Maria Raciti, Foluké Abigail Badejo, Josephine Previte and Michael Schuetz
This commentary extends our 2020 11th SERVSIG Panel The moral limits of service markets: Just because we can, should we?, inspired by Michael J. Sandel’s book What Money Can’t Buy…
Abstract
Purpose
This commentary extends our 2020 11th SERVSIG Panel The moral limits of service markets: Just because we can, should we?, inspired by Michael J. Sandel’s book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. In Sandel’s (2012) book, the pursuit of “the good life” is a common motivation for pushing the moral boundaries of markets and “the good life” is dominated by service consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Like Sandel (2012), this commentary begins with a provocation regarding the need for moral development in services marketing. Next, we present three real-life case studies about a modern slavery survivor service, aged care services and health-care services as examples of moral limits, failings and tensions.
Findings
The commentary proposes four guidelines and a research agenda. As service marketers, we must reignite conversations about ethics and morality. Taking charge of our professional moral development, exercising moral reflexivity, promoting an ethics of care and taking a bird’s-eye perspective of moral ecologies are our recommended guidelines. Morality is an essential condition – a sine qua non – for service marketers. Hence, our proposed research agenda focuses first on the service marketer and embeds a moral gaze as a universal professional protocol to engender collective moral elevation.
Originality/value
This commentary highlights the need for a moral refresh in services marketing and proposes ways to achieve this end.
Details
Keywords
Foluké Abigail Badejo, Ross Gordon and Robyn Mayes
This study aims to introduce context-specific intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives for transformative services theory and practice. While transformative service…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to introduce context-specific intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives for transformative services theory and practice. While transformative service research concerning vulnerable people has focused on well-being and alleviating suffering, there has been less attention paid to how the intersection of scales of social categorisation such as class, gender and cultural norms shapes experiences and outcomes. Likewise, there is a paucity of attention to how lived experiences of trauma among people, such as human trafficking survivors, can and should influence service interactions, delivery and outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw upon insights from a focused ethnographic study featuring narrative interviews with ten human trafficking survivors and seven rescue service industry stakeholders, as well as field observations, in Nigeria. Thus, this work enriches the limited scholarship on transformative services across Africa, where local cultural contexts have a significant influence on shaping service environments.
Findings
The authors identify how the intersections of socio-economic class, gender dynamics, cultural norms and trauma shape the service experience for survivors.
Originality/value
The authors argue for the criticality of intersectionality and trauma-informed perspectives to transformative services to improve the mental and economic well-being of survivors of human trafficking in the long term.
Details
Keywords
Foluké Abigail Badejo, Sharyn Rundle-Thiele and Krzysztof Kubacki
Responding to the call for an extension of social marketing scope and application, this paper aims to outline implementation of a multi-stream, multi-method formative research…
Abstract
Purpose
Responding to the call for an extension of social marketing scope and application, this paper aims to outline implementation of a multi-stream, multi-method formative research approach to understanding human trafficking in the global South context of Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a multi-method, multi-stream research design. The study used alternative methods allowing a critical perspective to be taken.
Findings
Contradictions between upstream discourses and the lived experiences of trafficked individuals emerged. Specifically, moral and rational agency ideology, which conflates human trafficking with prostitution, unintentionally promotes human trafficking and underrepresents other forms of trafficking was evident. Experiences of socioeconomic oppression, traditional practices and an aspirational culture fuels positive attitudes towards human trafficking. The lived experience of human trafficking survivors while varied was underpinned by the common theme of job seeking. Participants perceived human traffickers as benevolent users rather than oppressors, and their rescue as oppressive and disempowering.
Research limitations/implications
Application of a multi-stream approach is limited by research context, sample size, time and cost constraints. Future research extending the multi-stream research approach to other research contexts and groups is recommended.
Practical implications
Multi-stream formative research design assisted to yield wider insights, which informed the design of a multilevel pilot intervention to combat human trafficking in Nigeria.
Originality/value
Extending understanding beyond individual, myopic approaches that have dominated social marketing formative research.
Details
Keywords
David James Schmidtke, Mai Nguyen and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
This paper aims to provide an overview of a social marketing intervention that aimed to increase physical activity (aligned to UN SDG 3) among adolescents in Bali, Indonesia.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an overview of a social marketing intervention that aimed to increase physical activity (aligned to UN SDG 3) among adolescents in Bali, Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Three sequential phases were followed to deliver the social marketing intervention. Phrase 1 (formative research) gained insights that guided a subsequent social marketing intervention. Phase 2 (pilot intervention) gathered preliminary results, to support the development of the final intervention. Phase 3 (intervention) evaluated the effectiveness of the two-month social marketing intervention.
Findings
The results from the intervention tested in this paper identified significant behaviour change in physical activity, demonstrating the effectiveness of the intervention. Furthermore, the paper identifies which intervention inputs contribute to behaviour change and which do not.
Research limitations/implications
This paper describes the outcomes from an eight-week pilot programme that aimed to increase rates of physical activity for Indonesian adolescents and provides early evidence of impact.
Practical implications
This study found that providing adolescents with the opportunity to play team sports increases physical activity behaviour.
Originality/value
There is a lot of ground that needs to be made in terms of designing programs capable of achieving impact in the Global South. The approach reported in this paper can serve as a best-practice model for researchers wanting to drive lasting behaviour change to overcome known inequities in the Global South.