Toward a Deeper Understanding of Service Marketing: The Past, the Present, and the Future
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2011
57 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2011 Last revised: 30 Jun 2011
Date Written: May 20, 2011
Abstract
The authors investigate the intellectual pillars of service marketing and its evolution through key subareas during 1992–2009 using a citation-based approach. They derive insights for the most promising research directions. The results reveal the dynamic influences of different research topics on service marketing. In a graphical representation, the authors further show that the main topics have changed their research orientations over time. For example, the literature on online service and technology infusion reveals an increasingly operational and customer-focused orientation. A citation-based measure of the significance of research opportunities and a comparison with the topics found in recent literature reviews indicate that research on managing business-to-business services and service infusion, complaint handling and service recovery, and enhancing and managing the service value chain are promising topics. These results assist academics and practitioners by revealing what we know about service research and what we need to know in the future.
Keywords: SService marketing, cocitation analysis, research synthesis, research trends, citation networks analysis
JEL Classification: L80, M30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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