competition from digital retailers may not attain managerially relevant results from doing so.

Although retailing academics and consultants espouse the idea that retailers can obtain financial benefits by creating memorable experiences for shoppers, this research offers empirical evidence that counters these speculations. In the case of enclosed malls, investments in experiential features and activities may not lead to improved shopper attitudes, behaviors, or sales.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework that clarifies the social supportive role of cancer resource center services in the lives of men with cancer and its impact on their perceived quality of life.

Personal reflections.

The authors put forth a conceptual framework which shows that men with cancer may perceive the availability of four types of social support from others present in a cancer resource center. The perceived availability of social support is posited to enhance their perceptions of their quality of life.

The study yields propositions that may be empirically tested by services and health researchers in future studies. In addition, the research findings may not extend to terminally ill male cancer patients.

Given the health benefits associated with social support, health-care professionals, social workers and cancer center directors should encourage their male cancer patients to participate in cancer resource programing and activities.

Cancer resource centers offer male cancer patients opportunities to enhance their quality of life beyond the use of pharmaceutical drugs or professional medical treatment. The health benefits may lower costs associated with medical expenses.

This study contributes to an emerging paradigm in services marketing. It is one of the first papers to focus on the socially supportive role that cancer resource center services may assume in the lives of men with cancer and those surviving the disease.

This study aims to explore innate and sociocultural forces that lead gay men to purchase invasive and non-invasive cosmetic medical treatments.

This work draws on a literature review and personal reflections to identify and interpret patterns and themes on drivers that encourage gay men to use cosmetic medical treatments.

In line with evolutionary theory, the authors suggest that the male proclivity to evaluate a partner’s sexual desirability on the basis of physical appearance and youth remains consistent among gay men. They also posit that sociocultural norms, such as media imagery, portray gay men as physically attractive and youthful. Among gay men, homonormative ideals that define attractiveness fall on a continuum ranging from hyper-masculinity to hypo-masculinity, with each end encouraging gay men to accept different beauty standards.

To date, service researchers have mostly overlooked the role of evolution in consumers’ propensity to purchase professional services. This study sets the foundation for researchers to consider both instinctual and sociocultural norms that encourage consumers to purchase not only cosmetic medical treatments but also professional services in general.

Gay men represent a prime target market for cosmetic medical treatment providers, as their desire for physical attractiveness and youth remains constant as they age.

This study offers novel insights into gay male consumption of cosmetic medical treatments and services from theoretical and practical perspectives.

This paper aims to offer insights into the impact of digitization technology on consumer goods manufacturers and retail organizations. The authors propose that the “next phase” of digitization will entail the employment of digitization technology to offer consumers personalized product offerings and recommendations based on their internal biomarkers.

The authors draw on past investigations into digitization and their retailing experience to speculate on how the next phase of digitization will affect both consumer goods manufacturers and retailers.

The next phase of digitization will entail the use of nutrigenomics (DNA sequencing), exhaled breath analysis, fitness tracker devices, sensory patches, radio frequency identification tags and quantum ID tags to create customized and recommend products, and support product-to-customer communication regarding authenticity.

Consumers will increasingly rely on technology to inform them of their bodily needs and to receive personalized solutions to help satisfy those needs. Consumer behavior theories must be reconsidered because consumers will become more passive participants in retail consumption as they rely on technology for need-recognition and product-fulfillment.

Digitization technologies that use consumers’ biomarkers for new product creation or product recommendation raise new risks and uncertainty. For example, the legal implications of an incorrect product recommendation based on customer biomarkers are unknown. Furthermore, retailers would need to maintain data privacy of biomarker data and be responsible for data breaches.

The research explores how digitization will affect consumers’ in-store experiences with consumer goods products.

This paper aims to explore consumers’ cognitive responses to the presence of other people in a planned lifestyle center. The featured lifestyle center contains shopping, lodging, dining and retail options in an open-air setting full of natural elements. This work helps explain the affinity of consumers to lifestyle centers and shows marketing researchers and practitioners how to use neuroscience hardware and software in service design research.

The study draws on social impact theory to show how the social presence of others in a lifestyle center influences six different cognitive responses. The authors evaluate consumers’ cognitive responses by using the Emotiv EPOC+ headset to obtain electroencephalogram recordings. To interpret these recordings, they use EmotivPro software, which provides readings on six emotional states, including excitement, interest, stress, engagement, attention and relaxation.

The data obtained from mall shoppers reveal that the presence of other people in a lifestyle center evokes high levels of interest and excitement and encourages relaxation.

The paper shows marketers how to use neural data to obtain insights into consumers’ cognitive responses to stimuli by using Emotiv headsets and software.

The results show the importance of social elements in encouraging customers to approach and spend time in lifestyle centers.

The paper is one of the first to explore consumers’ responses to strangers in shared settings using neuroscience.

This editorial aims to identify new research priorities in the service marketplace that are emerging because of consumer and organizational trends in the shadow of the global pandemic.

A conceptual approach is used that draws on observations from practitioners to synthesize changes in consumer values, motivations and behaviors as they pertain to service consumption, design and delivery. This editorial draws on current trends and recent service research to discuss the current state of the marketplace and to uncover areas in which research voids exist.

