Services: What Do We Know and Where Shall We Go?

This paper presents a literature review in the area of services and management from 1986 to the present. An electronic library search under the key words service marketing supplemented with a manual search yielded 865 articles. These articles are organized into a framework based on the services dimensions (simultaneity, heterogeneity, intangibility and perishability) and the services 7 Ps (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, physical environment). While greater depth of knowledge in several areas within services is desired, there is a good deal of understanding of many services qualities. Services marketers should begin to export their ideas beyond services.