scholarly journals New directions for service research: refreshing the process of theorizing to increase contribution

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roderick J. Brodie ◽  
Linda D. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Applied Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Applied Social Science ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose For service research to develop as an applied social science there is the need to refresh the process of theorizing so it focuses not only on increasing new academic knowledge but also on knowledge that is managerially relevant. This paper aims to provide guidelines to achieve this. Design/methodology/approach A theorizing process that integrates general theoretic perspectives and contextual research to develop midrange theory is developed. The process is based on the philosophical foundations of pragmatism and abductive reasoning, which has the origins in the 1950s when the management sciences were being established. Findings A recent research stream that develops midrange theory about customer and actor engagement is used to illustrate the theorizing process. Practical implications Practicing managers, customers and other stakeholders in a service system use theory, so there is a need to focus on how theory is used in specific service contexts and how this research leads to academic knowledge that is managerially relevant. Thus, as applied social science, service research needs to explicitly focus on bridging the theory–praxis gap with midrange theory by incorporating a general theoretic perspective and contextual research. Originality/value The contribution comes from providing a broader framework to guide the theorizing process that integrates general theoretic perspectives and applied research to develop midrange theory. While general theories operate at the most abstract level of conceptualization, midrange theories are context-specific and applied theory (theories-in-use) is embedded in empirical research.

Trajectories of influential conceptual articles in service research

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loic Pengtao Li ◽  
Julia A. Fehrer ◽  
Roderick J. Brodie ◽  
Biljana Juric
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Diffusion ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Customer Engagement ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Anchor Points ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
New Research

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to diagnose the trajectory of influential conceptual articles in developing a research stream. The authors uncover the knowledge diffusion through influential conceptual articles and identify characteristics that make conceptual articles influential in their field.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on scientometrics, specifically an integrated approach combining quantitative citation counts with qualitative citation practices analysis that offers a comprehensive understanding of the nature and context of citations. The authors use the case of customer engagement – a prominent contemporary marketing and service research stream – to explore the trajectory of influential articles in shaping a new research stream.FindingsThis research shows that influential articles contribute to the reciprocal knowledge diffusion within and outside their home discipline. They provide anchor points for conceptual framing, conceptual refining and conceptual reconciliation – three application patterns of citations that are pivotal to navigate theory discovery and theory justification in a research field.Research limitations/implicationsThe study analyzes the early impact period of two influential customer engagement articles to understand the developments leading to the establishment of a new research stream. Future research drawing on automated citation and bibliometric methods may consider extended time periods.Originality/valueThis study traces the trajectory of influential articles in marketing and service research. The authors identify characteristics of influential conceptual articles, and recommend practices to develop a conceptual paper with the potential for an influential trajectory. It shows that while marketing and service research has a tradition of “borrowing” theories from other fields, seminal articles “lend” theories to other fields.

scholarly journals Applied Social Science? Academic Contributions to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and Their Consequences

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
KARIM MURJI
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Applied Social Science ◽  
The Impact

AbstractA decade on from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, this article examines the contributions of social scientists to the Inquiry on two key issues: the meaning of institutional racism and the police response to racial violence. These academic inputs are characterised as instrumental and reflexive forms of knowledge. While social science applied to social policy is most effective in instrumental mode, rather than reflexively, there are various factors – such as the interpretation of evidence, media debate and the role of prominent individuals – that are more significant in assessing its consequences. The impact of these factors mean that, although academic work on these issues has been influential, the outcome appears to be that institutional racism has run its course and been disowned or downgraded, while racial violence has become subsumed within the broader category of hate crime. It is argued that the relationship between academic knowledge and policy requires a better grasp of the complexities of applying social science, and that is what this article aims to make a contribution to.

scholarly journals Social philosophy curriculum in social science and humanities structured doctoral programmes

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Wendy Bastalich
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Doctoral Training ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Wide Range

