Zooming-in value-in-use through basic individual values

Abstract

To overcome the vagueness that Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) scholars have found in conceptualisations of value-in-use due to the existence of different denominations and perspectives, this conceptual paper analyses the SDL literature, finding both value-in-use proposed as a comprehensive denomination, and resources, institutions, and time proposed as its main elements.<br/> Focusing on individuals as beneficiaries of value-in-use, the paper infuses the theory of basic individual values from social psychology in SDL, leading to three propositions that stress the ways in which basic individual values affect individuals' perceptions of resources, institutions, and time. Therefore, basic individual values act as lenses through which beneficiaries perceive flows of resources, institutions, and the time during which use occurs, thereby clarifying why value-in-use is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary.<br/> This conceptual paper proposes basic individual values as micro-foundations of value co-creation, reveals ways to define the perceived value of resources, and leads practitioners to set value propositions according to basic individual values.