research paper on service industry

• Reference Manager
• Simple TEXT file

People also looked at

Review article, corporate social responsibility (csr) in the service industry: a systematic review.

• 1 Guilin Tourism University, Guilin, China
• 2 Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor DarulEhsan, Malaysia
• 3 Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

The objective of the current study is to perform a systematic review to the published articles upon the advancement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the service sector. This article analyzes the bibliometric information of the CSR-related articles linked to the service sector. The existing literature on CSR in the service industry were derived from the online WOS indexing dataset. Through completing a systematic review on existing academic articles, the current paper identifies the nations, universities/institutions, prolific researchers, high-profile journal that contributed to the advancement of CSR theory and practical applications. Moreover, the analytical graphs and bibliometric coupling shown the keyword co-occurrence to depict the academic relationship on the CSR advancement in the service industry. The systematic review adds to an in-depth knowledge of the progression behind CSR in the corporate environment and extends the CSR nexus researches.

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility, (CSR) has emerged as a vibrant subject of theoretical progression and academic scholarship, and its rigorous humanity-based basis has thus garnered the attention of both academics and professionals ( Abbas et al., 2018 ; Moyeen et al., 2019 ; Chen & Lin, 2020 ). CSR scholars have tried to find the outcomes of CSR participation in terms of increasing service quality in the service industries over the previous few decades ( Casado-DÃaz et al., 2014 ; Andrew & Baker, 2020 ; Antonetti et al., 2021 ). In recent decades, the inquiry on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown exponentially. The existing studies aimed to address particular concerns relating to CSR, such as the financial performance ( Atmeh et al., 2020 ; Okafor et al., 2021 ), the banking system ( Ahmad et al., 2022 ), environmental issues, enterprise development, and its positive/negative consequences ( Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020 ).

Due to the many characteristics of the service industry, CSR practices differ tremendously ( Batool et al., 2016 ). Even though the examination of the production, fiscal employment, the economy and the strategies of CSR receives significant interest ( Sadik-Zada et al., 2021 ), the analysis of the impact on the service sector obtains somewhat less. There is no universal agreement among businesses over the definition of sustainable development through the application of CSR concept ( Freeman & Hasnaoui, 2011 ). As a result, there are still a significant number of research gaps in the investigation about the connection between CSR and the service industry ( Moyeen et al., 2019 ; Wut et al., 2022 ). Therefore, it is essential to perform a panoramic investigation on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and its effect on the qualitative improvement of the service business ( Perrini et al., 2006 ; Husted & Allen, 2007 ; Rodrigues & Mendes, 2018 ; Gallardo-Vázquez et al., 2019 ). Throughout this paper, we want to provide contributions to the intellectual framework of CSR, one of the most important types of methods that would help facilitate environmental sustainability and managerial advancement, via a systematic review of the existing intellectual literature indexed in Web of Science (WOS) over the past decades.

This research explores the existing literature about impact CSR on the service industry and intends to be deepening researching the mechanism of how CSR researches progressed over the past 3 decades. The research objectives are as follows: 1) To make a systematic review to the relevant research on CSR to remark on the dearth of prior researches in related topics and give appropriate theoretical basis to the advancement of the service sector. 2) To identify the current progress of the CSR concept in the service industry from the perspectives of economic obligations, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities, and philanthropic responsibilities. 3) To identify and visualize the publishing years, prolific regions/nations, dedicated journals, supporting universities/institutions, the authors, as well as the CSR keywords in the service sector and the co-occurrence analysis. And 4) To examine the nuances of CSR concept in the future research agenda while presenting the overall systematic review during the implementation process of the current study. Through examining the WOS database, this systematic review intends to contribute to a consideration of the important effects of the service industry, the central influence of principle of corporate social responsibility.

In accordance with this line of thought, the structure of this study is set as follows: First, the next phase of the current research focuses on the research methodology elaboration. Next, to examine the impact that corporate social responsibility has on contemporary academic research via a systematic literature review to the relevant published articles. The current study identifies the countries, universities/institutions, prolific researchers, and high-profile journals that have contributed to the development of CSR theory and practical applications by completing a systematic review on existing academic articles. Furthermore, a thematic review was carried out in order to determine the keyword co-occurrence and keywords frequency for identifying the advancement of CSR theory and practical applications. The conclusion section includes a summary, a further elaboration on theoretical and practical contributions, as well as its exiting limitations.

Research methodology: a systematic review approach

In accordance with the Meta-Analysis methodology described by Liberati et al., in 2009 ( Liberati et al., 2009 ), a complete evaluation of the literature is then performed. The authors carried out a comprehensive investigation for research articles conducted by scholars from around the world as well as blind-peer-reviewed papers in social sciences, business, decision sciences, economic management and accounting, as well as psychology disciplines ( Oduro et al., 2021 ; Arici & Uysal, 2022 ). Adopting a database created from Web of Science for a concise systematic review effort ( Baig et al., 2019 ), this study evaluated the dependability research articles with empirical data collected. In line with Liberati et al. (2009) and Adeyinka-Ojo et al., 2021 and Galeazzi et al., 2008 , the current study discusses and expounds upon PRISMA statement checklists ( Moher et al., 2011 ; Page et al., 2021 ), which are extensively utilized to conduct systematic review methodology in the field of social sciences and decision sciences.

To document the analytical procedure and inclusion criteria for the major databases, trustworthy research methods were developed prior to actual resources search. The authors conducted their research using WOS data since it provides the most accurate depiction of relevant articles. The academic world considers that WOS covers the most significant international publications. Thus, the authors are obligated to analyze this dataset using the WOS dataset. WOS was employed to discover publications approved for production in five disciplines that were included in the WOS indexing journals with titles/abstracts/keywords including the keywords selected for the current research. The published papers in different five disciplines are then exemplified in Table 1 for emphasizing the topic domains of major publications. The spectrum of publishing date is without restriction, since the current study was done in early 2023. The extracted and downloaded articles only extended to English-written papers.

TABLE 1 . The published years of papers related to CSR and service industry (Summarized by the authors).

A MS spreadsheets file was created to record the issued research paper data of the associated periodicals. The authors then completed the assessment of the papers that were chosen beforehand, which is also called screening in the PRISMA checklist ( Moher et al., 2011 ; Nawijn et al., 2019 ). The remaining publications complete texts were revisited and downloaded in accordance with the paper selection criteria ( Zabavnik & Verbič, 2021 ). The selected papers were then incorporated in accordance with a transparent, reproducible, and a prior presumption-free methods ( Popay et al., 2006 ; Pickering & Byrne, 2014 ; Alsamil et al., 2020 ). The bibliographic data in such chosen publications and the PRISMA checklist were input into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for further data-analysis procedure (see Figure 1 below). Finally, 687 selected papers were subjected to a data collection procedure in order to improve the collected components and subsequent categorization. Then, these selected papers were examined attentively to extract and categorize in accordance with the current study.

FIGURE 1 . Research procedure summary and description (by authors).

Only for purposes of the current research, the authors input the following keywords into the WOS system to explore the title/abstracts/keywords of the published papers, yielding 1,665 results. In the meantime, the search criteria for the WOS database are shown as follows:

corporate social responsibility (Topic) and service (All Fields) and Article (Document Types) and Business or Management or Economics or Sociology or Hospitality Leisure Sport Tourism (Web of Science Categories) and English (Languages) and 6.3 Management or 6.10 Economics or 6.223 Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism or 6.115 Sustainability Science (Citation Topics Meso)

The titles of the choose articles reflect their production status. Even though database search resulted in the retrieval of 1,665 records, 85 papers were disqualified to be reviewed in the current research because they are conference proceedings, review articles, other than peer-viewed articles. Those retrieved papers were reviewed further within the scope of the five fields, namely, Business or Management or Economics or Sociology or Hospitality Leisure Sport Tourism (Web of Science Categories). In the meantime, some of these irrelevant studies were omitted from further examination in the present research, and 944 papers remained, excluding 636 published papers. Furthermore, there were 13 papers excluded since they were not English-medium peer-viewed papers. Following this, the authors selected another four criteria under the Citation Topics Meso section, namely, 6.3 Management or 6.10 Economics or 6.223 Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism or 6.115 Sustainability Science, which led to a number of 803 papers remaining. Some of these entries were removed because they did not meet the eligibility standards and the entire text could not be extracted. As a result, the search result indicates that 687 articles have been published with the topic of the current study in the WOS system, which are closely connected to the five research areas that are the subject of the present study. Then, the current systematic review included empirical full-texted papers in total. The research procedure following the PRISMA checklist for assessing precedential research is then shown in Figure 1 above. The following analysis are further done through the facilitations of VOSviewer (a software application for establishing and displaying bibliometric connectivity structures) and Zotero (an open-sourced application for managing bibliographic information and pertaining to the research resources).

Research findings

The published years of csr and service industry-related articles.

