3. Conclusions
The nature of services requires a multidisciplinary approach to research (Ostrom et al., 2010), emphasizing both customer experiences of service delivery (services marketing research) and the organizational and employee processes that lead to those outcomes (services management research). While services research in management, particularly in the sub-field of HRM, can be considered to still in its infancy when contrasted with the field of services marketing, this special issue reveals multiple perspectives within the management discipline that can help build a services management research domain (Subramony & Pugh, 2015). In our overall assessment, the unique conceptual contributions of these papers will help spark further empirical research related to HCR, emotions management HRM systems, employee driven service delivery, and healthcare HRM. However, we must additionally acknowledge the long road ahead of us. While intangibility, heterogeneity, and simultaneous production and consumption remain the key dimensions of service (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985), changes in technology have fundamentally altered the dynamics of service delivery and the influence of employees on customer experience (e.g., virtual environments for shopping, technology enabled checkouts). On the flip side, customers are continuing to expect authentic and high quality interactions with employees (Yagil & Medler-Liraz, 2013), and transformative experiences within service establishments that are considered ‘third places’ between home and work (Rosenbaum & Massiah, 2007). Clearly, the management perspective on services will have to broaden to develop and test theories that reflect these new realities. In this we are optimistic, as the various pieces in this special issue indicate — management thought is robust and innovative, and ready to be applied to the domain of service.
