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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.

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.

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.

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.

Effects of voice, compensation, and responsibility attribution on justice perception and post‐complaint behavior in a consumer setting were studied in a cross‐cultural study. Hotel school students in China and Canada (N = 168) read and responded to a scenario which described how a service provider handled the complaint from a customer whose coat was stained with tea. The results showed that collectivists were more likely than individualists to blame the service provider. Also, voice offered by the service provider failed to reduce its blame, and compensation actually led to more blame attributed to the service provider. Responsibility attribution was found to be able to mediate the effect of culture on post complaint behavior. A culture by voice interaction indicated that when voice was offered by the service provider, Canadians were less likely to attribute the responsibility to themselves than were Chinese. The implications of these results on justice, culture, and responsibility attribution are discussed.

To meet the increasing needs for ubiquitous healthcare, a mobile phone‐based system for monitoring multiple vital signs is under development. In this paper, design and implementation of the system architecture are described. The hierarchy of this system comprises three layers, which respectively handle multiple vital signs sensing, data/command communication via either wireless or wired means, and healthcare management. The fundamental basis of the sensing layer is a wearable cordless sensor device for monitoring vital signs without discomfort to the user during daily activities. The data communication layer performs bi‐directional information exchange between the sensing layer and the management layer. The uppermost management layer conducts data mining and analysis for risk factors assessment and healthcare. Overall considerations of implementation method and prototype fabrication are outlined. Finally, applicability to a variety of real‐world situations, and provision of customizable solutions not only for home healthcare but also for other vital signs‐related domains (such as emergency rescue and safety guarantee) are discussed. Three of the most promising applications based upon this system are described.

Based on the proposition that deprivation of control is a key instigator of attribution thoughts, this study explores cross‐national variations in consumers' formation and consequences of attributions on dissatisfying service encounters. We hypothesize that variations in the stage of economic development and the cultural dimension of long‐term versus short‐term orientation affect consumers' perceived level of control in and attributions of dissatisfying service encounters, and the relative effects of various attribution dimensions (including locus, controllable‐by‐organization, and stability) on consumers' switching intentions. Results obtained from a cross‐national survey show that compared to PRC consumers, Canadian consumers experience more deprivation of control in dissatisfying service encounters and exhibit stronger self‐serving biases in forming attributions about their dissatisfying service experiences. Moreover, the controllable‐by‐organization dimension (i.e. whether the problems of the service encounter could be controlled by the service firm) is found to have a stronger effect on the switching intentions of Canadian consumers than that of PRC consumers, while the opposite is found for the stability dimension (i.e. whether the same problem would recur in experiences with the service firm). Managerial implications for multinational service firms, particularly in terms of service recovery strategy for Chinese and Western consumers, are discussed.

This manuscript develops a reverse logistics monitoring system for controlling reverse flows of materials through marketing channels in emerging economies. Institutional theory is incorporated to show that both positive and negative impacts on environmental sustainability can be predicted. A partner control framework and scales are then developed for use by managers and researchers in furthering their understanding of the effective management of global reverse logistic networks

Examines the issue of how variations in language used in advertising affect advertising preference with a sample of bilingual, Korean Americans. Uses past literature to hypothesise that the level of acculturation would moderate ethnic consumers’ preference for advertisements in English versus their native language. Extends previous research in the field of ethnic advertising by considering whether findings from studies conducted with Hispanic American consumers are applicable to Asian Americans. Shows that no significant differences were detected in bilingual Korean American preferences for advertisements in which the message was presented in English as compared with those that used Humgul (Korean language) to communicate with the audience. Concludes with suggestions for further research.

Describes how customers potentially influence the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of other customers in many service environments. Explains why service marketers and operations marketers should be aware of the impact of such customer‐to‐customer relations. Examines the issues of customer compatibility and customer behaviour, finding that the classification of compatible and incompatible behaviours is often situation‐specific. Explores how the way customers affect each other can be positively influenced.

This study investigates the synergetic impact of joint marketing collaboration between a bank and an affinity organisation on their affinity credit card holders' behaviours. Seeks to identify the sources of the influence of the alliance partners which induce changes in the attitude and behaviour of cardholders.

A theoretical model was developed to reveal the impact of perceived card benefits, affective customer loyalty toward the bank, affective customer loyalty toward the affinity organisation, and perceived prestige of affinity organisation, on the card usage behaviours of customers. Survey data were obtained from 162 students who were holders of a university affinity credit card in Hong Kong.

Findings indicated two routes of influence that affect the intention and behaviours of affinity credit cardholders. The two routes were complementary rather than competitive in a symbiotic collaboration. The first is a cognitive route. It shows that a cardholder's attitude formation is strongly influenced by the cognitive evaluation of card benefits instead of by affective loyalty toward the bank or toward the affinity organisation. The second route is an emotional route of influence. It originates from the perceived prestige of the affinity organisation to cardholders' intention and usage behaviours.

The impact of the symbiotic collaboration on customer behaviours is an important question which has yet to be answered in the literature of strategic alliances. To the best of one's knowledge, this is a pioneering empirical study addressing this research issue.

This paper examines the differential effects of country‐of‐manufacture information on product beliefs and attitudes for brands with different levels of brand equity. Results show that when there is congruence between brand origin and country of manufacture (e.g. a Sony television that is made in Japan), the latter information has no significant effect on product beliefs and global product attitude. When country‐of‐manufacture information indicates that a branded product is made in a country with a less reputable image than that of the brand origin (e.g. a Sony television that is made in Mexico), the information produces more negative effects on product evaluations for low equity brands than high equity brands. These results can be attributed to two different perceptual processes through which incongruent country‐of‐manufacture information affects product evaluations for brands with different levels of brand equity.

Examines consumption as a function of two ethnicity indicators. Ethnic origin, a reflective indicator, is not subject to the volition of a person and is hardly changed by continuous contact with the mainstream group. On the other hand, media usage is partly determined by the extent and duration of one’s contacts with the mainstream group, and is therefore considered as a formative indicator. Using a sample of French‐ and English‐Canadians drawn from the Toronto area, this study provides preliminary evidence showing that ethnic origin, media usage, and other ethnicity indicators vary in terms of the extent to which they are amenable to acculturative pressure. A new typology of consumption is also introduced based on the distinction between ethnic origin as a reflective indicator and media usage as a formative indicator.