Service-dominant Logic Perspective Research Articles

Unlocking digital servitization: A conceptualization of value co-creation capabilities

Industrial and service firms alike are increasingly adopting digital servitization to achieve service-driven growth and establish a competitive advantage. Firms must develop sufficient capabilities to benefit from digital servitization, which is an underinvestigated topic in the literature. This study contributes to bridging this gap by taking a service-dominant logic (SDL) perspective and focusing on value co-creation capabilities in B2B firms that offer digital service platforms and services based on them. It draws on a multiple-case study design involving leading cases from sectors such as manufacturing, engineering and shipping. The findings identify a set of four value co-creation capabilities: digital literacy, aligning, reflecting and coping. Moreover, this study highlights how these capabilities can facilitate value co-creation in the context of digital servitization initiatives. For managers, the findings provide insights into what characterizes value co-creation capabilities in digital servitization and why, how and when these capabilities are relevant.

Towards SDGs 4 and 8: How Value Co-Creation Affecting Entrepreneurship Education’s Quality and Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention

Vocational high school (VHS) is a formal education designed to equip students with ready-to-use industrial skills upon graduation. However, its graduates continue to dominate the Open Unemployment Rate, despite the Indonesian government’s efforts to incorporate entrepreneurship education into the VHS curriculum. The premise of education as a service with students as the customers has inspired this research to study the phenomena of entrepreneurship education in VHS from the Service–Dominant Logic perspective. This study aimed to investigate the direct effect of students’ value co-creation on their entrepreneurial intention and the mediating role of the quality and satisfaction of entrepreneurship education. The PLS-SEM method was applied to analyze 202 samples of VHS students from 13 administrative regions within West Java Province, Indonesia. It was found that students’ value co-creation in entrepreneurship education significantly affected the education quality and students’ entrepreneurial intention. However, the mediating role of students’ satisfaction was significantly influenced by education quality and value co-creation only, while satisfaction itself could not influence entrepreneurial intention. These findings are expected to be considered by the government and VHS to further involve the students in value co-creation since it can enhance the quality of entrepreneurship education and, thus, students’ interest in becoming entrepreneurs. The results of this study are committed towards the SDG 4 and 8’s initiatives to provide quality education in order to boost entrepreneurship for economic growth.

Culinary-Gastronomic Value Advantage in a Competitive Dynamic Market: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

Since there are inconsistent findings on the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance, we aim to develop a conceptual model to explain how an entrepreneurial orientation has the potential to enhance business performance. We develop a concept of culinary-gastronomic value advantage as mediation for entrepreneurial orientation to improve business performance effectively. We examine the model by involving 241 owner-managers of micro and small-sized enterprises in the food industry, whose results were analyzed using SEM-AMOS software. This study’s results indicate that the culinary-gastronomic value advantage derived from the Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) theory is an acceptable solution as mediation for entrepreneurial orientation and performance. Another important finding is that the entrepreneurial orientation and culinary-gastronomic value advantages are highly dependent on the level of risk consciousness on the competitive pressures that occur in the market. This study brings several theoretical implications to service-dominant logic theory, particularly on value accentuation in the form of culinary-gastronomic value advantage for enhancing performance.

Exploring the Innovation Potential of Pakistan's IT Sector: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

Exploring the Innovation Potential of Pakistan's IT Sector: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

A co-created value scale for the hospitality service: applying a text mining approach

PurposeAlthough co-creation draws attention from researchers and practitioners, the concept is theoretically discussed, and it is not known enough how to measure co-created value (CCV) substantially at service encounters. This study aims to conceptualize CCV from the service-dominant (S-D) logic perspective and develop a CCV scale for hospitality services.Design/methodology/approachIn addition to the conventional psychometric procedure for scale development, this study combined text-mining techniques and interviews to generate items to capture the concept of CCV comprehensively. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using two different surveys. Moreover, structural equation modeling was performed to test concurrent validity.FindingsThe study developed a CCV scale, including four sub-dimensions: CCV-in-use, CCV-in-interaction, CCV-in-involvement and CCV-in-experience. The validity test results demonstrated that the new scale effectively measured CCV in a hospitality setting.Research limitations/implicationsThe multidimensional constructs and the scale that this study developed will contribute to empirical research and improve understanding of CCV at the service encounter. Moreover, managers can enhance their competitive advantages by identifying and evaluating factors to facilitate CCV.Originality/valueThe study reconceptualized CCV, drawing on a resource-based view from S-D logic, and developed a scale to measure the degree to which customers perceive CCV. Furthermore, it achieved methodological advancement in adopting text mining of online reviews for the scale development process.

