Purpose This study aims to examine how frontline employees’ goal orientations shape customer-perceived service quality and how these effects vary across service and goods contexts. It focuses on performance-prove, performance-avoid and learning goal orientations and their effects on technical and functional service quality. Design/methodology/approach Dyadic data were collected from 584 salespeople and 1,603 customers nested within 68 firms. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test cross-level relationships, with industry context (service vs goods) as the primary moderator and sales environment (B2B vs B2C) as a supplementary moderator. Findings Goal orientations exert distinct effects across service quality dimensions. PPGO is positively associated with both technical and functional quality but may exhibit a notable trade-off in service contexts, enhancing functional quality while weakening technical quality. PAGO shows context-dependent effects, with its influence on functional quality becoming weaker in service than in goods contexts. LGO improves technical quality but is not significantly related to functional quality and remains stable across contexts. Industry context reveals cross-dimensional trade-offs, while sales environment provides additional evidence that the effects of goal orientations vary across relational contexts. Originality/value This study identifies goal orientation as a key antecedent of service quality and demonstrates that its effects are contingent on industry context rather than universally applicable. By distinguishing between service and goods contexts and between technical and functional service quality, it reveals nuanced and sometimes conflicting effects of goal orientations, including a cross-dimensional trade-off in service contexts.
Purpose This paper aims to examine how crisis-related service restrictions shape ethical consumer responses, challenging the assumption that restrictive governance inherently promotes responsibility. It develops a dual-process model explaining how legitimacy and autonomy perceptions condition ethical engagement and resistance in service systems under crisis. Design/methodology/approach Building on a combined semi-systematic and integrative literature review, the study uses a mixed-method design integrating online discourse analysis and survey data from international consumers, using tourism as an illustrative service context. Findings Restrictive service measures fragment ethical legitimacy rather than uniformly enhancing responsibility, producing stances ranging from legitimacy-based compliance to autonomy-driven resistance. Ethical responses are shaped more by identity-coded moral orientations and legitimacy perceptions than by demographics. Research limitations/implications The paper advances services marketing and service governance research by conceptualizing crisis governance as a customer-facing relational process. Future research should extend the model to other service sectors and organizational contexts. Practical implications Crisis governance is more effective when supported by marketing-oriented service communication that enhances legitimacy and autonomy rather than relying on enforcement alone. Social implications Overly coercive crisis governance risks undermining intrinsic responsibility and weakening collective ethical commitment in service systems. Originality/value The paper provides an empirically grounded model linking legitimacy, autonomy and ethical stance formation in crisis-governed service systems, bridging consumer ethics and services marketing.
Purpose Although prior studies on sustainable services have examined the issue in contexts such as health care and fashion, existing theories often focus on isolated drivers and therefore offer limited insight into sustained engagement with mobile services for essential daily consumption. Moreover, cross-cultural evidence remains fragmented. Addressing these gaps, this study aims to apply the social influence, habit formation, individual self, feelings and cognition and tangibility (SHIFT) framework to develop a sustainable service engagement model for mobile technology-enabled sustainable services targeted at food waste reduction and water conservation. It also examines the cultural differences in the SHIFT-engagement-intention mechanism between collectivist and individualist consumers. Design/methodology/approach This study examined how sustainable mobile technologies for food waste reduction and water conservation influence the use behaviours of individualist (USA, n = 500) and collectivist (Taiwan, n = 327) consumers. Findings The dimensions of social influence (subjective norms and group identification), the individual self (symbolic benefits) and feelings and cognition (anticipated positive and negative emotions and informativeness) are effective drivers of service engagement and subsequent sustainable behavioural intention. The cross-cultural analysis uncovered stronger relationships between future orientation and service engagement and between engagement and behavioural intention in Taiwan than in the USA. Originality/value This study extended the application of the SHIFT framework to mobile sustainability services and provided culturally informed insights into cultivating effective sustainable consumption behaviours.
