Stephen L. Vargo

University of Oklahoma | ou · Michael F. Price College of Business

Many core marketing concepts (e.g., markets, relationships, customer experience, brand meaning, value) concern phenomena that are difficult to understand using linear and dyadic approaches, because they are emergent. That is, they arise, often unpredictably, from interactions within complex and dynamic contexts. This paper contributes to the market...

Advancement of the marketing discipline requires a marketing-based, general theory of markets. However, most academic marketing is developed from normative theories of economics and direct application of psychological and sociological theories. Indigenous marketing theories about markets are rare but can increase the relevance of marketing scholars...

Macromarketing is often contrasted with micro-views of dyadic relationships, such as firm/customer interactions and transactional exchange. However, developing solutions for “wicked” social problems that are often viewed through a macro lens requires an approach that considers multiple perspectives at aggregated levels of interaction. We propose a...

Although the impact of marketing is a recognized priority, current academic practices do not fully support this goal. A research manuscript’s likely influence is difficult to evaluate prior to publication, and audiences differ in their understandings of what “impact” means. This article develops a set of criteria for assessing and enhancing a publi...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-013-0220-5

Diffusion is traditionally examined at a macro-level, measured by adoption (e.g., sales), or at a micro-level, assessed by consumer characteristics (e.g., adopter types). We address diffusion at a meso-level focusing on how a practice disseminates across extended time and cross-cultural and cross-national space. We conduct an historical analysis an...

The idea of a circular economy, in which parts of discarded products are reused to create new products, has intuitive appeal for goals of sustainability. However, it also partially perpetuates a mental model of economic activity that is at the root of unsustainability. This make-buy-destroy-rebuy (products) mental model has been called “goods-domin...

Sales research is increasingly recognizing the blending of salesperson responsibilities, the growing number of interactions involved in sales processes and activities, and the nonlinear nature of value (co)creation. This has resulted in a shift towards more holistic and systemic views to explain selling and sales related phenomena. We adopt such a...

Service-dominant (S-D) logic, a service-centered orientation that reframes the purpose and process of economic exchange, has developed over the last 15 years into a meta-theoretical framework that advances a systemic understanding of value co-creation. This chapter traces the evolution of S-D logic, summarizes its core ideas and compares it with ot...

The diffusion of innovation is generally referred to as the spread or adoption of a technology within a social context. This view separates technological and market aspects of innovation by relying on an underlying assumption of a unidirectional flow of innovation–that is, from the technological side to the market side. More recent work, however, p...

It has been recognized that a service systems perspective, informed by service-dominant logic, provides a dynamic approach for studying value co-creation. According to this view, value is the increase in the viability of the system in which actors co-create value. A construct from systems theory-emergence-can be of particular interest in contributi...

Purpose-To understand how value is created, marketing scholars increasingly highlight the role of institutions and institutional arrangements that guide the assessment of value. However, customers are embedded in several institutional arrangements that may offer distinct prescriptions for actors' behavior and frame for sensemaking (i.e., institutio...

Service-dominant (S-D) logic has been recognized as a theoretical foundation for developing a science of service. As the field of service science advances the understanding of value cocreation in service systems, S-D logic continues to evolve as well. Recent updates and consolidation of the foundational premises establish five core axioms of S-D lo...

There have been numerous calls for more relevance in academic marketing, both for and by practitioners and for customers (e.g., Sheth and Sisodia 2006, Hunt 2018, Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay 2000). It might seem that these calls signal the need for more applied research, based on real data and real-world problems. However, it seems to me that there...

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss how and why academics and practitioners have benefited and might continue to benefit from shifting from a G-D logic to an S-D logic perspective. We do so by discussing four characteristics of S-D logic as a mindset. More specifically, we argue that, as a mindset, S-D logic can be seen as transcending, unify...

This editorial is available free online at https://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/josm/29/4

This article demonstrates that the sales literature is converging on a systemic and institutional perspective that recognizes that selling and value creation unfold over time and are embedded in broader social systems. This convergence illustrates that selling needs a more robust theoretical foundation. To contribute to this foundation, the authors...

This chapter extends traditional, as well as systemic, views of innovation, by advancing an ecosystems perspective on innovation that is based on value co-creation. We draw on a service-ecosystems view, which is grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic, to integrate and extend prior views on innovation. In particular, we argue that both technologie...