Backer funding intention in reward-based crowdfunding: service-dominant logic and stimulus-organism-response perspectives

PurposeThe new age of entrepreneurs recognizes crowdfunding as an innovative and effective means of obtaining funding from backers. However, attracting backers is challenging and related scholarly knowledge lacking. Therefore, this study investigates the diverse factors influencing backer funding intention in reward-based crowdfunding.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an online survey of 401 registered backers from two reward-based crowdfunding platforms in Taiwan. Data were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling.FindingsResults show that entrepreneur activeness has a negative effect on perceived risk but positively, while entrepreneur activeness and platform interactivity have a positive effect on backer engagement and backer value creation. Although it had no significant impact on backer engagement, project novelty positively influenced backer value creation. Perceived risk had no influence on either backer engagement or backer value creation. Backer engagement positively influenced backer value creation and backer funding intention, with the former having a positive impact on the latter.Originality/valueThis study provides a multi-perceptual lens by proposing an integration of diverse factors such as entrepreneurial- (entrepreneur activeness), project- (project novelty and perceived risk) and platform-related characteristics (platform interactivity) as antecedents to backer funding intention. By integrating a service-dominant logic perspective into the stimulus-organism-response model, this study highlights the essence of value creation by perceiving backers as value co-creators.

Role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in online brand community continuance: A service-dominant logic perspective

Value creation and acquisition are pivotal for continuous participation in online communities and thus have become goals that brand companies strive to develop in online brand communities (OBCs). Prior studies, however, predominately adopted the goods-dominant logic to assess the role of OBC members’ value perceptions in their value experiences. Such an approach overlooks the fact that one's value experiences in OBCs manifest in the co-creation with the brand and with other OBC members, benefiting from technology platforms and one's community motives. We thus draw on the service-dominant logic to formulate a research model with seven research hypotheses. These hypotheses depict relationships among five research constructs, in which (1) OBC continuance intention serves as the ultimate dependent variable, (2) brand engagement and co-creation experience represent OBC members’ value experiences in consumer-to-brand and consumer-to-consumer interactions, respectively, and (3) social media affordances and members’ OBC identification serve as the antecedents of OBC members’ value experiences. We used the Amazon MTurk platform to collect 246 valid samples worldwide that represent general OBC members. We adopted PLS-SEM to assess the measurement model and test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings indicate that co-creation experience and brand engagement are pivotal value experiences that can increase OBC continuance intention. In addition, social media affordances and OBC identification are instrumental to both value experiences through their facilitation of technology-mediated and communal interactions for resource integration and service exchange among OBC members and the brand. This study sheds light on OBC research by identifying the central role of brand engagement and co-creation experience in OBC continuance. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications and provide future research suggestions.

Uncovering the Influence Mechanism between End-User Involvement and Product Usage in Public Procurement: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

End-user centric procurement practices, while receiving a growing scholarly and policy interest, lack solid theoretical and empirical foundations. Using service-dominant logic, this study seeks to uncover the influence mechanism between end-user involvement and product usage in public sector procurement. Primary data was gathered from 122 public organisations in a developing economy, Ghana. PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to estimate the study model. The findings suggest that end-user involvement is positively related to end-user satisfaction but not product usage. Additionally, the findings provide empirical support for our contention that the link between end-user involvement and end-user product usage is mediated by end-user satisfaction. This study adds to the end-user centric procurement literature by offering theoretical and empirical insights on the end-user satisfaction process that explains the relationship between end-user involvement and product usage.

