Editorial

Citation

Edvardsson, B. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 18 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijsim.2007.08518aaa.001

Editorial

International Journal of Service Industry Management – IJSIM is an ISI-rated journal that brings together scholars from different disciplines and covers a wide range of topics in the areas of service management and value creation through service. The ISI impact factor has almost doubled from 0.333 in 2004 to 0.635 in 2005.

The aim of the journal is to provide a communication medium for all in the service research and service science field, irrespective of discipline, functional area, sector, or nationality. Contributions to this journal are especially welcomed from academics, but practitioners are more than welcomed to contribute as well. The main requirement for the acceptance of an article is that it makes an original contribution to service research. I especially welcome papers challenging the established views within service research and contributing to the understanding of the service logic and value-creation through service, including service infusion in manufacturing. Combining research rigor with management relevance is vital.

This issue is the first in Volume 18 of the International Journal of Service Industry Management and the five articles provide various perspectives on the interaction between the service provider and the consumer in a number of service contexts. Four manuscripts focus mainly on customer satisfaction; behaviors end experiences with services and one takes the perspective of the employees focusing on the role of empowerment for service excellence. The first article deals with “The role of arousal congruency in influencing consumers' satisfaction evaluations and in-store behaviors”. The results indicate that the valence of the service environment – pleasant or unpleasant – moderates the arousal-congruency effect on satisfaction and in-store behaviors. Satisfaction in pleasant service contexts was maximized at arousal congruency, while such matching effects failed to influence satisfaction in unpleasant settings.

The second article deals with customer complaints by focusing on “Complainer characteristics when exit is closed”. The results suggest that a monopolistic institution should encourage dissatisfied customers to complain, and should make internal switching possibilities known to the consumers. The results from an empirical study based on data from the Norwegian Office for Social Insurance, questions the previous assumptions that complainers necessarily belong to upper socio-economic groups. Productivity growth is the theme in article three. In “An empirical analysis of productivity growth in retail services: evidence from Spain” the authors estimate total productivity change in retailing firms and decompose it into efficiency change and technical change. The article is based on the application of the Malmquist index to evaluate productivity in the service sector.

The fourth article deals with the challenges of “Managing employee empowerment in luxury hotels in Europe” and tests four potential predictors of the behavior of empowered employees during the delivery of service to customers. We discuss empowerment in action or the value of empowerment in use. Earlier research suggests that employee empowerment is an important means to increase customer satisfaction. This study contributes to a greater understanding of how employee empowerment can be attained in luxury European hotels. The fifth article in this issue is “Exploring consumer experience of social power during service consumption”. The empirical study of almost 200 adult consumers focuses on the causes and effects of consumer experiences of high and low power, given the key role of emotions in the experience and outcome of service. The study explores how emotions and emotion expressions impact satisfaction for high and low power consumers.

The five articles in this issue shed light on some of the key drivers in service interactions both from the customers' and the employees' point of view. Emotions, consumer experience, satisfaction, complaints, ICT, empowerment, and service productivity are some of the concepts in focus. They represent important theoretical concepts as well as empirical phenomena that we are not yet finished with in service research.

Why are there not more articles on service infusion in manufacturing? Why are there not articles about service management control? I invite you to submit manuscripts which deepen our understanding of key areas in service research, but also articles which broaden our understanding by addressing new problems in the area of value-creation through service. I especially invite contributions from scholars in the areas of computer science and management control.

Bo EdvardssonProfessor and Director, CTF-Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Sweden