Service management focuses on the design, delivery, and improvement of services, creating value for customers and the organization by optimizing processes and resources. Service management is uniquely positioned to generate positive social impact, directly linking service design and delivery to the well-being of individuals, communities, and society. Services are the primary means through which people access healthcare, education, housing, labour, social support, and other essential resources. By enhancing equity, accessibility, and efficiency, service management research can address "grand challenges" such as poverty, the refugee crisis, public health crises, and inequality.

Historically, service management research has focused on organizational outcomes, for example, profitability, satisfaction, value and efficiency, but this scope is too narrow to tackle complex social issues. Given the important role that service organizations have to play in these grand challenges, expanding this perspective to include socially beneficial outcomes opens up opportunities for service management researchers to contribute beyond organizational benefits. Business researchers are increasingly recognising the importance of social impact of research with many opportunities to contribute conceptually and empirically.

Social impact is not the dissemination of research findings, nor is it translation or knowledge transfer. Rather, social impact of business research is the "creation of value for people through business scholarly activities resulting in intentional improvement in micro, meso or macro economic, human and environmental phenomena over time with the market and organisations leading, partnering, supporting or yielding (to) change". Thus social impact in service management research is the creation of value for people in a service management context that has occurred as a result of research. This means for the special issue, we are interested in actual change in service management phenomenon rather than intentions or formative insights, with a focus on mode 2 (applied) research.

Recent global crises, including the pandemic and climate change, highlight that societal resilience is fundamentally a service system challenge with pragmatic solutions required. Citizens globally rely on service mechanisms for access to essential resources, making equitable and inclusive service delivery central to public welfare. While management literature has strongly prioritized "Grand Challenges", and some high-level special issues have emerged, the problem to be addressed by service management research are the mechanisms, processes through which service management can drive social change and how to measure this social impact.

This special issue will emphasize practical, service management frameworks and processes to translate macro-level challenges into actionable service management strategies. Specifically the special issue will examine how service management research can address grand challenges and creates social impact. The issue adopts a strength-based approach to vulnerability (leveraging assets) and authors are requested to use this lens rather than a deficit perspective.

Potential topics

• What processes and features of service management are effective in creating social impact and addressing grand challenges?
• What are appropriate metrics and evaluation methods for service management research that addresses grand challenges and create social impact?
• How can service design methodologies be applied to service ecosystems to enhance equity and inclusion for marginalized groups and customers experiencing vulnerability?
• What governance structures and operational mechanisms are necessary to build resilient, multi-stakeholder service systems capable of effective mobilization during societal crises (e.g., pandemics, climate disasters)?
• What processes and strategic alignments are required to successfully scale up locally proven social service innovations into sustainable, regional, or national solutions?
• How can the optimization of processes and resources (efficiency) within service organizations contribute to the grand challenges?
• What new frameworks are needed for the design and improvement of services when the primary goal broadens beyond creating organizational value (profit) to maximizing societal well-being and addressing systemic social problems?
• In what ways must the organizational function and governance of service management change to enable effective cross-sectoral delivery of services among diverse actors (e.g., government, non-profit, and private firms) to tackle complex grand challenges?

Timeline

• January 12, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• March 30, 2027: Closing date for manuscripts submission

Jens Hogreve, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Ilias Danatzis, King's Business School

Joy Field, Boston College

Kristina Lindsey Hall, Louisiana State University

Marah Blaurock, Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt

The service-profit chain (SPC) is one of the most influential concepts in service research. Introduced by Heskett et al. (1994), the SPC emphasizes the significance of both internal and external service quality for a firm's long-term financial performance. It bridges service companies' internal and external environments by positing employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity as mediators between internal and external service quality, and customer satisfaction and loyalty as mediators between external service quality and financial outcomes. In doing so, the SPC links three domains: (a) internal marketing, encompassing internal service quality and employee attitudes and behaviors; (b) external marketing, reflecting external service quality and customer attitudes and behaviors; and (c) firm performance, including revenue growth and profitability. Over the past three decades, the SPC has gained considerable scholarly attention and continues to inspire organizations that place employees and customers at the center of their strategies.

Now is a particularly timely moment for the Journal of Service Management to devote a special issue to the SPC. Despite its widespread influence, recent developments have challenged its original assumptions, calling for both revision and reimagination. Three developments in particular highlight the need for renewed scholarly attention.

First, the digital transformation of service work, including the rise of service robots, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI), is profoundly reshaping the roles of service employees. These changes alter the meaning of internal service quality and affect how customers evaluate service encounters. SPC research must therefore account for the opportunities and unintended consequences of AI-driven transformations.

Second, employee and customer well-being have become central concerns in both academic scholarship and practical applications. Well-being increasingly influences transformative service research and may complement—or even substitute—the SPC's traditional satisfaction measures. Understanding whether well-being is a stronger predictor of loyalty and performance outcomes is a critical next step.

Third, external shocks and turbulent environments, from pandemics to economic crises, challenge the stability of SPC relationships. These shocks not only critically disrupt service provision but also have profound effects on customer-employee interactions. Service employees must quickly adapt to shifting processes, environments, and often enforce service rules that are not well received by customers, adding another layer of stress to their already challenging jobs. Disruptive events, therefore, raise questions about how resilient the SPC framework is and how firms can adapt internal and external marketing practices to maintain performance in uncertain times.

Taken together, these challenges provide an impetus to further develop and extend the SPC. This special issue aims to build on its rich legacy while critically assessing how it must evolve to remain relevant. By explicitly including practitioners' perspectives, the issue will not only illustrate how the SPC is lived in practice but also identify where its core links need to be rethought. We call for an interdisciplinary perspective, engaging scholars across marketing, management, operations, finance, and human resources to reflect, revise, and reimagine the SPC for the next generation of service research.

Potential topics

• How do service employees adapt to and engage with AI and automation, and impact SPC relationships? What roles do technostress, co-design opportunities, or AI functions play in shaping acceptance?
• How does AI reshape customer experiences and loyalty? Does it complement or substitute for human frontline interactions, and what unintended effects may emerge?
• What are the optimal levels of AI implementation within the SPC across contexts, and how do they vary by industry, leadership, or employee/customer loyalty levels?
• Does employee or customer well-being serve as a stronger predictor of loyalty and performance than traditional satisfaction measures?
• How do well-being and satisfaction interact, and what are their respective short-term versus long-term effects on firm performance?
• How do external shocks and turbulent environments moderate SPC relationships?
• How do service employees adapt to shifting processes, environments, and interaction demands during disruptive events, and how does this adaption affect key SPC links?
• How does enforcing service rules - especially when facing customer resistance or misbehavior - affect employee well-being, service quality, and the strength of SPC linkages?
• To what extent are SPC links universal versus context-sensitive (e.g., across industries, cultures, or service types)?
• What new methodological approaches (e.g., longitudinal, experimental, multi-source, big data) can uncover causal, non-linear, or feedback effects within the SPC?
• How do under-researched internal service marketing practices (e.g., workplace design, digital tools for customer service) influence employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity?
• Which HRM systems and practices are most effective in enhancing internal service quality, and how do they jointly shape employee and organizational outcomes?
• How do alternative work arrangements (e.g., gig, remote, hybrid) influence employee satisfaction and SPC outcomes?

Timeline

• January 7, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• January 11, 2026: Closing date for manuscripts submission