Mario Giraldo, Luis Garcia-Tello and Steven William Rayburn
This study aims to explore the lived experience of vendors as they enact street vending practice that emerges as transformative entrepreneurship and service where they live and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the lived experience of vendors as they enact street vending practice that emerges as transformative entrepreneurship and service where they live and work.
Design/methodology/approach
This research qualitatively explores street vending in a multi-cultural, multi-local study to understand how these businesses operate to positively impact individual, collective and societal well-being.
Findings
This research reveals street vending is a creative, transformative entrepreneurial activity that improves individual and collective well-being. The research exposes multiple forms of habitual and transformative value delivered by vendors, resulting in improved eudaimonic and hedonic well-being that ripples out from vendors to families, communities and society.
Research limitations/implications
A framework of street vending practice is provided to guide service designers and policymakers as they seek to support street vendors as they move from informal to formal and from survival to growth business modes.
Originality/value
This research extends existing conceptualizations of transformative entrepreneurship beyond prior focus on economic transformation and prior limitations of transformative entrepreneurship to business in growth modes.
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Oscar Naranjo Del Giudice, Mario Giraldo, Linda Alkire and Gabriel Orozco Restrepo
This study aims to explore how the attitudes, motivations and practices of informal entrepreneurs, who choose service exclusion, prevent them from recognizing and taking advantage…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how the attitudes, motivations and practices of informal entrepreneurs, who choose service exclusion, prevent them from recognizing and taking advantage of transformative opportunities and embracing change.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a two-year study to explore five types of informal entrepreneurs (musicians, street vendors, artists, owners of informal smoke shops and street food vendors). The authors used semi-structured interviews and applied thematic analysis (ATA) of popular music and narratives to shed light on their attitudes, motivations and practices.
Findings
The study shows how potential service participants freely exclude themselves from services and transformative service initiatives, preventing them from realizing opportunities and embracing change that can improve their well-being. The study also demonstrates that to serve human needs fairly, service designers need to recognize that some actors require more attention and resources than others to achieve their potential.
Originality/value
The study challenges the notion that any population experiencing vulnerability wants help and chooses to participate in transformative service initiatives. Service participants can, in fact, exclude themselves from services and transformative service initiatives by free will, demonstrating that service exclusion is a multidirectional phenomenon, not unidirectional. Additionally, the paper analyzes narratives gathered from aesthetic expressions, using principles of ATA, introducing music thematic analysis as a research approach.
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Mark Scott Rosenbaum, Tali Seger-Guttmann and 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…
Abstract
Purpose
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 research collection, the investigations reveal that service researchers have overlooked how service design and processes affect vulnerable consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
The commentary is a conceptual perspective based on the investigations put forward in this special issue, extant literature and the editors’ perspectives.
Findings
Many consumers enter service contexts in some type of vulnerable condition. These conditions may include those relating to deafness, hearing impairments, older age, sexual orientation, immigration status and acculturation, participation in sexual exploitation, geographical remoteness, mental health challenges, obesity, natural disasters, language barriers and being the brunt of service provider discrimination.
Research limitations/implications
Service researchers are encouraged to consider how the service marketing’s foundational theories, frameworks, concepts and axioms generalize among vulnerable consumers.
Practical implications
Service practitioners need to realize customers often enter service contexts owing to some type of vulnerable condition that influences their expectations and perceptions of service quality.
Originality/value
This special issue expands the discipline’s understanding of vulnerable consumers and exposes an array of conditions that affect their experiences and journeys within service settings. Service organizations dedicated to enhancing consumer well-being must understand how they can help remedy, or lessen, the consequences associated with vulnerable conditions.
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Mario Giraldo, Luis Javier Sanchez Barrios, Steven W. Rayburn and Jeremy J. Sierra
Low-income consumers’ perceptions of access and inclusion in financial services, remain underresearched. To fill this gap, the purpose of this study, is to investigate elements of…
Abstract
Purpose
Low-income consumers’ perceptions of access and inclusion in financial services, remain underresearched. To fill this gap, the purpose of this study, is to investigate elements of low-income consumers’ informal and formal financial service experiences, from their personal experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed methods using data collected from low-income consumers in Latin America, reveal a spectrum of consumer perceptions making up access, inclusion and social dependence within financial service experiences. Scales, grounded in the consumer experience, are developed, validated and used to test a model of consumers’ service inclusivity perceptions.
