The potential of service-dominant logic as a tool for developing public sector services

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrika Westrup

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss the potential of the service-dominant logic (SDL) as a tool for developing more effective public sector services in practice. Design/methodology/approach One case concerning a public sector service organization has been studied – a contact centre in a Swedish municipality. The material consists of descriptions of managers’ and co-workers’ experiences of how day-to-day operations are performed to manage services provided to citizens. The material has been gathered via interviews and focus group interviews. Findings The study found that SDL has something to offer as a tool. SDL indicates that the distinctive features of different kinds of services, the exchange of knowledge and the dependency between actors do not have a high priority in the day-to-day work done at the contact centre. However, SDL cannot actually guarantee that public services will be more effective without including the politicians. Research limitations/implications The findings only originate from one organization. No service users have participated. Practical implications When using SDL as a tool for developing public sector services, the role of the politician is crucial. Public service managers must therefore find ways of including politicians in the service system as important and committed actors. Originality/value SDL, in the context of public sector services, has only previously been studied to a very limited degree empirically.

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amela Karahasanović ◽  
Alma Leora Culén

Purpose This study aims to propose a service-dominant logic (S-DL)-informed framework for teaching innovation in the context of human–computer interaction (HCI) education involving large industrial projects. Design/methodology/approach This study combines S-DL from the field of marketing with experiential and constructivist learning to enable value co-creation as the primary method of connecting diverse actors within the service ecology. The approach aligns with the current conceptualization of central university activities as a triad of research, education and innovation. Findings The teaching framework based on the S-DL enabled ongoing improvements to the course (a project-based, bachelor’s-level HCI course in the computer science department), easier management of stakeholders and learning experiences through students’ participation in real-life projects. The framework also helped to provide an understanding of how value co-creation works and brought a new dimension to HCI education. Practical implications The proposed framework and the authors’ experience described herein, along with examples of projects, can be helpful to educators designing and improving project-based HCI courses. It can also be useful for partner companies and organizations to realize the potential benefits of collaboration with universities. Decision-makers in industry and academia can benefit from these findings when discussing approaches to addressing sustainability issues. Originality/value While HCI has successfully contributed to innovation, HCI education has made only moderate efforts to include innovation as part of the curriculum. The proposed framework considers multiple service ecosystem actors and covers a broader set of co-created values for the involved partners and society than just learning benefits.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Ng

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the roles of accounting for university survival, recovery and revolution from the COVID-19 pandemic. It constructively critiques the use of compliance and cost-centric accounting to inform crisis response and proposes roles for accounting to better serve decision-making in a crisis. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses limitations about how accounting information was used in a university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes potential roles for accounting across crisis phases. These proposals recognise requirements arising from the university’s regulatory environment and apply concepts from intellectual capital accounting and service-dominant logic. Findings This paper proposes that in the survival phase, accounting can mitigate rash responses by clarifying the crisis’s impact and stakeholder alignment. In the recovery phase, accounting can inform resourcing decisions by balancing signals from accounting about staff expense and capital investment. In the revolution phase, accounting helps develop the business models needed to adapt to changing student needs, hybrid teaching delivery and importance of intellectual capital. Research limitations/implications The case study discusses the early stages of a university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not provide a comprehensive analysis of success or failure of accounting in a crisis. The case raises directions for accounting to clarify the ambiguities in objectives and cause-and-effect relationships from the pandemic. Practical implications This paper proposes actions for accounting to support the survival, recovery and revolution of the university sector from the pandemic. The actions cover stakeholder engagement, university sector governance and strategic planning. Originality/value This paper proposes a lifecycle of accounting roles at different stages of the COVID-19 response that reflects requirements from the university’s regulatory environment and draws on intellectual capital and service-dominant logic literature.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loïc Plé

Purpose Noting that resource integration is a pivotal dimension of value co-creation in Service-Dominant logic, this paper aims to explore how service employees engaged in co-creation processes with customers integrate the latter’s resources. Design/methodology/approach To address the limitations of previous research on customer resources and their integration by service employees, this study turns to the concept of customer participation to identify the nature of customers’ resources. A conceptual framework of their integration by service employees underpins nine key propositions. This foundation leads to the development of theoretical contributions, managerial implications and avenues for research. Findings Customers can use 12 types of resources in value co-creation. Contrasting with earlier findings, the conceptual framework reveals that service employees may not only integrate these customers’ resources but also either misintegrate or not integrate them. Non-integration and misintegration may be intentional or accidental. Accordingly, value co-creation or co-destruction may result from interactions. Research limitations/implications This conceptual and exploratory text requires complementary theoretical and empirical investigations. It also does not adopt an ecosystems view of co-creation. Practical implications Knowing the different steps of resource integration and what influences them should increase the chances of value co-creation and limit the risks of value co-destruction. Originality/value Scant research has examined the nature of customer resources and how service employees integrate them. This paper also is the first to distinguish among resource integration, misintegration and non-integration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakash K. Chathoth ◽  
Gerardo R. Ungson ◽  
Robert J. Harrington ◽  
Eric S.W. Chan

