Refugee Crisis and the Role of Transformative Services



The purpose of this track is to build a Transformative Service Research (TSR) network across countries to cover the broad range of relevant topics related to reducing suffering and improving the well-being of refugees. Another goal is to foster academic-practitioner relationships and to create ideas for future research projects. We are particularly interested in a discussion on relieving suffering as an overlooked transformative service research outcome, as well as on community action research, service design and transdisciplinary research related to the refugee crisis. Researchers with a migration/refugee background are particularly welcome to apply.


Track Leaders

Raymond P. Fisk (B.S., M.B.A., and Ph.D. from Arizona State University) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Marketing at Texas State University. His research focuses on service history, service design, and transformative service research. He has published numerous journal articles and six books including Serving Customers: Global Services Marketing Perspectives. He founded the AMA Services Marketing Special Interest Group (SERVSIG) in 1993 and has served in many SERVSIG leadership roles. The AMA made him the Inaugural Recipient of the SIG Leadership Award in 2016. He received the Career Contributions to the Services Discipline Award from SERVSIG in 2005.
Sertan Kabadayi is Professor of Marketing, and the Chair of the Marketing Area at Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University in New York City.  His recent research interests focus on the Transformative Service Research (TSR) field, with topics including service value creation for refugees, financial well-being and inclusiveness. His work has been published in academic journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing, among others. He currently serves as the Treasurer on the Board of the AMA SERVSIG. He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from Baruch College, CUNY.
Silke Boenigk (Ph.D from the University of Basel, Switzerland, in service management) is a Professor of Nonprofit Management at Universität Hamburg, Germany. Her research focus on donor relationship management, money, time and blood giving, nonprofit branding, and transformative service research in the context of the European refugee crisis. Since 2015, she is the refugee representative of Universität Hamburg and responsible for a large refugee study orientation program called #uhhhilft. Her research has been published in both leading service and nonprofit management journals including Journal of Service Research, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, among others.