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

This paper presents a literature review in the area of services marketing 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 marketing "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.