Neuroscience in service research: an overview and discussion of its possibilities

Abstract

2 NEUROSCIENCE IN SERVICE RESEARCH: AN OVERVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF ITS POSSIBILITIES STRUCTURED ABSTRACTPurpose: The paper discusses recent developments in neuroscientific methods and demonstrates its potential for the service field. This work is a call to action for more service researchers to adopt promising and increasingly accessible neuro-tools that allow the service field to benefit from neuroscience theories and insights.Design/methodology/approach: The paper synthesizes key literature from a variety of domains (e.g., neuroscience, consumer neuroscience, organizational neuroscience) to provide an in-depth background to start applying neuro-tools. Specifically, this paper outlines the most important neuro-tools today and discusses their theoretical and empirical value.Findings: To date, the use of neuro-tools in the service field is limited. This is surprising given the great potential they hold to advance service research. To stimulate the use of neurotools in the service area, the authors provide a roadmap to enable neuroscientific service studies and conclude with a discussion on promising areas (e.g., service experience, servicescape) ripe for neuroscientific input.Originality/value: The paper offers service researchers a starting point to understand the potential benefits of adopting the neuroscientific method and shows their complementarity with traditional service research methods like surveys, experiments, and qualitative research.In addition, this paper may also help reviewers and editors to better assess the quality of neuro-studies in service.

Moving the Customer Experience Field Forward: Introducing the Touchpoints, Context, Qualities (TCQ) Nomenclature

“…New technologies are opening many possibilities for data fusion from various offline and online sources (Thomadsen et al 2018). Mobile and smart technologies enable the capture and collection of contextual data through myriad sensors and trackers, which enables firms to gain insight into the individual, social, environmental, and market context in a reliable and objective manner (Verhulst et al 2019). The rise of wearable devices offers ample opportunities to collect individual context data such as one’s daily activity rating (i.e., number of steps, calories, sleep hours, pulse rate) and health condition.…”

“…People themselves also reveal context-related information through their social media accounts, including likes, shares, posts, and comments that they often grant brands/firms access to through usage of specific apps. Finally, other tools like eye trackers, haptic devices, motion sensors, and microphones allow researchers to develop an understanding of what contextual elements are actually experienced in an objective manner (Verhulst et al 2019). In this area, it may also be helpful to build on insights from environmental and social psychology, behavioral economics, and management literature, which have a tradition of looking at broader contextual influences.…”

“…It is time to move beyond the dominant focus on survey research (see Table 6). Potential lies in new techniques like text mining (e.g., McColl-Kennedy et al 2019), image mining (e.g., Ordenes and Zhang 2019) and neuroscience (e.g., Verhulst et al 2019), in addition to conjoint analysis, econometric modeling, big data analysis (e.g., Kumar et al 2014), and established qualitative research methods—like phenomenological, ethnographic, and case study research (Verleye 2019).…”

Three Decades of Customer Value Research: Paradigmatic Roots and Future Research Avenues

“…), the proposed/required dimensionality (Gallarza et al 2017; Gallarza, Gil-Saura, and Holbrook 2011) differs. Nevertheless, the importance of conceptualizing CPV along cognitive and emotional dimensions is supported by neuroscience that underlines the predominant role of cognition and emotions in forming individuals’ preferences and perceptions (e.g., Verhulst et al 2019).…”

The Spheres & Shield Maze Task: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for the Assessment of Risk Taking in Decision Making

“…22 On the other hand, some authors used self-reported daily habits as a measure of RT. 12,25 In addition, diverse issues in the use of survey measures have been identified, 26 as well as matching self-report measures with real-world actions may lead to low-validity conclusions. 27 To overcome these issues, an emerging research field is focusing on how psychocognitive states can be assessed in an ecological, nonintrusive, nonbiased way.…”