The concepts of value-in-use and value-in-exchange have provided the theoretical foundation for scholarly thought since antiquity. The latter has exerted particular influence in economic and business thought since the time of Adam Smith. However, several value-related research streams have, more recently, drawn attention to the contextual and exper...

Triads examine the associations among three actors, involving, at a minimum, the analysis of two dyadic ties among three interrelated actors. By making apparent the indirect ties bearing on actors, the triad is the smallest unit of analysis for a network. Despite extensive conceptual and empirical work, little systematic attention is given to the t...

Changes in modern and dynamic markets are bringing about major changes to the sales role. Some believe these changes will diminish the strategic importance of salespeople. Others believe the strategic importance of salespeople will increase. Moreover, although sales scholars generally recognize that salespeople operate among a set of actors, work e...

It is widely recognized that business models can serve as important strategic tools in innovation and market formation processes. Consequently, business models should have a prominent position in the marketing literature. However, marketing scholars have, so far, paid little attention to the business model concept, perhaps because it lacks an estab...

This paper addresses the implications of an emerging, increasingly important way of thinking about markets: systems thinking. A market is one of the most founational abstractions in marketing and business research; yet, it often receives too little attention. As a result, the taken-for-granted assumptions about markets spur from over-simplified con...

In this article, we propose a service-ecosystem perspective to understand how context influences and is influenced by value creation in international business. Earlier, Akaka, Vargo and Lusch (2013) have indicated that a service-ecosystem perspective can potentially aid researchers in understanding international markets in a more comprehensive mann...

During the last decade, service-dominant (S-D) logic (1) has taken a series of significant theoretical turns, (2) has had foundational premises modified and added and (3) has been consolidated into a smaller set of core axioms. S-D logic can continue to advance over the next decade by moving toward further development of a general theory of the mar...

This paper extends research on innovation as institutional change within service science and service-dominant (S-D) logic by conceptualizing the emergence of novel solutions in service ecosystems. We pay particular attention to how actors (individuals and organizations) are able to create new solutions that change the very institutional arrangement...

In this chapter, we provide a perspective that extends the process of innovation beyond firm activities and new product development. We apply an S-D logic, service ecosystems framework to reframe the context of innovation to include collaboration and social structures (i.e., institutions and institutional arrangements) that guide and are guided by...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of institutions and institutional complexity in the process through which resources-in-context get their “resourceness.” Design/methodology/approach – To shed light on the process of potential resources gaining their “resourceness,” the authors draw from two streams of literature: the serv...

This article provides a brief introduction and comments on the articles in this special issue on transdisciplinary perspectives of service-dominant logic. Insights are provided that draw on economics, ecosystems theory, philosophy, service science, sociology, strategic management and systems science. Collectively these articles enhance service-domi...

This paper examines emerging digital frontiers for service innovation that a panel discussed at a workshop on this topic held at the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). The speakers and participants agreed that that service systems are fundamental for service innovation and value creation. In this context, servic...

This article explores how seemingly distinct actors contribute to value creation and evaluation in a fundamentally similar way. It shows that the division of actors into dichotomies such as ‘producers’ and ‘consumers,’ ‘paying’ and ‘non-paying’ customers, and ‘adopters’ and ‘non-adopters,’ is based on narrow, unidirectional, transactional, and dyad...

Brand extension is a widely used strategy for introducing new products. Previous research has shown that fit between the core brand and the extension are important factors that affect the evaluation of extensions. This study investigates the impact of core brand sponsorship of activities associated with the extension on perceptions of fit between t...

The study of international marketing continues to evolve through increases in technical rigor and a growing emphasis on social and environmental issues (Czinkota and Ronkainen; Nakata and Huang 2005). However, a strong theoretical foundation remains needed to clarify core conceptual concepts and transition the discipline away from a “manufacturing...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend conceptually the context of service beyond service encounters and servicescapes by applying a service-ecosystem approach to context and experiential view on value. Design/methodology/approach – We develop a conceptual framework of an extended service context that is based on an S-D logic, service-ec...

Service-dominant logic continues its evolution, facilitated by an active community of scholars throughout the world. Along its evolutionary path, there has been increased recognition of the need for a crisper and more precise delineation of the foundational premises and specification of the axioms of S-D logic. It also has become apparent that a li...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to propose the application of a service ecosystem approach in sport services which is based on the service-dominant logic and its foundations. Approach – A basic tenet of S-D logic is that value is co-created among social/economic actors, and value is actualized (co-created) and determined by the customer – rat...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the social and cultural aspects of the context that frames service exchange to better understand how value and experience are evaluated. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply a conceptual approach to develop and propose a framework for deepening the understanding of the context of market-...

