Search results

Public services and activities delegated to non-profit actors are increasingly subject to evaluation. This practice is not new. Seminal papers document the emergence of such practices in Anglo-Saxon countries in the 1920s. Methods are now converging on measuring the (social) impact, which often involve broadening the spectrum of components evaluated. The flexible and unifying term ‘impact’ is now adopted in public services, education, health and research, as well as in the social economy and finance sectors through impact investing. This is based on extending the spirit of an efficient State, from the expansion of service productivity measures in the 1960s to the expansion of social assessment practices of CSR. To ensure impact measurement, action programmes (both public and private) are now split into a sum of (small) projects whose common denominator is that they are precisely circumscribed to ensure rigorous evaluation. The social impact can be assimilated with a new mode of regulation, the aim of which is to reconcile the requirements of these different actors in evaluative practice, and to almost magically (i.e., by overlooking the intense social work required) align the search for economic efficiency and the pursuit of a social purpose. In this respect, social impact bonds are a heuristic illustration of the trend, bringing together the interests of private funders, public authorities and social economy actors in a single contract, with the ‘evaluator’ playing a decisive role in coordinating this new alliance.

The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations.

Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multiple questions for each topic are proposed to guide research efforts. The topics and questions, while wide-ranging, are only representative of the many ongoing research opportunities related to service operations.

The field of service operations has many interesting research topics and questions that are largely unexplored. Furthermore, these research areas are not only increasingly integrative across multiple themes within operations but often transcend functional disciplines. This creates opportunities for ever more impactful research with a greater reach throughout the service system and suggests that service researchers, regardless of functional affiliation, can contribute to the ongoing conversation on the role of service operations in value creation.

Leveraging the collective knowledge of the JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel to expand on the research themes generated from the Delphi study, novel questions for future study are put forward. Recognizing that the number of potential research questions is virtually unlimited, summary questions by theme and topic are also provided. These questions represent a synopsis of the individual questions and can serve as a quick reference guide for researchers interested in pursuing new directions in conceptual and empirical research in service operations. This summary also serves as a framework to facilitate the formulation of additional research topics and questions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interdisciplinary framework bridging service design and social entrepreneurship with transformative service research (TSR) to create greater synergetic effects to advance wellbeing and drive social impact.

This research provides an interdisciplinary review and synthesis of literature to establish a basis for a conceptual framework advancing human wellbeing and driving social impact.

The overarching framework created incorporates various concepts, methods and tools across the three research domains. At the core of the framework is the ultimate goal of multilevel wellbeing and social impact. The core is subsequently supported by established social entrepreneurship concepts and strategies: prosocial motivation, hybrid identity, social bricolage, entrepreneurial thinking, community engagement, business model design and innovative delivery. The implementation of these concepts could benefit from the methods and tools used in service design, such as: design probes, service blueprints, appreciative inquiry, contextual interviews, actor maps, sustainable business model canvas and service prototyping.

The paper uses the refugee crisis as an illustrative example of how the proposed framework can be put into action by service organizations.

By bridging literature in TSR, service design and social entrepreneurship, this paper provides service managers with a framework to guide scalable systemic solutions for service organizations interested in advancing human wellbeing and driving social impact.

The purpose of this paper is to gain the perspectives from social service providers that are a key component in focused deterrence programs. All focused deterrence/pulling levers programs have at least two essential elements: first, the message to the target population that reoffending will be met with swift and certain punishment, and second that social service providers are available to assist in their transition to a law-abiding lifestyle.

A case study approach was used to gather qualitative data with open-ended interviews of social service providers that participated in Operation RASOR, a modified focused deterrence initiative that identified cross-jurisdictional, chronic offenders across three cities in New England.

The results showed that many providers were unable, and sometimes unwilling, to participate in the strategy due to their lack of awareness of what focused deterrence strategies encompass, participant eligibility restrictions, and lack of funding. These findings may impact the success of focused deterrence programs.

Future research should include a larger sample from programs operating in different cities. The importance of the social services component of focused deterrence strategies and their capability of serving clients within those programs needs further examination for the integrity of these programs to adequately serve the participants.

The perceptions from social service providers on the program elements and ability to provide necessary services to the targeted offenders have never been examined. This study aids in expanding the literature on focused deterrence programs. It can also inform law enforcement agencies on the services that are most needed by the target population and the importance of coordinating their initiatives with service providers.

This article presents a methodological application of decision support with the purpose of identifying and better aligning sustainable banking strategies. Those strategies are based on best practices declared by employees and conducted during efficient periods affecting sustainable production, the health quality of clients, the organization’s profitability and social impact on the local community across different sectors.

The approach involves a two-phase process: first, it employs directional data envelopment analysis (DEA) to benchmark knowledge based on employee opinions gathered through interviews to evaluate strategies related to banking services; then, using the best-worst method and ELECTRE outranking incorporating elements of fuzzy set theory based on an experienced decision-maker’s input, sustainable banking strategies are ranked according the different perspectives for leveraging outputs from the first step.

The outcomes yield a ranking of strategies, emphasizing the crucial role of technology in banking services while highlighting the need for more agile services to ensure customer satisfaction. This underscores the necessity of aligning with the market perspective, as fintech companies are reshaping the socio-technological-environmental landscape of financial services.

