10th Anniversary Organizational Frontlines Special Issue

Éditeurs invités

• Todd Arnold, Oklahoma State University
• Mike Brady, Florida State University
• Tom Brown, Oklahoma State University
• Jagdip Singh, Case Western Reserve University

Synthèse

The term 'Organizational Frontlines' (OF) broadly refers to the study of interfaces, interactions, and time (IIT) at points of contact between organizations and their customers, where value is created and exchanged.

This Special Issue welcomes conceptual, empirical (e.g., historical, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method), and review articles on any topic related to phenomena at the frontlines of organizations. As a multidisciplinary journal, the Journal of Service Research (JSR) encourages interdisciplinary perspectives and invites submissions from authors across a wide range of disciplines.

The primary goal of this Special Issue is not only to reflect on the progress made over the past decade but also to chart a course for the future. The editors seek forward-looking papers that break new ground, spark interest, and boldly advance the field of Organizational Frontlines (OF).

Thèmes proposés

• How can interfaces be conceptualized as dynamic, spatial constructs (physical, digital, or virtual) that vary in capacity and efficiency for customer-firm interactions? What explains these variations, and how can they be effectively designed? Additionally, how can interface design accommodate the flexible and dynamic adaptations of both customers and organizations?
• What organizing frameworks and frontline capabilities are most effective for coordinating customer handovers between touchpoints to optimize subjective time and ensure seamless customer engagement? What technologies can detect customers' states to infer subjective time, and how effective are these technologies across different customer segments and contexts?
• How can the portfolio of interfaces available to customers at any given time be managed to balance effectiveness, cost, and speed? How can their effectiveness in reducing interaction friction be tracked, and when and how should innovations be introduced to enhance their impact?
• How can trade-offs between personalization-targeting and privacy-monetization be theorized, modeled, and tested to ensure compliance with consumer privacy preferences and ethical data practices?
• How can the relational dynamics in customer-firm interactions across multiple touchpoints be theorized, modeled, and tested to explain fluctuations in relational communication acts? These dynamics involve multiple entities pursuing goals and are characterized by features such as interdependence, feedback effects, and dynamic interactions?
• How do consumers interact with brands across multiple touchpoints and platforms? How can customer interactions be designed and orchestrated to flow seamlessly across human and machine interfaces, as well as physical and virtual environments, ensuring coordination for efficient problem-solving and value creation?
• What novel theoretical, methodological, and empirical approaches can be developed to study organizational frontlines? How can we enhance the validity dimensions in frontlines research and identify new approaches to studying frontline phenomena?