Why is research on Education Services underrepresented in top Marketing services journals and textbooks? Ian Wilkinson, University of Sydney, Louise Young, University of Western Sydney Marion Burford, UNSW Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy Annual Conference University of Auckland, December, 2013 Abstract We argue and provide evidence to show that education services marketing research appears to be under-represented and under-valued in the top service marketing journals and textbooks. This is despite education being economically, socially and culturally significant. This neglect is evident in the contents of top marketing journals over 10 years and a major services marketing textbook. Education services are a relevant and important context for services marketing research and this should be reflected better in text books and articles in the top services marketing journals. It is a context that is probably better understood and accessible to researchers and which has unique contextual characteristics. There is also a substantial education research literature to draw on that can help enrich and broaden services research. Keywords: education services, services science, service contexts, theory development, research opportunities Track: Services 1.0 Introduction We want to argue and provide evidence of the under-representation of education services in the top services marketing journals and textbooks. Yet education services are a socially and economically important part of any society. Education builds social capital and facilitates economic development and competitive advantage (Barney 1991, Connell et al. 2010, Gylfason 2001). Education services are also a significant and growing commercial industry. The global private education market is estimated to be worth over US$2.4 trillion and the global market for higher education was estimated in 2005 to be worth US$65 billion or 1.3% of global trade in services (Chadee and Naidoo 2009). In Australia the international education market is an A$18.6 billion industry eclipsed only by iron ore, coal and gold exports (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009). Lastly, education is becoming ever more important these days as nations compete to become clever countries and industries become more and more knowledge based (Godin 2006). Education research in marketing is mainly reported in two specialist journals i.e. the Journal of Marketing Education and the Journal of Marketing of Higher Education. These are respected academic journals but you would expect that education services would be also well represented in the top services marketing journals. But this is not so. In addition, education itself is a well-established scientific discipline with its own conferences and journals that can be drawn on to inform services marketing theory and research. And there are opportunities to translate service marketing theories and concepts into education research. We believe that research in education services is a valuable and fruitful context that is important in building more generalized theories of the marketing of services and the role and effects of contextual factors. Thus it should feature more in top research journals.