Reimagining the Service‑Profit Chain: Multidisciplinary Insights for an Age of Disruption

Call for Papers – Reimagining the Service‑Profit Chain: Multidisciplinary Insights for an Age of Disruption

Journal: Journal of Service Management
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission window: 1 July 2026 – 1 November 2026

This special issue invites research that critically rethinks the classic Service‑Profit Chain (SPC) framework in light of digital disruption, employee and customer well‑being, and turbulent external shocks. The SPC—originally linking internal service quality, employee satisfaction and loyalty, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and financial performance—has been foundational in service research for over three decades, but recent changes in technology, work arrangements, and global crises call for its explicit revision and reimagination.

Why this issue matters

• The original SPC assumes a relatively stable service context with human‑centric interactions; today, service encounters are increasingly mediated by AI, service robots, and automation, altering how both employees and customers experience service quality.

• Employee and customer well‑being have become central concerns, potentially replacing or supplementing “satisfaction” as a key mediator in the chain.

• Pandemics, economic shocks, and social turmoil have exposed the fragility of SPC linkages, raising questions about resilience, moderating conditions, and context‑specific adaptations.

This SI explicitly seeks interdisciplinary work from marketing, management, operations, HR, and finance to reflect on, extend, and possibly re‑specify the SPC for the next generation of service research.

Key topic areas

Papers may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Digital transformation and AI

  • How service employees adapt to and engage with AI and automation, and how these changes affect SPC relationships.

  • The role of technostress, co‑design opportunities, and AI design choices in shaping employee and customer acceptance.

  • Whether and how AI complements or substitutes human frontline roles, and what unintended consequences emerge for loyalty and performance.

• Well‑being and alternative mediators

  • Whether employee or customer well‑being is a stronger predictor of loyalty and performance than traditional “satisfaction” measures.

  • How well‑being and satisfaction interact, and how their short‑ vs. long‑term effects on firm performance differ.

• Resilience, contingencies, and methods

  • How external shocks (pandemics, economic crises, policy changes) moderate SPC relationships.

  • How service employees adapt to shifting processes and rule‑enforcement demands under customer resistance, and how this affects well‑being, service quality, and profitability.

  • The extent to which SPC links are universal or context‑sensitive (across industries, cultures, and service settings).

  • Novel methods (longitudinal, experimental, multi‑source, big‑data, or mixed‑methods designs) to uncover causal, non‑linear, or feedback dynamics in the SPC.

• Internal marketing and employee outcomes

  • How under‑researched internal‑marketing practices (e.g., workplace design, digital‑service tools, feedback systems) shape employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity.

  • Which HRM systems and practices best enhance internal service quality and SPC outcomes.

  • The impact of gig, remote, and hybrid work arrangements on employee attitudes and service‑profit linkages.

Submissions can be conceptual, empirical, or methodological, provided they clearly engage the core SPC structure (internal marketing → internal service quality → employee outcomes; external service quality → customer outcomes → financial performance) and help reframe it for contemporary service environments.

Guest editors

• Jens Hogreve, Catholic University of Eichstätt‑Ingolstadt, Germany

• Ilias Danatzis, King’s Business School, United Kingdom

• Joy Field, Boston College, USA

• Kristina Lindsey Hall, Louisiana State University, USA

• Marah Blaurock, Catholic University of Eichstätt‑Ingolstadt, Germany

Authors are encouraged to contact the guest editors with pre‑submission inquiries about topic fit or framing.

Submission details

• Submission portal: ScholarOne Manuscripts for Journal of Service Management:
  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/josm

• During submission, select the special issue title “Reimagining the Service‑Profit Chain: Multidisciplinary Insights for an Age of Disruption”.

• Important dates:

  • Opening date: 1 July 2026

  • Closing date: 1 November 2026

• All manuscripts must comply with the journal’s Author Guidelines:
  https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/josm

• Submitted articles must not be under review elsewhere or previously published.

Papers selected for the SI should be theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous, and clearly oriented toward practical implications for service firms and managers navigating an era of digitalisation, uncertainty, and well‑being‑centred service strategies.

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