Why We Need a Service Logic: A Comparative Review

Keywords

service logic (SDL vs. UST), unified service theory (UST), process DNA strategy

Abstract

This paper considers perspectives of service that define what has been called service logic. We review two contemporary service logics and compare them in terms of strategic and managerial insights. The first is the Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing, which provides a prescriptively interesting "theory of the firm," but not a descriptively pragmatic or informative "theory of strategy." In other words, it suggests why organizations exist without meaningfully directing managerial decisions and actions pertaining to the provision of service outcomes. It also absorbs all economic activity into the realm of "service," thus reducing or eliminating the ability to distinguish managerial insights along a service/non-service dimension. The second is the Unified Service Theory, which explicitly discriminates between service and non-service activities, and prescribes managerial approaches that are unique to each. We introduce a strategic application that we call Process DNA, which posits that firms' value realization efforts are composed of sequences of processes. Some processes (service processes) involve interaction between firms and customers, and other processes (non-service processes) are decoupled. Firms can gain strategic advantage by altering the arrangement of interactive and decoupled processes within a process sequence.

Original Publication Citation

Sampson, S. E., and Menor, L. J., 2010. “Why We Need a Service Logic: A Comparative Review,” Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 18-33.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2010

Publisher

Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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