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4 - Service as a guiding framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Robert F. Lusch  and
Stephen L. Vargo
Robert F. Lusch
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Stephen L. Vargo
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
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Summary

Customers do not buy goods or services: they buy offerings which render services which create value … The traditional division between goods and services is long outdated. It is not a matter of redefining services and seeing them from a customer perspective; activities render services, things render services. The shift in focus to services is a shift from the means and the producer perspective to the utilization and the customer perspective.

Evert Gummesson (1995)

Introduction

On learning about service-dominant (S-D) logic, some observers say that they agree with its axioms and foundational premises but ask the more fundamental question, “Why ‘service’”? That is, they ask whether “service” is the proper designation for and characterization of this “new dominant logic.” At times, the question has been explicit and, at others, implicit.

This question of “Why ‘service’?” is a potentially critical issue, one that addresses the essential subject matter of markets and marketing and the purpose of business. On a broader level, it also deals with the fundamental nature of human interaction, on which society, markets, and business and marketing practices are built. Language is a form of joint action between actors that helps them coordinate thoughts and meaning and actions. In short, actions are at least partly driven by words and their (shared) meanings. Therefore, how service is conceptualized and the shared meanings we develop around the concept of “service” are crucial to S-D logic and its development and impact.

Type
Chapter
Information
Service-Dominant Logic
Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities
 , pp. 83 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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References

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