Service ecosystems

Robert F. Lusch; Stephen L.  Vargo

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139043120.012

8 - Service ecosystems

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014

Robert F. Lusch and

Stephen L. Vargo

Show author details

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

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyze or join an ecosystem.

Stephen Elop, chief executive officer of Nokia (2011)

Introduction

In Chapter 5, we introduced a systems view of actors and the cocreation of value to indicate how market exchange and economies function. Although actors exchange directly with one another, they are also part of many indirect and far-removed exchanges involving other actors that are also involved with this system. A systems view also extends to understanding the market. However, markets have historically been characterized as composed of “supply markets” and the movement of resources to customers, receivers, beneficiaries, or “customer markets,” the latter being a source of demand.

Viewing the market as comprising supply and customer or demand markets is misleading and especially so when adopting a generic actor-to-actor (A2A) view of the economy. A supply market is only a supply market when viewing an actor as a seller (supply source or service provider), and a customer market is only a customer market when viewing another actor as a buyer (demand source or service beneficiary). As we have noted, however, all actors are both resource-integrating sources of “supply” and resource-integrating sources of “demand” – that is, offering service and taking on the role of service beneficiaries. Service-dominant (S-D) logic offers some useful conceptual tools for enhancing this macro lens.

Type: Chapter
Information: Service-Dominant Logic
Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities
, pp. 158 - 176

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139043120.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Lusch, Robert F., Vargo, Stephen, and Tanniru, Mohan, “Service, value networks and learning,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38 (February 2010), 19–31CrossRef Google Scholar

Achrol, R. S., “Changes in the theory of interorganizational relations in marketing: toward a network paradigm,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 25:1 (1997), 56–71;CrossRef Google Scholar

Achrol, R. S. and Kotler, Philip, “Marketing in a network economy,” Journal of Marketing, 63 (special issue) (1999), 146–163;CrossRef Google Scholar

Johanson, Jan and Vahlne, Jan-Erik, “Markets as networks: implications for strategy-making,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39:4 (2011), 484–491CrossRef Google Scholar

Layton, Roger A., “Towards a theory of marketing systems,” European Journal of Marketing, 45:1–2 (2011), 259–276.CrossRef Google Scholar

Alderson, Wroe, Dynamic Marketing Behavior: A Functionalist Theory of Marketing (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1965), p. 86.Google Scholar

Dixon, D. F. and Wilkinson, I. F., The Marketing System (Melbourne, Australia: Longman Cheshire, 1982)Google Scholar

Achrol, Ravi S., “Evolution of the marketing organization: new frontiers for turbulent environments,” Journal of Marketing, 55 (October 1991), 77–93;CrossRef Google Scholar

Webster, Jr Frederick E.., “The changing role of marketing in the corporation,” Journal of Marketing, 56 (October 1992), 1–17;CrossRef Google Scholar

Lambert, Douglas M., Cooper, Martha C., and Pagh, Janus D., “Supply chain management: implementation issues and research opportunities,” International Journal of Logistics Management, 9:2 (1998), 1–20CrossRef Google Scholar

Granovetter, M. S., “The strength of weak ties,” American Journal of Sociology, 78 (May 1973), 1360–1380;CrossRef Google Scholar

Granovetter, M. S., “The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited,” Sociological Theory, 1 (1983), 201–233CrossRef Google Scholar

Edvardsson, Bo, Gustafsson, Anders, Kristensson, Per, and Witell, Lars, “Service innovation and customer co-development,” in Maglio, Paul, Kieliszewski, Cheryl A., and Spohrer, James C. (eds.), Handbook of Service Science (New York: Springer, 2010), pp. 561–577CrossRef Google Scholar

Iansiti, Marco and Levien, Roy, The Keystone Advantage (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2004);Google Scholar

Adner, R., “Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem,” Harvard Business Review, 84:4 (2006), 98–107Google Scholar PubMed

Moore, James F., “Predators and prey: a new ecology of competition,” Harvard Business Review, 71 (May–June 1993), 75–86Google Scholar

Wright, Robert, Non Zero: The Logic of Human Destiny (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000)Google Scholar

Bronstein, J. L., “Mutualism and symbiosis,” in Levin, Simon A. (ed.), The Princeton Guide to Ecology (Princeton University Press, 2009), pp. 233–238;Google Scholar

Mars, Matthew M., Bronstein, Judith L., and Lusch, Robert F., “The value of a metaphor: organizational ecosystems,” Organizational Dynamics, 42 (2012), 271–280CrossRef Google Scholar

Dickson, Peter R., “Toward a general theory of competitive rationality,” Journal of Marketing, 56 (January 1992), 69–83CrossRef Google Scholar

Flint, Daniel J. and Mentzer, John T., “Striving for integrated value chain management given a service-dominant logic for marketing,” in Lusch, Robert F. and Vargo, Stephen L. (eds.), The Service Dominant Logic: Dialogue, Debate, and Directions (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2006), pp. 139–149;Google Scholar

Day, George, Howland, Samantha, and Parayre, Roch, “Looking into marketing’s future,” Marketing Management, 18 (September–October 2009), 12–17Google Scholar

Normann, Richard, Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape (Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2001), p. 3Google Scholar

DeLanda, Manuel, A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity (London: Continuum, 2006)Google Scholar

McLuhan, Marshall and Fiore, Quentin, The Medium Is the Message (Berkeley, CA: Gingko Press, 1996 [1967])Google Scholar

Hagel, III John, and Brown, John Seely, The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005)Google Scholar

Lambert, Douglas M. and Garcia-Dastugue, Sebastian J., “Cross-functional business processes for the implementation of service-dominant logic,” in Lusch, Robert F. and Vargo, Stephen L. (eds.), The Service Dominant Logic: Dialogue, Debate, and Directions (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2006), pp. 150–165Google Scholar

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005), p. 155;Google Scholar

Daily, G. C., Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997), p. 392Google Scholar