"In the two decades that have passed as the Journal of Services Marketing published an introspective article that assessed the direction of service research (Grove et al., 2003), the service literature has grown in both volume and impact. It seems well past time for a critical, and perhaps occasionally controversial review of the progress made in those two decades. The intent of this article is to inspire thoughtful discussion of critical issues that remain unresolved yet are likely to have a substantial influence on research undertaken in the next decade by service scholars. Our goal is to suggest that before service scholars dash off to investigate new constructs and relationships, there are a number of gaps in the service literature that deserve immediate attention as they represent critical obstacles to efforts to advance the services literature.