ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

CALL FOR PAPERS   Special issue:  “Developing a Service Research Agenda in Sports”     Guest Editor:   Rodoula H. Tsiotsou Department of Business Administration University of Macedonia, Greece

The Service Industries Journal                   2012 Journal Impact Factor: 1.017

Given the significant and sustained growth of the sport industry worldwide, research is needed to gain a better understanding of what leads to best practices in managerial and marketing decision making. Prior research focuses primarily on specific topics such as sport sponsorship, sport fan behavior/segmentation and sport event management; it is of interest to investigate alternative approaches to the study of sport management (Amis and Silk 2005; Doherty 2012).  Sports research needs a new agenda, based on solid theoretical frameworks and providing meaningful directions to researchers and managers. Although the sport industry is a service industry, research in sports only scratches the surface of service perspectives and could benefit from recent dynamics and developments in service research. A goal of this special issue is to identify major research gaps and provide directions for future research.  In line with service research priorities identified by Ostrom et al. (2010), the purpose of this special issue is to move forward and develop a holistic service-based research agenda for sport services by identifying and encouraging research in topics that have been ignored, neglected, or attracted limited academic attention thus far.

TOPICS of INTEREST

Both qualitative and quantitative studies discussing and researching topics related to sport services (spectator and participation sports – profit and non profit) are invited to be submitted. Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Papers can fall under the one or more of the following areas:

Improving Well-Being through Transformative Sport Services:

Ø  Improving consumer and societal welfare through sport services

Ø  Delivering sport services in a sustainable manner (i.e., one that preserves health, society, and the environment)

Ø  Keeping a service focus as a sport organization grows, matures, and changes

Ø  Globalizing a sport organization’s culture across different countries

 Innovation and Service Design in Sport Services:

Ø  Identifying drivers of sustained new sport service success

Ø  Identifying and managing customers’ roles throughout the sport service innovation process.

Ø  Designing dynamic and flexible sport services across economic cycles, maturity stages, and market segments

Ø  Aligning service design approaches with existing organizational structures

Ø  Learning systematically about how to best engage customers and employees in collaborative service design

Ø  Affective computing in new sport service design 

Optimizing Service Networks and Value Chains in Sports:

Ø  Optimizing inter-organizational service network collaboration around customer experiences

Ø  Creating and improving distributed sport services networks globally

Ø  Managing upstream and downstream migration in the sport services value chain (e.g., properties, rights management, event management, content packaging)

Ø  Using outsourcing for enhanced sport service productivity and success

Branding Sport Services:

Ø  Effectively branding sport services and identifying ways to assess brand value and develop consumer-brand relationships

Ø  Harnessing social media’s impact on sport brands

Ø  Forging closer relationships between employees and the sport brand

Leveraging Technology to Enhance the Service Experience in Sports through Value Co-creation:

Ø  Managing the customer experience across complex and diverse sport offerings, touch points, and customers

Ø  Driving sport customer/service collaboration through technology (e.g., Web 3.0)

Ø  Creating, managing, and measuring the impact and returns of sport customer/fan communities

Ø  Creating and enhancing tools for capturing the value in use for sport services and communicating value to sport customers and throughout the sport organization

Ø  Integrating the role of sport customers, employees, and technology for value optimization (e.g., the use of self-service technologies in ticketing)

Ø  Building sport business models for new service technologies (e.g., internet and mobile game broadcasting)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions should be accompanied by a cover letter that clearly states that the manuscript constitutes original work that has not previously been published, accepted for publication, or presently under consideration elsewhere. Prior to submission it is expected that the Service Industries Journal author guidelines have been followed in full ().

Initial submissions will be reviewed by the guest editor and if judged suitable then placed for double-blind review.  Papers should be submitted online at between November 1, 2014 and May 1, 2015. Please select the tab for the special issue on "Sports Research" when you submit your paper on the online platform. Expected publication date of the Special Issue is in 2016. Any questions about the special issue can be directed to the guest editor: Rodoula H. Tsiotsou (rtsiotsou@uom.edu.gr or rtsiotsou@gmail.com).

Amis, John; Silk, Michael L. (2005) “Promoting Critical and Innovative Approaches to the Study of Sport Management,” Journal of Sport Management 19(4), 355-366.

Doherty, Alison (2013) “’It Takes a Village:’ Interdisciplinary Research for Sport Management,” Journal of Sport Management 27(1), 1-10.

Ostrom, Amy L.; Bitner, Mary Jo; Brown, Stephen W.; Burkhard, Kevin A.; Goul, Michael; Smith-Daniels, Vicki; Demirkan, Haluk; Rabinovich, Elliot (2010) “Moving Forward and Making a Difference: Research Priorities for the Science of Service,” Journal of Service Research 13(1), 4-36.

Tsiotsou, R. (2012). Developing a scale for measuring the personality of sport teams. Journal of Services Marketing, 26(4), 238-252.

Vargo, S.L. and R.F. Lusch (2004),‘Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing’, Journal of Marketing, 68 (January), 1-17.