Institutional expertise in the Service-Dominant Logic: Knowing how and knowing what

Abstract

The Service-Dominant (S-D) logic shifts the focus of economic transactions from goods to service exchange, and places a greater emphasis on the importance of active operant resources, as opposed to passive operand resources. However, in our view, the scope and operation of operant resources in an institutional context needs clarification. In this article, we extend the S-D logic understanding of human operant resources by offering a CKSW Institutional Meta-Role Scheme, developed in information sciences, which identifies and distinguishes fundamental aspects of institutional resources. These represent important role types associated with two different ways of knowing: knowledge (‘know-what’) and skills (‘know-how’). To support our argument that ‘knowledge’ must be distinguished from ‘skills’, we review relevant literature from philosophy and cognitive science. We also discuss how the CKSW role types have manifested from the early (historical) trading, and then illustrate how they can be effectively deployed in modern institutional contexts.