Purpose This paper reconceptualizes phygital customer experience (PH-CX) through the lens of 4E cognitive science, which understands cognition as embodied, embedded, enacted and extended. This study aims to clarify how hybrid service environments shape consumer sense-making, agency and value creation. In doing so, the paper extends the PH-CX framework by offering a cognitive and phenomenological account of how human-first phygital service logic operates. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a conceptual analysis that integrates PH-CX research, 4E cognitive science and service design. Batat’s PH-CX framework is reinterpreted as a distributed cognitive system in which driving forces, connectors and experiential pillars shape how consumers perceive, act and create value across physical and digital service settings. Findings The analysis shows that phygital services operate as cognitive ecologies. Consumers’ cognitive and affective processes are distributed across bodies, spaces, interfaces, employees, communities and service infrastructures. Driving forces are understood as value-laden couplings, connectors as cognitive scaffolds and experiential pillars as phenomenological qualities of customer-environment interaction. Effective phygital experiences depend on coherent affordances, low recoupling costs and affective continuity as consumers move between digitalization and physicalization. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual paper, the framework requires empirical testing across service contexts. It also encourages in situ, embodied and phenomenological methods for studying phygital engagement. Practical implications Service organizations should design connectors as cognitive prostheses that reduce friction, clarify action possibilities and support customer agency. Social implications Well-designed phygital cognitive ecologies can improve inclusion, service access and collective well-being by supporting diverse customers, frontline employees and communities. Originality/value The paper provides a cognitive foundation for human-first phygital service design.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the interaction effect between service recovery providers (AI chatbot vs human) and recovery strategies (psychological vs tangible) on consumers’ purchase intentions in the context of chatbot minor service failures. The research further seeks to provide companies with insights to enhance chatbot-based service recovery. Design/methodology/approach Four experiments were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that when chatbots encounter minor service failures, self-recovery using psychological strategies significantly enhances consumer purchase intentions. Conversely, human-mediated recovery is more effective when paired with tangible strategies. Perceptual evaluations of competence play a stronger mediating role than warmth in shaping consumer responses. In case of high task complexity, human-mediated recovery is more effective regardless of whether a psychological or tangible strategy is used. Furthermore, when a highly intelligent chatbot encounters a minor service failure, its self-recovery – whether using psychological or tangible strategies – proves highly effective. Originality/value This study contributes to understanding the role of service recovery in the context of chatbot minor service failures. It examines the effectiveness of chatbot self-recovery and human-mediated recovery strategies (psychological or tangible) on consumer purchase intentions, highlighting the critical mediating role of perceptual competence.
Purpose The purpose of this research is to provide theoretical and practical insight into the night-time economy (NTE), which is underpinned by services that provide consumers with a “third place”. Specifically, the research examines the critical decision-making factors that encourage NTE use and expenditure, and how these are explained by place identity and individuals’ level of fear of missing out (FoMO). Design/methodology/approach This research uses a cross-sectional survey of 577 participants in the Sunshine Coast region of Australia. The data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and PROCESS Macro, with mediation and moderated effects tested. Findings The results confirm four key decision-making factors: safety, transport, quality and social, which have a significant impact on NTE usage and expenditure. Place identity plays a key mediating role in explaining these relationships between decision-making factors and NTE usage and expenditure. Furthermore, these relationships are stronger for individuals who report higher levels of FoMO. Originality/value This research contributes to understanding how an NTE can be conceptualised as a sustainable ecosystem in which both social outcomes (senses of place identity) and economic outcomes (usage and expenditure) can be achieved. In doing so, it also draws greater scholarly attention to NTE, a sector embedded in services such as tourism, hospitality and retail, yet underexplored in the services marketing literature. Furthermore, the research addresses the fragmented understanding of factors influencing NTE usage by synthesising, validating and modelling key decision-making factors, along with establishing their quantified associations with NTE usage and expenditure.
Purpose As AI-enabled service robots become increasingly prevalent in hospitality settings, service failures are inevitable. Although anthropomorphic design is widely used to humanize service robots, prior research offers mixed evidence regarding its effectiveness following service failures. This study aims to investigate when and why anthropomorphic service robots facilitate or undermine post-failure recovery, focusing on the role of failure severity. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on three experimental studies in service contexts, this research examines how service robot anthropomorphism influences customers’ continued usage intentions (CUI) after service failures. Failure severity is modeled as a key boundary conditionand two recovery mechanisms – perceived innovativeness (PI) (cognitive appraisal) and parasocial interaction (PSI) (relational appraisal) – are tested using structural equation modeling. Findings Results show that anthropomorphism supports recovery under mild and recoverable failures by enhancing PI and PSI. In contrast, under severe failures, anthropomorphic cues elevate technological expectations and prompt structural evaluations of system competence, weakening both recovery mechanisms and reducing CUIs. Originality/value This study extends anthropomorphism research into post-failure recovery contexts and demonstrates that anthropomorphic service robots are evaluated differently from human service providers when failures become severe. By identifying dual cognitive and relational recovery pathways and clarifying how failure severity shifts customers’ evaluative logic, this research advances service failure theory and positions anthropomorphism as a context-dependent recovery mechanism.