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing focus on service across socioeconomic sectors coupled with transformational developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Together these developments are engendering dramatic new opportunities for service innovation, the study of which is both timely and important. Fully unders...

From the Guest Editors As a key enabler of business operations, technology drives service innovation and provision in the contemporary business landscape. Digitalization has facilitated the emergence of information-intensive service processes and the increasing connectivity of actors in a variety of service systems. Moreover, technologies have grea...

As a means to advance theory building in the field of marketing, we employ the translation approach to depict the theorizing process. We exemplify the usefulness of this approach by tracing the translations that produced the B2C, B2B, and A2A designations, which emerged in interaction with the long established goods-dominant (G-D) logic, and the gr...

In response to calls for new and underexploited perspectives on project management, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to extend emergent project management thinking to a service ecosystems approach grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic. Project management – including project, program and portfolio management – is examined, as an indust...

Marketing needs a new mindset to fulfill its proper role in creating and sustaining strategic advantage. To extend its influence beyond the boundaries of current offerings, the firm, and conventional practice, marketing and markets must be viewed through a service lens. This lens allows marketing to take a lead role in assisting the enterprise to e...

The rapid rise of powerful social customers has drastically changed the e-business landscape. Social CRM (SCRM) emerged in late 2009 as an e-business strategy for companies to enable customer relationship management (with social customers) utilizing social technology. Despite the many applications that are labeled as SCRM, there is a dearth of guid...

This article discusses how the core concepts of service-dominant logic—service-for-service exchange, value co-creation, value propositions, resource integration, and highly collaborative relationships—point to a generic actor conceptualization in which all actors engaged in exchange (e.g., firms, customers, etc.) are viewed as service providing, va...

Value creation, both its nature and scope, can be better and more accurately understood by inverting six characteristics of goods-dominant logic, or what is also known as old enterprise logic or neoclassical economics, into a service-dominant-informed perspective. These six inversions include (1) entrepreneurship and the view that value creation is...

This article explores the role of symbols in value cocreation in order to develop a deeper understanding of how actors communicate, interact, and reconcile perspectives as they integrate and exchange resources to create value for themselves and for others. We draw on a service ecosystems approach to value cocreation and propose a conceptual framewo...

In 2004, Robert F. Lusch and Stephen L. Vargo published their groundbreaking article on the evolution of marketing theory and practice toward "service-dominant (S-D) logic", describing the shift from a product-centred view of markets to a service-led model. Now, in this keenly anticipated book, the authors present a thorough primer on the principle...

Developing strategic approaches to value creation for their firms and others is among the most fundamental challenges that managers face in all businesses. This implies the need to better understand both how value is created and the roles various parties within and outside the firm play.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine shopper marketing through service-dominant logic and service ecosystem lenses. In doing so, the authors reveal challenges and opportunities for supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach – The work is conceptual, drawing on contemporary service-dominant logic thinking. Findings – Examina...

In closing, we thank the reviewers for this special issue: Chad Autry, Dimitrios Buhalis, Kevin Burgess, Mawuko Dza, Mark Francis, Pennie Frow, Rod Gapp, Debra Grace, Amelia Green, Deborah Griffin, Paul Hyland, Byron Keating, John Mangan, Bill Merrilees, Don Michie, Sandy Ng, Matthew O’Brien, Wes Randall, Daniela Rosenstreich, Claudine Soosay, Kaj...

The progress of service-dominant logic and service science, and their expanding theoretical basis, has created ambiguities in relation to understanding the micro-foundations of value co-creation. Based on a conceptual analysis of resource integration and value proposing as the foundational practices of value co-creation, this article portrays value...

The nature of services in society and the economy is wide-ranging and complex. The management of services and their innovation provokes a number of challenges for practitioners, professionals, and academics. This book provides a range of perspectives on understanding, managing, and reconceptualizing service by bringing together contributions from l...

PurposeThis chapter explores the nature of the cultural context that frames value creation and provides insight to the way in which value is collaboratively created, or co-created, in markets. Methodology/approachWe develop a conceptual framework and research propositions for studying the co-creation of value-in-cultural-context through the interse...

