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Available Issues

December 4, 2012 - June 17, 2026

Available Issues

December 4, 2012 - June 17, 2026

Calls for Papers

Special Issue on People-Centric Retail and Last-Mile Services

Submissions open: March 1, 2026; Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2026

Context and Motivation

Retail plays a central role in contemporary economies, shaping consumer experiences, driving innovation, and influencing sustainability across supply chains. With the growth of e-commerce and omni-channel strategies, retail operations have become increasingly complex, particularly in warehousing, store operations, and last-mile logistics. Efficient, responsible, and resilient retail services are vital not only for economic performance but also for societal well-being, as they directly influence employment, community engagement, and access to goods.

Despite advances in technology and automation, people remain indispensable across retail and last-mile logistics—from store associates and warehouse workers to delivery personnel. Their skills, motivation, and satisfaction have a direct impact on operational efficiency, customer experience, and organizational adaptability. Yet, traditional operational models often underemphasize the human dimension, focusing primarily on cost, speed, and process optimization. Recent research highlights that people-centric operational strategies enhance both business performance and social sustainability (see, e.g., Corbett (2024), Dai and Tang (2022), Roels and Staats (2021), Ton (2014)).

Prioritizing employee well-being, participatory decision-making, and skill development not only boosts employee retention and productivity but also fosters an ethical and inclusive work environment. Beyond internal operations, responsible retail practices have direct implications for customer interaction and brand perception: socially responsible operations—such as fair labor practices in last-mile delivery or safe working conditions in warehouses—can strengthen customer trust, enhance brand loyalty, and inform sustainable marketing narratives. Fostering employee engagement and well-being shapes how staff interact with customers, ultimately affecting customer behavior, satisfaction, and loyalty. By integrating people-centric practices, retail operations can simultaneously enhance organizational performance, social responsibility, and positive customer experiences.

Scope

The special issue will solicit research papers that explore the various aspects of people-centric design and practices in the retail sector. We invite contributions that explore people-centric approaches in retail operations and last-mile logistics, including but not limited to:

  • People-centered design of retail operations and delivery processes
  • Workforce well-being, motivation, and retention strategies in the retail supply chains
  • Links between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty
  • Trade-offs between efficiency, employee well-being, and customer experience
  • Employee engagement in sustainability initiatives
  • Socially responsible last-mile logistics and services
  • Human-AI collaboration in retail and logistics – both managers and workers
  • The impact of GenAI-driven automation on job design, skills, and workforce development
  • Measuring and optimizing social impact alongside operational performance

Papers can use analytical, empirical, experimental, or qualitative methods that align with the general scope of Service Science. This special issue highlights the cross-disciplined nature of service science. Papers that fail to demonstrate how integrating social and human considerations can foster both operational excellence and sustainable value creation will not be considered for this special issue.

Special Issue Editors

Submission Process and Timeline

All submissions should be submitted via Service Science online submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/serv. All submissions will be subject to the journal's standard peer review process. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, and scientific merit. For submission guidelines, please visit the journal's home page to learn more: /page/serv/submission-guidelines.

The estimated timeline of this special issue is as follows:

  • Submissions opening: March 1, 2026
  • Deadline for submission: November 1, 2026
  • First-round decision and feedback: February 1, 2027
  • Second-round submission (for invited papers): September 30, 2027
  • Final decisions (subject to minor revisions): December 31, 2027.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and advancing the discourse of Service Engineering and its impact on service design and optimization.

References

Corbett CJ (2024) OM forum—The operations of well-being: An operational take on happiness, equity, and sustainability. Manufacturing Serv. Oper. Management 26(2):409–430. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0521

Dai T, Tang C (2022) Frontiers in Service Science: Integrating ESG measures and supply chain management: Research opportunities in the postpandemic era. Service Sci. 14(1):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1287/serv.2021.0295

Roels G, Staats, BR (2021) OM forum—people-centric operations: Achievements and future research directions. Manufacturing Serv. Oper. Management 23(4):745–757. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0977

Ton Z. (2014) The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. New Harvest, New York, NY.

