University Name - Service Management Sustainability Literature Review

This literature review explores the critical role of sustainability in service management, a topic of increasing importance in today's business environment. It examines various research articles focusing on sustainable ethics in service marketing, eco-efficient services, and the integration of sustainability into marketing strategies. The review analyzes how sustainability impacts service delivery, customer satisfaction, and the hospitality industry, as well as the broader implications for industrial sustainability. It identifies a gap in the current research and proposes an empirical research project to address this gap, providing a conceptual framework for future studies in this evolving field. This paper synthesizes the current understanding of sustainability's impact on service management, highlighting the need for continued research and practical application of sustainable practices.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW: SUSTAINABILITY
LITERATURE REVIEW: SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................3
Literature review.....................................................................................................................................3
Sustainable ethics in service marketing: scope....................................................................................3
Literature Gap...........................................................................................................................................11
Research Question.....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12

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Abstract
Service management research on the business or organizational context is a cosmopolitan topic
on which there has been increased magnitude of research happening in different countries and
continents across the globe. Service management in an organization can also be defined as the
process by which the excellence of an organization is chartered in order to improve the quality,
efficiency as well as effectiveness in delivering the products/ services to the customers by the
respective organization. However, the practice of sustainability in service management is
contemporary as well as economical and beneficial for the companies. Sustainability in service
management typically falls under the Total quality management practices of the different
business organizations in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the organization. The
respective paper would highlight the importance of sustainability in service management and the
importance of research in the respective field.

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Introduction
The respective paper is a research proposal about the contemporary and current topic of
service management research in the global context and perspective. Service management
research on the business or organizational context is a cosmopolitan topic on which there has
been increased magnitude of research happening in different countries and continents across the
globe. Service management in an organization can also be defined as the process by which the
excellence of an organization is chartered in order to improve the quality, efficiency as well as
effectiveness in delivering the products/ services to the customers by the respective organization.
Service management typically falls under the Total quality management practices of the different
business organizations in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the organization (Lusch
& Vargo, 2014). There has been numerous researches on how to improve the service
management, add or deduct certain factors or aspects of service management in order to make
the organizations qualitatively superior so that it can prove itself in the market and survive as
well as thrive in the fierce competition. The respective topic that I have chosen for the respective
research proposal is Sustainability. The topic is important because sustainability has become an
essential part of every corporate enterprise. Therefore, the respective research proposal would
focus on the Sustainability and service which has nowadays emerged as one of the important
topics for research on service management.

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Discussion
Literature review
Sustainable ethics in service marketing: scope
According to van der Zwan & Bhamra, (2003) the article “service marketing: taking up
the sustainable development challenge” has described about the inclusion of sustainability in the
arena of service marketing. The respective article highlights the significance of academic study
of sustainability in service marketing dynamics by the marketing management scholars who can
play an integral part in offering their knowledge on sustainability to the manufacturing
companies and other businesses. Service, according to the author of the article, has proved to be
one of the most important aspect within the field of sustainable development where there has
been a slogan of providing services to the people and the stakeholders with the help of optimum
resources with reduced environmental impacts. The intriguing part of the article is that the
services that are viewed in the field of sustainable development are those that are related to
products and the substituting products. Such services can also be called “eco efficient services”.
The term eco efficient services can also be defined as the services provided by the service
providers or the businesses which have been made and placed in such a way that the production
of the service do not intervene with the natural resources and also do not cause much harm to the
natural resources so that the future generation is also able to utilize the respective resources for
their work. The academics of service marketing might as well help the manufacturing companies
to shift the towards a more eco- friendly service intensive way of carrying out the business. The
marketing management academics and service management and marketing scholars often tend to
make blueprints and processes for the sustainability issues that can be incorporated in the
processes of service management which are utilized by the manufacturing companies and other
business associations for their operations.

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According to Jovic & Novčić, (2016), the article “Marketing and sustainable
development” provides a completely new theory on marketing that can happen through
sustainability measures. The purpose of the respective paper is to present new and latest
theoretical as well as pragmatic concepts of sustainability in the business functions of the
organizations and enterprises, focusing on marketing, particularly dealing with the environmental
threats which are leading to climate change and other problems. The most important part of the
paper is that it reconceptualizes how the process of marketing is operated through
conceptualization of marketing mix in order to normalize the sustainability considerations in the
process of business operations, selling- purchase and consumption. It has been known that to
carry out any kind of marketing move, strategy or mix, the four Ps should be taken care of, such
as: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. With the help of different sustainability parameters and
measures, the four Ps can be synchronized in order to bring out the concept of sustainable service
marketing. The factors such as participants in sustainability, processes, the physical evidence,
promise- principles and partnership, according to the article, might as well co create individual
and social value in the process of marketing and other business functions hereafter. With the help
of theoretical and empirical researches, sustainability in different kinds of marketing has been
exhibited and mentioned throughout the article. At the end of the article, the author talks about
breaking the notion of the stereotypical marketing mix and introduction to the new kind of
marketing mix where there would be elements of sustainability as well that might encourage the
marketing managers of the large, semi large as well as small organizations to review and revamp
their marketing management techniques. In short, the article has talked about the introduction to
new and fresh marketing mix with blend of sustainability in order to bring something new to the
world of sustainable marketing.

