Journal of Service Research Special Issue
Special Issue Editors:
Ron Hill (ronhill@american.edu), American University
Linda Price (lprice13@uwyo.edu), University of Wyoming
Sterling Bone (sterling.bone@usu.edu), Utah State University
Submission Deadline: Full papers due October 1, 2024
Disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers are at risk of detrimental marketplace outcomes for various reasons, including physical, mental, emotional, financial, or social circumstances that
may be short-term, constantly evolving, or permanent. Providing marketplace equity, value, and access to disadvantaged and vulnerable persons is of paramount concern. Scholarship has greatly expanded and nuanced marketers’ understanding of disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers (Blocker et al., 2023; Hamilton et al., 2019; Hill and Sharma, 2020). Substantial evidence reveals these consumers face numerous obstacles that can be created, exacerbated, alleviated, or erased by service. Service design, management, and delivery critically determine the outcomes realized by disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers. Too often, service encounters discriminate, service designs diminish or restrict access, and realized service quality depends on consumers’ vulnerabilities (Bone, Williams, and Christensen 2016; Basu, Kumar, and Kumar 2023). While the provision of equitable service can diminish vulnerability, mitigate disadvantage, and deliver value, tailoring service to the diverse character and causes of disadvantage and vulnerability presents numerous challenges.
The purpose of this special issue of Journal of Service Research is to coordinate and extend the
scholarship on disadvantaged/vulnerable consumers through a service lens. Please consider the following:
How do advanced service technologies (e.g., AI, GenAI, robots, AR/VR) facilitate and/or hinder the creation and delivery of service to disadvantaged consumers?
What service frameworks and methods are useful for identifying detrimental marketplace outcomes and meaningful interventions for disadvantaged consumers?
What is the overall service experience of disadvantaged consumers? What is their experience of service failure and service recovery?
How can services be designed and managed for diversity and inclusion?
Is service performance, in part, a function of characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, physical or mental abilities, and relative affluence? If so, in which way?
Social service is critical for the well-being of disadvantaged consumers, yet there exist
tensions between the consumer, service provider, and complex service system.
What are the frameworks and tools to best provide social service to disadvantaged consumers?