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Article
Publication date: 18 May 2020

Raymond P. Fisk, Linda Alkire (née Nasr), Laurel Anderson, David E. Bowen, Thorsten Gruber, Amy L. Ostrom and Lia Patrício

Elevating the human experience (HX) through research collaborations is the purpose of this article. ServCollab facilitates and supports service research collaborations that seek…

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Abstract

Purpose

Elevating the human experience (HX) through research collaborations is the purpose of this article. ServCollab facilitates and supports service research collaborations that seek to reduce human suffering and improve human well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

To catalyze this initiative, the authors introduce ServCollab's three human rights goals (serve, enable and transform), standards of justice for serving humanity (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) and research approaches for serving humanity (service design and community action research).

Research implications

ServCollab seeks to advance the service research field via large-scale service research projects that pursue theory building, research and action. Service inclusion is the first focus of ServCollab and is illustrated through two projects (transformative refugee services and virtual assistants in social care). This paper seeks to encourage collaboration in more large-scale service research projects that elevate the HX.

Practical implications

ServCollab seeks to raise the aspirations of service researchers, expand the skills of service research teams and build mutually collaborative service research approaches that transform human lives.

Originality/value

ServCollab is a unique organization within the burgeoning service research community. By collaborating with service researchers, with service research centers, with universities, with nonprofit agencies and with foundations, ServCollab will build research capacity to address large-scale human service system problems. ServCollab takes a broad perspective for serving humanity by focusing on the HX. Current business research focuses on the interactive roles of customer experience and employee experience. From the perspective of HX, such role labels are insufficient concepts for the full spectrum of human life.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 March 2017

Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Hannah Snyder, Mattias Elg, Lars Witell, Anu Helkkula, Suellen J. Hogan and Laurel Anderson

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from health care research with those in service research to identify key conceptualizations of the changing role of the health…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from health care research with those in service research to identify key conceptualizations of the changing role of the health care customer, to identify gaps in theory, and to propose a compelling research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

This study combines a meta-narrative review of health care research, and a systematic review of service research, using thematic analysis to identify key practice approaches and the changing role of the health care customer.

Findings

The review reveals different conceptualizations of the customer role within the ten key practice approaches, and identifies an increased activation of the role of the health care customer over time. This change implies a re-orientation, that is, moving away from the health care professional setting the agenda, prescribing and delivering treatment where the customer merely complies with orders, to the customer actively contributing and co-creating value with service providers and other actors in the ecosystem to the extent the health care customer desires.

Originality/value

This study not only identifies key practice approaches by synthesizing findings from health care research with those in service research, it also identifies how the role of the health care customer is changing and highlights effects of the changing role across the practice approaches. A research agenda to guide future health care service research is also provided.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 March 2016

Raymond P P. Fisk, Laurel Anderson, David E. Bowen, Thorsten Gruber, Amy Ostrom, Lia Patrício, Javier Reynoso and Roberta Sebastiani

The purpose of this paper is to create a movement within the service research community that aspires to help the billions of impoverished people across the world achieve better…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to create a movement within the service research community that aspires to help the billions of impoverished people across the world achieve better service from each other, from their communities, from corporations, from their governments, and from nongovernmental organizations. The authors believe every human being is worthy of being served properly. To achieve this purpose, understanding and learning from this huge low-income segment of society known as the base of the pyramid (BoP) is essential. There are myths about the BoP that need to be dispelled and there is a fundamental lack of service research on this important problem.

Design/methodology/approach

The existence of an extensive BoP literature combined with service research priorities has called attention to drafting research agendas. Human service systems are explored historically and systems theory provides a perspective for understanding and reducing poverty. Transformative service research, service design research, and community action research are presented to illustrate three research approaches that can contribute to understanding and then better serving the needs of the neglected billions of humanity.

Findings

First, the authors present a practical and meaningful call to action by making the case for the service research community to contribute to poverty alleviation with the creation of fresh ideas and research agendas. Second, the authors describe the ample opportunity for conducting service research in and with the BoP and thereby expanding service knowledge about the BoP. Third, the authors suggest a number of approaches for service researchers to join this new movement and help improve the well-being of billions of impoverished people.

Social implications

Most existing service research comes from highly developed Anglo-Saxon countries and concerns the service problems of customers in affluent societies. Therefore, there is a fundamental lack of service research at the BoP. The social implications are truly global. Poverty is a global service system problem that can be reduced. Effective poverty alleviation solutions in one part of the world can be adapted to other parts of the world.

