Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Legitimizing Catchwords of Service Marketing: The Role of Academia

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Business Legitimacy

  • 122 Accesses

Abstract

Concepts such as value co-creation and value propositions are buzzwords of current business lingo and of the academic discipline of service marketing. The focus on value creation, and how to support value creation to occur, is linked to an increased focus on not only the customer but on the sphere or lifeworld of the customer. In academia this is theorized as a shift from value-in-the exchange, over value-in-use, to value-in-(social) context. A vast amount of literature focuses on these conceptualizations, but few seems to challenge the apparent taken-for-grantedness of the customer as willing to co-create the generic nature of applied concepts and the idea that customer orientation in itself leads to innovation. Furthermore the language, despite adopting phenomenological and hermeneutic terms relative to this claimed customer focus, obscures that companies are driven by economic value based on a market logic.

This chapter argues that a dual move of legitimization is happening; businesses legitimize their pursuit of economic value through the lingo of value co-creation, and academia, as an authoritative social entity, further legitimizes this by giving concepts that are uncritically derived from empirical phenomena analytical authority – partly based on pragmatic legitimacy – i.e., to own interests of keeping a research domain alive. The implication might be that the terminology of marketing, in both practice and academia, becomes detached from the empirical reality of the customer that the concepts are meant to mirror and hence only serve an academic purpose, but less a practical one.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alam I, Perry C (2002) A customer-oriented new service development process. J Serv Mark 16(6):515–534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson L, Ostrom A, Corus C, Fisk R, Gallan AS, Giraldo M, Mende M, Mulder M, Rayburn SW, Rosenbaum MS, Shirada K, Williams JD (2013) Transformative service research: an agenda for the future. J Bus Res 66:1203–1210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bitner M, Brown SW (2008) The service imperative. Bus Horiz 51:39–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blocker CP, Barrios A (2015) The transformative value of service experience. J Serv Res 18(3):265–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cova B, Dalli D (2009) Working consumers; the next step in marketing theory. Mark Theory 9(3):315–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cova B, Dalli D, Zwick D (2011) Critical perspectives on consumers’ role as ‘producers’: broadening the debate on value co-creation in marketing processes. Mark Theory 11(3):231–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cova B, Pace S, Skålén P (2015) Brand volunteering: value co-creation with unpaid consumers. Mark Theory 15(4):465–485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Jong JPJ, Vermeulen PA (2003) Organizing successful new service development: a literature review. Manag Decis 41(9):844–858

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drejer I (2004) Identifying innovation in surveys of services: a Schumpeterian perspective. Res Policy 33:551–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Droege H, Hildebrand D, Forcada MAH (2009) Innovation in services: present findings, and future pathways. J Serv Manag 20(2):131–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edvardsson B, Gustafsson A, Roos I (2005) Service portraits in service research: a critical review. Int J Serv Ind Manag 16(1):107–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edvardsson B, Tronvoll B, Gruber T (2011) Expanding understanding of service exchange and value co-creation: a social construction approach. J Acad Mark Sci 39:327–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edvardsson B, Kristensson P, Mangusson P, Sundstrøm E (2012) Customer integration within service development – a review of methods and an analysis of insitu and exsitu contributions. Technovation 32:419–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford RC, Edvardsson B, Dickson D, Enquist B (2012) Managing the innovation co-creation challenge: lessons from service exemplars Disney and IKEA. Organ Dyn 41:281–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraser N (2008) Scales of justice: reimagining political space in a globalizing world. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK/Malden

    Google Scholar 

  • Frow P, Nenonen S, Payne A, Storbacka K (2015) Managing co-creation design: a strategic approach to innovation. Br J Manag 26:463–483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallouj F, Savona M (2010) Towards a theory of innovation in services: a state of the art. In: Gallouj F, Djellal F (eds) The handbook of innovation and services – a multi-disciplinary perspective. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 27–47