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According to Davis, Stavrulaki & Wolfson, (2018) the article named “A framework of
increased sustainability in services” is an article that mentions the most important and
contemporary happening in the business world, which is sustainability. Environmental
sustainability has become one of the most gravest concern that the people and institutions from
all over the world are right now experiencing and examining. However, very less examination
and discussion related to environmental sustainability has been done by the service sector of the
contemporary business world and the service literature too, therefore, exhibit less concern about
the in- depth examination of sustainability. The respective article proposes a strategic framework
that has introduced ways by which sustainability can be increased in the service organizations
which would also acknowledge the role of the customer in the service delivery process. By
carrying out such activities, an organization’s ability or capability to increase its sustainability
dynamics would be accomplished by the business owner, or the service provider itself as well as
the purchaser/ service receiver or the consumer. Strategic frameworks for sustainability are an
important factor which needs to be acknowledged and practiced by all the organizations which
are service oriented. Based on degree of how much does a customer consider sustainability to be
important as well as that with the current service delivery process, the service oriented
organizations might as well begin to practice sustainability which would be customer enabled
and provider enabled. In order to shift itself to the highest degree of sustainability, the service
oriented organizations would also learn certain principles, such as not only design their
operations and supply chain processes in such a way so that it gets aligned with their
sustainability objectives, but also to educate and/or incentivize their customers to be active
participants for sustainable value co-creation. With the help of such sustainability practices, an

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organization would be able to gain special leverage in the service oriented sector in terms of
sustainable and judicious development.
According to Choy, Chong & Verma, (2015) in the respective article “Environmental
sustainability in the hospitality industry: best practices, guest participation and customer
satisfaction” the author has talked in details about what kind of sustainability measures the
hospitality industry (which falls under service industry) can take in order to make themselves
apart from other industries in terms of environmental concerns and also have the maximum
customer satisfaction they always demand for. In the respective article, the author has taken
personal research samples of 100 lodging grounds in the United States which has described that
among the different green practices that the respective hotels and lodgings practice, the common
green practices include water conservation fixtures and linen reuse programs. the outcome of the
respective research was that it was found out that the guests who came to stay at the lodgings and
the accommodations generally liked the facts of participating in the sustainability programs and
tasks that has been set by the lodgings and the hotels. Such instances provide a detailed analysis
and interpretation of the consumer behavior and satisfaction related to sustainability measures.
The most interesting part of the article is that even though the sustainability and green programs
tend to make the customers feel amicable and good, it does not affect or influence the customers
to overshadow the other factors such as facilities, room or accommodation, food and beverage
quality, and other factors such as behavior and mannerisms of the staff and infrastructural
provisions. Even then, the lodgings have been requested to bring in sustainable development
techniques and parameters within the organization. The article also suggests that the sustainable
developmental programs of the respective lodgings do not effect on the customer satisfaction or
customer experience on any grounds. Additionally, the article also states that the decisions

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regarding what kinds of sustainability programs the lodgings should utilize would also depend
upon the cost benefit analysis and the other operational considerations. Cost benefit analysis can
be defined as the systematic approach in which the estimated strengths and weaknesses of an
alternative option is utilized to determine whether the respective alternative decisions are correct
or not. Nevertheless, the article provides an in-depth analysis as well as certain frameworks that
might enable the hotels and lodgings to practice sustainability in the right way.
According to Tonelli, Evans & Taticchi, (2013) the respective article “Industrial
sustainability: challenges, perspectives, action” is about the futuristic form of industry that the
article expects to have that would be customer friendly as well as economically sound while
utilizing the optimum of resources. The paper highlights about the present conditions the
contemporary world is going through where the businesses, enterprises and institutions tend to
utilize the most of the resources in order to sustain in the market which is a fallacy of the human
civilization. The paper highlights the urgency of the world in terms of sustainable development
and conservation of resources. The futuristic sustainable industry system which the author has
talked about in his article would be, as stated, different from the present global system. The
futuristic industry would be less homogenous and different models and relationships would be
set for creating different products and services that would be requiring new strategies,
frameworks and tools. The article provides to the readers a systematic implication for sustainable
manufacturing, supply chain design, performance and measurement of sustainability,
management of sustainability as well as the necessary organizational change that might as well
arrive through the process. The readers of the paper include students, academics, entrepreneurs
and policy makers.