Originality/value

This paper is a new and very original call to action to the service research community. First, with the exception of a few previous manuscripts calling for research on the BoP, this is the first time a collaborative effort has been made to start systematically changing this knowledge gap. Second, the service research community has never worked on a project of this magnitude. The authors hope to offer a role model to other academic communities as to how to marshal their resources to have a collective, positive impact on the well-being of the world’s impoverished.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Lars Witell, Laurel Anderson, Roderick J. Brodie, Maria Colurcio, Bo Edvardsson, Per Kristensson, Line Lervik-Olsen, Roberta Sebastiani and Tor Wallin Andreassen

– The purpose of this study is to explore three paradoxes of service innovation and provide a way forward for fresh thinking on the topic.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore three paradoxes of service innovation and provide a way forward for fresh thinking on the topic.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a conceptual model of service innovation research, the authors challenge the “pro-change” bias and explore what can be learnt from the duality of service innovation.

Findings

This paper suggests that research moves beyond a firm perspective to study service innovation on multiple levels of abstraction. A conceptual model based on two dimensions, level (individual, organization and society) and outcome (success, failure), is used to pinpoint and explore three dualities of service innovation: adopt–reject, change–static and good–bad.

Originality/value

By challenging the traditional perspective on service innovation, the authors present new avenues for fresh thinking in research on service innovation. In this paper, the authors encourage researchers and managers to learn from failures and to acknowledge the negative effects of service innovation.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 29 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 February 2019

Hugo Guyader, Mikael Ottosson, Per Frankelius and Lars Witell

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of green service. In particular, the focus is on identifying homopathic and heteropathic resource integration processes…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of green service. In particular, the focus is on identifying homopathic and heteropathic resource integration processes that preserve or increase the resourceness of the natural ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach

Through an extensive multiple case study involving ten service providers from diverse sectors based on a substantial number of interviews, detailed accounts of green service are provided.

Findings

Six resource integration processes were identified: reducing, recirculating, recycling, redistributing, reframing and renewing. While four of these processes are based on homopathic resource integration, both reframing and renewing are based on heteropathic resource integration. While homopathic processes historically constitute a green service by mitigating the impact of consumption on the environment, heteropathic resource integration increases the resourceness of the natural ecosystem through emergent processes and the (re)creation of natural resources.

Research limitations/implications

The present study breaks away from the paradigm that “green service” is about reducing the negative environmental impact of existing services, toward providing a green service that expands biological diversity and other natural resources.

Originality/value

Transformative service research on environmental sustainability is still in its infancy. The present study contributes through conceptualizing green service, redefining existing resource integration processes (reducing, recirculating, recycling) and identifying new resource integration processes (redistributing, reframing, renewing).

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2023

David E. Bowen, Raymond P. Fisk, John E.G. Bateson, Leonard L. Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Richard B. Chase, Bo Edvardsson, Christian Grönroos, A. Parasuraman, Benjamin Schneider and Valarie A. Zeithaml

A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of…

Abstract

Purpose

A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.

Design/methodology/approach

Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.

Findings

Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.

Originality/value

The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 March 2016

Roderick J. Brodie and Anders Gustafsson

The purpose of this paper is to explore enhancing theory development in service research and provide an overview of the five essays on theorizing initiated by the International…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore enhancing theory development in service research and provide an overview of the five essays on theorizing initiated by the International Network for Service Research workshop, held at Karlstad, Sweden in September 2014.

Design/methodology/approach

A collaborative theorizing process which was initiated at the Karlstad, Sweden workshop.

Findings

Six (five from the event and the introduction) original and provocative essays that explore different aspects of theorizing in service research.

Originality/value

Exploring how a collaborative approach to research can be used.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2016

Lucie K. Ozanne and Julie L. Ozanne

Time banking is a form of alternative consumer market where members trade services, non-reciprocally creating a local marketplace for services. Time Banks facilitate dyadic…

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Abstract

Purpose

Time banking is a form of alternative consumer market where members trade services, non-reciprocally creating a local marketplace for services. Time Banks facilitate dyadic exchanges, meeting members’ practical needs and building diverse skills. The purpose of this research was to determine the broad capabilities developed in the Time Bank economy, and to demonstrate how these capabilities were mobilised following a series of earthquakes, contributing to the larger community’s resiliency.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking an ethnographic approach, data were collected using a variety of methods including interviews, focus groups, participant observation and secondary research.

Findings

Over time, this alternative consumer market developed a significant communication and social network that members activated to solve diverse practical problems facing the community. Similar to other exchange communities, the Time Bank also fostered a strong sense of community based on reciprocity and egalitarian values. Although the Time Bank was created as a marketplace to exchange local services, during a series of devastating earthquakes, it galvanised adaptive capacities, increasing the resiliency of the local community during disaster relief and reconstruction.

Research limitations/implications

The data were drawn from one alternative exchange system in New Zealand.

Practical implications

The study shows how grassroots alternative consumer markets like Time Banks build community capacities alongside the formal economy. During normal times, this system meets consumer needs, but in extraordinary times, this system provides community shock absorbers, thereby enhancing community resiliency.