Since the turn of the 20th century, expectations of businesses in the service sector have expanded, and the notion of corporate social responsibility (see Table 1 below), frequently abbreviated as CSR, has evolved throughout time to address these growing demands ( Esen, 2013 ; Moyeen et al., 2019 ). Society’s organizational structure has had a role in the evolution of the notion of corporate social responsibility ( Dahlsrud, 2008 ). Previous study has compiled a compendium of the CSR literature in regard to the growth of the service sector in accordance with the concept of corporate social responsibility (e.g., Coles et al., 2014 ; Aragon-Correa et al., 2015 ; Farrington et al., 2017 ). The study of CSR ethics in the discipline of decision science may be used for a variety of purposes, including increasing commercial profitability, improving political performance, or improving stakeholder responsibility ( Esen, 2013 ; Shin et al., 2021 ). There has been a significant amount of focus placed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a mechanism for enhancing the legitimacy of firms and the financial returns they generate ( Carroll & Shabana, 2010 ; Wang & Sarkis, 2017 ; Xu et al., 2019 ). According to the findings of the precedential study, CSR has the potential to not only enhance the image and reputation of a service business but also to raise the motivation of its workforce. In addition, a greater awareness of the environment encourages businesses to accept responsibility for the consequences of their operations and to make a contribution toward environmentally responsible growth ( Sadik-Zada, 2021 ). Therefore, corporate social responsibility is of utmost importance for the service businesses.

According to the findings of the previous studies, CSR has the potential to not only enhance the image and reputation of a service business ( Sheldon & Park, 2011 ; González-Torres et al., 2021 ), but also to raise the motivation of its workforce ( Aminudin, 2013 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ). The very first piece of inquiry examined the amount of papers on corporate social responsibility and the effect that it has on the service industry. Over the last several decades, there has emerged a significant focus in gaining a deeper comprehension of the occurrences of papers presented in Table 1 . Despite the fact the very first piece of CSR issues was not publicly released until 2002, from 2015 there have been more than 50 pieces of content released per year. In the year 2020, there were over 104 articles published on the subject of the impact of CSR on the service sector. This conclusion demonstrates that the issue is novel and justifies the increasing emphasis that management/decision science scholars have been paying to it. In addition, the rise in ecological consciousness necessitates that businesses accept responsibility for the consequences of the activities and make contributions to the advancement of sustainable practices ( Luo et al., 2020 ). In a similar vein, the enterprises’ long-term commitment to charitable giving necessitates the deployment of CSR ( Shin et al., 2021 ).

CSR academic researches in the top prolific and productive regions/nations

Multiple nations make substantial contributions to the topic of CSR researches in the service industry. The following dimension is based upon these top prolific nations among the years 2001 and 2023. The findings of these highest volume of publication in these twelve nations releasing CSR research are shown in Table 2 below. The position is determined by the quantity of periodicals.

TABLE 2 . The most prolific nations with academic attention to the CSR issues in the service industry.

The United States is the one of the most prolific nations, with 192 papers, demonstrating that United States scholars devote the widespread media coverage to CSR research among all academia. China is in second place with 128 articles, followed by the United Kingdom with 89 articles. In the meanwhile, Spain, Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, India and Italy are gaining a substantial place in CSR studies in the service sector and are leading the world ranking list, among others.

A bibliometric coupling is being developed in order to improve our understanding of connectivity across the nations that publish CSR topics. The process of bibliographic coupling takes place when two different papers extensively cite another publication. Regarding nations, it takes place when a manuscript from two different nations, each located in a different country, refers another paper within their respective articles. This demonstrates how the authors from different regions utilize linked material in their published papers. The results of the bibliometric connection are shown in Figure 2 . Every sphere is a representation of a nation, and therefore the diameter reflects the amount contributed by that country. The bigger the size of the circle, greater significant of their academic contributions. According to Table 2 , which can be seen above, the United States of America ranks as the country that published highest number of articles in the whole globe. In addition, the United States of America has the greatest bibliometric linkages to other nations, followed by China, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia and Spain.

FIGURE 2 . Bibliometrics of different nations (Compiled by the authors).

The statistics of the most productive journals centering in the issue of CSR in the service industry

A further essential component of the quantitative evaluation is identifying the most prolific efforts among the journals that publishing CSR issues in the service sector. The top 12 academic publications are presented hereunder, as seen in Table 3 below. Statistics indicate that Journal of Business Ethics is the most productive journal, having produced 105 publications during the course of its existence. The Social Responsibility Journal and Journal of Business Research are ranking the second and the third place. Furthermore, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Service Industry Journal, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Business Strategy and the Environment, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Sustainability Accounting Manamgenet6 and Policy Journal and Service Business are some of the journals that have published over ten articles on CSR issues in the service industry.

TABLE 3 . Statistics of the most prolific journals (Summarized by the authors).

CSR researches among the top publications made by different universities/institutions

One further essential component of the quantitative study is to identify the journals that produces the most scientific understanding about CSR in the service industry. According to the findings shown in Table 4 , the Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE) emerged as the most frequently cited institution, with 19 mentions, followed closely by Pennsylvania State University with 18 mentions. The State University System of Florida and Pennsylvania State University University Park also garnered significant attention with 17 and 15 mentions, respectively. Universidad de Cantabria, Universitat Ramon Llull, and the University System of Ohio exhibited notable presence with counts ranging from 12 to 14. Additionally, institutions such as Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE), Universitat de Valencia, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, California State University System, and Inha University/Nanyang Technological University were mentioned with frequencies ranging from 8 to 10. These findings provide insights into the scholarly discourse and research landscape, showcasing the institutions that have attracted substantial academic attention within the scope of the systematic review.

TABLE 4 . The most productive universities/institutions (Summarized by the authors).

The authors that produced the highest number of articles about CSR in the service sector in the WOS index system

Refer to Table 5 to review the statistics regarding on these authors who published the most regularly on CSR literature pertaining to the service industry. It has been discovered that Pérez, A. has produced or co-authored an aggregate of eleven papers. Mattila, A.S. has authored nine papers, while Ignacio, R has written ten articles. In addition, Yuen, K. F., Su, L. J., Hur, W. M., Wong, Y. D., Peloza, J., Ana, Z. G., Garcia-Benau, M. A., Lee, S., Thai, V. V. each have published more than four publications to their names.

TABLE 5 . The authors that produced the highest number of articles about CSR in the service sector (Summarized by the authors).

CSR academic researches keywords in the service sector and the co-occurrence analysis

The following part provides a more in-depth examination to the material in categories of research themes, which is a beneficial method for summarizing the characteristics of publications from the field of the CSR researches in the service industry, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sector. It is considered that the text elements of publications serve as the foundation for those key phrases analyzed in the current paper. In this investigation, keywords analytics are used to identify subject-related patterns throughout the chronology generated by the VOSviewer, a reference management application.

Consumers’ choices to buy are heavily influenced by a variety of factors. Product quality ( Kang & Hustvedt, 2014 ), the market price ( Tsai et al., 2012 ), and cooperate responsibility ( Merz et al., 2018 ; Ahn et al., 2019 ) may be differentiated from one another when seen from the perspective of the enterprise’s internal variables. When seen from the outside, they represent the reputation of the company ( Hardeck & Hertl, 2014 ) and the image of the corporation ( Srivastava & Wagh, 2020 ). In a highly competitive market environment where the number and quality of goods continue to increase, business operators are paying more attention to external issues. Thematic analysis is a research technique that scholars now use, and it may be used to find previously unknown topics and areas in the existing literature. It should come as no surprise that it is challenging to speculate on the kinds of subjects that will be of increasing interest in the years to come. The co-occurrences of the thematic keywords, on the other hand, encourages us to believe that the ongoing development pattern will not change in the near future.

Using the WOS database and VOSviewer, the co-occurrence density map of CSR investigations published between 2001 and 2022 is shown below. Throughout the graph, terms with stronger scientific keyword linkages are depicted as linking nearer together, whereas the keywords of weaker correlations are further apart. In addition, the occurrence of a term in the central circle of the co-occurrence map showed the significance of that node in the keyword’s shared platform. In addition, the most frequent terms used in CSR papers are displayed in the following diagram. As seen, the size of the circle indicates further applications of the idea or keyword. As indicated in the graph, the most often used terms were CSR (shown with responsibility), impact, connection, customer, influence, sustainability, community environment, and management (see Figure 3 below). A more interesting judgement to such findings is to centralize the concept of “sustainability”, in which Pazienza et al. (2022) defined as corporate sustainability.

FIGURE 3 . Overlay visualization for keywords co-occurrence from extracted title/abstract/keywords from the WOS database (Compiled by the authors).

To further elaborate the detailed keywords frequency, the authors then collected the filter by keyword panel data in the following table. Frequencies that are included in a percentage up to a specified measurement range are added together to get the cumulative frequency ( Winkler, 2021 ). The statistics are shown in the form of a table above (See Table 6 ), within which the occurrences are broken up into several sections based on the categorical variables. In the process of keyword selection, there are 2,854 keywords shown in the VOSviewer software. The authors selected the minimum number of occurrences of a keyword is 15 times of frequency. Then, the authors set number of keywords to be selected as 25, of which the total strength of the co-occurrence links with other keywords can be calculated. Finally, the verified selected keywords shown as follows. Afterwards, the authors merged the duplicated phrases or keywords. For instance, the keywords “stakeholder (23)”, “stakeholder theory (19)” and the “stakeholders (16)” are merged together as occurrence = 58, because they identified the same meaning. Furthermore, if corporate social responsibility, CSR, corporate social responsibility (CSR) are shown, the latter two phrases are merged into the first phrase.

TABLE 6 . Keywords co-occurrence shown to verify its frequency and linkage strength (Compiled by the authors).

