The unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the service quality in a specific service encounter is not enough to understand the existing service quality between two actors in a dyadic service encounter. Furthermore, a bi‐directional approach may not always be sufficient to understand the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and apply teleological approaches from complexity sciences in services. Design/methodology/approach – The performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality are dependent upon complex and dynamic interactions between...