Purpose Customer citizenship behavior is an important yet difficult-to-cultivate source of customer-driven value in service settings. Grounded in attribution theory, this study aims to investigate the influence of employees' service adaptive behavior on three forms of customer citizenship behavior (feedback, advocacy and helping) and explores the mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying this relationship.Design/methodology/approach A multi-method approach was adopted, combining a questionnaire survey with a scenario-based experiment. The survey provided customer-reported data to examine the hypothesized model, whereas the experiment enabled causal inferences through a 2 & times; 2 between-subjects design. Specifically, employees' service adaptive behavior (high vs low) and customer self-serving attribution (high vs low) were manipulated, and their effects on affective trust, cognitive trust and three forms of customer citizenship behavior were observed.Findings First, employees' service adaptive behavior significantly fosters customers' affective and cognitive trust. Second, affective trust robustly predicts customers' feedback, advocacy and helping behaviors, while cognitive trust drives feedback and advocacy but not helping behavior. Third, affective trust mediates the links between service adaptive behavior and feedback, advocacy and helping, whereas cognitive trust mediates only the relationships with feedback and advocacy. Fourth, customer self-serving attribution significantly moderates the effects of service adaptive behavior on both affective and cognitive trust.Originality/value This study identifies employee service adaptive behavior as a key antecedent of customer citizenship behavior, extending understanding of how frontline actions influence customer discretionary behaviors. It contributes to trust research by distinguishing affective and cognitive trust and revealing their distinct mediating roles. It also shows that customer self-serving attribution weakens the positive effects of adaptive behavior on trust, highlighting boundary conditions that shape the effectiveness of employee service adaptive behavior.
Purpose This study aims to investigate how service robot design characteristics influence the propensity for moral disengagement during service failures. Specifically, it examines how two key design characteristics, appearance (humanoid vs android) and interaction style (warm vs competent), influence moral disengagement and further tests the moderating role of service failure severity and the mediating role of interactional justice.Design/methodology/approach Six scenario-based experimental studies were conducted across multi-country participant samples. Studies 1-4 examined these relationships in healthcare settings, while Studies 5-6 investigated these relationships in hospitality settings.Findings Most of the studies, humanoid-competent service robots evoked higher moral disengagement than other design combinations. Service failure severity strengthened these effects in health care but not in hospitality, suggesting that moral justification processes are heightened under high-stakes conditions. Interactional justice fully mediated the effect of service robot appearance on moral disengagement, but it did not mediate the effect of interaction style.Research limitations/implications While the study offers valuable insights into robotic ethics and human-robot interaction, its reliance on scenario-based experiments limits its ability to fully capture real-world complexities. Future research should explore the long-term implications of moral disengagement toward service robots.Originality/value This research enhances the existing literature on human-robot interaction by expanding the understanding of moral disengagement processes involving non-human entities. It also provides practical guidance for service robot manufacturers in designing and supporting the development of policy frameworks to promote responsible human-robot interactions in different industries.
Purpose This study aims to investigate how dark-triad-consistent linguistic markers in online movie reviews relate to credibility signals and perceived helpfulness within a digital customer-to-customer service encounter.Design/methodology/approach Using data from Naver.com, the authors examined platform credibility signaling and socially evaluative engagement (likes and dislikes) by performing textual content analysis of dark-triad-consistent linguistic markers at the review-text level using the Language Inquiry and Word Count method (Pennebaker et al., 2015). A follow-up experiment was performed on 240 participants, who were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 4 (Type of reviews: Neutral vs Psychopathy-framed vs Machiavellianism-framed vs Narcissism-framed) between-subjects design.Findings Reviews containing higher levels of narcissism-consistent and Machiavellianism-consistent linguistic markers were more likely to be classified as netizen-type (unverified) reviews on Naver, which functions as a platform-level credibility signal; the association for psychopathy-consistent markers was not statistically significant. Machiavellianism-consistent language was positively associated with both likes and dislikes, indicating polarized engagement. In the experiment, reviews framed with dark-triad-consistent language were rated as less authentic, less credible and less helpful than neutral reviews, and lower perceived authenticity mediated these effects.Originality/value By combining large-scale field data with an experiment, this study shows how dark-triad-consistent language functions as an observable review-text signal in a digital customer-to-customer service encounter that shapes platform classification, two-sided engagement (likes and dislikes) and reader judgments of authenticity, credibility and helpfulness. The authors treat dislikes as an unhelpfulness (disapproval) outcome (labeled "unusefulness" on the platform) that is not the inverse of helpfulness, because disapproval requires an affirmative negative evaluation and can co-occur with approval, thereby capturing approval-disapproval and polarization dynamics.
