Illustrative directions for service research inspired by pragmatism
| Research themes | Research directions |
|---|---|
| Customer experience | How and why do customer experiences of a service or service provider change? What are the triggers for such a change? What kind of sensemaking process is invoked, and what is the outcome? |
| Given the diversity of customers, are there customers who are more sensitive to external changes than others? | |
| How is the customer experience, which is dependent on a specific customer’s context, formed recursively over time? | |
| What represents meaningful customer experiences? | |
| Value formation | How is the use value of a service formed in a customer’s holistic ecosystem, and which factors cause a change in use value? |
| How do customers orchestrate their lives and service use? How is the past influencing the present and paving the way for future behavior? | |
| What characterizes “use” in use value? | |
| Customer brand relationships | How are brand images formed? |
| How are brand relationships related to customers’ goals and aspirations? | |
| Why and how do brand relationships change over time? | |
| Customer relationships and ecosystems | What roles do customer relationships play for the customer? |
| Why do customers initiate new relationships, sustain existing ones, and end current relationships? | |
| How do changes in customers’ lives change their relationships? | |
| What are the roles of different actors in the realm of customers’ lives? | |
| How are customers connecting with other actors (e.g., other providers and other customers), and how are these actors influencing customers? | |
| Service and market innovation | What represents a service innovation from a customer’s point of view? |
| What are customers prepared to pay for, and can that be understood by applying a holistic perspective on the customers? | |
| Can latent or emerging markets be revealed by studying changes in customers’ belief structures and actions? | |
| Customer sensemaking | How do customers make sense of everyday life? |
| Which different customer logics can be identified as related to the choice and use of specific services? | |
| How do such customer logics change with internal or external forces? | |
| How can service providers influence customers’ logics? | |
| Digitalization and service technologies | How do technological advancements influence customer beliefs and actions? |
| How do customers interact with technological artifacts to achieve their goals? |
| Research directions | |
|---|---|
| Customer experience | How and why do customer experiences of a service or service provider change? What are the triggers for such a change? What kind of sensemaking process is invoked, and what is the outcome? |
| Given the diversity of customers, are there customers who are more sensitive to external changes than others? | |
| How is the customer experience, which is dependent on a specific customer’s context, formed recursively over time? | |
| What represents meaningful customer experiences? | |
| Value formation | How is the use value of a service formed in a customer’s holistic ecosystem, and which factors cause a change in use value? |
| How do customers orchestrate their lives and service use? How is the past influencing the present and paving the way for future behavior? | |
| What characterizes “use” in use value? | |
| Customer brand relationships | How are brand images formed? |
| How are brand relationships related to customers’ goals and aspirations? | |
| Why and how do brand relationships change over time? | |
| Customer relationships and ecosystems | What roles do customer relationships play for the customer? |
| Why do customers initiate new relationships, sustain existing ones, and end current relationships? | |
| How do changes in customers’ lives change their relationships? | |
| What are the roles of different actors in the realm of customers’ lives? | |
| How are customers connecting with other actors (e.g., other providers and other customers), and how are these actors influencing customers? | |
| Service and market innovation | What represents a service innovation from a customer’s point of view? |
| What are customers prepared to pay for, and can that be understood by applying a holistic perspective on the customers? | |
| Can latent or emerging markets be revealed by studying changes in customers’ belief structures and actions? | |
| Customer sensemaking | How do customers make sense of everyday life? |
| Which different customer logics can be identified as related to the choice and use of specific services? | |
| How do such customer logics change with internal or external forces? | |
| How can service providers influence customers’ logics? | |
| Digitalization and service technologies | How do technological advancements influence customer beliefs and actions? |
| How do customers interact with technological artifacts to achieve their goals? |