Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

11-2020

Abstract

Purpose: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers fear for their health when interacting with service providers. To mitigate this fear service providers are using safety signals directed to consumers and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the range of safety signals in a framework that integrates signaling theory with servicescape elements so as to provide guidance for service providers to assist in their recovery. Design/methodology/approach: The authors extracted examples of how service providers signal safety to their consumers that the risk of infection is low in exchanging with their service. These examples were taken from secondary data sources in the form of trade publications resulting from a systematic search and supplemented by an organic search. Findings: In total 53 unique safety signals were identified and assigned to 24 different categories in our framework. Most of the signals fell into the default and sale independent category, followed by the default contingent revenue risking category. Originality/value: This study builds on signaling theory and service literature to develop a framework of the range of safety signals currently in use by service providers and offers suggestions as to which are likely to be most effective. Further, a future research inquiry of safety signals is presented, which the authors believe has promise in assisting recovery in a post-pandemic world.

Keywords

Signaling theory, Signals, Risk perceptions, Consumers, Safety, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Pandemics

Discipline

Marketing | Public Health | Sales and Merchandising

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Journal of Service Management

Volume

31

Issue

6

First Page

1185

Last Page

1202

ISSN

1757-5818

Identifier

10.1108/JOSM-05-2020-0157

Publisher

Emerald

Copyright Owner and License

Authors-CC-BY-NC

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-05-2020-0157

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