Purpose This study aims to explore how recent research has reflected the evolving role of phygital strategies in services marketing and defined avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach The review covered 105 papers from the Scopus database, published in English between January 2017 and August 2025. Narrative and supplemental semantic analyses were conducted of their abstracts to find key themes and concepts. Findings The results reveal that phygital experiences are at the core of this literature. Research on this topic is closely connected with customer journeys and marketing and retailing strategies and facilitated by technological innovations and methodologies. The findings stress sectoral applications (e.g. luxury branding, tourism and culture), societal outcomes (e.g. well-being) and emerging areas including phygital metaverse retail and avatars. The results further highlight that phygital studies are fundamentally consumer-centred and technology-enabled and that they are progressively expanding into new sectors and well-being domains. Originality/value This review systematised dispersed insights and developed a structured roadmap for expanding theoretical, managerial and societal perspectives on phygital transformations.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the drivers influencing frontline service employees’ passing behaviors in customer interactions (i.e. when they present to customers as heterosexual) and the impacts that passing in these interactions has on employees’ well-being in line with SDG 8. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted convergent interviews with a sample of 13 young non-heterosexual men with experience working in frontline service roles in Australia and New Zealand. Findings Employees consider customer-oriented, role-oriented and self-oriented factors when deciding whether to pass in customer interactions. Findings also reveal a well-being “double bind” for employees; passing negatively impacts well-being as employees struggle with their self-authenticity and self-consistency, while not passing exposes employees to harmful incidences of enacted and felt stigma. Social implications Stigmatization from customers hinders non-heterosexual employees’ realization of decent work in line with SDG 8. Service managers must work to create safe working spaces for non-heterosexual employees to achieve decent work. Originality/value This study expands on research examining how stigma management behaviors in collegial relationships affect the well-being of non-heterosexual employees by exploring the potential role of customers in perpetuating non-heterosexual employees’ experiences of vulnerability.
Purpose This study aims to examine how social media usage (SMU) and fear of missing out (FOMO) influence service inclusion (SI), conceptualized as a second-order formative construct comprising enabling opportunity, offering choice, relieving suffering and fostering happiness and how SI subsequently shapes the well-being of tourists with mobility-related impairments. Grounded in social influence theory (SIT) and self-determination theory (SDT), the study explores how digital engagement and emotional responses contribute to inclusive tourism experiences. Design/methodology/approach A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was used. In the quantitative phase, data were collected through an offline survey from 378 tourists with mobility-related disabilities across four major cities in Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants to explore the emotional and contextual dimensions of inclusion and digital engagement. Findings SMU positively influences both SI and FOMO, while FOMO further strengthens SI. SI, in turn, significantly enhances tourists’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Formative measurement results indicate that all four SI dimensions contribute significantly, with fostering happiness and enabling opportunity emerging as the strongest contributors. Qualitative findings reveal interconnected themes that deepen understanding of inclusive tourism experiences, including emotional safety, staff empathy, advocacy behaviour and the empowering role of social media. Originality/value This study advances the literature by identifying SMU and FOMO as socially and emotionally relevant antecedents of SI, and by modelling SI as a second-order formative construct, thereby addressing recent methodological concerns regarding higher-order construct specification. By situating the analysis in a digitally emerging and underrepresented context (Pakistan), the study extends SIT and SDT into the inclusion domain and offers actionable insights for designing more inclusive and empowering tourism services.
