EDITORIAL
A Call for a Wider Range of
Service Research
During the past 5 years, there have been more articles in
JSR on service marketing than on any other area of service
research. It is undeniable that the service marketing area
has been a remarkably fast-growing and successful area of
research, and that it has been especially successful in affecting
the business community. Nevertheless, I am concerned
that other important areas of service research are
currently underrepresented in JSR. Of even greater concern,
the areas of service operations, service Human Resources
(HR), service Marketing Information Systems
(MIS), and service economics appear also to be grossly
underrepresented even in those fields' core journals. This
is in stark contrast to marketing, where the service marketing
field has become notably mainstream in the past 10
years.
The field of service research is inherently interdisciplinary,
and we can move the field forward not only by understanding
and serving the customer (service marketing,
e.g., Bolton, Smith, and Wagner 2003) but by designing
efficient systems of service delivery (service operations,
e.g., Pullman and Thompson 2003); training and motivating
service providers (service HR, e.g., Hansen, Sandvik,
and Selnes 2003); using new service technologies (service
MIS, e.g., Curran, Meuter, and Surprenant 2003); and understanding
how service affects the marketplace, the economy,
and government policy (service economics, e.g., Cao
and Gruca 2003). I am actively trying to encourage more
submissions in all of these areas. Also useful to the field
are articles that show how these service subfields interrelate.
A very good example of this kind of article is the
Oliva and Sterman (2001) article in Management Science.
That article showed how a combination of HR, operations,
and marketing issues inevitably lead companies to a
permanently eroded service level and suggested policies
for remedying this problem.
Service, by its very nature, involves a wide range of disciplines,
and I would like to see that range of disciplines
fully represented in the pages of the Journal of Service Research
and for service research to become a mainstream
subject in all business-related disciplines. That will not
only advance knowledge; it will provide multidisciplinary
intellectualleadership to service management worldwide.
--Roland Rust
Editor
REFERENCES
Bolton, Ruth N., Amy K. Smith, and Janet Wagner (2003), "Striking the
Right Balance: Designing Service to Enhance Business-to-Business
Relationships," Journal of Service Research, 5 (4), 271-91.
Cao,YongandThomasS.Gruca(2003),"TheEffectofStockMarket Dynamics
on Internet Price Competition," Journal of Service Research,
6 (1), 24-36.
Curran, James M., Matthew L. Meuter, and Carol F. Surprenant (2003),
"Intentions to Use Self-Service Technologies: A Confluence of Multiple
Attitudes," Journal of Service Research, 5 (3), 209-24.
Hansen,Hvard,Kre Sandvik,andFred Selnes (2003),"Direct andIndirect
Effects of Commitmentto a Service Employee on the Intentionto
Stay," Journal of Service Research, 5 (4), 356-68.
Oliva, Rogelio and John Sterman (2001), "Cutting Corners and Working
Overtime: QualityErosionin the Service Industry," Management Science,
47 (7), 894-914.
Pullman, Madeleine E. and Gary Thompson (2003), "Strategies for Integrating
Capacity with Demand in Service Networks," Journal of Service
Research, 5 (3), 169-83.
Journal of Service Research, Volume 6, No. 3, February 2004 211
 2004 Sage Publications