The service profit chain in healthcare services

The objective of this study is to present a systematic literature review on the service profit chain (SPC) applied to the healthcare sector covering the articles published, limitations, and future research avenues. The search was performed in nine databases that cover international content in the fields of management and healthcare and also in Google Scholar. The findings demonstrate that the topic has been little studied so far. Among the 292 articles that included the term 'Service profit chain' in the title, abstract, or keyword, only 12 (4.1%) dealt with the healthcare sector. Most of the articles focused on the connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and only one empirical study considered all the SPC links with only one research being conducted in a private institution. This review highlights the research gap in the current literature and provides direction for future research.