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe an experiment in a non-credit bearing series of social philosophy workshops offered to social science and humanities disciplines in an Australian university. Design/methodology/approach The paper outlines the design rationale and learning objectives for the workshop series. The data set includes qualitative student responses to 501 post-workshop questionnaires and 14 in-depth qualitative responses to a follow-up online questionnaire. Findings The data suggest that social philosophy methodology curriculum offered within a multi-discipline peer context can facilitate an appreciation among students of the centrality of theory and the value of diverse discipline approaches in research. The last part of the paper explores what underpins this – a kind of un-learning or uncertainty regarding the veracity of different philosophical approaches to research, tied to a de-centring of research subjectivity that allows for the co-existence of multiple voices. Language learning, the inclusion of post-modern perspectives and an unbiased presentation of a wide range of thinkers within a challenging intellectual context are central to this. Research limitations/implications The emerging trend towards university-wide doctoral training offers opportunities for useful innovations in research education. University-wide social philosophy curriculum can play a role in facilitating constructive negotiation of theoretical complexity both within and across social science and humanities disciplines. Originality/value The contemporary social science and humanities research context is a challenging space, characterised by intra-discipline methodological plurality, and the risk of marginalisation by more dominant instrumentalist, end-user and science-driven perspectives. The trend towards bringing different methodological perspectives together within inter-disciplinary research and team supervision of doctoral students can lead to conceptual misunderstanding and research delays. The capacity to negotiate and translate conceptual perspectives, often within complex research relationships, has then become an increasingly important academic skill. Within this context, university-wide doctoral training has emerged, but there has been little discussion of doctoral curricula beyond that devised for professional doctorates within the discipline in the non-US higher education literature. This paper contributes to emerging scholarship on research education by describing the sorts of relational, textual and conceptual processes that might be created in the multi-discipline social science and humanities context to produce an appreciation for the different philosophical foundations of research knowledge.

scholarly journals Reflections on context in service research

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Voss ◽  
Helen Perks ◽  
Rui Sousa ◽  
Lars Witell ◽  
Nancy V. Wünderlich
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Contextual Diversity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Range Theory ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Service Theory

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of context and its implications for theory and research in service. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper based on exploring existing research and theory related to context in service research. Findings – The characteristics of service make context both important and challenging, there is great contextual diversity in service research as reflected, for example in ecosystems made up of multiple contextual variables. There is a need to identify the context-specific nature of middle range theory and the contextual logic of general theory. The authors explore the challenges of context for service theory and how we might learn from theory in a particular context and test or adapt it in other contexts. Originality/value – The findings of this paper are of value to researchers seeking to develop and justify theory in service research (general, middle range or theory in use).

scholarly journals Transforming human trafficking rescue services in Nigeria: towards context-specific intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Foluké Abigail Badejo ◽  
Ross Gordon ◽  
Robyn Mayes
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rescue Service ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose This study aims to introduce context-specific intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives for transformative services theory and practice. While transformative service research concerning vulnerable people has focused on well-being and alleviating suffering, there has been less attention paid to how the intersection of scales of social categorisation such as class, gender and cultural norms shapes experiences and outcomes. Likewise, there is a paucity of attention to how lived experiences of trauma among people, such as human trafficking survivors, can and should influence service interactions, delivery and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw upon insights from a focused ethnographic study featuring narrative interviews with ten human trafficking survivors and seven rescue service industry stakeholders, as well as field observations, in Nigeria. Thus, this work enriches the limited scholarship on transformative services across Africa, where local cultural contexts have a significant influence on shaping service environments. Findings The authors identify how the intersections of socio-economic class, gender dynamics, cultural norms and trauma shape the service experience for survivors. Originality/value The authors argue for the criticality of intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives to transformative services to improve the mental and economic well-being of survivors of human trafficking in the long term.

scholarly journals Knowledge-sharing restrictions in the life sciences: personal and context-specific factors in academia–industry knowledge transfer