Discussions

How has studies on CSR in the service industry grown during the past 3 decades? To address such issue, the prominent publications were summarized with unique time periods-based groups in the following Table 7 . Using MS Excel software, top of the finest articles is then selected and presented in the statistics below. The assessment of the publications revealed an increasing importance to the conceptualization, perspectives and methods over the CSR strategy in the service sector between 2001 and 2023. CSR has made significant progress throughout business communities, cooperate orientations and governance ( Gull et al., 2022 ). Ecologic assertiveness and advancements ( Araujo da Costa et al., 2020 ), providing environmentally-friendly services and responsible commodities ( Latapí Agudelo et al., 2020 ), emissions ( Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020 ), service with virtues of humanity ( Rhou & Singal, 2020 ), and customer-friendly operational processes ( Cha et al., 2016 ), have been highly referenced during the aforementioned time period. Consequently, some of the finest studies written during this time period addressed the determinants, consequences and benefits of CSR in the service industry in a metaphorical sense ( Boubakri et al., 2021 ).

TABLE 7 . The most cited papers (Summarized by the authors).

The service industry, including tourism and hospitality enterprises, is subject to the identical repercussions that CSR has on the subject of customer choice. Through the current systematic review in service businesses such as travel agencies and hotels, it has been shown that the fundamental variables that influence customers’ behavior, which include consumer loyalty (as shown above in the keyword occurrence), purchase intent, intrinsic motivation, and confidence in tourism companies ( Bagga & Bhatt, 2013 ; Meitiana et al., 2019 ; Rodríguez et al., 2022 ). In addition, customer identification of the firm will facilitate the development of a strong consumer-business connection and encourage consumers to make purchases ( Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004 ). As a consequence of this, it is essential to improve the reputation and image of a service business by formulating relevant CSR initiatives ( Esen, 2013 ; Kim et al., 2020 ).

Therefore, corporate social responsibility is of utmost importance for service businesses in the current social circumstances. Even if there are a great number of other studies that investigate CSR and the service sector these papers are characterized by having an inadequate scope, and as a result, they are unable to give a thorough knowledge of CSR and the role of CSR stakeholders ( Camilleri, 2015 ; Estol et al., 2018 ). Bravo et al. ( Bravo et al., 2012 ) describe CSR as the whole of a company’s responsible customer-focused actions. CSR encompasses the services and attitudes a business delivers to its consumers in their thoughts, its connection with its customers, its code of ethics, and the fulfillment of its pledges to its customers ( Carroll & Shabana, 2010 ).

Brand loyalty was one of the criteria that determined an consumer’s purchase intention, which demonstrated that customers’ faith in a company’s overall image could be affected by the business’s dedication to CSR ( Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004 ). A company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) is, in point of fact, beneficial to the enhancement of the company’s brand value, and the company’s brand may affect the behavior and attitudes of consumers. At the current time, the notion of trust in a brand has become more prevalent in the hospitality sector ( Khanlari et al., 2016 ; 2016 ; Thao, 2018 ; Wang, 2022 ; Xu et al., 2022 ). Trust in a destination’s brand has been demonstrated in a number of studies to be an important factor in increasing visitor loyalty and fostering long-term, solid connections with travelers ( Aliffianto & Candraningrat, 2018 ). Trust in a brand, which is the core of the value that a brand delivers to its customers, may have an effect on the attitudes of those customers.

More than ever before, companies engage in CSR initiatives to make a positive contribution to society or support their strategic goals ( Skarmeas & Leonidou, 2013 ). Furthermore, they further illustrate the technique by using the empirical dataset in study on consumer skepticism about corporate social responsibility (CSR) ( Skarmeas et al., 2014 ). Although consumer skepticism about corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on the increase, research on the psychological dynamics of skepticism is limited, especially when CSR communication acts as a company’s crisis response plan. Thus, the current study proposes that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices may influence consumers’ pro-social behavior. Mantovani et al. (2017) propose that this influence depends on the firm’s motivation for CSR, and is moderated by the consumer-brand social distance. Lee examine the impact of Twitter followers and consumer skepticism on issue support behavior advocated in Twitter-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication ( Lee et al., 2018 ). The purpose of Arli’s study is to investigate the impact of corporate hypocrisy and customer skepticism on the perception of company reputation ( Arli et al., 2019 ). Newman attempts to explain how to lessen consumer CSR skepticism by evaluating the gender and gender-related aspects of a corporate spokesman ( Newman et al., 2019 ). Using two between-subjects design studies, Ham and Kim (2020) examine the effect of consumer CSR skepticism in consumer responses to CSR messaging during various kinds of crises.

The research of Shankar et al. examines the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) domain on brand relationship quality (BRQ) among millennials ( Shankar & Yadav, 2021 ). Thus, the research of Dalal describes the causes and effects of CSR skepticism ( Dalal, 2020 ). Lasarov et al. (2021) add to the CSR literature by presenting an overlooked but significant variable that helps explain why consumers sometimes respond favorably and sometimes adversely to CSR communication. So much of this literature helps me to comprehend the academic community’s present research development, enabling me to seek a better degree of research outcomes in the coming years.

This article is intended to outline the most important issues in the field of CSR in the service industry through a systematic review approach in light of the material offered in the WOS debate platforms from as early as 2001 to the most updated year of 2023. According to the research findings, the managerial enlightenment offered to the service businesses by this study has been proposed and categorized. Concluding comments and recommendations are further proposed. The following sections identify the theoretical significance, practical contributions and the existing limitations of the current investigation.

Theoretical significance

Service businesses should make use of their corporate social responsibility programs to encourage the growth of sustainable development as an essential component of service industry development. This research contributes to the expansion of the research viewpoint of corporate social responsibility from the point of view of both CSR and researchers. In addition to the above, the study develops a more methodical theoretical model within the framework of branding, and it makes use of brand trust as an intermediate variable in order to broaden the theoretical research on CSR approach.

Practical significance

The service industry is often regarded as having several detrimental effects on the natural environment ( de Grosbois, 2012 ; 2016 ). A crisis of confidence posited by the COVID-19 pandemic in the travel sector has resulted from the unfavorable hot search of travel businesses. As the notion of sustainable tourism grows and customers become more environmentally conscious, it has become a challenge for travel businesses to attract these client groups and satisfy their environmental demands ( Moyeen et al., 2019 ). By analyzing the CSR initiatives, the operators and management of the service company may reappreciate the significance of CSR, allowing them to proactively engage in CSR. In addition, the utilization of CSR concept to gain consumer support offers the service firms with a fresh marketing viewpoint for achieving economic rewards.

Future research agenda

The existing research gaps are then fulfilled through the current systematic review, which may be interpreted as an encouragement for further study. After comparing it to past findings, we are able to determine a future research agenda, which is also another way to identify the limitations. This must be investigated into a broader scope of disciplines, for instance, in decision sciences and other areas. Corporate Social Responsibility has proved both its high worth and rapidly expanding importance in the global service industry. Firstly, provided that CSR is primarily is an environmental, business and enterprise subject, there exists an obvious necessity to investigate the difficulties in the strategy-oriented perspective and a practical implication. Second, comprehensive study via the perspectives of a comprehensive manner, challenges will help regulators and decision-makers combine varied policy agendas and establish well-defined policy objectives. Third, it is important to recognize that a striking difficult to address the challenges of CSR and regular strategic choice through a cost-benefit input by the enterprises. Last but not list, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and (Corporate) Sustainability are new proposals or acronyms that span the CSR domain that have emerged in recent years, mostly from a management viewpoint. The study of this article indicates the ESG or Corporate Sustainability as one of the most often occurring terms we may be able to explore this convergence in the course of further studies Thus, as the worldwide monetary and policy environment continues to evolve, it is anticipated that new difficulties may emerge to the service sector. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive study of relevant literature is currently accessible. It is undoubtedly worthwhile to investigate and compare the results of the current bibliometric investigation.

Author contributions

JJZ: conceptualization, framework of the manuscript, and first draft preparation. LS: conceptualization, supervision and review and editing. ZYL, XPS and XCZ: conceptualization and review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This article is part of academic achievements of first-class universities and disciplines in tourism management discipline (project) in Guangxi, China. The corresponding author has also been participating in research projects supported by Guilin Tourism University-China ASEAN Research Centre. This paper is part of the academic achievements of the Translation and Language Testing Centre of Guilin Tourism University, China.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Abbas, M., Gao, Y., and Shah, S. S. H. (2018). CSR and customer outcomes: The mediating role of customer engagement. Sustain. Switz. 10 (11), 4243. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85056701929&doi=10.3390%2fsu10114243&partnerID=40&md5=57ab8d61ba325b0fd13d574ce53eb0d7 .

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Adeyinka-Ojo, S. (2021). PRISMA statement and thematic analysis framework in hospitality and tourism research. Adv. Glob. Serv. retail Manag. 5, 9. doi:10.5038/9781955833035

Ahmad, N., Ullah, Z., AlDhaen, E., Han, H., and Scholz, M. (2022). A CSR perspective to foster employee creativity in the banking sector: The role of work engagement and psychological safety. J. Retail. Consumer Serv. 67. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85125877206&doi=10.1016%2fj.jretconser.2022.102968&partnerID=40&md5=94d0a373711dc9f93e745898644ff09f .

Ahn, J., Lee, C.-K., Back, K.-J., and Schmitt, A. (2019). Brand experiential value for creating integrated resort customers’ co-creation behavior. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 81, 104–112. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.03.009

Aliffianto, A. Y., and Candraningrat, C. (2018). The influence of destination brand communication and destination brand trust toward visitor loyalty of marine tourism in east java, Indonesia. Int. J. Civ. Eng. Technol. (IJCIET) 9 (8).

