Journal of Service Management: Volume 33 Issue 4/5

Guest editorial: Opportunities and challenges at the crossroads of communication and services

People–planet–profits for a sustainable world: integrating the triple-P idea in the marketing strategy, implementation and evaluation of service firms

Numerous requests to also take care of people (i.e. societal impact) and planet (i.e. environmental impact) in addition to making profits (i.e. economic impact) urge service firms…

Better together: involving consumers in the ideation, creation and dissemination of transformative value

Consumers play a central role in the creation of transformative value, enhancing the well-being of people and the planet. With this article, the authors synthesize service and…

Delineating transformative value creation through service communications: an integrative framework

Transformative value is a central tenet of transformative service research (TSR) because it affects individual and community well-being, quality of life and sustainability…

Transformative value positioning for service brands: key principles and challenges

The aim of this paper is to integrate insights from service, branding and communication research to present key principles of a successful transformative value positioning for…

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics do not serve services customers: a missing link between sustainability metrics and customer perceptions of social innovation

The purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges for service firms communicating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts to customers. Specifically, it focuses on…

Communication in service ecosystems through value propositions: dilemmas and future research avenues

This paper aims to provide insight into communication strategies that may enable service ecosystem actors to co-create economic, social and/or environmental value.

Value co-creation through social media: a multistakeholder, communication perspective

Despite an increasing body of research on value co-creation through social media, service organizations still face difficulties in leveraging the potential of social media…

Crisis communication in service ecosystems: perspectives and future challenges

The purpose of this article is to offer new insights into crisis communication in service ecosystems. The authors present a framework to conceptually categorize service crises and…

The role of public relations in shaping service ecosystems for social change

Wicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors. This…

Opportunities for social activism in transformative service research: a research agenda

This paper highlights the potential of social activism – defined as a public act that aims to challenge the status quo by bringing alternative views or narratives to the debate  

Technologies in service communication: looking forward

The aim of the paper is to bring together the state-of-the-art research and theory from the communication and service research fields to examine the implications of new…

Exploring the frontiers in reality-enhanced service communication: from augmented and virtual reality to neuro-enhanced reality

The authors explore neuro-enhanced reality (NeR) as a novel approach for enhancing service communication between customers, frontline employees, and service organizations that…

Emotional communication by service robots: a research agenda

Many service industries are facing severe labor shortages. As a result, service providers are turning to new sources of labor, such as service robots. Critics however often point…

Affordances advancing user-created communication (UCC) in service: interactivity, visibility and anonymity

Digital platform users not only consume but also produce communication related to their experiences. Although service research has explored users' motivations to communicate and…

How communications by AI-enabled voice assistants impact the customer journey

Artificial intelligence–enabled voice assistants (VAs), such as Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri, are available in smartphones, smart speakers, and other digital…

The role of recommender systems in fostering consumers' long-term platform engagement

Recommender systems (RS) are designed to communicate with users and drive consumers' engagement with the platform. However, little is known about the strength of this relationship…

The TRISEC framework for optimizing conversational agent design across search, experience and credence service contexts

Service providers increasingly use conversational agents (CAs), such as chatbots, to effectively communicate with customers while managing interaction costs and providing…

Customer interaction strategy, brand purpose and brand communities

Customer interactions are integral to service brands. Indeed, many product brands have added services in order to create more opportunity for customer interaction. This paper…

Rethinking nonprofit service disintermediation through service communication interactions

A significant management issue for nonprofit organisations (NPOs) is the disconnect between services beneficiaries and the funders of those services. Individual donors and…

The role of proximity in omnichannel customer experience: a service logic perspective

This article proposes a new theoretical background against which to measure customer experience for omnichannel service deliveries and communications based on the concept of…