This article conceptualizes and presents a research agenda for the emerging area of transformative service research, which lies at the intersection of service research and transformative consumer research and focuses on well-being outcomes related to service and services. A conceptual framework provides a big-picture view of how the interaction between service entities (e.g., individual service employees, service processes or offerings, organizations) and consumer entities (e.g., individuals, collectives such as families or communities, the ecosystem) influences the well-being outcomes of both. Research questions derived from the framework in the context of financial services, health care, and social services help catalyze new research in the transformative service research domain.

The global refugee crisis is a complex humanitarian problem. Service researchers can assist in solving this crisis because refugees are immersed in complex human service systems. Drawing on marketing, sociology, transformative service, and consumer research literature, this study develops a Transformative Refugee Service Experience Framework to enable researchers, service actors, and public policy makers to navigate the challenges faced throughout a refugee’s service journey. The primary dimensions of this framework encompass the spectrum from hostile to hospitable refugee service systems and the resulting suffering or well-being in refugees’ experiences. The authors conceptualize this at three refugee service journey phases (entry, transition, and exit) and at three refugee service system levels (macro, meso, and micro) of analysis. The framework is supported by brief examples from a range of service-related refugee contexts as well as a Web Appendix with additional cases. Moreover, the authors derive a comprehensive research agenda from the framework, with detailed research questions for public policy and (service) marketing researchers. Managerial directions are provided to increase awareness of refugee service problems; stimulate productive interactions; and improve collaboration among public and nonprofit organizations, private service providers, and refugees. Finally, this work provides a vision for creating hospitable refugee service systems.

No abstract

Whereas most existing self-control research and scales focus on singular self-control choice, the current work examines sequential self-control behavior. Specifically, this research focuses on behavior following initial self-control failure, identifying a set of key cognitive and emotional responses to initial failure that jointly underlie post-failure behavior. The tendency to experience these responses is captured in a new scale, the Response-to-Failure scale, which the authors develop and test in three consumer domains: eating, spending, and cheating. The results support the use of the same emotional and cognitive factors to predict post-failure behavior across these three domains, providing evidence of the generalizability of the scale structure. The data support the scale's structure, nomological and discriminant validity, and test–retest reliability across five studies. In five additional studies, the scale's predictive validity is demonstrated beyond other existing relevant scales. The authors also develop and test a short form of each domain scale. Finally, the authors discuss the implications for understanding post-failure behavior and suggest practical uses for the scale.

Improving consumers’ health literacy addresses many of the rising problems in healthcare. We empirically support a reconceptualization of health literacy as a social and cultural practice through which adults leverage a range of skills as well as social networks to meet their needs. Pierre Bourdieu's “theory of practice” guides this reconceptualization and facilitates articulation of the array of strategies used in the complex healthcare marketplace. We focus on the low literate consumers’ alternative forms of capital and the providers’ recognition and support. The findings, from an emergent research design consisting of depth interviews with low literate consumers and healthcare providers, suggest a critical, reflective approach that enhances health literacy, empowers consumers to become partners in their own healthcare programs, and improves health outcomes.