Google Scholar

Alsamil, A. M., Giezen, T. J., Egberts, T. C., Leufkens, H. G., Vulto, A. G., van der Plas, M. R., et al. (2020). Reporting of quality attributes in scientific publications presenting biosimilarity assessments of (intended) biosimilars: A systematic literature review. Eur. J. Pharm. Sci. 154, 105501. doi:10.1016/j.ejps.2020.105501

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Aminudin, N. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and employee retention of ‘green’ hotels. Procedia - Soc. Behav. Sci. 105, 763–771. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.11.079

Andrew, J., and Baker, M. (2020). Corporate social responsibility reporting: The last 40 Years and a path to sharing future insights. Abacus 56 (1), 35–65. doi:10.1111/abac.12181

Antonetti, P., Crisafulli, B., and Maklan, S. (2021). When doing good will not save us: Revisiting the buffering effect of CSR following service failures. Psychol. Mark. 38 (9), 1608–1627. doi:10.1002/mar.21531

Aragon-Correa, J. A., Martin-Tapia, I., and de la Torre-Ruiz, J. (2015). Sustainability issues and hospitality and tourism firms†TM strategies. Int. J. Contemp. Hosp. Manag. 27 (3), 498–522. doi:10.1108/IJCHM-11-2014-0564

Araujo da Costa, H. de J., Gurgel, E. S. C., Amaral, D. D. do, Vasconcelos, L. V., Rebelo, L. G. B., and Teodoro, G. S. (2020). CSR ecological strategies, functional traits and trade-offs of woody species in Amazon sandplain forest. Flora 273, 151710. doi:10.1016/j.flora.2020.151710

Arici, H. E., and Uysal, M. (2022). Leadership, green innovation, and green creativity: A systematic review. Serv. Industries J. 42 (5–6), 280–320. doi:10.1080/02642069.2021.1964482

Arli, D., van Esch, P., Northey, G., Lee, M. S. W., and Dimitriu, R. (2019). Hypocrisy, skepticism, and reputation: The mediating role of corporate social responsibility. Mark. Intell. Plan. 37 (6), 706–720. doi:10.1108/MIP-10-2018-0434

Atmeh, M., Shaban, M., and Alsharairi, M. (2020). Corporate social responsibility: Motives and financial performance. Int. J. Financial Stud. 8 (4), 76–17. doi:10.3390/ijfs8040076

Bagga, T., and Bhatt, M. (2013). A study of intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing consumer buying behaviour online. Asia-Pacific J. Manag. Res. Innovation 9 (1), 77–90. doi:10.1177/2319510X13483515

Baig, M. I., Shuib, L., and Yadegaridehkordi, E. (2019). Big data adoption: State of the art and research challenges. Inf. Process. Manag. 56 (6), 102095. doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2019.102095

Batool, S., Butt, A., and Niazi, B. (2016). Types of corporate social responsibility practices across the industry in Pakistan and their effectiveness. Corp. Responsib. Stakeholding 10, 225–246. doi:10.1108/S2043-052320160000010015

Bhattacharya, C. B., and Sen, S. (2004). Doing better at doing good: When, why, and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives. Calif. Manag. Rev. 47 (1), 9–24. doi:10.2307/41166284

Boubakri, N., El Ghoul, S., Guedhami, O., Wang, H., and Helen, ). (2021). Corporate social responsibility in emerging market economies: Determinants, consequences, and future research directions. Emerg. Mark. Rev. 46, 100758. doi:10.1016/j.ememar.2020.100758

Bravo, R., Matute, J., and Pina, J. M. (2012). Corporate social responsibility as a vehicle to reveal the corporate identity: A study focused on the websites of Spanish financial entities. J. Bus. Ethics 107 (2), 129–146. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1027-2

Camilleri, M. A. (2015). Environmental, social and governance disclosures in Europe. Sustain. Account. Manag. Policy J. 6 (2), 224–242. doi:10.1108/SAMPJ-10-2014-0065

Carroll, A. B., and Shabana, K. M. (2010). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 12 (1), 85–105. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00275.x

Casado-Dãaz, A. B., Nicolau-Gonzálbez, J. L., Ruiz-Moreno, F., and Sellers-Rubio, R. (2014). The differentiated effects of CSR actions in the service industry. J. Serv. Mark. 28 (7), 558–565. doi:10.1108/jsm-07-2013-0205

Cha, M.-K., Yi, Y., and Bagozzi, R. P. (2016). Effects of customer participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs on the CSR-brand fit and brand loyalty. Cornell Hosp. Q. 57 (3), 235–249. doi:10.1177/1938965515620679

Chen, C.-Y., and Lin, Y.-H. (2020). Persuasion effect of corporate social responsibility initiatives in professional sport franchise: Moderating effect analysis. PLOS ONE 15 (12), e0243579. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243579

Coles, T., Fenclova, E., and Dinan, C. (2014). Corporate social responsibility reporting among European low-fares airlines: Challenges for the examination and development of sustainable mobilities. J. Sustain. Tour. 22 (1), 69–88. doi:10.1080/09669582.2013.790391

Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How corporate social responsibility is defined: An analysis of 37 definitions. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 15 (1), 1–13. doi:10.1002/csr.132

Dalal, B. (2020). The antecedents and consequences of CSR skepticism: An integrated framwork. J. Sustain. Mark. 1 (1), 1–9. doi:10.51300/josm-2020-18

de Grosbois, D. (2012). Corporate social responsibility reporting by the global hotel industry: Commitment, initiatives and performance. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 31 (3), 896–905. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.10.008

De Grosbois, D. (2016). Corporate social responsibility reporting in the cruise tourism industry: A performance evaluation using a new institutional theory based model. J. Sustain. Tour. 24 (2), 245–269. doi:10.1080/09669582.2015.1076827

Esen, E. (2013). “The influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on building corporate reputation,” in International business, sustainability and corporate social responsibility . Editors M. Alejandra Gonzalez-perez, and L. Leonard (Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited ), 133–150. doi:10.1108/S2051-5030(2013)0000011010

Estol, J., Camilleri, M. A., and Font, X. (2018). European Union tourism policy: An institutional theory critical discourse analysis. Tour. Rev. 73, 421–431. doi:10.1108/tr-11-2017-0167

Farrington, T., Curran, R., Gori, K., Oâ€Gorman, K. D., and Queenan, C. J. (2017). Corporate social responsibility: Reviewed, rated, revised. Int. J. Contemp. Hosp. Manag. 29 (1), 30–47. doi:10.1108/IJCHM-05-2015-0236

Freeman, I., and Hasnaoui, A. (2011). The meaning of corporate social responsibility: The vision of four nations. J. Bus. Ethics 100 (3), 419–443. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0688-6

Fukuda, K., and Ouchida, Y. (2020). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the environment: Does CSR increase emissions? Energy Econ. 92, 104933. doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104933

Galeazzi, C., Sacchetti, A., Cisbani, A., and Babini, G. (2008). The PRISMA program. IGARSS 2008-2008 IEEE Int. Geoscience Remote Sens. Symposium 4, IV–105.

Gallardo-Vázquez, D., Valdez-Juárez, L. E., and Castuera-Díaz, Á. M. (2019). Corporate social responsibility as an antecedent of innovation, reputation, performance, and competitive success: A multiple mediation analysis. Sustainability 11 (20), 5614. doi:10.3390/su11205614

González-Torres, T., Rodríguez-Sánchez, J.-L., and Pelechano-Barahona, E. (2021). Managing relationships in the Tourism Supply Chain to overcome epidemic outbreaks: The case of COVID-19 and the hospitality industry in Spain. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 92, 102733. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102733

Gull, A. A., Hussain, N., Khan, S. A., Khan, Z., and Saeed, A. (2022). Governing corporate social responsibility decoupling: The effect of the governance committee on corporate social responsibility decoupling. J. Bus. Ethics . doi:10.1007/s10551-022-05181-3

Ham, C.-D., and Kim, J. (2020). The effects of CSR communication in corporate crises: Examining the role of dispositional and situational CSR skepticism in context. Public Relat. Rev. 46 (2), 101792. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.05.013

Hardeck, I., and Hertl, R. (2014). Consumer reactions to corporate tax strategies: Effects on corporate reputation and purchasing behavior. J. Bus. Ethics 123 (2), 309–326. doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1843-7

Husted, B. W., and Allen, D. B. (2007). Strategic corporate social responsibility and value creation among large firms: Lessons from the Spanish experience. Long. Range Plan. 40 (6), 594–610. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2007.07.001

Kang, J., and Hustvedt, G. (2014). Building trust between consumers and corporations: The role of consumer perceptions of transparency and social responsibility. J. Bus. Ethics 125 (2), 253–265. doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1916-7

Khanlari, A., Hajiheidari, N., and Farhang, M. (2016). The impact of social media based brand communities on brand trust in tourism industry. Маркетинг і Менеджмент Інновацій 2, 94–107.

Kim, M., Yin, X., and Lee, G. (2020). The effect of CSR on corporate image, customer citizenship behaviors, and customers’ long-term relationship orientation. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 88, 102520. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102520

Lasarov, W., Mai, R., Krause, J. S., Schmidt, U., and Hoffmann, S. (2021). Too cold to be skeptical: How ambient temperature moderates the effects of CSR communication. Ecol. Econ. 183, 106943. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106943

Latapí Agudelo, M. A., Johannsdottir, L., and Davidsdottir, B. (2020). Drivers that motivate energy companies to be responsible. A systematic literature review of Corporate Social Responsibility in the energy sector. J. Clean. Prod. 247, 119094. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119094

Lee, Y., Yoon, S., and Jung, K. (2018). Comparative studies of detecting abusive language on twitter. https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.10245 .

