Services Marketing [Paperback]

Services marketing, once a tiny academic field championed by just a handful of pioneering professors, has become a thriving area of activity. Paralleling growing research efforts in both academia and business is increased student interest in taking courses that focus on different aspects of managing service organizations, including marketing. This makes a lot of sense from a career standpoint, since most business school graduates will be going to work in service industries and managers report that manufacturing-based models of business practice are not always useful to them.

Distinguishing Features of Services Marketing, Fourth Edition

This highly readable book includes

• a strong managerial orientation and strategic focus
• use of conceptual frameworks that have been classroom tested for relevance to both MBA students and executive seminar participants
• incorporation of key academic research findings
• use of interesting examples to link theory to practice
• inclusion of carefully selected readings and cases to accompany the text chapters

As a team, Christopher Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz provide a blend of skills and experience that’s ideally suited to writing an authoritative and engaging services marketing text.  This book marks their second collaboration on an edition of Services Marketing. Since first meeting in 1992, they’ve worked together on a variety of projects, including cases, articles, conference papers, two Asian adaptations of earlier editions of Services Marketing, andServices Marketing in Asia: A Case Book. In 2005, both were actively involved in planning the American Marketing Association’s biennial Service Research Conference, hosted that year by the National University of Singapore and attended by participants from 22 countries on five continents.

Christopher Lovelock is one of the pioneers of services marketing. Based in Massachusetts, he consults and gives seminars and workshops for managers around the world, with a particular focus on strategic planning in services and managing the customer experience. Since 2001, he has been an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches an MBA services marketing course.

            After obtaining a BCom and an MA in economics from the University of Edinburgh, he worked in advertising with the London office of J. Walter Thompson Co. and then in corporate planning with Canadian Industries Ltd. in Montreal.  Later, he obtained an MBA from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford, where he was also a postdoctoral fellow.

            Professor Lovelock’s distinguished academic career has included 11 years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and two years as a visiting professor at IMD in Switzerland.  He has also held faculty appointments at Berkeley, Stanford, and the Sloan School at MIT, as well as visiting professorships at INSEAD in France and The University of Queensland in Australia.

            Author or co-author of over 60 articles, more than 100 teaching cases, and 26 books, Dr Lovelock has seen his work translated into ten languages. He serves on the editorial review boards of the International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Service Research, Service Industries Journal, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, andMarketing Management, and is also an ad hoc reviewer for theJournal of Marketing.  

            Widely acknowledged as a thought leader in services, Christopher Lovelock has been honored by the American Marketing Association’s prestigious Award for Career Contributions in the Services Discipline. In 2005 his article with Evert Gummesson, “Whither Services Marketing?  In Search of a New Paradigm and Fresh Perspectives” won the AMA’s Best Services Article Award and was a finalist for the IBM award for the best article in the Journal of Service Research. Earlier, he received a best article award from the Journal of Marketing. Recognized many times for excellence in case writing, he has twice won top honors in the BusinessWeek “European Case of the Year” Award. 

 Jochen Wirtz has worked in the field of services for more than 18 years, and holds a Ph.D. in services marketing from the London Business School. He is a tenured associate professor at the National University of Singapore, where he teaches services marketing in executive, MBA, and undergraduate programs and is co-director of the dual degree UCLA – NUS Executive MBA Program.

            Professor Wirtz’s research focuses on service management topics, including customer satisfaction, service guarantees and revenue management. He has published over 60 academic articles, 80 conference papers, and some 50 book chapters, and is co-author of ten books, including his latest book Flying High in a Competitive Industry – Cost-effective Service Excellence at Singapore Airlines (McGraw Hill, 2006).

            Professor Wirtz has received seven awards for outstanding teaching at the NUS Business School and in 2003 was honored by the prestigious, university-wide “Outstanding Educator Award” at the National University of Singapore.  His six research awards include the Emerald Literati Club 2003 Award for Excellence for the year’s most outstanding article in the International Journal of Service Industry Management.  He serveson the editorial review boards of seven academic journals, including the International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Service Research, andCornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, and is also an ad hoc reviewer for theJournal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing.  Professor Wirtz chaired the American Marketing Association’s biennial Service Research Conference in 2005, and in 2006 he was the Chair for the Services Marketing Track at the Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference.

            Dr Wirtz has been an active management consultant, working with international consulting firms, including Accenture, Arthur D, Little, and KPMG, and major service firms in the areas of strategy, business development and customer feedback systems.  Originally from Germany, Jochen Wirtz spent seven years in London before moving to Asia.