Service experiences are a fundamental aspect of the customer journey and play a critical role in shaping customer satisfaction, loyalty and engagement. They have become a key differentiator for companies across industries, as customers increasingly value not just the functional benefits of services but also their emotional and experiential dimensions.
Service-oriented businesses continue to grow in prominence across sectors such as tourism and hospitality, healthcare, banking and insurance and retail. Indeed, recent developments in technology, such as digitalization, service robots and artificial intelligence (AI), have significantly transformed service experiences in various ways (e.g. personalization, automation, immersive experiences, service channels integration and multiplication of interaction points). Therefore, understanding how to design and deliver effective, memorable service experiences in both physical and digital environments is increasingly vital from both a competitive and a customer perspective.
This special issue focuses on synthesizing the literature on different issues related to service experiences, aiming to provide a holistic understanding of how these experiences are created, perceived and optimized. It is motivated by at least three recent developments. First, the fragmentation of existing research, which often focuses on specific dimensions of service experience, such as emotional, cognitive or technological aspects, without adopting a holistic view. The integration of these different factors remains an underdeveloped area of research. Second, the emergence of new technologies and paradigm shifts. Despite technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, Internet of Things and AI that are transforming service delivery, there is still limited research on how these tools interact to create effective service design and cohesive service experiences. Third, there is a growing need for cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives on service experiences as they are shaped by insights from marketing, behavioral science, cultural issues and technology studies. Synthesizing these diverse streams is essential to develop a more comprehensive understanding of contemporary service experiences.
Following a rigorous review process, eight manuscripts were selected for inclusion in this special issue. The following sections present a structured synthesis of these contributions, focusing on the types of literature reviews used, the service contexts examined, the research objectives pursued and the key findings and conclusions.
Types of literature review – The manuscripts are predominantly grounded in systematic literature reviews (Yousaf et al., 2026; Chen, 2026; Lytle and Gopinath, 2026; Muneesawang et al., 2026; Jaiswal et al., 2026), following PRISMA guidelines to ensure methodological rigor and transparency. These are often complemented by thematic analyses (Yousaf et al., 2026; Maindola et al., 2026; Muneesawang et al., 2026) and, in some cases, bibliometric and intellectual mapping techniques (Jaiswal et al., 2026). One study adopts a meta-analytic approach (Akuthota and Suar, 2026), quantitatively synthesizing prior findings to develop a comprehensive theoretical model, while another relies on a critical integrative review combining multiple theoretical lenses, including Service-Dominant Logic, Service Logic and Customer-Dominant Logic (Apostolou and Katsifaraki, 2026).
Service contexts – The manuscripts cover a wide range of service contexts, with a strong emphasis on hospitality and tourism (Chen, 2026; Lytle and Gopinath, 2026; Maindola et al., 2026), particularly in relation to multisensory environments and AI-enabled experiences. Two manuscripts also explore technology-mediated service ecosystems, including digital platforms, immersive marketing and service recovery contexts (Muneesawang et al., 2026; Akuthota and Suar, 2026). In contrast, sustainability is examined across multiple service sectors (Jaiswal et al., 2026), reflecting its transversal relevance, while healthcare is analyzed as a highly emotional and temporally extended service context (Manuscript 8). Importantly, one manuscript introduces the base of the pyramid context (Yousaf et al., 2026), shifting the focus toward underserved populations and global service systems. It proposes a conceptual and research agenda-driven approach grounded in transformative service research, service design and community action research. This broadens the scope of service research beyond traditional, affluent contexts. Across all contributions, service environments are characterized as experience-intensive, relational and increasingly shaped by technological and societal factors, reinforcing the need for context-sensitive, culturally adapted and inclusive frameworks.
Research objectives – The objective across the manuscripts is to structure and integrate fragmented bodies of knowledge by developing comprehensive conceptual frameworks (Chen, 2026; Lytle and Gopinath, 2026; Jaiswal et al., 2026; Apostolou and Katsifaraki, 2026). These include efforts to unify perspectives on multisensory service design (Chen, 2026), AI-driven emotional experiences (Lytle and Gopinath, 2026), sustainability perceptions (Jaiswal et al., 2026) and customer-dominant service logic in healthcare (Apostolou and Katsifaraki, 2026). Others aim to examine the transformative role of technology, particularly AI, in shaping both customer and employee experiences (Lytle and Gopinath, 2026; Maindola et al., 2026; Muneesawang et al., 2026). In parallel, some contributions focus on model development and theory building, such as service recovery frameworks (Akuthota and Suar, 2026). Others adopt a broader societal perspective, proposing research agendas and calls to action, particularly in the context of poverty alleviation and transformative service systems (Yousaf et al., 2026).
Key findings and conclusions – The findings converge on the idea that service experiences are multidimensional, dynamic and contextually embedded, shaped by the interaction of sensory, technological, emotional and social factors (Chen, 2026; Lytle and Gopinath, 2026; Jaiswal et al., 2026). AI emerges as a key driver of transformation, influencing both customer emotional experiences (Lytle and Gopinath, 2026) and employee well-being and roles (Maindola et al., 2026), while also requiring careful design to ensure trust, transparency and contextual adaptation. In addition, the contributions highlight the central role of emotions and cognitive processes in shaping service outcomes, particularly in service recovery contexts (Akuthota and Suar, 2026) and healthcare experiences (Apostolou and Katsifaraki, 2026). Sustainability is conceptualized as an experiential and relational construct (Jaiswal et al., 2026). Rather than being viewed as purely operational. It emerges from customer experiences and is shaped by service interactions and the firm–customer relationship.
Importantly, contributions reconceptualize service experiences as temporal and processual phenomena (Apostolou and Katsifaraki, 2026), while others emphasize their societal and transformative potential, particularly in addressing global challenges such as poverty (Yousaf et al., 2026). Overall, across the different literature syntheses, there is a clear call for integrative, interdisciplinary and socially oriented models capable of capturing the complexity of contemporary service ecosystems.
The special issue contributes to the literature in three fundamental ways. First, it synthesizes, analyzes and organizes existing research on service experiences across both physical and digital touchpoints, with particular attention to personalization, automation, immersive technologies and omnichannel integration. Second, it aims to bridge theoretical and practical insights by proposing integrative frameworks that combine technological advancements with human-centric approaches to improve customer engagement, trust and satisfaction. Third, it addresses future challenges and research directions, including evolving customer expectations, ethical considerations, sustainability issues and cross-cultural influences on service experience design.
