Editorial Column—Service Research Integration and Future Directions—The Naples Forum on Service

Management and marketing research in service is at a turning point, and service research is increasingly challenging existing marketing myths and questioning the validity of traditional approaches. In this mainframe, service-dominant (S-D) logic and service science, along with many-to-many marketing and the viable systems approach, have captured the attention of researchers worldwide in their attempt to advance service research. With S-D logic tracing a new cultural approach to market exchange, systems and network theory represents a set of general interpretation schemes—as insightful metamodels—to be coupled with specific theoretical models in order to better understand the complexity characterizing service science. In this light, it seems unwise to search for the “best model” or the best theoretical proposal capable of framing all marketing or management problems. More appropriately, we are convinced that researchers should try to valorize the integration of scientific approaches positioned at different theoretical levels. Despite the challenge of integrating various cultures, models, approaches, and perspectives, we sense that there is a gradual convergence toward a holistic framework in management and marketing research.