Liberati, A., Altman, D. G., Tetzlaff, J., Mulrow, C., Gøtzsche, P. C., Ioannidis, J. P. A., et al. (2009). The PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that evaluate health care interventions: Explanation and elaboration. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 62 (10), e1–e34. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2009.06.006

Luo, W., Tang, P., Jiang, L., and Su, M. M. (2020). Influencing mechanism of tourist social responsibility awareness on environmentally responsible behavior. J. Clean. Prod. 271, 122565. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122565

Mantovani, D., de Andrade, L. M., and Negrão, A. (2017). How motivations for CSR and consumer-brand social distance influence consumers to adopt pro-social behavior. J. Retail. Consumer Serv. 36, 156–163. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2017.01.009

Meitiana, M., Setiawan, M., Rohman, F., and Irawanto, D. W. (2019). Factors affecting souvenir purchase behavior: Valuable insight for tourism marketers and industry. J. Bus. Retail Manag. Res. 13 (3). doi:10.24052/jbrmr/v13is03/art-22

Merz, M. A., Zarantonello, L., and Grappi, S. (2018). How valuable are your customers in the brand value co-creation process? The development of a customer Co-creation value (CCCV) scale. J. Bus. Res. 82, 79–89. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.018

Moher, D., Altman, D. G., Liberati, A., and Tetzlaff, J. (2011). PRISMA statement. Epidemiology 22 (1), 128. doi:10.1097/ede.0b013e3181fe7999

Moyeen, A., Kamal, S., and Yousuf, M. (2019). “A content analysis of CSR research in hotel industry, 2006-2017,” in Responsibility and governance: The twin pillars of sustainability . Editors D. Crowther, S. Seifi, and T. Wond (Singapore: Springer ), 163–179. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-1047-8_10

Nawijn, F., Ham, W. H., Houwert, R. M., Groenwold, R. H., Hietbrink, F., and Smeeing, D. P. (2019). Quality of reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in emergency medicine based on the PRISMA statement. BMC Emerg. Med. 19 (1), 19–28. doi:10.1186/s12873-019-0233-6

Newman, A., Obschonka, M., Schwarz, S., Cohen, M., and Nielsen, I. (2019). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: A systematic review of the literature on its theoretical foundations, measurement, antecedents, and outcomes, and an agenda for future research. J. Vocat. Behav. 110, 403–419. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2018.05.012

Oduro, S., Maccario, G., and De Nisco, A. (2021). Green innovation: A multidomain systematic review. Eur. J. Innovation Manag. 25. doi:10.1108/EJIM-10-2020-0425

Okafor, A., Adeleye, B. N., and Adusei, M. (2021). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Evidence from U.S tech firms. J. Clean. Prod. 292, 126078. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126078

Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., et al. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 372, n71. doi:10.1136/bmj.n71

Pazienza, M., de Jong, M., and Schoenmaker, D. (2022). Clarifying the concept of corporate sustainability and providing convergence for its definition. Sustainability 14 (13), 7838. doi:10.3390/su14137838

Perrini, F., Pogutz, S., and Tencati, A. (2006). Corporate social responsibility in Italy: State of the art. J. Bus. Strategies 23 (1), 65–91. doi:10.54155/jbs.23.1.65-91

Pickering, C., and Byrne, J. (2014). The benefits of publishing systematic quantitative literature reviews for PhD candidates and other early-career researchers. High. Educ. Res. Dev. 33 (3), 534–548. doi:10.1080/07294360.2013.841651

Popay, J., Roberts, H., Sowden, A., Petticrew, M., Arai, L., Rodgers, M., et al. (2006). Guidance on the conduct of narrative synthesis in systematic reviews. A Prod. ESRC Methods Programme Version 1 (1), b92.

Rhou, Y., and Singal, M. (2020). A review of the business case for CSR in the hospitality industry. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 84, 102330. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102330

Rodrigues, M., and Mendes, L. (2018). Mapping of the literature on social responsibility in the mining industry: A systematic literature review. J. Clean. Prod. 181, 88–101. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.163

Rodríguez, A., Hernández, V., and Nieto, M. J. (2022). International and domestic external knowledge in the innovation performance of firms from transition economies: The role of institutions. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 176, 121442. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121442

Sadik-Zada, E. R. (2021). Addressing the growth and employment effects of the extractive industries: White and black box illustrations from Kazakhstan. Post-Communist Econ. 33 (4), 402–434. doi:10.1080/14631377.2020.1745557

Sadik-Zada, E. R., Loewenstein, W., and Hasanli, Y. (2021). Production linkages and dynamic fiscal employment effects of the extractive industries: Input-output and nonlinear ARDL analyses of Azerbaijani economy. Mineral. Econ. 34 (1), 3–18. doi:10.1007/s13563-019-00202-6

Shankar, A., and Yadav, R. (2021). Understanding the impact of CSR domain on brand relationship quality. Mark. Intell. Plan. 39 (4), 559–573. doi:10.1108/MIP-10-2020-0442

Sheldon, P. J., and Park, S.-Y. (2011). An exploratory study of corporate social responsibility in the U.S. Travel industry. J. Travel Res. 50 (4), 392–407. doi:10.1177/0047287510371230

Shin, H., Sharma, A., Nicolau, J. L., and Kang, J. (2021). The impact of hotel CSR for strategic philanthropy on booking behavior and hotel performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tour. Manag. 85, 104322. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104322

Skarmeas, D., Leonidou, C. N., and Saridakis, C. (2014). Examining the role of CSR skepticism using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. J. Bus. Res. 67 (9), 1796–1805. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.12.010

Skarmeas, D., and Leonidou, C. N. (2013). When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism. J. Bus. Res. 66 (10), 1831–1838. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.004

Srivastava, R. K., and Wagh, S. (2020). Factors impacting consumer purchase behaviour for pharmaceutical products. Int. J. Healthc. Manag. 13 (2), 113–121. doi:10.1080/20479700.2017.1348004

Thao, H. T. P. (2018). “Enhancing brand image and brand trust in the Vietnamese tourism industry via e-word of mouth,” in The digitization of business in China: Exploring the transformation from manufacturing to a digital service hub . Editors Y.-C. Kim, and P.-C. Chen (Berlin, Germany: Springer International Publishing ), 179–198. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-79048-0_7

Tsai, H., Tsang, N. K. F., and Cheng, S. K. Y. (2012). Hotel employees’ perceptions on corporate social responsibility: The case of Hong Kong. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 31 (4), 1143–1154. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.02.002

Wang, K.-Y. (2022). Sustainable tourism development based upon visitors’ brand trust: A case of “100 religious attractions. Sustainability 14 (4), 1977. doi:10.3390/su14041977

Wang, Z., and Sarkis, J. (2017). Corporate social responsibility governance, outcomes, and financial performance. J. Clean. Prod. 162, 1607–1616. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.142

Winkler, O. W. (2021). Interpreting the cumulative frequency distribution of socio-economic data: A recent study. New Visions Sci. Technol. 4, 105–112. doi:10.9734/bpi/nvst/v4/4236F

Wut, T. M., Xu, B., and Wong, H. S.-M. (2022). A 15-year review of corporate social responsibility practices research in the hospitality and tourism industry. J. Qual. Assur. Hosp. Tour. 23 (1), 240–274. doi:10.1080/1528008X.2020.1864566

Xu, J., Wei, J., and Lu, L. (2019). Strategic stakeholder management, environmental corporate social responsibility engagement, and financial performance of stigmatized firms derived from Chinese special environmental policy. Bus. Strategy Environ. 28 (6), 1027–1044. doi:10.1002/bse.2299

Xu, W., Jung, H., and Han, J. (2022). The influences of experiential marketing factors on brand trust, brand attachment, and behavioral intention: Focused on integrated resort tourists. Sustainability 14 (20), 13000. doi:10.3390/su142013000

Zabavnik, D., and Verbič, M. (2021). Relationship between the financial and the real economy: A bibliometric analysis. Int. Rev. Econ. Finance 75, 55–75. doi:10.1016/j.iref.2021.04.014

Zhang, J., Xie, C., and Morrison, A. M. (2021). The effect of corporate social responsibility on hotel employee safety behavior during COVID-19: The moderation of belief restoration and negative emotions. J. Hosp. Tour. Manag. 46, 233–243. doi:10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.12.011

Keywords: systematic review, corporate social responsibility, service industry, keywords co-occurrence, meta analysis

Citation: Zhu JJ, Liu Z, Shen X, Shan L and Zhang X (2023) Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the service industry: a systematic review. Front. Environ. Sci. 11:1150681. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2023.1150681

Received: 24 January 2023; Accepted: 09 May 2023; Published: 25 May 2023.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2023 Zhu, Liu, Shen, Shan and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Ling Shan, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

Environmental Risk and Corporate Behaviour

Developments in Information and Knowledge Management Systems for Business Applications pp 1–21 Cite as

Research on the Service Sector in the Modern Economy

• Miloš Šajbidor 5 &
• Marian Mikolasik   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0096-7492 5  
• First Online: 19 March 2023

409 Accesses

Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 462))

