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This paper reports on the initial results of an ongoing research conducted in Mexican service industries aimed at understanding how value is delivered, measured and continuously improved in the studied firms. Using the service profit chain model data were collected from a sample of 28 supermarkets and 29 hotels in Mexican cities. Results show that both industries are similarly characterized by the service profit chain model (SPCM) tool, thus providing some opportunity for cross‐learning between industries; and some significant differences exist between domestic and foreign firms in both industries, thus providing some benchmark opportunities for industries based on origin of capital. For the sampled firms, categories of the SPCM were grouped into three statistically different ranges (high, medium and low), thus providing additional knowledge as to what strengths and areas of opportunity for improving performance of the studied industries there are.

This article presents insights on the increasing importance of services in the economic growth of Latin America and its complex evolution towards a service society. The article then illustrates the strategic role of services management in this new era of service competition, discussing managerial and research challenges being faced by service organizations and academic institutions in this region. The article concludes by providing a framework aiming to integrate a community which, sharing the common intellectual passion for service, would work towards the development of science, art and practice of services management, in order to contribute to the progress of this important field in Latin America.

Illustrates how the implementation of the internal customer concept has assisted United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to establish a culture for quality. Explains the conceptual framework on which the notion of the internal customer is derived. Describes how, from 1992 to date, the Trust’s quality management approach was designed to apply these management principles in a large teaching hospital setting. Outlines how this quality management approach has been successful in enabling departmental managers to recognize, develop and improve internal customer/supplier relationships. Concludes by explaining that business process re‐engineering is now being applied as a prime quality tool to help deliver a major culture change throughout the organization.

In the service sector literature, both marketers and organizational behaviourists emphasize the importance of the internal dynamics of the organization in terms of a network of customers and suppliers interacting together to satisfy customers. Reports on the progress of an ongoing project aimed at identifying and measuring those factors which determine how hospital ward staff perceive the quality of the support they receive from other units in hospitals.