Marketing and the Logic of Service: Value Facilitation, Value Creation and Co-creation, and Their Marketing Implications

The discussion of a service-dominant logic has made the findings of decades of service marketing research a topic of interest for marketing at large. Some fundamental aspects of the logic such as value creation and its marketing implications are more complex than they have been treated as so far and need to be further developed to serve marketing theory and practice well. Following the analysis in the present article it is argued that although customers are co-producers in service processes, according to the value-in-use notion adopted in the contemporary marketing and management literature they are fundamentally the creators of value for themselves. Furthermore, it is concluded that although by providing goods and services as input resources into customers’ consumption and value-generating processes firms are fundamentally value facilitators, interactions with customers that exist or can be created enable firms to engage themselves with their customers’ processes and thereby they become co-creators of value with their customers. As marketing implications it is observed that 1) the goal of marketing is to support customers’ value creation, 2) following a service logic and due to the existence of interactions where the firm’s and the customer’s processes merge into an integrated joint value creation process, the firm is not restricted to making value propositions only, but can directly and actively influence the customer’s value fulfilment as well and extend its marketing process to include activities during customer-firm interactions, and 3) although all goods and services are consumed as service, customers’ purchasing decisions can be expected to be dependant of whether they have the skills and interest to use a resource, such as a good, as service or want to buy extended market offerings including process-related elements. Finally, the analysis concludes with five service logic theses.

Value creation from the innovation environment: Partnership strategies in university spin-outs

University spin-out (USO) companies play an increasingly important role in generating value from radical, generic technologies, but this translation requires significant resources from other players to reach the market. Seven case studies illuminate how relationships with each type of partner can be leveraged to help the firm create value. We find that most firms in the sample are aware of the importance of corporate partners and actively seek to cultivate these relationships, but may not be taking full advantage of the resources available through nonparent academic institutions and other USOs with similar or complementary technologies. © 2013 The Authors. R&D Management © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Sustainable Value Creation among Companies in the Manufacturing Sector

In this paper, we present empirical results of a study on the creation of Sustainable Value among European manufacturing companies. As sustainable development is a future oriented concept we assess the use of environmental resources in companies in the light of the EU15 performance targets for 2010. By using the Sustainable Value approach and based on publicly available company data we measure in monetary terms how individual companies perform vis-a-vis the 2010 performance targets already today. This shows the specific exposure and vulnerability of companies to more stringent policy regimes, and allows meaningful comparisons between both companies and sectors.

Value creation and value claiming in strategic outsourcing decisions: A resource contingency perspective

This study integrates the concepts of value creation and value claiming into a theoretical framework that emphasizes the dependence of resource value maximization on value-claiming motivations in outsourcing decisions. To test this theoretical framework, it develops refutable implications to explain the firm's outsourcing decision, and it uses data from 178 firms in the publishing and printing industry on outsourcing of application services. The results show that in outsourcing decisions, resource value and transaction costs are simultaneously considered and that outsourcing decisions are dependent on alignment between resource and transaction attributes. The findings support a resource contingency view that highlights value-claiming mechanisms as resource contingency in interorganizational strategic decisions.

Unlocking synergies between business units: internal value creation at Royal Vopak.

This paper examines the process of creating and exploiting synergies between business units of a multi-unit corporation and the creation of internal value by combining and exploiting knowledge. It offers a framework to create and manage such synergies and undertakes an empirical test through in-depth study across three business units of Royal Vopak, a Dutch-based global multi-unit corporation. Finally, it offers lessons for corporate managers trying to create and manage cross-unit synergies.

Drivers and barriers to value creation in mobile service delivery

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics