As firms increasingly deploy artificial agents with social capabilities, the effectiveness of automated social presence (ASP), defined as agents’ ability to evoke the perception of interacting with a socially present other, has become a top research priority. However, empirical findings remain mixed and fragmented. This study meta-analytically integrates 165 studies (N = 54,917) to clarify ASP’s effects, underlying mechanisms, boundary conditions, and antecedents. The results reveal that ASP is strongly and positively associated with customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty, and shows a weaker relationship with psychological well-being. A mediation analysis shows that social cognition and psychological ownership drive distinct outcome pathways. Moreover, ASP’s effects weaken in emotionally charged and long-term encounters. Finally, a crisp-set qualitative comparative meta-analysis, using a novel two-dimensional taxonomy of artificial agent design characteristics, reveals how multiple configurations of capability (knowledge domain, interaction modality, interaction flexibility) and identity features (appearance, name, female gender) interact in shaping ASP. These findings refine theoretical understanding of ASP and offer insights for designing artificial agents that evoke ASP.

Open science aims to enhance the integrity, transparency, and openness of research to improve the reproducibility and accessibility of scientific knowledge. It has received renewed attention due to reported concerns about questionable research practices across multiple scientific disciplines. While various open science practices, such as preregistration and data sharing, have been developed, their effectiveness remains unclear. This paper provides a review of current meta-research on open science practices, assessing their effectiveness and identifying key initiatives that promote transparency and openness in research. Next, we report the results of a preregistered retrospective observational analysis of 517 studies from 254 papers published in the Journal of Service Research and Journal of Service Management between 2019 and 2023. This analysis evaluates which open science practices are already in use and to what extent, as well as whether these practices align with the recommendations derived from the meta-research review. Finally, we present actionable guidelines and resources aimed at encouraging authors, reviewers, and editors to adopt effective open science practices in service research, both in the short and long term.

Recent breakthroughs in affective computing have enabled the shift from mechanical to empathic chatbots, now capable of detecting, decoding, and mimicking customers’ thoughts and feelings to respond appropriately. While artificial empathy is believed to potentially bridge the human-artificial intelligence gap in customer experience, recent studies offer mixed support for its effectiveness in improving customer outcomes, leaving managers perplexed about the added value of empathic chatbots. Building on social presence theory, this paper investigates whether, how, and when empathic chatbot-led services enhance customer experience. Results from three experiments show that empathic chatbots trigger perceptions of social presence and information quality, which positively influence customer satisfaction. The findings further reveal that empathic chatbots can harm customer experience under certain conditions, particularly when customers feel time pressure. This paper provides insights into how and when to implement empathy in chatbots to enhance customer experience and boost customer satisfaction.

Artificial intelligence-enabled technologies have paved the way for innovative retail formats, such as "just walk out" stores, where consumers use their smartphone to enter, take what they want, and exit without an elaborate checkout process. Despite its promise, however, this new retail format has challenges maturing and being fully embraced by consumers. Coupling behavioral reasoning theory with a configurational perspective, this multimethod paper examines consumers' contextualized reasons for and against adoption of just walk out stores. Through qualitative field depth interviews (n = 60), Study 1 uncovers five reasons for (i.e., access convenience, transaction convenience, search convenience, no need for interaction, and limited social judgment) and seven reasons against (i.e., technology reliability concerns, entry inconvenience, payment unease, customer care inconvenience, privacy, contamination, and assortment-related concerns) adoption of just walk out stores. Building on a subsequent empirical online survey (n = 546), Study 2 uses fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and shows that different configurations (or combinations) of reasons for and against may lead to favorable and unfavorable attitude and adoption intentions. This research contributes to the emerging literature on artificial intelligence-enabled retail formats by shedding light on the nuanced adoption/rejection drivers of just walk out stores. With these insights, retailers can tailor their approaches to minimize barriers and accentuate positive factors associated with customer adoption of just walk out stores.

PurposeThe relationship between frontline employee work engagement and customer service evaluations is a major theme in service research. Recent studies have called for further exploration and validation of this relationship. This paper conceptually replicates the work engagement-customer service evaluations link within the context of technology-mediated voice-to-voice encounters. Moreover, we extend prior work by examining how work engagement influences customer service evaluations depending on the outcome of the service encounter (positive or negative).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a multilevel, multi-source study involving data from 4,198 customer interactions and 346 employees at a major European telecom operator. The data were analyzed using a linear mixed effects model.FindingsThe study could not replicate the relationship between work engagement and customer service evaluations in technology-mediated voice-to-voice encounters. The findings reveal that customers who interacted with a highly engaged employee but received a negative service outcome evaluated the interaction more negatively than those who interacted with a less engaged employee. Conversely, when the service outcome was positive, work engagement was not significantly related to customer service evaluations.Originality/valueIn voice-to-voice encounters, employee engagement appears to have little impact on customer service evaluations and can even be detrimental when the service outcome is negative. This study is among the first to empirically demonstrate a negative effect of work engagement on customer service evaluations. Future replication studies are needed to validate these findings.

PurposeDespite an increasing body of research on value co-creation through social media, service organizations still face difficulties in leveraging the potential of social media communication to facilitate value co-creation with multiple stakeholders. This article addresses this challenge by adopting a multistakeholder, communication perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis article uses a conceptual approach and builds upon concepts widely recognized in the public relations (PR) literature to assess communication in multistakeholder social media-mediated exchanges.FindingsThis article discusses the role of social media communication in enabling value co-creation as well as the communicative challenges that come along with it. Moreover, applying PR academic insights to the service innovation and service recovery research fields, it advances theoretical propositions that predict how service organizations can successfully build upon the social media communication fundamentals – namely dialogue, engagement, social presence and conversational human voice – to trigger value co-creation with and among multiple stakeholders.Originality/valueThis article introduces selected relevant theoretical concepts from the PR field and develops novel theoretical propositions that are likely to make unique contributions to the service management field. The article also advances future research avenues that will help service and communication scholars together move the field forward.

Purpose Customers might become concerned about getting contaminated and adapt their behavior accordingly, which is of critical concern for service managers. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, this paper synthesizes the extant body of research within psychology and marketing into an integrative framework that helps understand the current state of knowledge on contamination. Second, this review summarizes evidence-based managerial recommendations on how to deal with customers' contamination concerns. Third, this paper provides guidance for future research by proposing several ways in which those concerns might influence service management. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducts an integrative literature review of over 30 years of psychology and marketing research on contamination concerns. Findings The paper reviews physical and metaphysical contagion models, the situational cues that may activate customers' contamination concerns, the psychological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between contamination and customer outcomes and the individual characteristics that influence customer sensitivity to contamination cues. Moreover, this review identifies actions that service managers can take to prevent customers' contamination concerns. Finally, still much has to be learned about how organizations should deal with fear of contamination by the time a next pandemic breaks out. Originality/value This paper develops an integrative framework that serves as a structured knowledge map onto the contamination phenomenon and paves the way for future service research.

Drawing upon the literature on ecosystem ecology and socio-cultural evolution, the current study proposes an evolutionary framework for understanding the dynamics of service platform ecosystems. This evolutionary framework identifies three key components of the service platform ecosystem: (a) the diverse types of species, (b) the presence of both cooperative and competitive interactions within and among species, and (c) a common resource and environmental space. The evolutionary model of variation, selection, and retention is then introduced to explain how platform business models change over time. The article concludes with a discussion of directions for future research on the evolution of platform ecosystems in the sharing economy.

Purpose Technological innovations such as smart mobile devices and mobile applications gave rise to a new business model: collaborative consumption. This business model, which is receiving significant attention from researchers and practitioners, is characterized by an intermediating digital platform that facilitates exchanges between customers and peer service providers. However, many digital platform providers still fail to build a critical mass of demand and supply. Accordingly, the aim of this research is to develop a better understanding of the barriers perceived by both customers and peer service providers. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a mixed-method qualitative approach to develop a comprehensive understanding of the factors that explain the rejection of collaborative consumption. In particular, six focus groups and 14 in-depth interviews were conducted, totaling 50 Belgian participants (with a mean age of 33 years). In addition, 375 online critical incidents—retrieved from various sources, such as review websites and social networks—were used for triangulation purposes. All data were analyzed using a thematic analytic approach. Findings Customers and peer service providers reject collaborative consumption because of a complex set of multidimensional functional and psychological barriers. In particular, actors may perceive barriers related to complexity, value, risk, compatibility, contamination, image, and responsibility, which prevent them from participating in collaborative consumption. Originality/value This paper builds theory on the reasons why both customers and peer service providers reject collaborative consumption. The research identifies several barriers that were not captured in prior research. Digital platform providers can use the research findings to more fully understand actors' decision-making processes in collaborative consumption.