Purpose - This paper aims to develop a transformative phygital service research (TPSR) framework to explain how hybrid physical-digital service systems shape consumer well-being, autonomy, dignity and inclusion. While prior phygital service research (PSR) advances understanding of hybrid experiences and human-centred ecosystems, key ambiguities persist around agency, governance and interpretive labour in algorithmically mediated interactions. Existing frameworks address value co-creation but lack clarity on how digitally enforced rules and redistributed labour drive transformation. TPSR addresses this gap by theorising contradiction-driven processes through which human-AI arrangements and socio-technical dynamics produce both empowering and erosive outcomes in phygital service environments. Design/methodology/approach - Using a theory synthesis approach (Jaakkola, 2020), this conceptual paper integrates literature from phygital services, PSR, transformative service research (TSR), service-dominant logic (SDL), socio-technical systems and activity theory (AT). AT is used as the explanatory foundation to conceptualise how mediated action, contradictions, algorithmic governance and expansive learning influence transformation in phygital ecosystems. The paper develops a conceptual architecture distinguishing antecedent system configurations, mediating mechanisms, transformative outcomes and failure conditions and advances theoretically grounded propositions to support future empirical investigation. Findings - The TPSR framework shows that transformative outcomes in phygital environments arise from interactions among artefacts, governance rules, communities and labour divisions within hybrid activity systems. It identifies three discontinuities: algorithmic mediation of agency, digitally enforced rules and non-human interpretive labour. Transparent algorithms enhance autonomy and trust, while opacity reduces control. Adaptive governance fosters inclusion; rigid rules intensify exclusion. Immersive mediation can boost engagement or cause overload. Redistributed human-AI labour reshapes trust and well-being. Contradictions within these systems trigger learning processes that yield empowering or erosive outcomes, depending on governance quality, participation and context, extending TSR, SDL and PSR. Originality/value - This paper advances the first contradiction-driven conceptual framework of TPSR. Rather than positioning phygitality solely as an experiential or operational phenomenon, TPSR conceptualises phygital services as evolving socio-technical activity systems that condition human capability, inclusion and dignity through mediated interactions. By specifying theoretical mechanisms, boundary conditions and potential reversal pathways, the framework extends PSR and transformative service scholarship and provides a robust conceptual foundation for future empirical research and the design of equitable, human-centred phygital service ecosystems.
Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered service apps are widely adopted but raise critical authenticity concerns, particularly as human-facing AI increasingly simulates social presence and care. This study aims to explore how customers discern authenticity through symbolic and natural stimuli, moving beyond technical perspectives.Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-method design combining in-depth interviews (n = 26) and text mining (N = 11,400 reviews) is conducted, focusing on health, beauty and lifestyle sectors. Interviews identified symbolic and natural stimuli, while topic modeling assessed their relative importance in comparison with physical and social stimuli.Findings We developed an integrated servicescape model incorporating physical, social stimuli with the new four symbolic stimuli (monetization strategy, situational/cultural fit, moral commitment, recommendation precision) and three natural stimuli (service realism, soothing interactions, safe disclosure environments). The findings reveal asymmetric effects on customer engagement valence, showing how different stimuli are associated with positive vs negative engagement.Practical implications The model guides app developers, service designers and marketers to strategically embed symbolic and natural stimuli that strengthen authenticity and foster sustained and positively valenced customer engagement.Social implications This study supports the creation of more transparent, trustworthy and inclusive AI service ecosystems.Originality/value Building on and extending the stimulus-organism-response framework and servicescape literature, this research identifies previously underexplored symbolic and natural stimuli beyond physical and social factors. It demonstrates how these stimuli shape customer engagement valence in AI-powered service apps, offering fresh insights into contemporary service authenticity.
Purpose Shopping mall are increasingly adopting biophilic design, transforming commercial centers into urban leisure servicescape where consumers come to shop and to experience natural scenes. This study aims to examine how biophilic mall characteristics foster Biophilic Leisure Engagement (BLE) through consumers’ emotional responses and place dependence. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data from consumers who had experienced biophilic shopping mall and applies partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed Biophilic Leisure Engagement Model. Findings The findings show that visual naturalness, spatial aesthetics and natural soundscape quality are important characteristics of biophilic malls that shape consumers’ emotional responses and BLE. Emotional arousal has a stronger association with place dependence and BLE than emotional pleasure, suggesting that curiosity, excitement and exploration are central to sustained engagement in biophilic mall environments. Place dependence also mediates the relationship between emotional responses and BLE, explaining how positive experiences can develop into sustained engagement with the servicescape. Originality/value This study defines and operationalizes BLE as a distinct form of consumer engagement in nature-integrated commercial servicescapes. It extends servicescape and biophilic design research by clarifying how natural scene characteristics, emotional responses and place dependence jointly explain consumers’ sustained leisure engagement in biophilic shopping mall.