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1533-1557
Author(s):  
Ani Gerbin ◽  
Mateja Drnovsek
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Outcome Expectations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose Knowledge sharing in research communities has been considered indispensable to progress in science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms restricting knowledge sharing in science. It considers three categories of academia–industry knowledge transfer and a range of individual and contextual variables as possible predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions. Design/methodology/approach A unique empirical data sample was collected based on a survey among 212 life science researchers affiliated with universities and other non-profit research institutions. A rich descriptive analysis was followed by binominal regression analysis, including relevant checks for the robustness of the results. Findings Researchers in academia who actively collaborate with industry are more likely to omit relevant content from publications in co-authorship with other academic researchers; delay their co-authored publications, exclude relevant content during public presentations; and deny requests for access to their unpublished and published knowledge. Practical implications This study informs policymakers that different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions are predicted by different individual and contextual factors, which suggests that policies concerning academia–industry knowledge and technology transfer should be tailored to contextual specificities. Originality/value This study contributes new predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions to the literature on academia–industry interactions, including outcome expectations, trust and sharing climate. This study augments the knowledge management literature by separately considering the roles of various academic knowledge-transfer activities in instigating different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions in scientific research.

Online Third Places: Supporting Well-Being Through Identifying and Managing Unintended Consequences

2021 ◽  
pp. 109467052110188
Author(s):  
Joy Parkinson ◽  
Lisa Schuster ◽  
Rory Mulcahy
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Consumer Empowerment ◽  
Online Service ◽  
Third Places ◽  
Third Place

Unintended consequences of service are important yet infrequently examined in transformative service research. This research examines an online service community that transformed into an online third place, with consumers socializing and forming lasting relationships. Using practice-informed theory-building and an abductive reasoning approach, findings are presented from both manual and automated coding of three qualitative data sets that form the basis of a case study examining an online weight management service forum. Extending beyond current conceptualizations of the third place, this study is the first to propose a framework delineating online third place characteristics and their impact on consumers’ eudaimonic (the capacity for self-realization) and hedonic (attainment of pleasure and avoidance of pain) well-being. Findings show that in the absence of a physical or virtual servicescape, social factors including social density, equity, and personalization are key to constructing an online third place that supports well-being through building social connections and enjoyment. The new framework provides guidance for service managers to transform their online service communities into online third places to support consumer well-being and to identify and manage potential unintended consequences, for example, by ensuring segmentation of the community based on consumer groups’ shared interests and consumer empowerment through participation.

Customer delight during a crisis: understanding delight through the lens of transformative service research

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Barnes ◽  
Jessica Mesmer-Magnus ◽  
Lisa L. Scribner ◽  
Alexandra Krallman ◽  
Rebecca M. Guidice
Keyword(s):  
Critical Incident ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Need Fulfillment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Delight ◽  
Service Experiences

PurposeThe unprecedented dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced firms to re-envision the customer experience and find new ways to ensure positive service encounters. This context has underscored the reality that drivers of customer delight in a “traditional” context are not the same in a crisis context. While research has tended to identify hedonic need fulfillment as key to customer well-being and, ultimately, to invoking customer delight, the majority of studies were conducted in inherently positive contexts, which may limit generalizability to more challenging contexts. Through the combined lens of transformative service research (TSR) and psychological theory on hedonic and eudaimonic human needs, we evaluate the extent to which need fulfillment is the root of customer well-being and that meeting well-being needs ultimately promotes delight. We argue that in crisis contexts, the salience of needs shifts from hedonic to eudaimonic and the extent to which service experiences fulfill eudaimonic needs determines the experience and meaning of delight.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing the critical incident technique, this research surveyed 240 respondents who were asked to explain in detail a time they experienced customer delight during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed their responses according to whether these incidents reflected the salience of hedonic versus eudaimonic need fulfillment.FindingsThe results support the notion that the salience of eudaimonic needs become more pronounced during times of crisis and that service providers are more likely to elicit perceptions of delight when they leverage meeting eudaimonic needs over the hedonic needs that are typically emphasized in traditional service encounters.Originality/valueWe discuss the implications of these findings for integrating the TSR and customer delight literatures to better understand how service experiences that meet salient needs produce customer well-being and delight. Ultimately, we find customer delight can benefit well-being across individual, collective and societal levels.

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