The BEST Centre are proud to announce that we are the inaugural sponsor for ServCollab – an international non-profit organisation which brings researchers together to collaborate on ways to reduce human suffering and improve wellbeing worldwide.
ServCollab was founded in 2019 by Prof Ray Fisk, who is a Professor of Marketing in the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University. Fisk is a leading researcher in the field of service research. He founded the AMA Services Special Interest Group (SERVSIG) in 1993 and has served SERVSIG in many leadership roles. The Australian Officer for ServCollab is BEST’s Prof Rebekah Russell-Bennett, whose research lies at the nexus of transformative services marketing and social marketing (behaviour change).
ServCollab states that the organisation was, “started to help service researchers achieve higher levels of impact by elevating the service research community to collaborating on big science solutions to profound human service system problems. For most of human history, human service systems have neglected or excluded some of the people within the systems. Unjust service systems are quite common, especially for those born female, born a minority, or born into poverty. The service research community is developing the knowledge and skills to diagnose these service system problems and collaboratively develop solutions!”
The video below introduces ServCollab’s new logo, which encapsulates their three key goals:
- SERVE: ServCollab seeks to serve all humans with research that respects their dignity and supports their rights
- ENABLE: ServCollab seeks to enable collaborations among researchers and organisations that span disciplinary and national boundaries
- TRANSFORM: ServCollab seeks transformative reductions in human suffering and measurable improvements in human wellbeing.
The video and logo were both designed by BEST Graphic Designer Nat Sketcher, who has been paramount in developing many of the visual elements utilised by BEST today.
BEST believes that the research conducted by our team strongly aligns with the goals and mission of ServCollab. A range of projects which we believe exemplifies this alignment have been listed below.
Nudge, Hug, Smack or Shove: Testing Approaches to Enabling Consumer Energy Use Behaviour Change – Link
The aim of this project was to evaluate which social exchange approach (hug, nudge, smack or shove) was most effective, both in terms of appeal to consumers and in changing their patterns of electricity usage. This interdisciplinary research project (social marketing and behavioural economics), focused on delivering ways to help energy consumers to make more effective energy choices and reduce their power bills and CO2 emissions along the way. The findings from this research project have the potential to deliver significant benefits to the community, industry and energy consumers.
Preventing Homelessness for Mature Women: High Tech vs High Touch Support – Link
This project aims to support mature women (aged 55+) to avoid homelessness before it begins, by equipping non-traditional early responders (that is, a professional source of support who is not directly associated with homeless services) for conversations with these women. The project is ongoing, with an interdisciplinary team from marketing, creative industries, law and IT, and aims to combine high touch approaches (conversations) with high tech flexibility (digital support) to support at-risk women.
Leadership, wellbeing, and housing affordability: Decision making and behaviour of Australian women – Link
This research project aims to explore women’s lived experiences of leadership, civic engagement, housing and economic security and health, to inform postgraduate research, policy and advocacy, and programs and services for women. The project again is interdisciplinary from marketing and behavioural economics and is led by BEST PhD student Megan Godwin.
Behaviours that threaten Australia’s Biosecurity – Link
The intent of this project was to review existing research to better understand the behaviours that lead to increased biosecurity risk, and identify priority behaviours that could be targeted in future research and behavioural design interventions. The team for this project hailed from behavioural economics, marketing and science and engineering.
BEST are excited for future collaborations with ServCollab and continue to support the values of improving human wellbeing through collaboration.
To learn more about ServCollab, visit their website here.