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Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 10:03:08 -0500
From: Avinandan Mukherjee <mukherjeeav@mail.montclair.edu>

The Journal of Services Marketing has announced the Call for Papers for a special issue on Call Centre Services. Edited by Professor Avinandan Mukherjee (Montclair State University, USA) and Dr. Neeru Malhotra (Aston University, UK), this special issue will explore a fast growing and important new area of services marketing. Call centres are among the greatest service innovations of the past decade. Fuelled by technological advances in integrated telephone computer technology, deregulation of the telecommunications market, customer convenience, and substantial cost reductions achieved by telephone service delivery in contrast to the face-to-face contact with customers, the growth of call centres necessitates a closer look at their services and management practices. Dubbed as “electronic sweatshops”, call centres are increasingly under scrutiny for their work practices in the knowledge economy. The frontline customer service employees play a critical role in the service delivery of call centres. Applying the services marketing concept at the level of call centres has recently caught the attention of scholars and practitioners alike. The Journal of Services Marketing has been a pioneer in publishing research in this area. However, services theory as applied to call centres remains relatively under-explored. Although many firms are using call centres, we know very little about their service strategies, internal marketing, customer relationships, and performance. The purpose of this special issue is to take stock of current knowledge, to advance our understanding of services marketing in call centres, and to set the tone for future research in this area.

We welcome submissions offering interesting insights on various aspects of services in call centres. All papers will be required to have a strong marketing perspective and will need to make a distinct contribution to the emergent area of call centre services. A wide variety of topics will be suitable for this special edition and might include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Frontline service staff in call centres
• Internal marketing in call centres
• Job attitudes of call centre employees
• Service quality of call centre employees
• Commitment, loyalty and turnover intentions of call centre employees
• Call centres and customer relationship management
• Customer satisfaction with call centres
• Outsourcing of call centres
• Offshoring, internationalization, and cross-cultural dimensions of call centre services
• Productivity and efficiency of call centre employees
• Call centre performance and benchmarking
• Application of technology in call centres
• Human resource management and supervision in call centres
• Types of call centres: In-bound, out-bound, transaction, sales, solutions, IVR, etc.
• Generic strategies in call centre marketing
• Call centre services in business-to-business, electronic, services, small business and not-for-profit sectors
• Regional implications of growth in call centres

We seek papers dealing with conceptual issues, literature reviews, case studies, analytical studies, empirical studies, quantitative and qualitative studies, and managerial applications and innovations, covering any aspect of call centre services. Papers can adopt a historical perspective, a current perspective or a future perspective. All papers should demonstrate clear theoretical and managerial implications for marketing of services.

The closing date for submissions is September 1, 2007. The special issue is expected to be published in late 2008.

All papers will be subjected to double-blind peer review in accordance with the guidelines of the Journal of Services Marketing. Full notes for prospective contributors are available at:

 

We request that authors submit their electronic version of the manuscript in Word document by e-mail, as well as a printed version of the manuscript by mail to any one of the special issue Editors:

Professor Avinandan Mukherjee
Marketing Department
School of Business
Montclair State University
Montclair, NJ 07043, USA.
Email: mukherjeeav@mail.montclair.edu

or

Dr. Neeru Malhotra
Marketing Department
Aston Business School
Aston University, Aston Triangle
Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.
Email: n.malhotra@aston.ac.uk

The Call for Papers on also posted on the Journal of Services Marketing website at:

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