Three perspectives on service management and marketing: rival logics or part of a bigger picture?

Abstract

Purpose

To locate the underlying service logic of each of three leading texts and to examine points of variance.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical review and comparative analysis of the main tenets of each text.

Findings

Each text combines a service perspective and a relationship perspective to marketing management. Each author seems to favour a service perspective on some issues but at other times a relationship perspective. This apparent epistemological pluralism is resolvable and a pathway to synthesis suggested.

Practical implications

What stands out in a critical reading of these texts is the provocation offered to readers to go beyond the limits of services marketing orthodoxy. In this there are implications for pedagogical development.

Originality/value

Gives insights into the current debate on development of a more broadly based service‐dominant logic of marketing.

Citation

Ballantyne, D. (2006), "Three perspectives on service management and marketing: rival logics or part of a bigger picture?", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 73-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040610646590