Viewpoint: The impact of coronavirus on service ecosystems as service mega-disruptions

Purpose This paper aims to synthesize the widespread economic impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 and presents a new concept, service mega-disruptions (SMDs), which refers to fast moving market disturbances at a massive scale caused by a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of services marketing 2020-11, Vol.34 (6), p.809-817
Main Authors: Kabadayi, Sertan, O’Connor, Genevieve E, Tuzovic, Sven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airlines
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Earthquakes
Ecosystems
Epidemics
Global economy
Higher education
Hurricanes
Internet service providers
Pandemics
Quarantine
Recessions
Securities markets
Service industries
Stock exchanges
Supply chains
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Summary:Purpose This paper aims to synthesize the widespread economic impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 and presents a new concept, service mega-disruptions (SMDs), which refers to fast moving market disturbances at a massive scale caused by a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework to recognize the impact of SMDs on service ecosystems and a call to action for service researchers in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an overview of massive market disturbances that is observed across multiple service sectors based on current news reports. It then develops themes for timely and actionable research for service scholars. Findings The outbreak of COVID-19 demonstrates that both service industries and the service research community face a new reality, something that we are not well-prepared to handle. A new framework is needed to understand the impact of such virus outbreaks, and current service marketing concepts need to be re-investigated from a new perspective. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature and service research community by addressing the phenomenon of SMDs by curating a framework and collection of research themes to understand what we observe and what we need to learn to do better in the future.
ISSN:0887-6045
2054-1651
DOI:10.1108/JSM-03-2020-0090