Social implications

The Time Bank was particularly adept at leveraging local knowledge to provide social support to those residents who were most vulnerable.

Originality/value

Data were collected before, during, and after the earthquakes, providing a rare opportunity to explore the process of community resiliency in action. This research extends existing theories of community resiliency explaining the development and activation of capacities by a local alternative consumer market.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 50 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 September 2018

Pradeep Kautish and Rajesh Sharma

The purpose of this study is to examine the functional relationships among terminal and instrumental values, environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions for green…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the functional relationships among terminal and instrumental values, environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions for green products in India in light of the value–attitude–behavior framework.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a hypo-deductive research design. A conceptual model was developed to relate the terminal and instrumental values to environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions, which are substantiated with a comprehensive literature review. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used along with Anderson and Gerbing’s two-step research approach to measure the dimensions of the measurement model, as well as the specifications of the structural model.

Findings

The findings of the research indicate that terminal and instrumental values significantly influence environmental consciousness, and environmental consciousness has a significant influence on behavioral intentions. Instrumental value shows a greater influence on environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions, rather than terminal value. Furthermore, this study discloses that environmental consciousness acts as a partial mediator while establishing a link between instrumental/terminal value and behavioral intentions.

Research limitations/implications

The present research is based on two distinct forms of human values, namely, terminal values and instrumental values. The study found that consumers who favored instrumental values to terminal values revealed a tendency to frame confused and incoherent judgments on environmental issues.

Practical implications

The study will help green marketing practitioners understand the important role of values, that is, both terminal and instrumental values, in promoting environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions for green products. The findings of the study will facilitate decision-making processes in relation to marketing for green product consumers in the Indian context.

Social implications

Values are the guiding forces for human behavior, both socially and individually. Moreover, values have a long-lasting impression on consumers in varied forms. This study will pave the way forward by contributing to the societal understanding of consumer values within the realms of human values for green marketing, green consumerism and sustainable businesses.

Originality/value

The paper is the first attempt of its kind to explore the relationships among two distinct forms of values that are the foundation of human values, namely, terminal and instrumental values, and their effect on environmental consciousness and behavioral intentions for green products in the Indian market. The paper is unique in understanding factors contributing to green marketing beyond consumer values and differs from previous research in specifying the significance of human values.

Details

Journal of Indian Business Research, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4195

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 September 2019

Pradeep Kautish and Rajesh Sharma

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationships between two distinct value orientations, that is, the terminal and instrumental. The effects of these value orientations on…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationships between two distinct value orientations, that is, the terminal and instrumental. The effects of these value orientations on green attitude and green behavioral intentions for green products among young consumers in an emerging market against the backdrop of a value–attitude–behavior cognitive hierarchical framework has also been focused on in this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The study espouses a hypo-deductive research design and the measures were conceptualized and advanced based on an inclusive review of the research studies conducted in the past. Anderson and Gerbing’s two-step research approach was used for partial least square structural equation modeling to assess the measurement and structural models with SmartPLS (v 3.2.6).

Findings

The findings suggest that the functional value is constantly essential, but not enough by itself, for envisaging green purchase behavior. The results show that both the terminal and instrumental values have a significant impact on green attitude and in turn, green attitude has a significant impact on green behavioral intentions. The instrumental value displays greater impact on both green attitude and green behavioral intentions compared to the terminal value. Additionally, the research also discloses that green attitude acts as a mediator in the relationship between terminal/instrumental value and green behavioral intentions.

Research limitations/implications

This paper describes two broad, yet distinctive, value orientations (i.e. terminal versus instrumental) using cross-sectional data from the state capital of the country. Future research may scrutinize the findings’ (cross-cultural) generalizability using diverse data sets to assess value orientations and customers’ green behavioral intentions among young consumers.

Practical implications

The research findings will enormously help green marketers and practitioners to recognize the roles of terminal and instrumental values in evolving green attitude and green behavioral intentions for green products among the young consumers, thereby helping to develop marketing strategies.

Social implications

The current research provides evidence that in emerging markets such as India, young consumers exhibit value orientation toward environmental deterioration, holding a sense of responsibility in their consumption pattern. This may pave the way forward for sustainable businesses.

Originality/value

This study is objectively a pioneering one that attempts to explore the relationships between the value orientations in terms of instrumental and terminal values and their effects on green attitude and green behavioral intentions toward green products using Rokeach’s (1973) two-dimensional measure of values among young consumers, which is quite novel to the existing body of knowledge. Moreover, this paper has surveyed these relationships in a different research context, which can expand the knowledge about green consumer behavior in emerging markets.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. 20 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

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