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In high-end interactive service work settings, asymmetries between workers and customers are typically reflected in the service interaction. Workers must carefully control their emotional and aesthetic displays towards customers by relying on protocol provided by management. Customers, in turn, need not reciprocate such acts. By contrast, this paper theorizes service interactions that, paradoxically, aim to narrow the social distance between those on either side of the counter. Drawing on ethnographic data from a higher-end Los Angeles restaurant, I introduce the concept of proximal service as performed relationships in which server and served engage in peer-like interactions in a commercial setting. I show how management structures this drama through hiring, training, and shopfloor policies, all of which encourage select workers to approach customers using informal, flexible, and peer-like performances. I close by discussing how a branded experience of service amongst equals relates to symbolic exclusion and social inequality, and suggest that proximal service may be on the rise within upscale, urban service establishments seeking to offer a more “authentic” consumption experience.

The authors seek to propose the notion of ubiquitous proximity e‐service for exploring collective wisdom in the ubiquitous environment. Ubiquitous proximity e‐service highlights the collective effort focused on collecting the user group's power as the reference for ubiquitous trust decisions.

This paper provides some theoretical utility support for ubiquitous proximity e‐service. The “homophily” describes the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others. By highlighting the “homophily” of e‐service participants, these isolated individuals can be treated as a group with proximity. The main value of ubiquitous proximity e‐service utilizes the network effect from the collective effort of interpersonal social network.

In order to leap the trust barrier for users to embrace these ubiquitous e‐services, ubiquitous proximity e‐service makes it possible for users to collaborate with their nearby user groups to establish a reliable and trustworthy interaction environment. The simulation outcomes for trust decision quality enhancement show a significant improvement in a variety of environment settings.

A significant value of ubiquitous proximity e‐service lies in the increased possibility of establishing innovative social network relationships. From the interpersonal perspective, unfamiliar strangers can make connections with individuals who are proximal and homoplastic to them. The strength of proximity gives people better chances to make interpersonal connections, including both weak ties and strong ties. By combining those interpersonal tie relationships, ubiquitous proximity e‐service can easily cause information diffusion and effectively encourage collective wisdom.

The paper advocates the utility of ubiquitous proximity e‐service that can be realized in the e‐commerce environment and which enables information diffusion effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay of the internet and the spatial designs of the bricks‐and‐mortar contexts within which face‐to‐face services are provided.

Focuses on the travel, the banking and book‐selling industries; the methods involve interviews, observation and visual material of the new physical spaces within which customer‐sales representatives interact face‐to‐face.

The internet has not reduced the importance of physical space; on the opposite, this study argues, it has revalorised and emphasized the significance of space.

The study's explorative nature does not allow for generalization. Whereas space and time are traditionally regarded as contextual factors, this study recognizes their dynamic nature, regarding spacing and timing as economic phenomena. However, further studies may seek to establish more thoroughly such economic effects.

Changes in spatial layouts of a work place leads to novel spatial practices, which require new personnel competencies. For example, employees' more intimate interactions with customers entail new demands on employees' interpersonal skills and competence. By the same token, new metrics are required for measuring the performance and efficiency of employees.

Highlights the relationship among new technologies, changes in the nature of face‐to‐face services, spatial layouts, and change in time orientation, namely a change from time effectiveness towards interaction effectiveness.

To assess the attitudes toward service delivery of employees in Australian hotels with a long‐term view of establishing job service “norms” against which candidates may be ultimately evaluated.

Lee‐Ross's Service Predisposition Instrument (SPI) questionnaire was used to elicit information about the attitudes of front‐line hotel workers towards service delivery. This quantitative approach sought to identify the innate presence of service dimensions amongst workers previously found in other studies of service predispositions.

After initial analysis, the dimensionality of the SPI questionnaire was found to be less substantial than when tested in other studies. Indeed, a new dimension of “negative service” emerged. Hotel employees rated all “service dimensions” elicited by the SPI as important. However, competence and the provision of “extras” were ranked notably highly. Affinity was scored the lowest of all dimensions. This suggests that workers recognize the particular importance of technical and intangible skills associated with the service encounter. In tourist hotels, short periods of service delivery allow only limited opportunities for workers to establish affinity with customers.

The SPI and the theory upon which it is based are relatively novel.

