Service-based dominant logic

Purpose: to investigate a concept of service-based dominant logic, define it, reveal its dimensions, theoretical framework, and managerial implications.

Design/methodology/approach: the topic is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development. Using a definition of the dominant logic as a mind set or a world view the present article suggests ‘service-based dominant logic’ as a name for a generic theoretical concept instead of the widely used ‘service-dominant logic’ which can be easily misinterpreted as logic dominated by service only. Service-based dominant logic is ‘pure’ logic of service: it considers service as the fundamental basis of business and doesn’t include any goods-centric aspects. This logic relates to a firm’s facilitation and support of customer value creation processes using different types of resources obtained from a company.

Findings: the study proposed the definition and revealed three dimensions of service-based dominant logic found in the relevant literature: ‘service logic’, ‘service-dominant logic’ and ‘customer-dominant logic’. The study showed similarities and differences between these three research streams in regard to how they defined a value, a product, a service, value creation, role of customer, role of company, and how important interactions were in value creation. The paper also described the theoretical framework of service-based dominant logic: it stated that service-based dominant logic had originated from service marketing, relationship marketing and value creation literature, and it interrelated with customer relationship management and business networks and channels research. Finally, the article classified the managerial implications of service-based dominant logic into three groups: company’s decision making, company’s organizing and company’s activities.

Originality: the paper contributes conceptually to the service marketing literature by delineating the concept of service-based dominant logic. This term that before have not been widely used serves as the “umbrella” for three research streams exploring service as business perspective: ‘service logic’, ‘service-dominant logic’ and ‘customer-dominant logic’. This approach allows making deeper comparison between the main propositions of these research streams that could be interesting for the academic community for further application of research methods to collect empirical data from the corporate sector to check the findings.