Foot reflexology is a non-invasive complementary therapy that is increasingly being accepted by modern people in recent years. To understand the research trends and prospects of foot reflexology in the past 31 years, this study used the Web of Science core collection as the data source and two visualization tools, COOC and VOSviewer, to analyze the literature related to the field of foot reflexology from 1991 to 2021. This study found that the number of articles published in the field of foot reflexology has been increasing year by year, and the top three journals with the most articles are Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Therapies in Medicine, and the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The top three most prolific authors are Wyatt, Sikorskii, and Victorson, and the core institutions in the field of foot reflexology are Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and the University of Exeter. Foot reflexology has been shown to have a moderating effect on anxiety, fatigue, and cancer, and is a topic of ongoing and future research. This study uses this bibliometric analysis of foot reflexology literature to provide an overview of prior knowledge and a reference direction for modern preventive medicine.

Many studies have proven that reflexology has been used as a complementary medical treatment. Therefore, the government has started to plan an examination system for reflexology personnel to ensure the quality of service. Reflexologists work long hours, have heavy workloads, and perform poses that do not conform to human factors, which often cause musculoskeletal fatigue. The purpose of this study is to understand the musculoskeletal pain conditions of reflexologists, the psychological empowerment status, and the perceptions of complementary medicine therapy. The data for this study were obtained in two ways: (1) 59 practitioners were surveyed by using a face-to-face questionnaire and (2) a semi-structured interview was carried out for 10 practitioners. This study discovered the following: (1) Reflexology practitioners have musculoskeletal discomfort symptoms in body parts, including the left shoulder (25.4%), left hand or wrist (25.4%), lower back (25.4%), right shoulder (23.7%), left elbow or forearm (22%). (2) Reflexology practitioners are highly psychologically empowered to work. (3) The practitioners of foot therapy hold a positive attitude towards foot therapy and believe that foot therapy is a natural therapy, which is self-serving and can help others. (4) Most reflexologists support the government’s desire to promote the reflexology examination system and are willing to help develop the policy. (5) The height of most reflexologist work chairs does not match the height of the guest’s seat and is not ergonomic.

Drawing on mobile foot reflexology in Taiwan, this article examines innovation readiness in small-scale wellness services where formal R&D resources, standardized workstations, and organizational support systems are limited. It conceptualizes readiness as a staged service-design condition comprising problem-recognition readiness, practitioner-agency readiness, co-creation readiness, and implementation-fit readiness. The empirical design integrated workplace observation, a survey of 59 therapists, semi-structured interviews with 10 therapists, expert consultation with 7 specialists, and two rounds of prototype evaluation (n = 17 and n = 19). Rather than treating ergonomic symptoms as an isolated occupational health outcome, the analysis traces how discomfort, posture constraints, psychosocial resources, practitioner narratives, and expert judgment were translated into design parameters and two chair prototypes for mobile service delivery. Three cross-phase mechanisms emerged: constraint visibility, practitioner-mediated translation, and implementation-fit testing. Shoulder, wrist/hand, and low-back discomfort signaled unresolved operational friction; high meaning and competence scores pointed to a practitioner resource base for adaptive participation; and staged prototype testing identified portability, adjustability, stability, and bodily comfort as the central adoption conditions. The article contributes to Administrative Sciences by showing that grassroots service innovation readiness is not simply an attitudinal state but an enacted process through which field constraints are made visible, jointly interpreted, and converted into a deployable service-support solution. Beyond this case, the staged readiness logic may also inform mobile wellness, community-care, rehabilitation-support, personal-care, and other low-resource service organizations that must convert frontline constraints into feasible service-support interventions.