The major objectives of this research paper are to give more comprehensive information about the service sector's role in the modern economy, to illustrate it with theoretical data and actual figures, and to explore how the service sector has changed and what changes it brought to the economy. The beginning of the current paper aims to explain the term “Service” given by various researchers, to identify the key unique characteristics of them that distinguish services from goods, and present common short classifications. Then the evolution of the service-based sector is described, namely the leadership of service industries, employment share in the service sector, and the increasing role of services worldwide. Finally, it provides information about the collaboration and interaction of E-business and Services, and how E-business and ICT have changed the service sector.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

McCredie, A., Bubner, D.: Seven myths about services. Aust Serv Round Table (2010)

Google Scholar  

Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J., Dremler, D.: Services marketing, international edition. McGraw Hill, NY London (1996)

Blois, K.J.: The marketing of services: an approach. Eur J Mark (1974)

Lovelock, D., Mendel, M., Larry Wright, A.: An Introduction to the Mathematics of Money: Saving and Investing. Springer (2007)

Book   MATH   Google Scholar  

Grönroos, C.: Service Management and Marketing. Lexington books Lexington, MA (1990)

Gronfeldt, S., Strother, J.: Service Leadership: The Quest for Competitive Advantage. SAGE Publications (2005)

Bagad, V.S.: Total Quality Management. Technical Publications (2008)

Fedushko, S., Ustyianovych, T., Syerov, Y., Peracek, T.: User-engagement score and SLIs/SLOs/SLAs measurements correlation of e-business projects through big data analysis. Appl. Sci. 10 (24), 9112 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/app10249112

Article   Google Scholar  

Lovelock, C.H.: Classifying services to gain strategic marketing insights. J. Mark. 47 , 9–20 (1983). https://doi.org/10.2307/1251193

Poniszewska-Maranda, D., Matusiak, R., Kryvinska, N., Yasar, A.-U.-H.: A real-time service system in the cloud. J. Amb. Intell. Human Comput. 11 (3), 961–977 (Mar.2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-019-01203-7

Lovelock, C.H., Wirtz, J.: Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy, 9th edn. World Scientific, New Jersey (2022)

Devlin, J.: Brand architecture in services: the example of retail financial services. J. Mark. Manage. 19 , 1043–1065 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2003.9728250

Berry, L.L.: Cultivating service brand equity. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 28 , 128–137 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070300281012

Fitzsimmons, J.A., Bordoloi, S., Fitzsimmons, M.J.: Service management operations, strategy, and information technology: operations, strategy, and information technology. Mc Graw Hill Irwin, Nueva York (Estados Unidos) (2014)

World Trade Organization: Trade and Public Policies: A Closer Look at Non-tariff Measures in the 21st Century. WTO Publ, Geneva (2012)

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: UNCTAD handbook of statistics. United Nations, New York (2012)

The World Factbook—The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/ . Accessed 25 Jun 2022

Ghani, E., Goswami, A.G., Kharas, H.: Can services be the next growth escalator? In: VoxEU.org (2011). https://voxeu.org/article/can-services-be-next-growth-escalator?quicktabs_tabbed_recent_articles_block=1 . Accessed 25 Jun 2022

World Development Indicators|DataBank. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators . Accessed 25 Jun 2022

Halás Vančová, M., Mikolasik, M.: Use of E-service Analytics in Slovakia, pp 83–121 (2022)

Fitzsimmons: Service Management 5E W/Cd. McGraw-Hill Education (India) Pvt Limited (2006)

Licht, G., Moch, D., Licht, G., Moch, D.: Innovation and information technologies in services. ZEW Discuss (1997). https://doi.org/10.2307/136427

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Comenius University, Odbojarov 10, 831 04, Bratislava, Slovakia

Miloš Šajbidor & Marian Mikolasik

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marian Mikolasik .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Management, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Natalia Kryvinska

Department of Information Systems, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Michal Greguš

Department of Social Communication and Information Activities, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine

Solomiia Fedushko

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Šajbidor, M., Mikolasik, M. (2023). Research on the Service Sector in the Modern Economy. In: Kryvinska, N., Greguš, M., Fedushko, S. (eds) Developments in Information and Knowledge Management Systems for Business Applications. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 462. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25695-0_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25695-0_1

Published : 19 March 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-25694-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-25695-0

eBook Packages : Intelligent Technologies and Robotics Intelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Operations in the Service Industries: Introduction to the Special Issue

2008, Production and Operations Management

Related Papers

Systems Research and Behavioral Science

Journal of Operations …

Victor Aguilar

Nedyalkov, A. (2010). Aspects of Operations Management of Services, Annals of "Eftimie Murgu" University of Resita, Fascicle II - Economic Studies, No 5, pp. 270-279, ISSN 1584-0972.

Anton Nedyalkov

The objective of the paper is to analyze aspects of operations management of services, and on this basis to develop guidelines for further investigations. There are differences between services and goods in terms of marketing, but from a production point, the differences are only at the output of the operations system. In operations management of services, transformation and support subsystems can be combined on one component – back-office system, and people as a resource should be front-office system. There is a relationship among the components of the operations system and Albrecht's service triangle components and on that base is proposed integration of models and approaches among customer, back-office system, and front-office system. It is substantiated that for the front-office system there are developed several management models, unlike the back office-system. It is considered that further investigation should be made in the back-office system, and its relationship with front-office system and customer.

Production and Operations Management

Kalyan Singhal

The challenges and opportunities in production and operations management (POM) are almost unlimited because in the world economy, manufacturing andservice operations account for more than 10 trillion dollars per year and in any single industry, the performance varies widely from country to country and from organization to organization. The goal of Production and Operations Management is to contribute to improving the management of manufacturing and service operations all over the world. The editors and reviewers judge the papers published in the journal for their contribution to improving of business practices and to further closeness between research and practice. The journal will publish high quality papers on a broad range of topics in POM, and it encourages all paradigms, old and new. We also invite managers from around the world to describe specific POM problems that provide challenging opportunities for academic research.

george mechling

Management Science

Candace Yano

Decision Sciences

A. Marucheck

Michelle Acuavera

Operations refer to the part of an organization that is responsible for producing goods and/or services. Goods are physical items inclusive of raw materials, parts, subassemblies such as the engine system used in a car, and final products such as computers and machineries. Services are activities that provide a combination of time, location form, and psychological value. There are examples of these goods and services all around you. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1. Define the term operations management 2. Identify the three major functional areas of organizations and describe how they interrelate 3. Identify similarities and differences between production and service operations 4. Describe the operations function and the nature of the operations manager's job 5. Summarize the two major aspects of process management 6. Explain the key aspects of operations management decision making 7. Briefly describe the historical evolution of operations management 8. Characterize current trends in business that impact operations management Basic Functions of the Business Organization Organization Marketing-responsible for assessing consumer needs and wants, and selling and promoting the organization's goods or services. Operations-responsible for producing the goods or providing the services offered by the organization. Finance-responsible for securing financial resources at favorable prices and allocating those resources throughout the organization, as well as budgeting, analyzing investment proposals, and providing funds for operations.

Journal of Service Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations. Design/methodology/approach Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multi...

RELATED PAPERS

2012 IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology (ISSPIT)

Pavel Machac

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Diogo M.F. Santos

Stig Synnes

Geophysical Research Letters

Dominic Kniveton

Philip Maini

Cambridge Journal of Education

ivana prijatelj pavicic

Juliana Godinho Demarchi

Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology

Andrea Eugenio Cavanna

Zuhrul Umam

Lauro Mattei

Proceedings of the 20th International Middleware Conference Demos and Posters

James Clavin

Rodrigo Benitez Merino

Canadian Geotechnical Journal

joris van ruijven

Nenpō shakaigaku ronshū

wahei Ishii

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Michael Birnbaum

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

Ernst-august Nuppenau

… publishing'01: 2001 …

Antti Tammela

Atherosclerosis

Cristina Giglioli

Wireless Personal Communications

Muhammad Tasiu Abbas

Iranian journal of microbiology

abbas farahani

Problems of Information Transmission

Boris Ryabko

BMC Infectious Diseases

Josaphat K Byamugisha

Zbyněk Engel

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, restaurant and foodservice research: a critical reflection behind and an optimistic look ahead.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN : 0959-6119

Article publication date: 10 April 2017

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the foodservice and restaurant literature that has been published over the past 10 years in the top hospitality and tourism journals. This information will be used to identify the key trends and topics studied over the past decade, and help to identify the gaps that appear in the research to identify opportunities for advancing future research in the area of foodservice and restaurant management.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper takes the form of a critical review of the extant literature that has been done in the foodservice and restaurant industries. Literature from the past 10 years will be qualitatively assessed to determine trends and gaps in the research to help guide the direction for future research.

The findings show that the past 10 years have seen an increase in the number of and the quality of foodservice and restaurant management research articles. The topics have been diverse and the findings have explored the changing and evolving segments of the foodservice industry, restaurant operations, service quality in foodservice, restaurant finance, foodservice marketing, food safety and healthfulness and the increased role of technology in the industry.

Research limitations/implications

Given the number of research papers done over the past 10 years in the area of foodservice, it is possible that some research has been missed and that some specific topics within the breadth and depth of the foodservice industry could have lacked sufficient coverage in this one paper. The implications from this paper are that it can be used to inform academics and practitioners where there is room for more research, it could provide ideas for more in-depth discussion of a specific topic and it is a detailed start into assessing the research done of late.

