Robert F. Lusch - Service-Dominant Logic: Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities

If you are a business practitioner or academic who has been following, either casually or carefully, the development of service-dominant (S-D) logic, you should read this book, for it pulls together the foundations, structure, and implications of S-D logic for business practice and theory. If you have not been following the development of S-D logic, you should definitely read this book, for it will alert you to a transformational framework for thinking about economic activity.

This is the most seminal contribution to management and economic thinking that I have encountered during the whole of my career. Lusch and Vargo offer theory and concepts that unite the exponentially growing volume of data and research fragments from our complex modern society. Still, it is not the hard sell of yet another magic management bullet. The book should be read by everyone in management and economic disciplines: students, practitioners and politicians.

Ten years ago, Lusch and Vargo turned upside down more than 200 years of economic thought, advancing the view that capabilities rather than goods are fundamental to economic exchange, and setting the stage for the emergence of a new science of service. Now they have distilled their argument to its essence in a remarkable new book that is sure to become required reading for service scientists everywhere.

Service-Dominant Logic: Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities draws together nearly two decades of pioneering work and thought leadership by the authors. This scholarly and provocative text provides a penetrating analysis of the new discipline of service science. It combines groundbreaking research, deep insight and practical models and is an essential read for both reflective practitioners and students.

Two thirds of the worlds population still live on less than two dollars per day. To start changing this, we need to understand this huge segment of society not as passive aid recipients and consumers (Goods Dominant Logic), but as innovative entrepreneurs constantly co-creating solutions to survive in their daily life (Service-Dominant Logic). The base of the pyramid is a rich, living laboratory where actor-to-actor collaboration integrating scarce resources for value co-creation in complex subsistence ecosystems is rooted and practiced every day; where people are SDL Natives . This definitive book by Lusch and Vargo provides us with the ultimate platform to better understand the complexities and opportunities of a service-dominant culture.

Service-dominant logic has been widely accepted as a leading theory and thinking framework for service sciences and engineering. It is now entering the consciousness of business leaders and practitioners: in multiple disciplines in business research and technology development, service-dominant logic is becoming part of the standard vocabulary and its relevance to practice is even more prominent as the data- and analytics-driven economy is emerging. Written by the pioneers who defined and framed the theory and applications of service-dominant logic, this monograph is a must read for researchers and practitioners alike.

Service-Dominant Logic

Premises, Perspectives, Possibilities

Robert F. Lusch

University of Arizona

Stephen L. Vargo

University of Hawaii

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.