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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.

This tribute to Dr Pierre Eiglier, who passed in February 2020, was prepared for the “17th International Research Conference in Service Management 2022” in La Londe les Maures, France. Tribute is defined as, “an act, statement, or gift intended to show gratitude, respect, or admiration”.

Sampled Pierre's publications; consulted the 1993 Journal of Retailing “Special Services Issue” on the evolution of the field; collected reflections from another founder and two of Pierre's former doctoral students who have helped co-chair the La Londe conference and drew from my own interactions with Pierre over the years at La Londe.

In the mid-1970s, Pierre was one of the first to specify the unique characteristics of services vs products, and the implications and introduced, with Eric Langeard, the “servuction” (service production) model, highlighting customer participation in the servuction process and determinants of the service experience. Pierre continually applied a synthesis of systems thinking, researcher–practitioner interaction, and interdisciplinary/cross-functional perspectives.

Pierre's contributions came at a time when marketing practice was geared largely toward products/goods, yet the service sector was growing. Pierre's pioneering framing, along with other founders, of service attributes, service models, and the service experience had much-needed implications for services marketing practice.

This detailed tribute to a service field founder is, regrettably, quite original; too rare. There is value in revisiting these founding contributions which often were broader and more interdisciplinary in perspective than now.

Challenging the suitability of “Porter's five forces” as a guide to strategy and entrepreneurship in China and in the global age at large, this paper aims to present a new “five forces” model based on Sun Tzu's timeless strategic wisdom, with entrepreneurship and “collaborative innovation” right at its heart.

The arguments and the new model are developed, drawing on results from a survey among entrepreneurs and executives operating in China, the direct experience of top entrepreneurs, authoritative information from publishers like the Financial Times and Business Week, the consensus at the 2008 Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum, and Sun Tzu's timeless strategic insights.

The survey among entrepreneurs and executives operating in China shows that “Porter's five forces” has had little impact on business practice in China. One author, a serial entrepreneur, has considered ren shi qian or three Ps (people, project and penny) as the strategic forces driving his ventures in China. Going beyond the narrow, extremely competitive focus of Porter's model, the new “five forces” model, consisting of business purpose, business location, business climate, business organisation and business leader, is shown to determine business success. And, as the central strategic force, business leaders have to embrace entrepreneurship and “collaborative innovation” with their hearts to navigate any challenging economic waters.

Freeing business practitioners and teachers/students from the dogma of “Porter's five forces” established 30 years ago, this paper will help them identify what really determines business success in the new age.

The world needs more Eastern knowledge and, ergo, more consciousness. Humanity will unlikely experience a quantum leap in consciousness if we keep ignoring Eastern and other sources of perennial wisdom in the design and development of our socioeconomic and ecological systems. This chapter aims to bridge the consciousness gap by exploring the meaning and application of Buddhist and Taoist systems thinking to regenerative systemic leadership, design, development and sustainable transformation.

Practical wisdom is central to the tremendous success of Peter Drucker as a management thinker. The paper aims to argue that the attractiveness of his writings is mainly due to the underlying Christian value system, which is the basis for the coherence of his thinking, and the reference system for his normative statements and practical wisdom.

The paper discerns the moral foundations of Peter Drucker's work by highlighting explicit value statements in his early writings, some even before he turned to management. Against this background, examples are provided of how he translates his values in practical wisdom into dealing with management challenges.

A major driving force of Drucker's entire work is seen as the secularization of his religious beliefs. His practical suggestions for modern corporations are deeply influenced by Christian faith. Up to now this has been largely unknown or ignored.

The paper rests on limited text analysis which should be extended in future research. If Drucker's success may be at least partially attributed to his moral tone, any effort to redeem management and to anchor it as a liberal art can deploy his work.

Dissecting the moral background of the most influential management thinker in the last century the paper reveals that Drucker's practical wisdom is the result of a deep connection between Christian values and knowledge. It clearly points to an integrated research perspective, and above all it calls for a rigorous inquiry into moral assumptions underlying any writing on management.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the concept of “Conscious Capitalism,” which refers to a new, more enlightened approach to business purpose and management.

The paper describes how the context for business has changed in fundamental ways in the past two decades, calling for a new approach to business that reflects rising levels of consciousness among customers and employees as well as multiple and deepening challenges facing the world today. It is imperative that business gets on the right side of society rather than continuing to add to societal burdens, as is too often the case. Conscious capitalism is not synonymous with corporate social responsibility (CSR); since society is recognized as an important, even the primary stakeholder, the core business itself must by definition be socially responsible. A conscious approach to business is based on the adoption of a higher purpose that transcends profits, a stakeholder rather than shareholder orientation, and conscious, service‐oriented leadership.

Businesses that adopt this approach not only create multiple types of long‐term wealth for society at large (including social, emotional, intellectual and even spiritual wealth); but they also dramatically outperform conventional firms on financial measures of performance. The world of conscious business is thus largely devoid of the trade‐offs that are commonly made and accepted as part of business‐as‐usual.

The paper concludes by recognizing that a conscious approach to business is highly compatible with the ancient wisdom found in Indian and other traditions.

This paper shows that there is the potential to enter a golden age of leadership thinking that blends the best of modern Western practice (geared towards efficiencies) and ancient Eastern wisdom (focused on effectiveness).