Purpose – This paper aims to present a review of the literature associated with co-creation and higher-order customer engagement concepts and poses critical questions related to the current state of research. Additionally, the paper presents a framework for customer engagement and co-creation with relevance to hospitality transactions. Design/methodology/approach – Earlier research on co-production, co-creation, consumer engagement and service-dominant logic are discussed and synthesized. Based on this synthesis, links and contrasts of these varying research streams are presented providing an articulation of key characteristics of each and how these might be applied within a hospitality context. Findings – Modalities in service transactions vary among traditional production, co-production and co-creation based on changes in attitudes, enabling technologies and the logic or ideology supporting the change. Transaction characteristics vary among manufacturing, quasi-manufacturing and services based on several key categories including differences in boundary conditions, enablers, success requirements, sustainability requirements, the dominant logic used and key barriers/vulnerabilities. When creating experiential value for consumers, firms should consider several aspects ex-ante, in-situ and ex-post of the change and during the change process. Research limitations/implications – Firms need to move toward higher-order customer engagement using co-creative modalities to enhance value creation. Current practices in the hotel industry may not in their entirety support this notion. Ex-ante, in-situ and ex-post considerations for creating experiential value need to be used as part of a checklist of questions for firms to pose in order to move toward managing customer experiences using the service-dominant logic as part of the firm’s orientation toward its market. This would give it the required thrust to create superior engagement platforms that use co-creative modalities while addressing the barriers to higher-order customer engagement as identified in the literature. Originality/value – The hospitality and tourism literature on co-creation and higher-order customer engagement is still in its infancy. A synthesis of these early studies provides support for the need for future research on co-creation that more clearly articulates the modality firms could use to move toward co-creation. This paper develops a dynamic framework using characteristics of co-creation that integrate the various stages of value creation (i.e. input, throughput and output).


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Grönroos ◽  
Johanna Gummerus

Purpose – The purpose of this conceptual paper is to analyse the implications generated by a service perspective. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual analysis of two approaches to understanding service perspectives, service logic (SL) and service-dominant logic (SDL), reveals direct and indirect marketing implications. Findings – The SDL is based on a metaphorical view of co-creation and value co-creation, in which the firm, customers and other actors participate in the process that leads to value for customers. The approach is firm-driven; the service provider drives value creation. The managerial implications are not service perspective-based, and co-creation may be imprisoned by its metaphor. In contrast, SL takes an analytical approach, with co-creation concepts that can significantly reinvent marketing from a service perspective. Value gets created in customer processes, and value creation is customer driven. Ten managerial SL principles derived from these analyses offer theoretical and practical conclusions with the potential to reinvent marketing. Research limitations/implications – The SDL can direct researchers’ and managers’ views towards complex value-generation processes. The SL can analyse this process on a managerial level, to derive customer-centric, service perspective-based opportunities to reinvent marketing. Practical implications – The analysis and principles help marketing break free from offering only value propositions and become an organisation-wide responsibility. Firms must organise service-influenced marketing and create a customer focus among all employees, beyond conventional marketing. Originality/value – A service perspective on business has key managerial implications and enables researchers and managers to find new, customer-centric, service-influenced marketing approaches.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Pantuza Vilar dos Santos ◽  
Evandro Luiz Lopes ◽  
Julia Costa Dias ◽  
André Gustavo Pereira de Andrade ◽  
Celso Augusto Matos ◽  
...  

Purpose Based on the assumption of the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) that every exchange is service-for-service and on the relevance of the beneficiary’s role in the co-creation of value, this paper aims to investigate the effects of engagement in the context of social marketing, where the value proposition is an invitation to practice mindfulness. Design/methodology/approach A field experiment was carried out with 72 volunteers, using a pre-test/post-test control group design. The treatment applied was a set of strategies to increase the engagement of the participants to attain a better result in five dependent variables associated mainly with the benefits of mindfulness practice. Measurements were made from a profile analysis, and submitted to Mann-Whitney and t-tests. Findings A large effect of group and time factors were observed in the multivariate test, as well as differences in the co-creation of value between groups. Originality/value This study can contribute to stimulate experimental transdisciplinary research in humans, using concepts from S-D logic and social marketing to promote positive behavioral change. This approach is probably more efficient at explaining and improving human behavior, given its complex nature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-340
Author(s):  
Philip T. Roundy