Originality/value

This paper helps foodservice researchers in determining where past research has gone and gives future direction for meaningful research to be done in the foodservice area moving forward to inform academicians and practitioners in the industry.

• Hospitality management
• Restaurants
• Food and beverage
• Foodservice research

DiPietro, R. (2017), "Restaurant and foodservice research: A critical reflection behind and an optimistic look ahead", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 1203-1234. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-01-2016-0046

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles

We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Nutr Res Pract
• v.15(Suppl 1); 2021 Dec

Food service industry in the era of COVID-19: trends and research implications

1 School of Hospitality Management, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802, USA.

2 Department of Food and Nutrition, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new type of respiratory disease that has been announced as a pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the way we live. It has also changed the food service industry. This study aimed to identify trends in the food and food service industry after the COVID-19 outbreak and suggest research themes induced by industry trends. This study investigated the industry and academic information on the food and food service industry and societal trends resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. The most noticeable changes in the food industry include the explosive increase in home meal replacement, meal-kit consumption, online orders, take-out, and drive-through. The adoption of technologies, including robots and artificial intelligence, has also been noted. Such industry trends are discussed in this paper from a research perspective, including consumer, employee, and organizational strategy perspectives. This study reviews the changes in the food service industry after COVID-19 and the implications that these changes have rendered to academia. The paper concludes with future expectations that would come in the era of COVID-19.

INTRODUCTION

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) captured public attention as a new type of respiratory disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 [ 1 ]. Although most people heard “corona virus” for the first time, humans have experienced seven types of coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015. COVID-19, like SARS and MERS, is a respiratory disease with similar symptoms. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, is genetically 80% similar to SARS-CoV, the virus that causes SARS [ 2 ]. The viruses for COVID-19, SARS, and MERS are stable and active at 4 °C [ 3 ]; they become inactive as the temperature increases to 65–70°C [ 4 ]. As COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets, aerosols, and direct contact, wearing masks and washing hands with disinfectants are the foremost defensive methods. The COVID-19 virus also come out of human activities like breathing, speaking, coughing, and sneezing [ 5 ]. As a major route of COVID-19 transmission is droplets, human contact should be avoided to prevent infection. Furthermore, eating food together, such as Korean soup and side dishes, should be avoided, because the droplets can transmit the COVID-19 virus [ 6 ]. Therefore, foodservice operations have been one of the primary sources of COVID-19 transmission. During the COVID-19 era, people look for healthy foods and adopt behaviors to prevent virus transmission. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in novel trends in the foodservice industry.

FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY TRENDS

Emergence of covid-19 new normal era.

The COVID-19 outbreak brought a situation that people have never experienced. A new word, “a new normal era after COVID-19,” was coined. The era of Before Corona (B.C.) was separated from that of After Corona (A.C.) because people can never get back the days before the pandemic struck. The word “new normal” was used at the time of the global economic crises initiated by the US sub-prime mortgage during 2007–2008 [ 7 ]. A new normal indicates a new norm for the economic standards. The new normal After Corona described the situation as H (healthcare), O (Online), M (manless), and E (economy at home): healthcare as heightened public interest in health and safety; online as a core essence of digital economies with the advantages of artificial intelligence, big data, and 5G; manless as a proven safety and efficiency during the course of prevention from coronavirus transmission; economic activities at home while staying long hours at home [ 7 ]. Such “new normal” also took place in the food service industry.

Non-human contact (untact) purchasing

Most of all, an explosive increase has been observed in the foodservice purchasing using untact methods. Contrary to the dramatic decrease in the sales of restaurants and institutional foodservices, Starbucks Korea experienced a sales increase of 32% from January to February 2020, compared to the same months in 2019 [ 8 ]. In fact, the orders made via Siren contributed to a 25% increase in terms of the purchase number, compared to the previous year [ 9 ]. The outcome explains consumers’ intention to use untact services to minimize human contact, which will be expanded in the future. Since the order could be made online, the drive-through pick-up of the ordered products increased, from café, bakery, and fast foods to all kinds of restaurants, including even Sish-shop [ 10 ]. McDonalds expanded drive-through stores in the US and China, which resulted in a double-digit increase in sales in September 2020, compared to the same month of 2019 [ 11 ].

Explosive increase in home meal replacement (HMR) and meal-kit

One of the segments that has benefitted most from the COVID-19 outbreak is the meal-kit and HMR products [ 12 ]. While people stay at home, they care more about health and have time to cook. In the US, the sales of meal-kit products in 2020 became 2 times higher than in the previous year [ 13 ]. The major players in the meal-kit industry, Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Home Chef, experienced a 49% increase in the number of customers. The meal-kit products satisfy the needs of a variety of customers, including vegan, gluten-free, children, and patients with diabetes [ 14 ]. In Korea, since the COVID-19 outbreak, the sales of meal-kit brands have rapidly increased, while offline retail brands rushed into the meal-kit segments with the names of Simply Cook (GS Retail), ChefBox (Hyundai Department Store), Yorihada (Lotte Mart), Gourmet 494 (Galleria), and Peacock Meal Kit (E-mart) [ 14 ]. The delivery of online order food and HMR food services increased by 77.5% in 2020, compared to the previous year [ 15 ]. Further, people are more concerned about health and look for healthy foods. Consumers purchased more high-protein salads with low calories, health-protection HMR, and fresh ingredient meal-kit [ 16 ].

Acceleration of food tech

COVID-19 resulted in the acceleration of food technology. Robotics in foodservice operations has been expanded significantly. Manless cafés, such as Briggo in USA, Lounge X in Korea, and Chowbotics in California, are its good examples [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Chowbotics is the first manless café to purchase fresh produce. Cooking robots work at various positions, such as making hamburgers in a fast-food chain (Miso Robotics in White Castle Burger in California), working at a pasta kitchen (DaVinci Kitchen, Germany), and serving in chicken restaurants (Robert Chicken, Korea) [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Moley is the first robot to cook gourmet cuisines using artificial intelligence techniques [ 23 ]. Robotics has also been applied to serving (Royal Palace, Netherlands) and deliveries (PepsiCo's, USA) [ 24 , 25 ]. TUG, as a delivery robot for patient meals at the Reading HealthPlex in Pennsylvania, reduced labor costs by 80% [ 26 ]. The UVD Robotics Techniques have been utilized to prevent COVID-19 transmission, while Blue Ocean Robotics played a role in disinfection at the Heathrow International Airport, UK [ 27 ].

New government project

In Korea, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) launched a new project called “Korean Eating Culture Improvement” in May 2020 [ 6 ]. The project aimed to change Koreans' eating behavior of sharing cuisines, which can cause diseases that are transmitted via droplets [ 28 ]. Thus, COVID-19 can be transmitted through such food-sharing behavior. To accomplish this change, MAFRA proposed three activities: one-person portion meal setting, sanitary management of spoons and chopsticks, and employees wearing masks. The project spread all over the country. Authorities of respective provinces supported the restaurants that abided by the above-mentioned activities by rendering certification to the restaurants. The project is expected to construct a safe eating culture with a high level of safety among Koreans.

RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS

COVID-19 has drastically changed the world, and many believe that some of those changes may last even after the pandemic is over [ 29 , 30 ]. This reality and future expectations certainly apply to the food service industry as well. This study discusses the kinds of research implications that can be drawn from these changes and future expectations. Such changes can be related to the behaviors and perceptions of consumers and employees, as well as the strategic responses of food service businesses. Considering these primary constituencies of the food service industry, this study attempts to provide meaningful research implications related to COVID-19.

Consumer perspectives

Consumer confidence in dining-in.

Consumers of food service businesses have been through and will continue to undergo tremendous changes due to COVID-19. First, due to lockdown or heavy restrictions on in-dining food services during the pandemic, consumers have been unable to enjoy in-dining experiences, either in a complete or at least a partial manner [ 31 , 32 ]. Even in the absence of government restrictions on the in-dining food service, many consumers were and are reluctant to dine out in a confined food service setting, because of the possibility of COVID-19 transmission [ 33 ]. Moreover, although the vaccination rate is significantly increasing, some consumers either refuse inoculation, thus avoiding dining out, or do not feel safe to dine out in a confined place even after getting vaccinated [ 34 , 35 ]. This lingering concern is understandable because of the high level of uncertainty regarding COVID-19 and its vaccines, especially among the general public [ 36 ]. Accordingly, it is important to understand the real consumer confidence in dining in food service establishments as the COVID-19 development continues and how such confidence can be boosted from the perspective of food service management.

Therefore, food service researchers should pay close attention to the status of consumers' confidence in dining at food service establishments. An important aspect of this examination would be a constant or timely update because since everyone is experiencing this type of pandemic for the first time, how people psychologically recover from and respond to this event is unknown. In particular, as vaccination rate accelerates globally, consumer confidence may recover quickly in a non-linear fashion, or it may first recover quickly but later possibly stall at a certain level due to a particular group of consumers who are either too concerned about the possibility of full recovery or skeptical of vaccination programs, which raise legitimate empirical questions for the food service industry.

