Transformative research has been a popular topic for the last two decades starting with the transformative consumer research movement in the early 2000’s and followed by the transformative service research movement in the 2010’s. Research in this field highlights the transformative role of service in enhancing the wellbeing of consumers and societies at large.
We experience a multitude of service experiences in our day-to-day life ranging from financial and public services to healthcare, hospitality, travel, leisure, and entertainment services, plus many more. These experiences go far beyond in providing utilitarian and/or hedonic value and so, influencing our levels of satisfaction and loyalty; rather, they impact our wellbeing (from all dimensions including physical, mental, economic, psychological and emotional) at a fundamental level. Transformative services empower ‘consumers’ to go beyond consuming resources and instead generate ‘new’ value to transform themselves to better citizens, workers and/or people by various ways such as building their skills, changing their mindsets and daily behaviours, co-creating social value, just to name a few.
A considerable amount of published service research investigates several issues within this field including the design of transformative services as well as their implications on ‘consumers’ and service providers alike. In this virtual special issue, we put together a collection of recently published papers in the Journal of Service Theory and Practice investigating the role, use and impact of transformative service research in ensuring consumer wellbeing. This virtual issue will be available until the 28th April 2023.
A collaborative application of design thinking and Taguchi approach in restaurant service design for food wellbeing by G. Rejikumar, Asokan-Ajitha Aswathy, Ajay Jose and Mathew Sonia (2021)
A smart tech lever to augment caregivers' touch and foster vulnerable patient engagement and well-being by Cristina Mele, Marialuisa Marzullo, Irene Di Bernardo, Tiziana Russo-Spena, Roberta Massi, Alessandra La Salandra and Stefania Cialabrini (2021)
Actor transformation in service: a process model for vulnerable consumers by Bach Quang Ho and Kunio Shirahada (2021)
Coronavirus crisis and health care: learning from a service ecosystem perspective by Roderick J. Brodie, Kumar Rakesh Ranjan, Martie-louise Verreynne, Yawei Jiang and Josephine Previte (2021)
Blended human-technology service realities in healthcare by Sarah Dodds, Rebekah Russell–Bennett, Tom Chen, Anna-Sophie Oertzen, Luis Salvador-Carulla and Yu-Chen Hung (2022)
How can the subjective well-being of nurses be predicted? Understanding the mediating effect of psychological distress, psychological resilience and emotional exhaustion by Elham Anasori, Kemal Gurkan Kucukergin, Mohammad Soliman, Fadime Tulucu and Levent Altinay (2022)
Sustainability in retail services: a transformative service research (TSR) perspective by Sarah Dodds, Nitha Palakshappa and Loren M. Stangl (2022)
Transforming healthcare service environments: a sensory-based approach by Sheau Fen (Crystal) Yap, Megan Phillips, Euejung Hwang and Yingzi Xu (2022)
Well-being creation by senior volunteers in a service provider context by Kunio Shirahada and Alan Wilson (2022)