To strengthen the theoretical foundations of international marketing (IM), the authors propose a framework for conceptualizing the complexity of the context that frames international and global exchange systems. In particular, they apply a service ecosystems approach, which is grounded in service-dominant logic and its foundational premise that ser...

In this paper, we explore the role and scope of technology in value co-creation, service innovation and service systems—value co-creation configurations of people technology and value propositions (Maglio and Spohrer in J Acad Mark Sci 36:18–20, 2008). We draw on a structurational model of technology (Orlikowsky in Organ Sci 3(3):398–427, 1992) to...

This article explores in-depth what health care customers actually do when they cocreate value. Combining previously published research with data collected from depth interviews, field observation, and focus groups, the authors identify distinct styles of health care customer value cocreation practice. Importantly, the authors show how customers ca...

This article explores a service-dominant (S-D) logic, service-ecosystems approach to studying value cocreation and the (re)formation of service systems. We outline the central premises of S-D logic and elaborate the concept of a service ecosystem to propose a framework that focuses on resource integration as a central means for connecting people an...

This essay reviews the purpose and history of the Service-dominant logic linked, biennial Forum on Markets and Marketing (FMM) and the community of scholars it is catalyzing. Five essays developed by the participants around the organizational themes of FMM 2010 - (1) resource integration; (2) value, values, symbols and outcomes; (3) systems, comple...

The creation of value is the core purpose and central process of economic exchange. Traditional models of value creation focus on the firm's output and price. We present an alternative perspective, one representing the intersection of two growing streams of thought, service science and service-dominant (S-D) logic. We take the view that (1) service...

Purpose – The purpose of this essay is to explore further the concept of value cocreation from a service-ecosystems view, by considering the importance of networks and the configuration of relationships and resources in markets. Methodology/approach – We use a conceptual approach to extend a service-dominant (S-D) logic, ecosystems view of value co...

Competitive advantage never comes easy. However, it is more difficult to achieve when operating with an outdated or inappropriate logic of the market and marketing. We argue that a goods-dominant (GD) logic guided most of marketing and competitive practice during the past two centuries and largely continues today. Unfortunately, much of the educati...

Moving beyond questions about "services" and "the services economy," this panel considers fresh ways of thinking about service innovation in the era of pervasive digitization. Panelists will argue that our understanding of digital services and products is radically transformed if we consider all exchanges to be service-for-service exchanges in whic...

Organizations and people within organizations cling to traditions, industry practices, and managerial frameworks well beyond their usefulness. Perhaps this is just another way of stating the obvious that habits die slowly. One habit or tradition that is experiencing a slow death is the traditional marketing paradigm, referred to as the goods-domina...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to respond to the criticism O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy made of service‐dominant logic in EJM , on behalf of both the paper and the worldwide community of scholars that have embraced S‐D logic as historically informed, integrative, transcending and rich in its potential to generate theoretical and practical...

Purpose This paper proposes a rejoinder to the O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy rejoinder to “Service dominant logic: a necessary step”, the commentary on their previous criticism of service‐dominant logic. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a critical analysis of O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy's comments. Findings The paper finds that O'S...

This article introduces the special section of ‘‘Extending Service-Dominant Logic’’ in this journal, which is part of jointly published special sections in the Australasian Marketing Journal, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, and Marketing Theory on the same topic, all based on articles developed from manuscripts submitted t...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of context in service provision and, more broadly, in market co-creation. We oscillate foci from an individual actor at the micro level to a market at the macro level to make the scaleable influence of context more salient. This reveals the meso level, which is nestled between the micro and macro lev...

This article serves as an introduction to a special section on 'Extending Service-dominant Logic', which includes articles developed from manuscripts presented at the Forum on Markets and Marketing held in Sydney, Australia. This special section is, in turn, part of a combined 'special issue', with related articles published in the Australasian Mar...

Purpose This paper aims to provide an overview of the European Journal of Marketing 's special section on the Forum of Markets and Marketing, “Extending Service‐Dominant Logic”. Design/methodology/approach The approach takes the form of a conceptual integration of core concepts in S‐D logic, markets, and marketing. Findings This special section p...

The delineation of B2B from ‘mainstream’ marketing reflects the limitations of the traditional, goods-dominant (G-D) model of exchange and a conceptualization of value creation based on the ‘producer’ versus ‘consumer’ divide. Service-dominant (S-D) logic broadens the perspective of exchange and value creation and implies that all social and econom...