Building-as-a-Service: The opportunities of service-dominant logic for construction

Construction as one of the largest industries worldwide is not necessarily a frontrunner in the application of digital technologies, tools, procedures, and processes. This has been demonstrated in innumerable reports and scholarly work. The industry has a reputation for delivering projects late, over budget and with improvable quality; all of this combined with a certain digital ignorance. Moreover, it is known for having a Goods-Dominant Logic, which is focused on distribution and management of tangible units of output. This is combined with Taylorism resulting in separation of the role of managing the work from the actual execution of work. The planning and erection of a building is cross-cultural, cross-country project setting due to the diverse nature of the industry and its globalised value chain. Building Information Modelling (BIM), a three-dimensional representation of information including its corresponding management in asset’s life cycle is considered as one of the enablers for the digital future of construction. However, the development of service-dominant logic within the construction industry has not kept pace with technological and technical possibilities or is not discernible. This is based on a very traditional approach of money for goods which in this case means money for planned and built assets. Service as a unit of exchange is very rarely considered in the sector. As has been shown in other sectors, this can lead to further (more profitable) business models and further increases in efficiency and effectiveness. The aim of the paper is to show the opportunities that exist if buildings are not considered as amalgamation of materials and goods but as a service model. The paper shows what Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) in combination with BIM could offer to the industry and discusses the term Building-as-a-Service (BaaS) from an SDL perspective.

Value co-creation through branded apps: enhancing perceived quality and brand loyalty

PurposeBranded applications (apps) are increasingly important in marketers' omnichannel strategies. They have not only changed the way customers purchase but also changed the way how companies interact with customers. Building on value co-creation literature, this research investigates consumer brand engagement's role in enhancing perceived quality and brand loyalty via value co-creation.Design/methodology/approachUsing online survey data from 355 brand app users, a conceptual model is tested employing the partial least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results suggest that not only does branded app personalization drives brand co-creation (fully mediated by consumer brand engagement) but that this process also increases perceived quality and brand loyalty among users of branded apps.Research limitations/implicationsData for the study are self-reported and thus may not accurately reflect actual attitudes and behaviors. In addition, respondents were students within the United States who, although representative of branded app users, may limit the generalizability of the study.Practical implicationsKnowing that branded apps can influence customers' perception of the quality and value of their apps, products and services, or even their associated brands, marketers and app designers should work together to provide a value co-creation platform through the apps to increase customers' personalized, engaging experience.Originality/valueAlthough various relationships between personalization, engagement and co-creation have been studied, along with their impact on loyalty and perceived value, the interaction between these factors is not widely understood. The study examines these interactions in the context of branded apps, through the service-dominant logic perspective.

The Development of a Service System for Facilitating Food Resource Allocation and Service Exchange

To address the current limitation of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) in tackling urban–rural sustainability issues, this study proposes a Cooperative Human-Agent Service System (CHASS) by leveraging the decentralized communication and coordination capability of a multi-agent system. The unique feature of CHASS is the collaboration between humans and agents for real-world deployment. From the perspective of Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL), value is co-created by involved actors through service exchange; that is, one actor’s service exchanges for other one’s service. With S-DL, technology is treated as an essential actant for resource integration, and the customer is a value co-creator. In this study, we propose a two-phase top trading cycle (TTC) negotiation mechanism to facilitate food resource allocation and service exchange. An agent-based model is developed to simulate the real-world environment and is integrated with CHASS to form a multi-agent simulation for system evaluation. In addition, to generalize the research outcomes, we use regression analysis to clarify the interaction mechanism between the algorithms applied by the platform and human decisions under the moderation of environmental factors. The results show the effectiveness of TTC-Negotiation mechanism to support resource allocation between customers and providers on CHASS. It shows the applicability of CHASS to the cooperative AFNs model.

A Goods-Dominant—Service-Dominant Perspective on Counterfeiting

Extant research is equivocal on the positive and negative implications of counterfeits and is unable to offer an explanation for why purchase and use of counterfeits evoke mixed and contentious responses. We argue that the unreconciled claims about counterfeits are partially rooted in the divided logics of value, as articulated by the goods-dominant logic (GDL) versus service-dominant logic (SDL). We develop a conceptual understanding of non-deceptive counterfeits (NDCs) atop SDL axioms, along key extant research debates. Our examination of the theoretical GDL-SDL views of NDCs with a synthesis of 132 extant academic works, informs the adversarial orientation towards such products. We address extant debates using a content analysis of studies on NDCs. We offer propositions that link the theoretical relevance of evaluating outcomes of NDCs from an SDL perspective and provide foci for future research on this subject.