The posited innate worker dimensions or attitudes necessary for effective service delivery could provide a new focus for hospitality managers when recruiting staff. Achieving effective “job‐fit” for service employees should deliver higher levels of service quality and ultimately increased organizational productivity.

The theoretical originality of this paper rests on the idea that “proximal” attitudinal models are useful in predicting the behaviour of individuals in the workplace. The SPI is a new and applied construct based on this notion. However, given the moderate support found for the factor structure of the SPI, these results should be treated with caution and further research is recommended.

This research examined the relationship between the behaviors associated with transformational, transactional, and laissez‐faire leadership and followers’ success in marketing financial services in a proximal sales unit environment. Although transformational leadership has received significant support in non‐sales settings, empirical research investigating the transformational sales manager/sales follower dyad is limited. Recent research has suggested that a transactional style of sales management may be preferable when attempting to influence follower work outcomes. This examination reports results that support the notion that transformational sales leadership may be advantageous to services sales organizations in settings where sales managers and their followers are in close proximity.

In this chapter, we summarize and build on the current state of the customer mistreatment literature in an effort to further future research on this topic. First, we detail the four primary conceptualizations of customer mistreatment. Second, we present a multilevel model of customer mistreatment, which distinguishes between the unfolding processes at the individual employee level and the service encounter level. In particular, we consider the antecedents and outcomes unique to each level of analysis as well as mediators and moderators. Finally, we discuss important methodological concerns and recommendations for future research.

Although service researchers have long suggested that customer mistreatment adversely impacts service employees' outcomes, statistical integration of current empirical findings has been lacking. This meta-analysis aims to review and statistically synthesize the state of research on the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

The authors included 221 effect sizes of 135 independent samples from 119 primary studies (N = 47,964). The authors used a meta-analytic approach to quantitatively review the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-analysis structural equation modeling was used to explore the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-regression was applied to explore the impact of contextual-level moderators (i.e. service provider type and service delivery mode) on these relationships. Furthermore, we compared the effects of customer mistreatment with the effects of other organizational-related factors on some commonly measured employee outcomes.

The results show that customer mistreatment has a significant negative impact on service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. negative emotions), attitudinal outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement and turnover intention) and behavioral outcomes (i.e. job performance, surface acting and emotional labor). Additionally, service employees' negative emotions mediate the association between customer mistreatment and employees' job satisfaction, turnover intention, surface acting and emotional labor. Furthermore, the relationships between customer mistreatment and service employees' negative emotions and job performance are influenced by a contextual-level moderator (i.e. service delivery mode).

The authors contribute to the literature by providing robust meta-analytic estimates of the effects of customer mistreatment on a variety of service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as well as the different magnitudes of the effect sizes between customer mistreatment and other job-related and personality-related factors by quantifying the true variability of the effect sizes. The authors draw on current theories underpinning customer mistreatment to test a theoretical model of the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. service employees' negative emotions) on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The authors explore the effects of two contextual-level factors (i.e. service provider types and service delivery mode) related to the service delivery context that may account for the variability of effect sizes across empirical studies.

The purpose of this paper is to start a conversation on achieving a shared understanding among hospitality service co-creation participants. Adopting a stakeholder and service eco-systems approach, attention is drawn to the necessity for all service experience participants to have a shared understanding of the service experience and their role within it, for a sustained competitive advantage to be realized. Informed by community of practice (CoP) thinking, a road map of research questions is advanced encouraging insight into a macro level phenomenon that, traditionally, is only ever considered at the micro service encounter level.

A thorough multidisciplinary review of the literature was undertaken, providing an opportunity to present a viewpoint on the strategic implications of providing a sustainable competitive advantage via the hospitality service experience.

To achieve a shared understanding across the Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System, potential tensions among stakeholders are highlighted. Accounting for such barriers, institutional arrangements, combining organizational CoPs that are bridged by designated boundary objects, is advanced. Given the novel approach of applying a traditionally organizational phenomenon at a macro multi-stakeholder level, several research questions are proposed to inform thinking about this neglected perspective.

Acknowledging the innovation, agility and resources required to maintain a competitive service experience, the paper emphasizes the importance of adopting a macro perspective to effective service management. The hope is to stimulate academic interest to inform understanding as to how to build this capability as well as enhance practitioner interest in promoting stakeholders’ CoP for the benefit of the entire Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System.