The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: A Logical and Evidential Case for Multiple Logics?

Abstract

We examine the Vargo and Lusch (2004, p. 1) argument for a “new dominant logic for marketing, one in which services provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic exchange”. In our Contemporary Marketing Practices work we find that in the consumer products industry, especially, the traditional differentiation between what used to be a product and what used to be a service is becoming less relevant. However, our main argument is that since contemporary marketing practices are characterised by a pluralism of approaches, the Service Dominant (S-D) logic can be strengthened by recognising that firms need both to serve and create customers. In other words, given the exigencies that drive organisations to innovate, an additional foundational premise (FP) to the S-D logic is required to recognise the theoretical and practical differences between market-driven and market-driving approaches to innovation.