Special Issue on Sustainability-Driven Service Innovations

Deadline for submissions: Extended to January 15, 2026

Service systems, which operate at the very intersection between people, organizations, environment, and technology, offer unique opportunities to promote business and policy innovations for sustainable development. The goal of this special issue is to attract research that explores such opportunities in various service sectors. We particularly invite papers that study one or multiple of the following themes.

Theme 1: Service-oriented circular business models

The transformation of product-oriented businesses to service-oriented businesses through circular economy models is often regarded as a potential path towards more sustainable outcomes and has received extensive attention in the traditional manufacturing context in the past. We welcome papers that examine groundbreaking new developments in this domain. Sample topics include collaborative consumption such as fashion rentals or other unique sharing models, service-oriented business model innovations that attempt to create more equity and access, especially for marginalized and disadvantaged communities (e.g., community solar, rent-to-own models, financing options, healthcare services), and business models (e.g., sustainable agriculture, community services) that complement, support and enhance ecosystem services.

Theme 2: Environmental and social impact of service industries

While there has been extensive research studying the environmental and social impact of product-oriented or manufacturing-based industries, there needs to be more research to evaluate and address the environmental and social impact of service industries. We invite papers that explore such issues for service-oriented industries, including but not limited to, hospitality, real estate, tourism, advertising, entertainment, financial services, and consulting. In these industries, impact is crucially driven and dependent on the actions/engagement of consumers and/or employees. Therefore, we welcome papers that explore how to influence consumers, clients, and employees to make more sustainable decisions, e.g., food waste reduction, responsible investment, work-from-home, and travel policies, and promoting healthy consumer behavior and engagement and preventing addiction.

Theme 3: Platform and technology innovations for improving sustainability in services

Modern service design and delivery heavily relies on digital technologies and platform innovations. We invite papers that investigate the environmental and social implications of the applications of technologies and platform design and propose solutions for more sustainable services. Sample topics include environmental and social impact of innovative technologies such as AI, new technology and business models for energy services, and corporate governance and workforce policies for platforms.

We welcome submissions that use a wide variety of methodologies, including, but not limited to, analytical, empirical, behavioral, experimental, and qualitative methods. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary studies that leverage knowledge and frameworks from different business domains and functions, such as operations, marketing, strategy, information systems, finance, and accounting, among others. Papers should not only demonstrate the impact of service innovations on sustainable development, but also discuss the implications of incorporating sustainability considerations for service theory, practice, and policy.

Authors who are considering whether their research project fits the scope of the special issue are encouraged to email a brief description (no more than one page) of their project to the special issue editors. This initial interaction is intended to provide feedback on the relevance of the project to the goals of the special issue. While this step does not evaluate the quality of the research, it does serve to ensure alignment with the themes of the special issue. The quality and appropriateness of full submissions will be determined through a peer review process involving both the existing Service Science Editorial Board and additional experts as needed.

There is no obligation to submit a project description before submitting a full paper, but it is an available option for authors seeking preliminary feedback.

Special Issue Editors

Submission Process and Timeline

All submissions should be submitted via Service Science online submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/serv. All submissions will be subject to the journal's standard peer review process. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, and scientific merit. For submission guidelines, please visit the journal's home page to learn more: /page/serv/submission-guidelines.

The estimated timeline of this special issue is as follows:

  • Submissions being accepted: March 1, 2025
  • Deadline for submission: Extended to January 15, 2026
  • First-round decision and feedback: February 1, 2026 (April 1, 2026)
  • Second-round submission (for those papers invited to revise): September 30, 2026 (December 1, 2026)
  • Final decisions (subject to minor revisions): December 31, 2026 (March 1, 2027)

We look forward to receiving your submissions and advancing the state of the art in service innovations as pathways towards sustainable development goals.

