The need for more multidisciplinary research

Purpose - Looks back at five years of the author's editorship of IJSIM and seeks to answer the question whether or not one of the journal's objectives - i.e. more multidisciplinary research - was achieved. Design/methodology/approach - Analyses articles published in IJSIM over the last five years in terms of authors and content. Findings - Based on the characteristics of authors and content of the paper it is concluded that the number of studies devoted to customer satisfaction and quality decreased substantially. Furthermore, as an indication of collaboration between authors from different departments the number of bilateral co-operations between different departments in the authors' team was counted. From all known pairs of authors, only 40 (25 percent) were cross-disciplinary. Originality/value - There is room for improvement in this respect. Contributions from 277 authors from 27 countries all over the world over a period of five years make the journal a leading academic outlet in the field of services marketing and management.