Journal of Services Marketing: Volume 31 Issue 4/5

Commentary: vulnerable consumers in service settings

Mark Scott Rosenbaum, Tali Seger-Guttmann, Mario Giraldo

This commentary aims to introduce a collection of articles that highlights the experiences, needs and challenges of vulnerable consumers within a variety of service contexts. As a…

In their shoes: co-creating value from deaf/hearing perspectives

Alexandra K. Abney, Allyn White, Kevin J. Shanahan, William B. Locander

This research investigates new innovative service models that provide opportunities for hearing and deaf individuals to switch roles within a co-created service encounter to allow…

An exploration of servicescapes’ exclusion and coping strategies of consumers with “hidden” auditory disorders

Anthony Beudaert, Hélène Gorge, Maud Herbert

The purpose of this study is both to explore how people with “hidden” auditory disorders experience exclusion in servicescapes and to unfold the coping strategies they set up to…

The effects of store environment elements on customer-to-customer interactions involving older shoppers

Joana Tomazelli, Patricia Liebesny Broilo, Lélis Balestrin Espartel, Kenny Basso

The purpose of this study is to investigate older shopper behavior in a retail environment. The study focused on how the environment elements of supermarket stores influence older…

LGBTQ and religious identity conflict in service settings

Elizabeth A. Minton, Frank Cabano, Meryl Gardner, Daniele Mathras, Esi Elliot, Naomi Mandel

The USA is witnessing a conflict between LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) consumers/supporters and Christian fundamentalist service providers/opponents…

Service quality and acculturation: advancing immigrant healthcare utilization

Kathryn Simons Davis, Mayoor Mohan, Steven W. Rayburn

This paper aims to develop an understanding of key variables for designing and marketing healthcare services for immigrant consumers – widely considered a vulnerable consumer…

Reconstructing lives: transformative services for human trafficking survivors

Arvinder P.S. Loomba

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a transformative service-based model, which analyzes tripartite service interaction logics among trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking…

Child helplines: how social support and controllability influence service quality and well-being

Willemijn van Dolen, Charles B. Weinberg

The authors investigate how employee social support impacts children’s perceptions of service quality of a child helpline chat service and the chatters’ immediate well-being…

Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes from co-creation roles: a study of vulnerable customers

Shikha Sharma, Jodie Conduit, Sally Rao Hill

This study aims to provide an understanding of how the participation of vulnerable customers in the co-creation of health-care provision influences their individual well-being…

Online support for vulnerable consumers: a safe place?

Joy Parkinson, Lisa Schuster, Rory Mulcahy, Heini Maarit Taiminen

This paper aims to examine the service experience in an online support community of consumers to understand the nature of social support and how it is experienced and enacted by…

An integrative transformative service framework to improve engagement in a social service ecosystem: the case of He Waka Tapu

Maria Hepi, Jeff Foote, Jörg Finsterwalder, Moana-o-Hinerangi Moana-o-Hinerangi, Sue Carswell, Virginia Baker

This study aims to understand the engagement between an indigenous social service provider and marginalised clients deemed “hard-to-reach” to gain an insight into how to improve…

Consumer-citizens mobilizing social capital following a natural disaster: effects on well-being

Lilliemay Cheung, Janet R. McColl-Kennedy, Leonard V. Coote

This paper aims to demonstrate how vulnerable consumer-citizens mobilize social capital following a natural disaster, showing how different forms of social capital contribute to…

Employee, branch, and brand switching: the role of linguistic choice, use and adaptation

Mohammadali Zolfagharian, Fuad Hasan, Pramod Iyer

The purpose of this study is to explore how service employee choice and use of language to initiate and maintain conversation with second generation immigrant customers (SGIC…

Do service scripts exacerbate job demand-induced customer perceived discrimination?

Gianfranco Walsh, Eva Katharina Hammes

This research aims to investigate the contingent influence of service scripts on the links between service employees’ job demands and customers’ perceptions of discrimination.