Next, the food service business should have a better understanding of how they can improve consumer confidence in in-dining food services. There are various ways that can be implemented to boost consumer confidence in this matter, such as cleaning and sanitizing, restructuring the dining table layout to ensure social distancing, requiring employees and customers to wear face masks, installing transparent plastic panels at the counter and/or between tables, and minimizing human interactions (e.g., use of an electronic tablet for menu ordering or even robots to take orders). Restaurant businesses need to understand which practices to prioritize or emphasize because they do not have unlimited resources to implement them all. An efficient allocation of resources is essential for the food service industry to achieve a more desirable level of profitability because they have a tight profit margin. Furthermore, even when all or most of the possible implementations are feasible and can be done, proper prioritization of these implementations can go a long way to enhance consumer confidence in in-dining services more effectively, which can directly or indirectly impact the establishment's or brand's image, and consumer loyalty and revisit intention eventually.

Accordingly, researchers in the food service literature are recommended to explore, first, the practices that restaurant businesses should consider implementing to improve consumer confidence in in-dining services. In addition, it would be interesting to investigate differing degrees of consumers' perceptions of the importance of such practices to assist the food service business to prioritize relevant practices more efficiently and effectively, especially in terms of resource allocation. It would also be critical to study how to disseminate the information of those practices to the target markets (i.e., a marketing strategy). Some potential questions to answer in this matter may include which marketing media should be used, which practices or messages should be emphasized, and how these messages should be delivered (e.g., with more detailed information in an educational format or with more visual representations of actual practices). To accomplish these research goals, researchers should seek responses from consumers as primary data by utilizing a survey method in an observational or experimental manner. Laboratory experiments and follow-up field studies are desirable. In addition to examining the main effects of the aforementioned factors, researchers would be encouraged to test potential moderating factors such as gender, age, perceptions of COVID-19, having children, pre-existing health conditions, tendency to general risks, and so on in relation to some characteristics of consumers, but also food service types (e.g., fast food, full-service, etc.), franchised vs. independent, size of the food service establishment, managerial abilities, location of the business, and so on in relation to the business characteristics. Understanding these contingent boundaries will help untangle the proposed main relationships among the mentioned factors in a more detailed and comprehensive way.

Untact service

Another interesting topic is the contact-free service, which can be represented by the marketing term “untact service” in the recent literature (from 2017 to be precise) [ 37 ]. The untact service for the food service business includes drive-through, curbside pickup, and delivery. All these forms of untact services have become a norm in the food service industry during the current pandemic and they have helped many businesses in the industry survive the global health and economic crisis [ 38 , 39 ]. It would be important to reveal, first, how untact services have been helped the industry, for example, its impact on sales and profits, and second, how such positive impacts have been heterogeneous contingent on various factors from both consumer (e.g., gender and age) and business perspectives (e.g., location and type of food service).

Post-pandemic change

Lastly, food service researchers should pay attention to which mentioned factors would stick around even after the pandemic is over. Many believe that these new norms during the pandemic, such as the popularity of untact services, fewer interactions with service providers (e.g., service by robotics), and some cleaning and sanitization practices will continue even after the pandemic. However, it is clearly an empirical question that needs to be examined and verified with actual data and rigorous analyses. Even when consumers may anticipate that these practices will still be important and influence their decisions even after the pandemic, their perceptions can certainly change once the pandemic is over. Although we strongly believe that some of these practices will still be important even after the pandemic, which practices will be significant remains to be answered empirically. Understanding the matter will help the food service business to develop more appropriate and timely strategies.

Employee perspectives

Employee turnover.

Similar to consumers of the food service business, employees of the food service business have been experiencing tremendous changes and hardships. For example, the current pandemic has revealed a high level of risk embedded in the food service industry regarding job security from an employee's perspective. Due to the lockdowns and rigid restrictions on food service operations due to COVID-19, countless food service employees have been laid off or furloughed or have experienced a reduced number of working hours. In fact, the food service industry has been one of the hardest hits in the economy by the pandemic [ 33 ]. Since the food service industry is known for a high turnover rate of employees, the added hardship on employees in the industry has been devastating for both employees and employers. Some employees are considering switching to a new career in a different industry because of this hardship, which requires the business to decide what it needs to do to retain and recruit talented employees during and after the pandemic. This is a critical issue even for those employees who stay with their company because they have witnessed a high level of risk and uncertainty in the food service business, which is volatile to external forces such as the pandemic. The industry needs to convince its employees that the industry is still viable and has great potential to grow in the future, especially after the crisis.

Employee attitudes

Understanding the factors during the pandemic that significantly influence employees' various perceptions, such as satisfaction, commitment, and loyalty, is critical for food service management. Employee perceptions play an important role in shaping employees' intention to remain with the company at the end [ 40 , 41 ]. Despite the extreme operational hardships faced by food service employers during the pandemic, they still need to ensure that they show their employees that they care for them and are trying their best to provide them with job security during the pandemic. Such practices can go a long way, possibly making significantly positive impacts on employees' satisfaction with and commitment to their organization because employees also understand how challenging those practices can be during the current pandemic. This kind of positive impact may eventually have an aftereffect on organizational culture and its long-term success. Accordingly, it is suggested that researchers may explore how employers' caring and transparency in their communication influence employees' perceptions and behaviors during the pandemic.

Human resources allocation

Another important issue that needs to be considered regarding employees in the food service business during the pandemic is human resource allocation. As discussed earlier, the food service business had to adapt to a new business environment during the pandemic by extensively implementing untact services, such as drive-through, curbside pickup, and delivery. In doing so, many food service businesses had to deviate from their traditional in-dining services. Such a dramatic transition requires reallocation of human resources to different tasks and related new training. It would be interesting to research how this reallocation impacted the food service business and, in particular, employees' various perceptions about their job and productivity. Additionally, an extension of this research to the post-pandemic period should be encouraged because such investigations may reveal possible lasting benefits (e.g., improved human capital with multiple capabilities) and/or drawbacks (e.g., dissatisfied employees with too many or less focused job responsibilities) in a long-term manner.

Organizational strategy perspectives

Corporate social responsibility strategy and more.

In addition to the customer and employee perspectives, there are potential research topics from an organizational strategy perspective that need attention. Food service businesses can implement or might have implemented certain organizational strategies to cope with the pandemic. Accordingly, it is important for researchers to investigate which business strategies (e.g., corporate social responsibility [CSR], franchising, internationalization, and diversification) generate positive benefits during the pandemic. For example, previous studies found that a firm's engagement in CSR activities can enhance employees' commitment to and satisfaction with their organization, improve their productivity, and reduce turnover intention [ 42 , 43 ]. Furthermore, many previous studies have found that CSR positively impacts consumers [ 44 ] and firm performance [ 45 ]. Hence, it can be interesting to see whether the food service business's CSR investment during the pandemic has the same positive impact (e.g., on customers, employees, and/or business performance). Interestingly, some may argue that an investment in CSR activities during the pandemic has an opposite impact (i.e., a negative impact) on employees, customers, and performance because such investments will cause the cash flow of the business to become even tighter in an extremely difficult time, thus making the probability of its survival slimmer.

It would also be interesting to explore whether a company's pre-existing reputation of being socially responsible can generate business benefits during the pandemic. The pre-existing reputation is not about the company's investment in CSR during the pandemic, but rather the reputation that had already been built before the pandemic, which does not put any burden on the company during the pandemic. In such a case, the pre-existing reputation of CSR may be more likely to provide benefits because it does not cost the company anything during the pandemic, and CSR investment has been found to provide insurance-like protection during a crisis [ 46 ]. All these CSR issues can be viewed as part of or equivalent to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, which have gained considerable attention from the corporate world and public. Although the ESG concept was created and has been used more in the investment context, due to its extensive popularity in the contemporary corporate world, the term is now used more interchangeably with a broader concept, such as CSR. Accordingly, the suggested research topics are timely, even in the context of ESG. However, since all these suggested research issues are empirical questions, they require empirical verification.

Furthermore, similar research studies apply to other business strategies, such as franchising, internationalization, and various diversification strategies. In particular, since the food service industry employs the franchising strategy the most in the U.S. economy [ 47 ], significant implications of implementing the strategy may exist in relation to the pandemic. Researchers are encouraged to find such implications.

Unit-level analysis

The organizational strategies mentioned above are mainly at the firm level and not at the individual unit level. A majority of the food service business consists of independent and small businesses. Hence, inspecting the effects of the characteristics of the food service business at an individual unit level during the pandemic can provide meaningful and practical implications for food service business owners and operators. An example of such characteristics can be the type of financing. In contrast with large corporations, small food service businesses rely heavily on personal connections to finance (e.g., raising capital from family members and friends) in addition to formal financing (i.e., loans from financial institutions). These different types of financing may imply certain capabilities or lack of them in owners and consequently suggest some anticipatory outcomes during the pandemic, such as a high likelihood of suffering from poor performance and business failure. Thus, these issues should be researched to gain a better understanding of the food service business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in tremendous changes in the overall economy and society. In the food service industry, the ways people order has shifted mostly to non-human contact or untact methods, such as online orders and drive-through orders. The consumption of particular products, such as HMR and meal-kit, has also increased explosively. Cooking and serving robots have been extensively adopted to prevent human contact and reduce labor costs. The COVID-19 situation has also caused serious issues in environmental protection. In terms of research implications, COVID-19 poses great challenges and provides opportunities. This study discusses these challenges and opportunities from three perspectives: consumer, employee, and organizational strategy perspectives.

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interests.

Author Contributions:

• Conceptualization: Ham S, Lee, S.
• Investigation: Ham S, Lee S.
• Supervision: Ham S, Lee S.
• Writing - original draft: Ham S, Lee S.
• Writing - review & editing: Ham S, Lee S.