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According to Hussain, Khan & Al-Aomar, (2016) In the article “A framework for supply
chain sustainability in service industry with Confirmatory Factor Analysis” the authors have
talked about the lack of supply chain sustainability in a specific country (mentioned Arab
countries) when compared it with the other European and American countries. The article says
that there has been a subsequent gap in the research of the particular topic (which is supply chain
sustainability) particularly in the area of service and the techniques and machineries used by the
organizations had been in the nascent and developmental stage if compared to the manufacturing
companies. The main challenge which the service sectors face in the United Arab Emirates and
other gulf countries is that how to be productive and profitable even after being sustainable and
eco-friendly. At the end of the article, it has been found out that the article has presented a
comprehensive framework of measurement of sustainability through the processes such as data
collection, analysis and refinement.
According to Trivedi, Trivedi, & Goswami, (2018) in the respective article named
“Sustainable marketing strategies: creating business value by meeting consumer expectation” the
authors have highlighted about the sustainable marketing strategies that have become an integral
part of the businesses in the twenty first century. The article highlights the fact that the
companies have started investing a particularly huge amount of financial resources on the
sustainability options for the respective businesses. The article opens the eyes of the business
enthusiasts as it says that the customers of a particular company becomes impressed by the
sustainability measures taken by the company, however, that is not a “drive factor” for the
customers to buy such goods. The only customary drive factors that encourages a consumer to
purchase the goods is the standard and quality of the good along with the affordable prices that
might be offered. Therefore, there has been a gap between the customer’s expectations and

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sustainability measures which the article neatly projects and discusses. The frameworks that are
projected in the article would be important for the business to meet the expectations of the
consumers without the compromisation of business value at the same time.
According to Arseculeratne & Yazdanifard, (2014) the respective article named “How
green marketing can create sustainable competitive advantage for a business” talks about the
unique concept of “green marketing” which has subsequently undergone a tremendous
transformation and emerged as one of the most influential business strategy since the first
appearance of its presence in the year 1980. The business firms have subsequently realized the
importance of green marketing as a way of gaining competitive advantage over the rivals in the
industry. Definitely, the green marketing strategies not only provide the company with financial
conservations but also give the company goodwill in the present world which is environmentally
conscious and active. Green marketing, as the article states, is a paradigm shifting strategy in
many different business firms since it has completely shifted and changed the manner by which
business works around in reaching its customers. The green or eco friendly strategies have been
an important way of getting an important competitive edge in the global and local market. The
respective article provides an insight about the concept of green marketing that can be utilized as
a competitive edge of the business firm and how the contemporary firms are actually taking up
the green marketing dynamics and approaches in order to realize and increase their competitive
advantage. The term green marketing and its main characteristics in the respective article are
described in order to understand the import of it in the present business world context. The
article produces certain green marketing strategic implementations in order to provide the readers
an idea about the concepts. Contribution, interaction and cooperation of the different

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stakeholders of a particular business can provide the business with the accurate green marketing
policies and strategies for the sustainable growth and development of the firms.
According to Skowron & Szymoniuk, (2014) in the respective article “Marketing and
sustainable development” the authors present a significant and moderately approached role of
marketing that generates imbalance in the developmental processes of the modern economy and
society In order to bring out the imbalance with respect to the paradigm of sustainable
development, the ethical reflection of the human activities connected to the dynamics of
sustainable development along with the nature and the market behavior of the consumers
(functional and prospective). While searching for the mechanisms that disturb sustainable
development, the authors of the article pointed out the phenomenon of degradation of the
household as an important component of the socio economic system. The degradation that is
caused is generally due to pressure of innovation among the firms along with certain basic
environmental factors such as economy of the nation (supposedly the economy of concentration
of the capital) and the unbalanced consumption. Therefore, the respective article provides a keen
and intense introspection of issues that the businesses face which have not yet taken the true
strategies of sustainable development. The rapid as well as gradual change of customer attitude
might as well make them eco customers and change the mindset of the business society across
the globe.
According to Lii, Wu & Ding, (2013) the article “Doing good does good? Sustainable
marketing of CSR and Consumer Evaluations” talks about the concept of sustainable marketing
which has emerged as one of the main initiatives of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and
the three most customary forms of sustainable marketing often practiced by different firms are:
sponsorship, marketing for a cause and philanthropy on the aspects of consumer evaluations with