In many publications on service management and marketing, the customer is said to be an important resource of the service firm. This is not surprising, since a basic characteristic of services is the participation of the customer in the production process. However, up to now, there has been no theoretical discussion as to whether and why customers - as well as relationships with customers - are really important resources of the service firm. The present paper draws on the resource-based view within strategic management. It explores the potential of the resource-based view for analyzing customer roles and customer relationships within service firms, and it discusses managerial implications for customer relationship management.
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