This editorial offers ten research priorities for service researchers. These research priorities are supply chain and staffing shortages; sustainable services, older consumers embrace digital technologies; digital financial services; consumer pursuit of personal and spiritual awareness; participating in virtual communities, networks and worlds; affinity for peer-to-peer commerce; transformative places; seeking self-love services, and social distance concerns.

Academicians are provided with a series of research priorities that are interesting, timely and relevant for the new service marketplace.

Service academicians are encouraged to pursue empirical and descriptive investigations in-line with the priorities developed in this editorial. These research priorities are relevant, timely and interesting.

This work presents scholars with a historical overview of trends in service research. The challenges posed by the pandemic represent the beginning of a new era in service research thought and practice as many previously held theories and understandings of consumers’ marketplace behaviors have permanently changed due to behavioral changes that transpired during governmental mandated lockdowns.

The purpose of this paper is to explore black market retailing, with a focus on Colombia’s San Andresitos.

The authors use grounded theory methodology to develop a theoretical framework that explains how consumers rationalize their acceptance, rejection, or tolerance of black market retailing. The authors obtained qualitative data based on reader responses to newspaper articles on San Andresitos and used the responses as qualitative data in comparative analysis to derive a “strategy family” theoretical framework.

The framework advances rationalization techniques that consumers employ to accept, reject, or tolerate the San Andresitos.

Colombians are divided on the legality of the San Andresitos. Although half the informants note the wrongfulness of the San Andresitos, the other half offer reasons to accept or tolerate them.

Legitimate (i.e. lawful) retailers operating in Colombia, or planning to enter, need to realize that local and national government officials support the San Andresitos. Colombia’s legitimate retailers must co-exist with the black market and dissuade consumers from patronizing unauthorized vendors or purchasing illicit goods.

Colombia’s acceptance of its black markets results in consumers inadvertently supporting crime, terrorism, and even bodily harm via the San Andresitos. However, the San Andresitos enable lower-income consumers to gain access to otherwise unattainable merchandise and provide employment through lower-skilled labor.

This paper is one of the first to explore black markets. From a transformative service research perspective, this research reveals how consumers, retailers, and government officials participate in Colombia’s black market, and how their activities serve to harm consumer well-being.

This editorial aims to discuss 11 trends that are driving changes in business education, especially for Master of Business Administration (MBA) curriculum programming.

The editorial provides introspection, personal reflections and conceptualization using current literature.

The authors discuss 11 drivers that are influencing graduate business education. These drivers include the demographic cliff, the K-shaped recovery, MBA degrees losing their allure, emergence of two pricing structures, the rise of online universities, certificates and micro-credentials, the massive open online course (MOOC) MBA programs, MOOCs and certification, Grow with Google, Outsourcing MBA instruction and business education relevancy.

Traditional university and college graduate business education providers must realize that the educational industry is experiencing a revolutionary disruption and that many universities will fail to meet learners’ expectations for relevant skills and organizational demands for employees who have specific skills for employability.

Learners will no longer rely on traditional four-year universities to obtain business skills.

This work synthesizes a disparate set of drivers that are affecting all graduate business educational providers.

Organisational learning (OL) is a critical capability family firms (FFs) need in order to adapt to an increasingly turbulent environment. Given the uniqueness of FFs and their differentiated decision-making processes, this review addresses fragmentation in the literature and synthesises prior research outlining the development of OL in FFs.

A systematic literature review was conducted using four databases, and 53 pertinent papers on OL in FFs published from 1998 to 2023 were analysed using the theory, characteristics, context and methodology (TCCM) framework.

The last five years (2019–2023) show a marked increase in interest in OL in FFs, with a rise in the number of quantitative studies. The findings indicate that OL is mainly studied as a unidimensional construct, while it is a multidimensional capability. Strategic management and organisational behaviour theories are commonly employed, while theories specific to family business such as socioemotional wealth (SEW) and familiness are underrepresented. Most studies focus on FFs in the Northern Hemisphere, and few studies examine OL in FFs located in the Global South. The TCCM framework reveals the complexity and multi-layered nature of OL in FFs.

This is one of the first systematic reviews to synthesise research on OL in FFs. The proposed research agenda identifies fruitful areas for future investigations concentrating on the multidimensional nature of OL, family-related outcomes, as well as contextual and methodological research directions of interest to family business researchers.

This study aims to identify how Spanish consumers’ extrinsic preferences for food have evolved by examining the extant literature on food preferences in Spain, focusing on food-related attributes and food-related values.

This study is based on a synthetic review of the extant academic literature on Spanish consumer preferences for food-related attributes and food-related values from the mid-20th to the 21st century. This study uses key economic and social milestones that are most likely to influence food value chain actors to show how consumer preferences have evolved over the study period.

Spanish consumer food attribute preferences expanded as the food sector of the nation continued to grow, and value preferences showed a similar pattern from the mid-20th to the 21st century. The drivers of these preferences were trust, lifestyle, education (campaigns), sociodemographic factors and purchasing power.

Evaluating the extant literature’s contribution to consumer preferences for food-related attributes and values is important because it can aid in understanding the hierarchy and variety of consumers’ food preferences as well as the factors that drive these preferences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore how Spanish consumer preferences evolved between the mid-20th and 21st centuries.