Services Marketing Quarterly

Healthcare is changing, with a rising interest in using service marketing theories to improve services. These theories have been key in designing healthcare, shaping how services are delivered. The interplay between theories and real-world insights is vital for progress, especially in healthcare's ongoing transformation. Engaging in scholarly discussions linking healthcare practices with service marketing theories is crucial. This deepens our understanding of modern healthcare services and refines service marketing theories. By bringing health and marketing together, we can enhance healthcare services and contribute to shaping theories guiding service design, research, and delivery.

Aligned with this approach, we present this special issue to spark interdisciplinary dialogues and propel theories in healthcare services and services marketing. Employing a constructivist editorial approach, our goal is to foster discussions across healthcare and services marketing fields. With a focus on driving theoretical innovations with practical relevance, the editorial team will connect scholars with diverse backgrounds but a shared passion for healthcare and services marketing.

As part of our editorial process, we invite empirical insights gained through reflective practice, direct observation, or data collection related to healthcare design, research, or delivery. Examples may include:

• Simplified Medication Instructions: Consumers adhere better to medication when instructions are simple and personalized, a lesson learned through working together with consumers.
• Visual Health Communication: Learning from consumers, we find they prefer pictures and visuals over text for health information.
• Inclusive Mental Health Services: Co-creating with the LGBTQ+ community reveals a need for mental health services that are inclusive and sensitive to the unique challenges faced by this population, emphasizing the importance of tailored support.
• Patient-Centered Decision-Making: Including consumers shows us the importance of focusing on the patient in making healthcare decisions together.
• Technology Accessibility Challenges: Consumers' experiences highlight challenges in accessing health tech, emphasizing the need for designs that include everyone.
• Mental Health Stigma: Collaboration sheds light on mental health stigma, underscoring the need for community-based support.
• Health Monitoring Device Preferences: Studies done together with consumers uncover varied preferences for monitoring devices, guiding how we design them.
• Health Literacy Disparities: Learning from consumers underscores differences in understanding health information, stressing the importance of clear communication.

In contrast to typical submissions, article length may vary from 6000 to 8000 words. Since this is a collaboration between disparate fields the process is:

1. Health researchers must first contact the SI editors with an expression of interest (referred to as abstract deadline at the top of this page), that is, a short abstract of about 100 words detailing the research (by 31^st July 2024)
2. Upon review, we will forward these submissions to service marketing researchers based on the topic/domain.
3. The health researcher and marketing researcher will collaborate to finalize a submission. We have produced a detailed collaboration process and sample article which can be accessed from the SI editors.
4. The completed article shall consist of both frontline healthcare insights and service marketing theorization.
5. The complete research will then be sent out for expedited peer review.

The deadline for completed manuscripts is 31^st December 2024 – however, manuscripts will be reviewed and published on a rolling basis as they are received.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article