What is a professional service? A conceptual review and bi‐national investigation

Abstract

Although interest in the marketing of professional services has grown steadily, there is still confusion over which services should be considered professional. Perceptions are important for marketing practitioners because consumers are likely to respond differently to stimuli such as advertising or price promotions depending on how they perceive the occupation engaged in such activities, and they may also be more price sensitive when occupations are not regarded as professions. Understanding how consumers determine which occupations are “professions” should also help practitioners to effectively manage their occupations’ images. In addition, such an understanding should help researchers to judge whether results obtained with respect to one service should be expected to extend to other services, and to ensure that services picked for inclusion in future studies are truly those likely to be perceived as professional. This study uses a US and a Canadian sample to survey consumer perceptions of the professionalism of 42 services selected from the overall population of services. It also tests for the first time the validity of several propositions regarding professional services that have long been assumed to be true.

Country-of-origin effect in professional services – literature review

“…The nature of the professional services-marketing interface is changing, with many professions facing complexities, such as: managing the impacts of globalisation, dynamism, turbulence, acceleration, rationalisation, connectivity, convergence, ephemeralisation, and consolidation (Daniell, 2006). Hence, there is still little agreement as to which services can be considered professional (Thakor, Kumar, 2000). Gummesson (1978) identified a series of the following criteria that distinguish professional services: service should be provided by qualified people, be advisory, focus on problem solving, be an assignment from the buyer to the seller, and the professional should be independent of suppliers of others goods and services.…”

“…Globally, professional service firms are a rapidly-growing service industry today (Smedlund, 2008), and are more important than other services in today's and tomorrow's Western economies (Toivonen, 2004). Thus the marketing of professional services is a growing area of interest in both academic and professional press (Bloom, 1984;Jones, 1997;Lapierre, 1997;Thakor, Kumar, 2000;Hausman, 2003;Reid, 2008). In general, services such as accounting, legal, and medical are commonly cited as the traditional professions.…”

“…Gummesson (1978) identified a series of the following criteria that distinguish professional services: service should be provided by qualified people, be advisory, focus on problem solving, be an assignment from the buyer to the seller, and the professional should be independent of suppliers of others goods and services. The professions are often distinguished in terms of possessing systematic theory and professional authority, being sanctioned by the community, being governed by an ethical code, and exhibiting a professional culture (Greenwood, 1957;Thakor, Kumar, 2000). Moreover, the professions offer services that are highly complex, intangible, highly customized, and are created and delivered by highly qualified personnel, over a continuous stream of transactions or service encounters (Jones, 1997;Thakor, Kumar, 2000).…”

“…The professions are often distinguished in terms of possessing systematic theory and professional authority, being sanctioned by the community, being governed by an ethical code, and exhibiting a professional culture (Greenwood, 1957;Thakor, Kumar, 2000). Moreover, the professions offer services that are highly complex, intangible, highly customized, and are created and delivered by highly qualified personnel, over a continuous stream of transactions or service encounters (Jones, 1997;Thakor, Kumar, 2000). In fact, owing to the high degree of customer contact, as well as the level of individual judgment required by the professional, this form of service is considered the most intangible (Jaakkola, Halinen, 2006).…”

Sustainability of financial professional services through marketing strategy- an empirical research

“…Understanding how customers determine which services are "professional" can help the professionals to better manage their public image and, in addition, to determine how they can extrapolate various results to other types of service (Thakor and Kumar, 2000). DOI: 10.1515/picbe-2017-0013, pp.…”