Historical Perspectives on the Development of Services Marketing Theory & Practice

Submit your paper here from 9 February 2026!

Introduction

In an era dominated by emerging technologies, predictive algorithms, and hyper-personalized marketing strategies, the field of services marketing risks becoming unmoored from its foundational roots. The focus on the new has led to a collective amnesia about where services marketing came from, how it evolved, and which intellectual, institutional, and professional forces shaped its current identity. This special issue of the Journal of Services Marketing seeks to redress that imbalance by turning back to services marketing history—not as nostalgia, but as a method of strategic clarity.

This issue takes seriously the argument that services marketing is suffering from a form of developmental myopia. We aim to investigate how the loss of historical awareness, practitioner integration, disciplinary cohesion, and ethical breadth has contributed to a weakened academic and professional impact. The goal is to challenge contributors to think historically to better shape the future of services marketing theory and practice.

Submissions will address diverse influences on services marketing’s development, including the role of universities, foundations, and policy; the split between theory and practice; the evolution of doctoral training; the influence of specific thought leaders; and critical historical incidents. Authors are encouraged to submit both conceptual and empirical work that interrogates the field’s development, its current limitations, and its possibilities for renewal.

By fostering a more grounded, interdisciplinary, and ethically conscious perspective, this issue invites the services marketing community to reconnect with its intellectual heritage, confront its fragmentation, and reimagine a future informed by the past.

List of topic areas

1. Institutional and economic influences on the developmental trajectory of services marketing
    How global economic shifts, service-dominant economies, and institutional changes have shaped services marketing thought and practice.
2. Government policy and public-sector interventions in shaping services marketing
    The role of regulation, subsidies, and public policy in shaping service innovation, access, and consumer trust.
3. Universities, foundations, and research bodies driving services marketing scholarship
    How academic institutions and funding priorities have advanced (or limited) service-focused research agendas.
4. Influential thought leaders and seminal contributions to services marketing theory
    Contributions from pioneers in services marketing and how their ideas continue to shape the field.
5. Critical historical incidents that defined turning points in the evolution of services marketing
    Key academic milestones such as the services marketing paradigm shift, the emergence of the Service-Dominant Logic, or the integration of technology-driven service models.
    Key economic, political, or other non-academic that halted or redirected the evolution of services marketing 
6. The evolution and decline of “goods-dominant” perspectives in favor of service-centric approaches
    How services marketing moved beyond logistics and distribution roots to embrace co-creation, customer experience, and value-in-use.
    How abandonment of the traditional focus of services marketing as a distribution mechanism has affected the evolution of services marketing
7. The impact of behavioralism and over-quantification on services marketing research
    Has the push for quantification diminished the richness of service experience, relationship, and experiential research?
    How has the refocusing of services marketing from a distribution/managerial to behavioral perspective affected the evolution of service marketing
8. The design and transformation of PhD programs in services marketing
    How doctoral education influences the future direction of services marketing research and theory development changes needed in PhD programs to enhance services marketing’s academic reputation and managerial acceptance
9. Bridging the gap between service marketing research and practice
    Examining the decline of practitioner engagement, CMO influence, and how to restore relevance and impact.
10. Industry-academia disconnection and its effect on services marketing innovation
    Case studies and solutions for integrating academic insights with real-world service design and delivery.
11. The growing internationalization of services marketing scholarship
    The role of cross-cultural research and international collaborations are reshaping services marketing theory and practice.
12. Historical and philosophical influences on services marketing
    The impact of ancient philosophy, social theory, and international schools of thought (e.g., German Historical School) on service theories.
13. Restoring services marketing’s societal and ethical grounding
    Addressing the role of services in societal well-being, equity, and sustainability beyond consumer-centric metrics.
14. Balancing stakeholder well-being in services ecosystems
    Exploring how services marketing can equally consider customers, employees, providers, and society at large.
15. The positioning of services marketing within the broader business academic ecosystem
    Why services marketing is critical to the future of marketing scholarship and how to increase its influence.
    Why services marketing is critical to the restoration of marketing’s managerial influence
16. Revitalizing services marketing through interdisciplinary and practice-driven research
    Prescriptions for overcoming the existing myopia by integrating technology, psychology, operations, and social sciences.
17. Identifying and explaining the role of the shifting developmental drivers across eras in services marketing
    Examining how factors such as the wealthy’s determination to establish business as a profession, world wars, population shifts (e.g., urbanization and the baby boom), economic changes (e.g., the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression), social changes (the increasing rate of entry of women into the work force) affected the developmental trajectory of services marketing
18. Role of services/service marketing journal editors, editorial review boards, and professional associations in righting the ship. 
    Tracing how professional associations affected developmental trajectory of services marketing (e.g., the shift of the AMA from a balanced practitioner-academic membership base to an exclusively academic orientation
    The influence of journal editors and ERBs on the developmental trajectory of services marketing
19. Is marketing best understood as a science, or should it be recognized as a profession akin to law or medicine?
    A consideration of how the shift from a professionalization to behavioral perspective affected the developmental trajectory of services marketing
20. The role of services marketing in reversing the declining inter-disciplinary influence of marketing research and standing among practitioners?
    How can services marketing scholars improve the cross-disciplinary recognition of the importance of marketing research (i.e., citation rates) as well as the acceptance of CMOs and other marketing practitioners in the executive suite.

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jsmktg
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jsm#jlp_author_guidelines
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 09/02/2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/07/2026