PurposeEntrepreneurial ecosystems – the inter-related forces that promote and sustain regional entrepreneurship – are receiving intense academic, policymaker and practitioner attention. Prior research primarily focuses on mature entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) in large, urban areas. Scholars are slow to examine the functioning of EEs in small towns, which face unique challenges in spurring entrepreneurial activity. Most notably, small town EEs are dependent on a key stakeholder group – local customers – which receives almost no attention in prior research on ecosystems. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding the role of customers in EEs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper integrates work on the service-dominant logic and service ecosystems with entrepreneurship research to theorize about the influence of customers in small town EEs.FindingsThe proposed theory draws attention to the role of customers in evaluating the services provided by entrepreneurs and co-creating value in small town EEs. Theory is developed about the influence of three sets of customer characteristics on entrepreneurial activities: the local market potential (based on the number of local and transient customers), customers’ abilities to access the ecosystem (based on income levels) and customers’ preferences for services provided by the ecosystem’s entrepreneurs (based on preferences for innovativeness, local versus global brands and in- versus out-shopping).Originality/valueEntrepreneurial ecosystems research has implicitly adopted a producer-dominant logic focusing on entrepreneurs and their ventures as the primary creators of value. The proposed theoretical framework applies the service-dominant logic to EEs and conceptualizes EEs as a unique type of service ecosystem. The theorizing generates implications for scholars and practitioners and suggests that more work is needed at the interface of entrepreneurship, marketing and regional economic development.


2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 238-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique A. Greer

Purpose – This study aims to explore the scope of consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour in professional service encounters. One of the founding premises of service-dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008) is that consumers co-create the value they derive from service encounters. In practice, however, dysfunctional consumer behaviour can obstruct value co-creation. Extant research has not yet investigated consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour in highly relational services, such as professional services, that are heavily reliant on co-creation. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate defective co-creation in professional services, 164 critical incidents were collected from 38 health-care and financial service providers using the critical incident technique within semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Thematic coding was used to identify emergent themes and patterns of consumer behaviour. Findings – Thematic coding resulted in a comprehensive typology of consumers’ defective co-creation behaviour that both confirms the prevalence of previously identified dysfunctional behaviours (e.g. verbal abuse and physical aggression) and identifies two new forms of consumer misbehaviour: underparticipation and overparticipation. Further, these behaviours can vary, escalate and co-occur during service encounters. Originality/value – Both underparticipation and overparticipation are newly identified forms of defective co-creation that need to be examined within the broader framework of service-dominant logic (SDL).


Author(s):  
Daniel John Flint ◽  
Robert F. Lusch ◽  
Stephen L. Vargo

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 – Examination of shopper marketing reveals that it is currently stuck in goods-dominant logic and micro-level ways of thinking. By taking a macro service ecosystem view, all actors, including shoppers, are seen as resource integrators seeking resource density. The macro view highlights a significant amount of goods and information flow and variance now being added throughout shopper marketing systems. Research limitations/implications – A guiding framework with appropriate terms defined offers new research directions and new ways practitioners can approach challenges in the industry. Research programs are suggested in the areas of facilitating resource density, examining the extent of ecosystems, measurement, mapping of resources, and creating shopper marketing innovations. Practical implications – This study provides an alternative way of looking at problems that arise in supply chain management planning and execution of shopper marketing initiatives. Originality/value – Few scholastic articles address shopper marketing even within marketing and essentially none do so in supply chain management despite it having significantly disrupted supply chains since 2004. This article offers an overview of shopper marketing and helps supply chain managers identify quickly how they can add value and supply chain management researchers begin to address the challenges.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Ng ◽  
Zack Wood

Purpose This paper aims to problematise critiques raised against customer accounting’s numeric focus, which risks controlling and simplifying customers rather than facilitating closer engagement. This analysis suggests ways to better account for what it is that customers buy, why they do so and how to better serve them. Design/methodology/approach Service-dominant logic (SDL) is a marketing ideology that recognises the active role of customers in value creation. Seven customer accounting techniques are appraised against SDL principles to identify strengths and shortfalls in logic and application. Findings Customer accounting techniques align with SDL’s beneficiary-oriented and relational view of customers. Weaker alignment is found regarding a focus on outputs rather than outcomes, silence about the customer’s role in co-creating value and failure to recognise contextual circumstances. Research limitations/implications The analysis uses prototypical descriptions of customer accounting techniques. Actual applications could offset weaknesses or raise other shortfalls. Practical implications For each area of SDL, the authors suggest avenues for integrating SDL into customer accounting using related literature and building on concepts within customer accounting techniques. Originality/value SDL contrasts with the traditional, goods-dominant logic that underscores much of accounting. SDL is used to critically and constructively evaluate customer accounting techniques.


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