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The purpose of this paper is to respond to the criticism O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy made of service‐dominant logic in EJM, on behalf of both the paper and the worldwide community of scholars that have embraced S‐D logic as historically informed, integrative, transcending and rich in its potential to generate theoretical and practical contributions.

The paper is a critical, conceptual analysis of the fallacious arguments that O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy developed to argue against the emerging and rapidly developing service‐dominant logic.

The paper shows that, contrary to the claims of O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy, S‐D logic: is neither regressive nor intended to displace all other marketing perspectives; is not advocating technology at the expense of explanatory theory; and is pre‐theoretic and intended to be soundly grounded in a manner to assist theory construction.

Theory advancement is critical to marketing and S‐D logic puts special emphasis on the development of theory. It begins to do this by proposing ten foundational premises, which some may wish to refer to as axioms. From these axioms, considerable theoretical work and related empirical research can develop.

O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy wish to prevent marketing scholars from adopting, advocating, and supporting service‐dominant logic and, as they suggest, taking a backward step. They view the S‐D logic movement as primarily USA‐dominated (which it is not) and are firmly anti‐S‐D logic. The available evidence from around the world suggests that the S‐D logic movement has profound implications for the advancement of both marketing science and marketing practice.

It is critical that S‐D logic should not be viewed as being represented by a single paper but as a body of work that Lusch and Vargo have developed since their initial publication and also the work of a community of scholars working collaboratively to co‐create S‐D logic.

The aim of this paper is to explore the links between contractual governance and performance measurement in a value network for public service business, in the context of public transport, by positing service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) as an alternative paradigm to the conventional goods‐dominant logic (G‐D logic). The paper addresses the following research questions: how does S‐D logic influence contractual governance and performance measurement? How do these influences of S‐D logic on contractual governance and performance measurement affect the governance of public service businesses in a value network?

The study adopts a qualitative approach, using case studies to undertake an analysis of the role of contractual governance and performance management in the Swedish public transport system.

The paper demonstrates that the current model of contractual governance and performance measurement is focused on operand resources, and driven by G‐D logic, rather than focused on operant resources, with S‐D logic. The effect of this dichotomy is an effective negation of the professed desire for a customer‐oriented public service system. The paper also develops and proposes a viable model of how a redefined arrangement, based on S‐D logic, could be achieved. The challenge is to govern a loosely coupled value network based on values rather than rules. Another challenge is how to create more sustainable public service based on value‐in‐use for all stakeholders in the value network. When developing a service business based on S‐D logic, it is important to invest resources in accordance with a balanced set of social, environmental and economic perspectives. The current study also contributes to the ongoing discussion of S‐D logic as an open source.

In service research, little attention has been devoted to the links between contractual governance and performance measurement. The paper proposes and develops a novel model of contractual governance and performance measurement based on S‐D logic.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of how a service‐dominant (S‐D) professional identity can be established among the employees of an organisation that wishes to inculcate the tenets of S‐D logic.

The paper reports a case study of a large Swedish public sector organisation in which the transition to e‐government provided an opportunity to inculcate a new service‐based professional identity among employees. The main data collection method is interviewing.

The study identifies four characteristics of a S‐D professional identity: interaction; customer orientation; co‐creation; and empowerment. The study finds that such an identity can be established through five socialisation processes: collective socialisation; random socialisation; serial socialisation; investiture socialisation; and divestiture socialisation.

As with all case study research, the paper draws analytical generalisations but is unable to provide any statistical generalisations; further quantitative research is needed in this area. Moreover, the paper takes a intra‐firm perspective; future studies could approach the topic from a consumer perspective.

Managers who wish to inculcate S‐D logic in their organisations should focus on developing the interactive and co‐creation skills of their employees, as well as empowering them and providing them with an enhanced understanding of customer orientation.

The study is novel in several respects: it provides a systematic empirical analysis of how S‐D logic can be established in an organisation; the notion of a S‐D professional identity is introduced; and the theory of organisational socialisation is applied to S‐D logic research for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the management of the logistics-manufacturing interface between the manufacturer and its logistics service provider from the perspective of the service-dominant (S-D) logic.

The approach adopted is that of abductive reasoning through case study: data are primarily gleaned from semi-structured in-depth interviews. Field visits and secondary documentation are used to ensure data validity.

The results show that the interface can be categorized into three levels: design interface between products and logistic services, process interface between manufacturing processes and service-offering processes, and information interface between manufacturing information systems and logistics information systems. The results also indicate that ten foundational premises of S-D logic, especially service-focussed, customer-oriented and rational views can be applied in defining and managing these interfaces.

This research contributes not only to the theory of S-D logic and managing interface, but also provides managers with guidelines of applying S-D logic to build a service-focussed, customer-oriented and relational logic to effectively manage the logistics-manufacturing interface. However, the research is limited to the context of automotive and logistics industries.

Three levels of logistics-manufacturing interface, including design, process and information are identified, and S-D logic is applied to identify and manage the interface.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a service-dominant (S-D) logic-based input-output analysis approach to systematically measure the effects of technology spillover in the service sector.

This study uses a case to demonstrate the feasibility and contributions of the S-D logic-based input-output analysis approach.

This study adopted the idea of customer involvement to formulate the S-D logic-based input-output analysis approach. Service providers can apply this systematical approach to find potential opportunities to spread information technology and co-create values with customers.

The S-D logic-based input-output analysis approach has elasticity to dynamically employ different perspectives to evaluate the effects of technology spillovers in order for integrity and precision. The proposed approach is to delineate the possible target values that related to specific services based on the notions of operant resources and customer involvement in a selected service sector. Service providers within the service sector have to offer innovative service activities and manage existing services for customers to participate in.

The purpose of this study is to explore logistics service value through the theoretical lens of service‐dominant (S‐D) logic with a focus on the creation of logistics value jointly by the provider and the customer.

A cross‐disciplinary literature review including supply chain management, logistics, marketing, and strategy is conducted to integrate existing knowledge on value of service and antecedents and consequences of value creation in a process framework for co‐creation of value in a logistics context. This framework is grounded in the S‐D logic perspective and supported by transaction cost analysis (TCA), resource‐based view (RBV) and knowledge‐based view (KBV) of the firm.

The process of co‐creation of value in a logistics context has three phases: learning, innovation and execution, and outcomes. These phases and their key elements are integrated into a comprehensive framework of co‐creation of logistics service value. A total of 12 propositions are offered to describe the process for achieving competitive advantage through co‐creation of logistics service value.

The proposed framework adds to the current knowledge on logistics service value by exploring the concept from the S‐D logic perspective and suggests guidelines for managers on developing a process for co‐creation of logistics service value that leads to competitive advantage and enhanced customer satisfaction. Follow‐on qualitative research such as grounded theory is needed to emerge a theory grounded in empirical data that explicates how the co‐creation of value can occur.

This study is novel in that it applies the S‐D logic perspective in a logistics context. This research leverages existing knowledge through a deeper understanding of the concept of logistics service value and use of well‐accepted theoretical perspectives such as TCA, RBV, and KBV.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on actions and obstacles in the conceptual transition from mainstream service management (1970‐2000s) to a new approach synthesized in service‐dominant (S‐D) logic (2000s).

The paper takes the form of a review of approaches to service in the literature, education, and practice in management disciplines and economics.

S‐D logic has triggered considerable interest in the global academic community. Its ten foundational premises (FPs) hold that service(s) and the roles of suppliers/customers be reconceptualized on a higher level of relevance and generalization. The new logic is not final but – to use its own terminology – is a value proposition that opens up for co‐created theory improvements.

To transition from a goods/services divide to a goods/service union, the platform for future service research requires the superordination of mainstream service management by a new language and lexicon and the generation of new theory; testing of the new theory by comparing its robustness with that of extant theory; conduct of empirical studies through hypotheses‐testing and real world, in‐depth research and the application of complexity theory, network, and systems theory; co‐creation by and between researchers; focus on validity and relevance by using the full range of S‐D logic compatible methods and metrics; and investigation at both micro and macro levels.

Business, marketing, governments, and politicians should focus on service and value and abandon the goods/services and producer/customer divides. Textbooks and educators should transition from outdated concepts and models. Improved education is strongly supported by IBM's service science programme.

The paper suggests that several developments in mainstream service management that once brought attention to service now provide obstacles both in research, education, and practice.

The category captain system (CC) of retailer category management (RCM) is established, accepted, and widely adopted. The paper empirically assesses the application of this system in building collaborations between retailers and their suppliers to generate growth following COVID-19. This study applies service-dominant logic (S-D logic) to RCM and establishes the current ‘practical’ application of the five axioms of S-D logic within the CC system.

The researchers adopted a qualitative research design which examined both category managers and retail buyers currently involved in the CC system, using thematic analysis of transcripts from 25 practitioner participants.

The study reveals service is not a fundamental basis of exchange in the CC system. Value is uniquely, independently, and separately created by the retailer that significantly restricts the scope of the category service eco systems and the opportunity to innovate through value co-creation.

Significant change is required to realise value co-creation and innovation applying S-D logic to RCM. The study indicates there is potential to start this change by the formalisation of wider informal category relationships between non-captain suppliers and retailers through consumer insight technology, and by aligning suppliers and retailers to make more effective and sustainable trading decisions.

The study indicates that certain elements of the CC system proposed by the literature's games-based theoretic models, are not applied in practice. The lived experiences of practitioners suggest informal ways of by-passing the formal system using S-D logic.

In the mainstream normative pricing literature, value assessment is virtually non-existent. Although the resource-based literature recognizes that pricing is a competence, value-informed pricing practices are still weakly grounded in theory. The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the theoretical grounds of such pricing practices.

The paper applies the emerging service-dominant logic of marketing to pricing. More specifically, it apples the ten foundational premises of service-dominant logic to pricing and it places pricing in the frameworks of one of the major building blocks of service-dominant logic, namely the resource-advantage theory of competition.

From a service-dominant perspective, price is the reward for the application of specialized knowledge and skills. Pricing is an operant resource, or competence, that assesses customer value, applies it in multi-dimensional price propositions, and implements it in processes of co-creating prices with customers. Value-informed pricing is the central pricing practice within such competences.

Prices vary among others between “good” and “bad”, firms generate competitive advantage not only through value creation, but also through pricing. Learning is key to develop pricing competences.

This paper is the first to ground value-informed pricing at high levels of abstraction in general marketing theory.