The Role of Trust in Forming a Social Innovation Service System

The promotion of social innovation requires the interaction of multiple actors in a network who exchange resources to create value for customers. Adopting the Service-Dominant logic perspective, this paper explores how trust influences the emergence and evolvement of a social innovation service system. Data from a case study of One4One reveals that trust guides the activities of the social impact business and other actors in the service system to search for collaborators in a network, to lead the exchange of resources in the system for co-value creation, and to deal with other actors through the evolvement of the system. The study's findings could inform practitioners’ practices conducive to creating a social innovation service system that aims to improve the quality of life for people in developing countries like Vietnam.

An aggregate modelling approach to examine the role of technology in operant and operand resources for value creation

This study aims to investigate the relationship between operant resources, operand resources, and technology and examines the influence on created value from the service-dominant logic perspective. It builds a research model for the impacting path of resources on value. For the empirical study, it adopts proxy variables as observable variables in representing latent or unobservable variables. By collecting aggregate national data, each endogenous and exogenous variable is modelled by a system of equations. The estimation results validate the dual role of technology in bridging the two types of resources between operant and operand resources for actors to create value.

Towards Effective Co-creation of Value: Case Study of a Public University of Pakistan

This study examines the co-creation between a public university and industry and the building blocks that shape co-creation in the context of Pakistan. A conceptual framework has been developed based on the perspective of Service Dominant Logic, which connotes that value is created from the integration of resources through interactions between co-creating partners. The aim of this study is to elucidate the types of resources used for integration by employing different modes of interactions for value creation sought by the university and industry. For this purpose, a case study based on the co-creation between the Centre of Excellence for Molecular Biology (CEMB) at University of the Punjab and Four Brothers (Pvt) Ltd is conducted, to develop Transgenic Cotton technology, which was first of its kind in Pakistan. Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews from a sample of 13 respondents. Thematic analysis was used after transcribing and importing data to NVivo 12 plus. The study revealed the type of resources, interactions and value or outcome sought that characterized the successful co-creation. It also highlights the challenges faced during the collaborative project. Finally, the recommendations are proposed for the enhancement of co-creation within the context of industry and public university of Pakistan.

How learner engagement impacts non-formal online learning outcomes through value co-creation: an empirical analysis

From the perspective of service science and its core concept of value co-creation, promoting learner engagement is critical for learning outcomes in a non-formal online learning environment. To promote online learning performance, we study how multidimensional learner engagement affects both instrumental and experiential learning outcomes. By incorporating the service-dominant logic perspective into the research model, we designed an online survey to investigate the impact of platform value co-creation on learners’ engagement outcomes. By employing a partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the results show that behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, and emotional engagement have a significant impact on learning outcomes through the mediating effect of platform value, a second-order hierarchical latent variable. This study has multiple theoretical contributions and practical implications. First, we found new evidence that pursuing good learning outcomes in a non-formal online learning setting is not just a technological architecture or pedagogic guidelines, but also a “win–win” value co-creation process. Second, our results confirm the posited direct and indirect effects, thus evidencing functional value, emotional value, social value, and personalized value as components of the platform value construct, and it as a driver and mediator for better online learning outcomes. Third, our results underscore the importance of platform value in studying the impact of learner engagement on learning outcomes and provide a sharper theoretical lens to evaluate online learning platform value from the perspective of online learners.