Special Issue on Service Engineering: Data Driven Service Design and Optimization

Deadline for submissions: Extended to October 15, 2025

Modern data analytics and data mining techniques have opened new opportunities for optimizing service operations and enhancing customer experiences. These opportunities cover a broad range of organizations' activities, from its core activities on marketing, operations, and finance, to supporting activities such as human resources, product development, and information systems. For example, applications of data-driven financing models include the use of data and analytics to inform financial decision-making.

This special issue of Service Science aims to present recent progress on research on management analytics and data-driven decision-making in the service industry. With advancements in service engineering, over the last decade, this industry gathers large amounts of data from various sources, such as customer interactions, sales transactions, and social media activity. We are interested in work that uses these and other sources of data to design and optimize services and their delivery, such as developing algorithms to identify patterns, trends, and insights that can be used to optimize managerial decisions.

We are particularly interested in papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Service design: Data and its processing facilitate modern business models such as sharing or platform operations. How can data improve resource usage and welfare in these businesses?
  • Service Optimization: Using data to set optimal capacity or design systems that maximize efficiency, reduce wait times, and improve resource allocation across various service industries. How can data be used to set optimal service capacity and design systems that maximize efficiency, reduce wait times, and improve resource allocation across various touchpoints?
  • Enhanced customer experience: Analytics can help service businesses to better understand their customers' needs and preferences, leading to more personalized and effective ongoing and new services and improved tailored service recommendations.
  • Information Technology in Support of Service: Data can support the automatic creation, monitoring, and management of business processes, e.g., via highlighting automation opportunities or enhancing the usage of digital twins.
  • Adoption of Advanced Information Technology in Services: Modern information technology and algorithms can support services, e.g., in high-frequency trading, and AI in support of diagnostics in healthcare, but their adoption often faces difficulties. How can these difficulties be overcome?
  • Usage of on-line data: Access to real-time data provides businesses with insights into their performance, allowing them to make informed decisions on their operational, tactical, and strategic initiatives.
  • Applications of AI&ML: Recent algorithms, such as LLM, can overhaul business management, e.g., by improving customer support. How could service business use AI&ML to improve productivity?
  • Improved risk management in services: By analyzing historical data and identifying potential risks, service businesses can make informed decisions about lending, investing, credit rating and other financial activities.

The special issue will solicit original research papers that explore the various aspects of design and implementation of data-driven, algorithms for descriptive, predictive, comparative, and prescriptive analytics in services science. Papers can use analytical, empirical, experimental, or qualitative methods. This special issue highlights the cross-disciplined nature of service science through usage of data in management analytics for services. We welcome submissions from researchers, and practitioners working in academia, industry, or government agencies.

Authors who are considering whether their research project fits the scope of the special issue are encouraged to email a brief description (no more than one page) of their project to the special issue editors. This initial interaction is intended to provide feedback on the relevance of the project to the goals of the special issue. While this step does not evaluate the quality of the research, it does serve to ensure alignment with the themes of the special issue. The quality and appropriateness of full submissions will be determined through a peer review process involving both the existing Service Science Editorial Board and additional experts as needed.

There is no obligation to submit a project description before submitting a full paper, but it is an available option for authors seeking preliminary feedback.

Special Issue Editors

Submission Process and Timeline

All submissions should be submitted via Service Science online submission system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/serv. All submissions will be subject to the journal's standard peer review process. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, and scientific merit. For submission guidelines, please visit the journal's home page to learn more: /page/serv/submission-guidelines.

The estimated timeline of this special issue is as follows:

  • Deadline for submission: Extended to October 15, 2025
  • First-round decision and feedback: January 15, 2026 (January 31, 2026)
  • Second-round submission (for those papers invited to revise): August 1, 2026 (August 15, 2026)
  • Final decisions (subject to minor revisions): November 1, 2026 (November 15, 2026).

We look forward to receiving your submissions and advancing the discourse of Service Engineering and its impact on service design and optimization.