Purpose Consumers often face dense and complex product information in offline retail settings. While managing such information is a universal challenge, what remains less understood is how these environments shape decision-making specifically among older consumers. Drawing on information processing and decision complexity perspectives, this study aims to examine how attribute alignability and staff recommendation type influence perceived overload and subsequent purchase behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies tested a moderated mediation framework. Study 1 manipulated attribute alignability to examine its effect on perceived overload and purchase outcomes. Study 2 investigated how the interaction between attribute alignability and staff recommendation type (feature selling vs benefit selling) affects perceived overload and decision-making. Findings Study 1 demonstrates that nonalignable attributes increase perceived overload, whereas alignable attributes reduce cognitive burden, with perceived overload mediating the effects of alignability on purchase deferral and purchase intention. Study 2 shows that feature selling systematically elevates perceived overload regardless of alignability, whereas benefit selling does not, resulting in indirect effects of alignability on decision outcomes only under feature selling. Originality/value By integrating information structure with interpersonal guidance within the framework of information overload, this research advances understanding of how older consumers navigate complex retail environments. The findings not only fill a critical gap in consumer decision-making literature but also offer actionable insights for retailers to design interventions that reduce cognitive burden and enhance decision confidence.
Purpose This study aims to examine how grassroots esports organizers manage Local Area Network (LAN) events as sustainable phygital experiences, addressing a gap in Phygital Service Research (PSR) by exploring how community-driven actors achieve seamless physical-digital integration under resource constraints.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 28 Swedish LAN organizers. Data were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis guided by Batat's (2022) Phygital Customer Experience (PH-CX) framework and Baudet and Parmentier (2025) four phygital strategies.Findings Five key management dimensions are identified - Managing Interaction, Managing Time and Space, Managing Cooperation and Competition, Establishing Phygital Foundations and Sustaining Phygital Communities. Through these dimensions, the study introduces "human-centered phygital orchestration": the process through which actors coordinate social interactions, multisensory environments and temporal flows to achieve seamless physical-digital integration through community practices rather than technological sophistication.Practical implications Grassroots LAN organizers should prioritize cross-platform community engagement, multisensory environmental design and institutional partnerships. Policymakers should recognize grassroots esports events as culturally significant infrastructures for digital inclusion and youth engagement.Originality/value This is the first study to apply PSR to grassroots esports, extending the PH-CX framework beyond commercial contexts. It proposes "human-centered phygital orchestration" as a novel concept for advancing PSR in community-driven, resource-constrained service ecosystems. This research was conducted as part of the American Phygital Association Summit 2025, sponsored by the American Institute of Business Experience Design (AIBXD) - New York. The submitted research was funded by the Media, Management and Transformation Center at J & ouml;nk & ouml;ping International Business School and there are no conflicts of interest to declare. We sincerely appreciate the valuable feedback provided by anonymous reviewers, editors, colleagues and esports industry practitioners on an earlier version of this work.
Purpose This paper aims to introduce the concept of frontline employees' phygital experience (FEPE) as a human-centered and integrative framework for understanding frontline work in phygital service ecosystems. Addressing the fragmentation of research across service marketing, organizational behavior and occupational psychology, the authors develop a multi-domain conceptualization that captures how frontline employees experience digital connectors across self-oriented, other-oriented, organizational and brand domains. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a theory synthesis approach, this conceptual study integrates service-dominant logic and the job demands-resources model to construct a synoptic framework that explains how digital connectors operate as ambivalent operand resources shaping frontline employees' experiences. Findings The FEPE framework positions frontline employees as actors within service phygital ecosystems. Digital connectors activate or deplete employees' operant resources across cognitive, affective and conative dimensions. By distinguishing job resources from job demands configurations across four experiential perspectives, the framework links digital connectors to employee well-being or ill-being and value co-creation or co-destruction. Research limitations/implications This paper advances the phygital service research literature by integrating service-dominant logic and the job demands-resources model to conceptualize the FEPE as a dynamic resource integration process. Future research is invited to examine these trade-offs, exploring how digital connectors may benefit certain role dimensions while simultaneously hindering others. Originality/value This paper introduces the FEPE framework, offering a novel, multilevel perspective on how digital connectors enable and constrain frontline employees' operant resources. Unlike prior models that focus on customer experience or digital efficiency, the FEPE framework conceptualizes employees as co-creators of value whose experiences span individual, interactional and organizational domains. It advances service-dominant logic and job demands-resources theory by linking resource mobilization to well-being and value co-creation in a phygital service ecosystem.