The Roles of Customer Perception of Innovativeness and Engagement on Loyalty through Value Co-creation Behaviors: The Case of Food-delivery Service

The food delivery service that has gained popularity over the last few years should preserve its competitiveness by developing customer satisfaction and loyalty through customer value co-creation behaviors. However, there is still limited literature on understanding the antecedents and implications of customer value co-creation behavior in the service industry. The research aimed to evaluate the effect of customer perceptions of innovativeness and customer engagement on value co-creation behavior. Also, this study wants to reveal the relationship between value co-creation behavior on customer satisfaction and loyalty in food delivery services, using Service-Dominant (S-D) logic perspective. A survey of Indonesian GoFood customers was conducted through an online questionnaire. Then, 349 complete responses were empirically analyzed using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method. The findings reveal that customer engagement and perceived innovativeness affect customer value co-creation behavior. However, customer participation does not immediately increase customer loyalty. Instead, it must be accompanied by an increase in customer satisfaction. By investigating the antecedents and implications of value co-creation behavior among food delivery service users, the research provides practitioners with viable business strategies for maximizing customer loyalty by evaluating service innovation and the customers' behavior in co-creation value. Moreover, the research contributes to the theoretical development of customer value co-creation behaviors and the foodservice business.

Open Innovation with Value Co-Creation from University–Industry Collaboration

While open innovation and university–industry collaboration contribute significantly to innovation in industrialized countries, it is less clear how these create value in emerging economies and new application contexts. This study examines the introduction of global practices into the Nicaraguan context. Adopting a service-dominant logic perspective of value co-creation through interaction on multiple levels, we noted the importance of systemic orchestration or staging of the ecosystem, organizations, and challenge project delivery. We also recognize the importance of enabling activities and spaces that promote innovation. While our findings indicated that the expected and perceived value creation did not fully match, we found encouraging signs of the build-up of foundational practices to support national development agendas. There is evidence of shifted mindsets and looped learning across the system. We propose a model for the systemic development of enabling structures, value creation, and innovation spaces when transferring practices into new application areas. We expect this model to be useful for practitioners when planning and engaging in transferring open innovation practices across application contexts. The study contributes to our knowledge and practice of creating value through applying open innovation within university–industry collaboration in emerging economies, a little-studied theme.

Defining Firm-Level Resource Integration Effectiveness from the Perspective of Service-Dominant Logic: A Critical Factor Contributing to the Sustainability of a Firm’s Competitive Advantage and the Ecosystem It Operates

When a firm engages in repeated resource integration efforts, it develops an attribute called firm-level resource integration effectiveness (FL-RIE) over time. Due to its meta-theoretical nature, the use of this concept is limited. Thus, to make the formation of mid-range theories easier, through a systematic literature review, this study defines FL-RIE as the degree to which a firm’s resource integrating activities are successful in co-creating value, creating new resources and evaluating emerging properties of resource integration efforts. According to the definition, FL-RIE can be used to calibrate a firm’s resource integration capability in two instances. First, insights generated by FL-RIE can increase the frequency of value cocreation and new resource creation by a firm. Since increasing the frequency of value cocreation and new resource creation can ensure long-term business sustainability, FL-RIE can contribute to business sustainability. Second, insights generated by FL-RIE can improve the capability of evaluating emerging properties of resource integration efforts. Since the evaluation of emerging properties can generate feedback that can enhance resource integration capability, which can be considered a dynamic capability, FL-RIE can contribute to a firm’s sustained competitive advantage. Furthermore, since the same feedback can enhance the well-being of the other actors engaged with the firm and ensure the continuation of the ecosystem that the firm operates, FL-RIE can contribute to the sustainability of the firm and the ecosystem. The findings of this study can be used to develop a conceptual framework and a measurement scale for FL-RIE, and form several hypotheses related to strategic management and sustainability.

Development of a brand community engagement model: a service-dominant logic perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a model that examines motives as antecedents and consequences of brand community engagement (BCE) based on the recent service-dominant (S-D) logic framework, which considers the many actors involved in creating and consuming value in the context of brand communities (BCs).Design/methodology/approachData were collected used an online survey and analyzed used partial least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsThe relationships and their significance were examined using S-D logic. The results indicate that motives of information, self-discovery, status enhancement and entertainment were positively and significantly related to BCE, except social integration. BCE was significantly related to relationship quality (RQ) and customer satisfaction (CS). Finally, CS had a significant positive impact on RQ.Originality/valueThe contribution stems from the incorporation of the recent iteration of S-D logic as a theoretical framework into the BC model and the assessment of the relationships in the structural model.