Steve’s perspective on contribution to the service community.
I believe that contributions to the service research community do go beyond what is immediately visible, such as research publications and teaching innovations. The less visible contributions tend to get less recognition, but are the mainstay of the community, and deserve to be awarded. Over the years, I have benefited enormously from being a member of the service research community for 25 years, and have made an effort, during this time, to try to repay this support.
My main efforts have been in supporting the academic publishing process, and managing conferences and workshops which give fellow academics the opportunity to present their research to peers. In the former capacity, I have had roles of Co-Editor (Journal of Services Marketing), Deputy Editor (Journal of Customer Behaviour), Associate Editor (Journal of Marketing Management), and Editorial Review Board Member (Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Service Science, Service Business). I have Co-Guest Edited Issues for European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and Journal of Services Marketing. I have been really reluctant to decline invitations to review, as I know how much the system relies on the review process. In the latter capacity, I have chaired the Servsig Research conference, chaired the academic committee of the Academy of Marketing Conference (twice) and co-chaired four UK Services Marketing Workshops. I have also been the Chair of the UK Academy of Marketing Services Marketing Special Interest Group.
However, contributions to the service community take many other forms: willingness to examine PhDs internationally, and to provide an ear to early career researchers; efforts to publicise the work of the community, and provide information more generally; developing and maintaining research centres to foster links with other communities; creating international networks; fostering an awareness of original service research directions.
If you seek to contribute to your service community my suggestions are: seek out volunteer roles on the major service groups such as AMA ServSig; host events and conferences; write blogs and newsletter content; make short videos for the service groups; pro-actively seek initiatives that benefit the whole community; always consider practical and social implications of your work; and maintain a sense of humour throughout.
Award winners
2024 - Professor Bart Larivière, Ghent University, Belgium.
Bart Larivière is Professor of Marketing at KU Leuven and Research Fellow at the Center for Service Intelligence (CSI, Ghent University). At the team level, Bart takes most pride in the successful journeys of his PhD students; from their first conference presentation, through their first publication, to starting a tenure track and becoming well-respected scholars. For his commitment to PhD students, he was awarded the Best PhD Tutor Award from his faculty. At the national level, Bart is co-founder of CSI at Ghent University and co-founder of the Belgian Service Research Day (BSRD). BSRD is a yearly event that brings together scholars passionate about service research who are working and/or living in Belgium. Over the years, however, it became clear that the true meaning of BSRD is much more than the last word in the acronym (“day”) since the BSRD enabled intra-university collaborations and fostered “the Belgian service researchers” team spirit. At the international level, together with Wafa Hammedi and Annouk Lievens, Bart is co-founder of the Let’s Talk About Service (LTAS) workshop, which is designed to welcome and guide young scholars through collaborative workshops. Bart was twice co-chair of the AMA doctoral consortium preceding the Frontiers in Service conference, followed by being the co-chair of the AMA SERVSIG community for four years together with first Lerzan Aksoy and then Linda Alkire. In 2021, together with Jan Schumann and Jenny van Doorn, he created a new “Services Marketing” Special Interest Group for the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) and decided to join forces with SERVSIG and Jay Kandampully’s IRSSM network for an online seminar series to foster knowledge sharing and collaboration worldwide. Bart was also co-organizer of past service conferences (Frontiers in Service, SERVSIG, LaLonde), is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Service Management and the Journal of Service Research and serves on the editorial boards of many other service and marketing journals.
2022 - Professor Dr Gaby Odekerken- Schröder, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Gaby Odekerken- Schröder is the chair in Customer-Centric Service Science and former Head of Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Maastricht University. She is also the co-founder of the Service Science Factory (est. 2010). Gaby is a strong ambassador of bridging theory and practice she views a university’s ambition should be to contribute to a better world by addressing societal problems, by co-creating knowledge and by developing team players and leaders for the future. She demonstrates this philosophy through the founding of three centers since 2010 that bring young service research talent, academics and practitioners together to co-create value in service innovation projects. Gaby hosted SERVSIG 2016 and has been involved in hosting eight other international conferences. Gaby fosters diversity and inclusion through her membership of the Elinor Ostrom Foundation, that supports female scholars by providing grants and community building. Gaby also provides service to junior scholars through the supervision of over 12 PhD students. Developing courses for the Service Design for innovation (SDIN) which was a European Initial Training Network (ITN) for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) and 8 consortium partners. She has also coordinated multiple BSc, MSc and PhD course in services for the past 25 years (e.g. Research Methods in Services, Service Management and Service Design). Gaby offers extensive service through her editorial board roles on service journals and being available for seminars and presentations. To read more about Gaby’s service perspective go here.
2020 – Professor Ray Fisk, Texas State University, USA
Professor Ray Fisk has advocated for and nurtured the global services community across his long career. Commencing with founding and chairing the American Marketing Association Services Special Interest Group (AMA SERVSIG) in 1993 and hosting the very first SERVSIG International Research Conference in New Orleans in 1999. This SERVSIG conference has been held eleven times and has attracted about 2,000 service scholars and students from over 45 countries. Ray has served SERVSIG in many other leadership roles and has attended and spoken at every SERVSIG Conference. Ray is an active scholar in fostering opportunities for other service scholars through more than five special issues in service journals and five special sessions at service conferences over the past forty years. Ray has held multiple positions on international committees including President the AMA Academic Council and serving in numerous officer roles. He has mentored many service doctoral students formally and informally. More recently Ray established ServCollab, a nonprofit human services organization devoted to "Serving Humanity Through Collaboration." Ray is described by his colleagues as a collaborative leader who has performed essential roles in helping build today's vibrant service community.
2018 – Inaugural recipient, Professor Steve Baron, Liverpool University UK.
Steve Baron is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool, and commenced his research in service in 1992. Over his career he has published 54 journal papers and mentored 14 research students to completion. Steve’s contribution to the service contribution was in a variety of roles including co-Editor of Journal of Services Marketing (2014-2018), where the impact factor went from 0.6 to 2.4, chair of multiple services conference and special interest groups, and mentor of many academics in developing their service careers.