Findings
Service costs, information and documentation difficulty, convenience and social dynamics influence low-income consumers’ perceptions of financial service inclusivity.
Research limitations/implications
Analysis reveals differentiation in the impact of aspects of low-income consumers’ experiences between formal and informal financial services. Working directly with this unique population exposes the nuance of their financial service experiences.
Practical implications
This research provides a more holistic perspective on low-income consumers’ financial service experience and provides contextually relevant scales with robust psychometric properties. Services marketers can use this research to inform design and evaluation of financial service offerings for low-income consumers.
Originality/value
This research contributes to study of the wellbeing of low-income consumers by providing understanding of their financial service experiences from their point-of-view and providing contextually-relevant, empirically validated tools for future inquiry.
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Emmanuel Sawyerr and Christian Harrison
The purpose of this explorative research is to analyse the resilience of the United Kingdom's (UK) healthcare supply chains from a customer’s perspective in the light of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this explorative research is to analyse the resilience of the United Kingdom's (UK) healthcare supply chains from a customer’s perspective in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the capabilities of preparedness, robustness, recovery and adaptability as the foundational percept for supply chain resilience, 22 healthcare professionals in 17 of the UK's National Health Scheme (NHS) Trusts were interviewed to explore their personal and organisational approaches adopted relative to the provision of eye protection, gloves, gowns, aprons, masks and respirators. The Dynamic Capabilities View is mapped to the resilience capabilities and used to analyse the data from a transformational supply chain research perspective.
Findings
The supply chains were largely unprepared, which was not particularly surprising even though the availability of gloves was significantly better compared to the other personal protective equipment (PPE). Techniques adopted to ensure robustness and recovery revealed the use of unsanctioned methods such as extended use of PPE beyond recommended use, redefinition of guidelines, protocols and procedures by infection control and the use of expired PPE – all of which compromised customer well-being.
Research limitations/implications
As the paper views resilience through the lens of customers, it does not provide the perspectives of the supply chain practitioners as to the reasons for the findings and the challenges within these supply chains.
Practical implications
The compromise of the well-being of healthcare workers due to the vulnerabilities of healthcare supply chains is highlighted to managers and prescriptions for post-disruption adaptability are made.
Originality/value
This paper introduces transformative research to supply chain resilience research by uniquely looking at resilience from the customers' well-being perspective.
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Naveen Donthu, Satish Kumar, Chatura Ranaweera, Debidutta Pattnaik and Anders Gustafsson
Journal of services marketing (JSM) is a leading journal that has published cutting-edge research in services marketing over the past 34 years. The main objective of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
Journal of services marketing (JSM) is a leading journal that has published cutting-edge research in services marketing over the past 34 years. The main objective of this paper is to provide a retrospective of the thematic structure of papers published in JSM over its publication history.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses bibliometric methods to present a retrospective overview of JSM themes between 1987 and 2019. Using keywords co-occurrence analysis, this paper unveils the thematic structure of JSM’s most prolific themes. Bibliographic coupling analysis uncovers the research trends of the journal.
Findings
Leading authors, leading institutions, authors’ affiliated countries and critically, the dominant themes of JSM are identified. As its founding, JSM has published approximately 40 papers each year, with 2019 being its most productive year. On average, lead JSM authors to collaborate with 1.30 others. Keywords co-occurrence analysis identifies nine prominent thematic clusters, namely, “marketing to service”, “quality, satisfaction and delivery systems”, “service industries”, “relationship marketing”, “service failure, complaining and recovery”, “service dominant logic”, “technology, innovation and design”, “wellbeing” and “service encounters”. Bibliographic coupling analysis groups JSM papers into four clusters, namely, “brand & customer engagement behaviour”, “service co-creation”, “service encounters & service recovery” and “social networking”.
Research limitations/implications
This study is the first to analyse the thematic structure of JSM themes over its history. The themes are analysed across time periods and then compared to dominant themes identified in contemporary service research agendas. Recommendations are made based on the gaps found. This retrospective review will be useful to numerous key stakeholders including the editorial board and both existing and aspiring JSM contributors. The selection of literature is confined to Scopus.
Originality/value
JSM’s retrospection is likely to attract readership to the journal. The study’s recommendations regarding which areas have matured and which are still ripe for future contributions will offer useful guidelines for all stakeholders.