Challenges and opportunities for services marketers in a culturally diverse global marketplace

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this special issue is to extend the growing research on the challenges and opportunities facing services marketers in an increasingly culturally diverse global marketplace. Design/methodology/approach The nine papers included in this special issue use a variety of research methods (e.g. case study, experiments and surveys), participants (e.g. customers, employees and online panel members) and service settings (e.g. fast food, post office, weight loss, bank, home loan, personal fitness and offshore outsourcing). Findings All the nine papers highlight the importance of studying the unique perspectives of the customers and employees involved in intercultural interactions in diverse service settings in marketplaces and societies that are either already or have recently become multicultural. Research limitations/implications The findings from the nine papers have useful implications for future research on services marketing in multicultural markets, although these may not always be generalisable beyond the unique context of the studies reported in each of these papers. Practical implications All the nine papers also present some useful directions for services marketing managers in the multicultural markets, to help them understand and manage the expectations of their culturally diverse customers, as well as employees. Originality/value This special issue is unique because it is one of the first attempts to understand the unique challenges and opportunities for services marketers in the growing multicultural global marketplace, from a theoretical, as well as empirical, point of view.

The impact of social visibility of VIP services on satisfaction

“…The study applied a single-factor (VIP-service social visibility: invisible vs visible) between-subject experimental design to collect data and verify the hypotheses. The scenario-based experimental approach is the most commonly used one in consumer research (Albrecht et al, 2017;Azer and Alexander, 2020;Sharma et al, 2018). The experimental scenario was adapted from Fan et al (2019) describes different social visibilities.…”

Two Cooks Spoil the Broth: Destructive Outcomes of Supervisor and Customer Mistreatment in Mediating-Moderating Roles of Anger and Self-Control in an Indonesian Context

“…Third, personal relationships in the workplace can result in a variety of consequences in a negative work behavior setting. For instance, a stronger positive relationship between employee and supervisor (Valle et al, 2018 ) and perceived homophily between employees and customers (Sharma et al, 2018 ) can result in different consequences of negative behaviours. Fourth, a new inquiry involves investigating the positive effects of destructive workplace practice (Smith et al, 2018 ).…”

Accommodating ethnic minority consumers during service encounters: the fine line

“…This can potentially provide an opportunity to extend the originality of this work (Johnson and Grier, 2011). Future research must also continue to explore employee-biases and their responses during such minority service interactions, especially with the growing emphasis on including minority consumers among vulnerable populations and the undeniable diversity of multicultural service environments (Sharma et al , 2018; Zolfagharian and Iyer, 2018; Fisk et al , 2018; Ogden et al , 2004). Finally, the current focus on verbal interactions during intercultural communication might yield too narrow a set of issues in services, as language can also refer to written language and body language.…”

“…However, the assumption of general homogeneity within ethnic segments of consumers is a flawed assumption (Gaur et al , 2017; Poulis et al , 2013; Callow and McDonald, 2005). For example, even though it has been argued that acculturation, where the ethnic individual balances the level of acceptance of the home versus the host culture (Berry, 2005; Perry, 2008), can be an important segmentation variable within subcultures (Lerman et al , 2009; Dublish, 2001; Peñaloza and Gilly, 1999), there has been a dearth of relevant findings in intercultural service encounters research (Sharma et al , 2018).…”