The research combined DEA and multicriteria analysis in the context of the banking sector, providing a comprehensive and analytically robust approach translated as a decision-making framework for promoting sustainability by aligning operational efficiency and social responsibility. These tools can guide banks in adopting more sustainable practices that benefit the institution, society and the environment.

Decisions in the banking sector encompass a wide array of concepts, from internal technical factors to customer feedback on service processes and offerings. The proposed approach considers decision analysis in complex environments, and the application developed in this study considered not only internal banking activity-oriented concepts but also the preferences of human agents developing them and the managerial perspective focused on issues involving components associated with sustainability.

By integrating DEA with multicriteria analysis, this study paves the way for a more efficient, environmentally conscious and socially responsible management scenario in the Brazilian banking sector. This research assesses operational efficiency and offers a comprehensive framework for selecting and implementing sustainable practices in the banking sector.

Despite differences in political approaches and institutional frameworks, health and social services in all European Union (EU) Member States face similar challenges, notably the need to adjust to demographic ageing and to changing employment and family patterns. This article takes a closer look at some of those issues (drivers) that are likely to have significant implications for the future of the sector. On this basis, three diverging “integrated visions” for health and social services are presented. The first vision is a “best guesstimate” and assumes that current developmental targets, for example, on reducing cardiovascular disease, are generally met. The second vision is a “problem‐plagued” view of health and social services, where targets are missed and the current level of service generally stays the same or deteriorates. Finally, the third vision presents a more “visionary” picture of health and social services where services are largely transformed from what is known today. All “integrated visions” have been constructed from existing health‐care scenarios as well as the drivers identified earlier. The paper is rounded off with an account of some of the policy measures being implemented by the European Commission and Member States in addressing several of the areas highlighted as important for the future of the sector.

New public health policies present social services with new opportunities and challenges. A shared public health and social care agenda is emerging around health improvement, social exclusion and regeneration. Early signs of synergy indicate that social services have a key role to play in shaping the public health agenda and in acting as a bridge between the NHS and the wider local authority.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of service quality on perceived positive and negative social impact of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

A field study was conducted in Rio de Janeiro, and data were collected from residents who attended the Olympic Games through a self-administered questionnaire (n=519). The questionnaire included measures of perceived service quality, positive and negative social impact. A confirmatory factor analysis analysed the psychometric properties of the constructs, and a subsequent structural equation model examined the relationships between service quality and social impact perceptions.

The results show good psychometric properties of a multidimensional construct of service quality composed of the technical, functional, aesthetic, access, accommodation and complementary events dimensions. The service quality construct was significantly related to both positive social impact (city image and community pride enhancement, social experiences and public infrastructures) and negative social impact (social conflicts and costs) perceptions.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of service quality in sport mega-events and testing on different facets of social impact. The findings highlight that social atmosphere and new experiences in the Olympic Games are critical when planning these events.

Many changes that call for concerted social action were observed in society and business performance during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The impact of digitization and customer participation was evident in providing medical guidelines, updates on government initiatives, education or the supply of essential services during lockdown in many countries. However, there were aberrations. The purpose of this study is to explore some consumers and firms' being better equipped for service co-creation than others, specifically during a pandemic; the different degrees of service co-creation and the possible outcomes of customer participation in the service context.

Qualitative study with 35 in-depth interviews of supply- and demand-side actors, with coding and analysis of interview transcripts was conducted.

The authors identify two levels of service co-creation: (1) service co-development and (2) service co-evaluation that are affected by customer capabilities and firm/institutional barriers. The outcome of service co-creation lies in the social, economic and experiential values thus created. A pandemic strengthens the effect of antecedents (customer capabilities and firm capabilities) on the co-creation process.

Managers can refer to the findings to manage customer engagements and co-creations effectively, especially during a pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic on the service co-creation process in an emerging market, and the antecedents (firm- and customer-side) and consequences (mutual value outcomes) of service co-creation and actor participation are explored.

The use of supportive digital technology – the provision of supportive services and self-management health tools using digital platforms – by marketers is increasing alongside research interest in the topic. However, little is known about the motivations to use these tools and which tool features provide different forms of social support (informational, emotional, instrumental, network or esteem). The purpose of this paper is thus to explore consumer perceptions of supportive healthcare self-management and preferences for different levels of interactive features as social support in a health services context.

A qualitative approach involving 30 semi-structured interviews with consumers interested in two common preventative health services that use supportive digital tools (SDTs) (skin-cancer checks and sexually transmitted infection checks) was undertaken. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the verbatim transcripts.

This research identified there is a lack of motivation to initiate the search for SDTs; consumers are motivated by a desire to control and monitor health concerns and avoid overuse of the health system. The findings showed a preference for social support to go beyond informational support, with a need for interactivity that personalised support in a proactive manner.

SDTs are positively perceived by consumers as part of health services. The motivation to use these tools is complex, and the social support needed is multifaceted and preferably interactive.

This research assists service marketers to better design informational and instrumental support for preventative self-managed healthcare services.

This paper extends knowledge about the motivation and social support required from SDTs in a preventative health service context.