serviceddominant

Service-dominant logic (S-D logic) is a theoretical framework in marketing and service science that posits service, rather than goods, as the fundamental basis of all economic exchange. It emerged from the work of Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch, culminating in their influential 2004 article Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing, which argued that goods are only vehicles for service and that value is created through service exchange and interaction among actors. Since then the framework has been developed through further scholarship and applied across business, management, and public-sector research.

A central claim of S-D logic is that service is the application of competences—skills, knowledge, and processes—through which benefits are provided to another party. Resources are reinterpreted as operant resources (capabilities that act on other resources, such as knowledge and expertise) and operand resources (physical objects that require action). Operant resources, rather than tangible goods, are viewed as the primary drivers of value creation. Value is assumed to be co-created in use by providers and customers within service ecosystems, rather than embedded in products at the time of purchase. Markets are networks of service exchange, and customers are active collaborators in value formation.

The logic has influenced marketing theory, management practice, and service design, emphasizing customer involvement, relational assets, and the integration of diverse resources to create value-in-use. It remains subject to critique, with debates about its empirical coverage, operationalization, and applicability to all industry contexts, but it has become a widely cited perspective for understanding modern value creation and service-based business models.