Abstract

Against the background of the rising importance of services in research and practice, this study systematically examines service-related publications over the last ten years to identify a set of the most relevant topics in services research. This enquiry involves pursuing two central research objectives. The first question is directed at analyzing the recent development in theoretical research activity in this field and its scope as well as identifying recurring research topics and research methods. The second objective is to investigate the global diffusion in services research. With these objectives, the study reviews 1,840 papers on topics specific to services marketing that were published between 2000 and 2009 in the 34 most relevant marketing journals, based on the VHB JOURQUAL 1 ranking from 2003 (VHB 2003). The findings of the first question report on recent developments in services marketing research since 2000, culminating in its current status as an established discipline within marketing research. The study identifies the most frequently covered research topics (i.e., ‘service quality’ and ‘service customer’) and shows that quantitative empirical research frameworks prevail within services marketing research. Focusing on the geographic development of services marketing research, it shows that services marketing research is not yet undertaken on a truly global scale; associated with the identification of geographic areas of concentration, it furthermore reveals a correlation between an author’s and editor’s geographic location of activity.