Purpose Organizations increasingly develop and offer sharing services enabled by means of product-service systems (PSS). However, organizations offering sharing-based PSS face a unique set of design challenges and operational risks. The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners with customer-based insights into service delivery system design and risk management for sharing-based PSS operational success. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study combines in-depth interviews with supplementary, multidisciplinary literature and secondary firm data. In total, the authors conducted 56 semi-structured interviews with diverse customers across different business-to-customer (B2C) PSS settings. Findings First, the authors develop an integrative conceptual framework that reveals what structural and infrastructural design choices customer expect organizations to make for mitigating risks and enhancing customer-perceived value in the sharing economy. These design choices may influence customers' trust and control perceptions in all actors involved in the service delivery system. Second, the results suggest that sharing value proposition, customer-perceived level of consequentiality and level of customer-supplied resources are contingency factors that need to be considered when making design decisions for risk management in the sharing economy. Originality/value This study extends Sampson's Unified Service Theory by proposing that, with sharing-based PSS, production flows from customers to customers. This situation creates unique challenges for operations management. This paper extends current understanding of the role, characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design for risk management in the sharing economy. In doing so, authors challenge common wisdom and suggest understanding both the organizational and customers' individual contexts is critical for (contingency) theory and practice.

Although access-based services (ABS) offer many benefits, convincing consumers to use these service innovations remains challenging. Research suggests that contamination concerns are an important barrier to consumer adoption of ABS; they arise when a person believes someone else has touched an object and transferred residue or germs. However, systematic examination of this phenomenon is lacking. We conduct four experiments to determine (1) the impact of contamination concerns on consumer evaluations of ABS, (2) when such concerns become salient in ABS, and (3) how ABS providers can reduce these concerns. The results reveal that consumers experience more contamination concerns about objects used in proximity to their bodies, especially when those objects are shared with unfamiliar users, and that such concerns negatively influence their evaluations of ABS. Consumers also exhibit less contamination concerns about ABS that have high brand equity because of their elevated stereotype-related perceptions of the competence of those users. Firms’ advertisements depicting physical contact between shared objects and other users negatively influence ABS evaluations by consumers whose contamination concept is activated. This article provides insights for developing product, branding, and communication strategies to reduce consumers’ contamination concerns and maximize ABS adoption.

Research on customer participation in service recovery is surging, yet empirical examinations provide mixed results. A meta-analysis of 30 independent samples reported in 21 studies (N=7872) shows that the effect sizes for the relationships between customer participation in service recovery and customer outcomes are rather weak. We also find that customer participation in service recovery has an indirect effect on satisfaction with service recovery via distributive justice and procedural justice, but not via interactional justice. Conversely, customer participation in service recovery has an indirect effect on overall satisfaction via distributive justice and interactional justice, but not via procedural justice. Finally, the effectiveness of customer participation in service recovery is stronger when customers participate in the outcome of the recovery and for customers with an Eastern cultural background, but weaker when additional compensation is offered and in online settings.

Co-creating service recovery with customers has recently appeared as a new perspective in service research. Prior research demonstrates the effectiveness of co-created recovery strategies in driving customer outcomes, and outlines when co-creating a service recovery is recommended. This paper complements prior research not only by demonstrating the mediating role of outcome favorability in the relationship between co-created service recovery and customer outcomes, but also by showing whether organizations with different levels of brand equity benefit equally from co-creating service recovery with their customers. The results of two experiments show that co-creating a service recovery makes customers believe they received the most favorable solution for the service failure, which in turn influences satisfaction with service recovery and repurchase intentions. In addition, co-creating a service recovery is recommended for organizations with low levels of brand equity, but not for organizations with high levels of brand equity.

Access-based services (ABS), which grant customers limited access to goods without any transfer of ownership, are unique technology-based service innovations requiring the substantial involvement and collaboration of customers without employees' supervision. Although ABS offer several potential advantages, convincing customers to use them remains challenging. Combining 56 in-depth interviews with supplementary literature, the authors address this challenge by proposing an integrative framework that reflects the (1) barriers that prevent customers from using ABS and (2) practices in which customers engage to attenuate those barriers. The complex, multidimensional barriers relate not only to the service and technology features but also to other customers. Customers can engage in different practices to attenuate perceived barriers and create value, namely, "to distance," "to manage," "to elaborate," "to control," and "to relate." Yet, they regard these barrier-attenuating practices as necessary sacrifices to use ABS. Complementing suggestions that customers adopt and use ABS to escape the burdens of ownership, the current research reveals that customers actually may confront several "burdens of access." This research suggests managers who wish to reduce rejection of their innovation could not only overcome customers' perceived barriers but also facilitate and reduce the number of practices in which customers engage to attenuate those barriers themselves.