Call for a Special Section in the Journal of Services Marketing

Services Marketing Perspectives for Theory and Practice: Focus on Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) and Post-Soviet States

It has been almost three decades since the beginning of the political and economic transition in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) and in the Post-Soviet States. According to the International Monetary Fund, these countries have many promising aspects which should stimulate economic growth, with the caveat being that some nations are more promising than others, in terms of planned economic growth.

Within the CESEE and Post-Soviet States, service industries (e.g., professional services, tourism and hospitality, IT services, logistics, Internet, retailing, and so forth) in these markets are witnessing rapid growth and have become a key value creator in these nations. Furthermore, consumers’ preferences for services in these nations is increasing because of social, cultural, demographic and psychological factors. However, given decades of ideological pressures fundamentally opposed to the core aspects of marketing, and as a result of specific socio-cultural, economic, political, environmental and technological challenges, examples of economic disparities, biases against minorities during service interactions and limited access to vital services, such as health care and education, still exist. Therefore, the quality of life, at both individual and communal levels is not always satisfactory.

In light of the economic transitions taking place in these countries, service marketers have an obligation to help restructure societies by investigating the transformative relationship between service and well-being. Indeed, transformative service research is underrepresented in the field of services within these countries. Hence, service researchers know very little as to how services, service systems, and service providers may improve the well-being of CESEE and Post-Soviet consumers and communities.

Considering the growing popularity of Transformative Service Research, this Special Section Regarding Services in CESEE and Post-Soviet nations invites papers that will help develop new ways of providing and improving services and service design within these nations, and show how services may improve consumers and societal welfare.

In this special section of JSM we are keen to publish both conceptual and empirical research papers, be it quantitative or qualitative, that help further our understanding of the marketing of services in CESEE and Post-Soviet nations, link knowledge to different regional and country contexts (e.g., Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan but not limited to these countries) and advance service research. We welcome papers from scholars from CESEE and Post-Soviet countries although they may have co-authors outside of these areas. We are looking for a wide range of contributions, including new theoretical insights, new concepts or new methods of data collection and analysis. The main criterion for publications is that the submission has original research which makes a theoretical contribution to the services marketing field. Therefore, we discourage simple case studies or mere replications of existing theories or models into a CESEE or Post-Soviet country. We will also not accept descriptive literature reviews that do not present any conceptual framework or testable propositions.

Among the topics that deserve attention on the topic are:

• Transformative services in CESEE and/or Post-Soviet markets
• The impact of political and social factors on consumers well-being in CESEE/Post-Soviet markets
• Development of wellbeing and quality of life indicators within different cultures and service industries – opportunities and challenges
• Service design and designing service processes to increase the well-being of all participants in CESEE/Post-Soviet markets
• The impact that activities and roles that consumers take as part of the service has on their well-being
• Understanding consumers’ behaviors and attitudes toward services in CESEE/Post-Soviet markets
• Understanding customer engagement in CESEE/ Post-Soviet markets
• The role of Bargaining Power of Buyers in selected industries and new marketing perspectives for the emerging consumer needs
• Service failure and service recovery in CESEE/ Post-Soviet markets
• The impact that technology is having on services and its relationship to well-being
• Service innovation in CESEE/ Post-Soviet markets
• Service adoption for entrepreneurs and SMEs in CESEE/ Post-Soviet markets
• Establishing interrelationships among issues of competitiveness, sustainability, consumer, and societal well-being
• The economic, political, environmental, social and cultural impacts of the service industry development and community participation in CESEE/ Post-Soviet markets
• Potential opportunities and threats to the regional service industry cooperation

Papers must conclude with well-supported research directions, trends or opportunities which not only develop methodological and theoretical approaches specific to the region but also contribute to the development of service(s) marketing research and improve industry practices by offering specific recommendations to practitioners.

Submission Process

Step1. To be part of the special section, an abstract must be submitted (including title and author names and affiliations) by 31 OCT 2018 to Dr Marek Gnusowski who will co-ordinate the submissions. We are seeking approximately six submissions on the topic. Once the abstracts have been selected, a submission date will be set that is convenient for all authors. All articles must be submitted in the same week to be eligible for the special section. Any papers submitted earlier or later will automatically be processed as a standard submission.

All manuscripts submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or be currently under consideration elsewhere.

Manuscripts should be submitted in accordance with the author guidelines available on the journal homepage.

Step2. All submissions should be made via the ScholarOne online submission system for a regular issue. Please note there is no option to select a special section. Once you have received your confirmation of submission please forward this email immediately to the co-editor Professor Mark Rosenbaum and Dr Marek Gnusowski. These papers will then be managed as a group of papers. Please note that all submissions will be peer-reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers and will need to meet the usual standards of the journal.

Please direct any further inquiries to the co-editors:

• Professor Mark Rosenbaum marosen@mailbox.sc.edu
• Dr Marek Gnusowski marek.gnusowski@ue.poznan.pl

 

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