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Greer CR, Lusch RF, VargoS L (2016) A service perspective: key managerial insights from service-dominant (S-D) logic. Organ Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.12.004 (article in press)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C (2008) Service logic revisited: who creates value? And who co-creates? Eur Bus Rev 20(4):298–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C (2017) On value and value creation in service: a management perspective. J Creating Value 3(2):125–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C, Ravald A (2011) Service as business logic: implications for value creation and marketing. J Serv Manag 22(1):5–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C, Voima P (2013) Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation. J Acad Mark Sci 41(2):133–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C, Strandvik T, Heinonen K (2015) Value co-creation: critical perspectives. In: Gummerus J, Von Koskull C (eds) The Nordic school: service marketing and management for the future. CERS, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, pp 69–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Gummerus J (2013) Value creation processes and value outcomes in marketing theory: strangers or siblings? Mark Theory 13(1):19–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1998) Remarks on legitimation through human rights. Philos Soc Crit 24(2/3):157–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hasu M, Toivonen M, Tuominen T, Saari E (2015) Employees and users as resource integrators in service innovation: a learning framework. In: Agarwal R, Selen W, Roos G, Green R (eds) The handbook of service innovation. Springer, London, pp 169–192

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Heinonen K, Strandvik T (2015) Customer-dominant logic: foundations and implications. J Serv Mark 29(6/7):472–484

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinonen K, Strandvik T, Voima P (2013) Customer dominant value formation in service. Eur Bus Rev 25(2):104–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helkkula A, Kelleher C (2010) Circularity of customer service experience and customer perceived value. J Cust Behav 9(1):37–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helkkula A, Kelleher C, Pihlström M (2012) Characterizing value as experience: implications for service researchers and managers. J Serv Res 15(1):59–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hennala L, Parjanen S, Uotila T (2011) Challenges of multi-actor involvement in the public sector front-end innovation processes: constructing an open innovation model for developing well-being services. Eur J Innov Manag 14(3):364–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson C, Dowd TJ, Ridgeway CL (2006) Legitimacy as social process. Annu Rev Sociol 32:53–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock C, Gummesson E (2004) Whither services marketing? In search of a new paradigm and fresh perspectives. J Serv Res 7:20–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lusch RF, Vargo SL (2014) Service-dominant logic. Premises, perspectives, possibilities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Maglio PP, Spohrer J (2008) Fundamentals of service science. J Acad Mark Sci 36:18–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marion G (2006) Marketing ideology and criticism: legitimacy and legitimization. Mark Theory 6(2):245–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthing J, Sandén B, Edvardsson B (2004) New service development: learning from and with customers. Int J Serv Ind Manag 15(5):479–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miles I (2005) Innovation in services. In: Fagerberg J, Movery DC, Nelson RR (eds) The Oxford handbook of innovation. University Press, Oxford, pp 433–458

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne AF, Storbacka K, Frow P (2008) Managing the co-creation of value. J Acad Mark Sci 36:83–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perks H, Gruber T, Edvardsson B (2012) Co-creation in radical service innovation: a systematic analysis of microlevel processes. J Prod Innov Manag 29(6):935–951

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prahalad CK, Ramaswamy V (2000) Co-opting customer competence. Harv Bus Rev 78(1):79–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Rihova I, Buhalis D, Moital M, Gouthro MB (2013) Social layers of customer-to-customer value co-creation. J Serv Manag 24(5):553–566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russo-Spena T, Mele C (2012) Five co-s’ in innovating: a practise-based view. J Serv Manag 23(4):527–553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Said EW (1995) Orientalism – western conceptions of the orient. Penguin Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandström S, Edvardsson B, Kristensson P, Magnuson P (2008) Value in use through service experience. Manag Serv Qual 18(2):112–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skålén P (2010) A discourse analytical approach to qualitative marketing research. Qual Mark Res Int J 13(2):103–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skålén P, Felleson M, Fougére M (2006) The governmentality of marketing discourse. Scand J Manag 22:275–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skålén P, Gummerus J, Koskull v C, Magnusson PR (2015) Exploring value propositions and service innovation: a service-dominant logic study. J Acad Mark Sci 43(2):137–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sørensen F, Mattson J, Sundbo J (2010) Experimental methods in innovation research. Res Policy 39:313–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoeckl VE, Luedicke MK (2015) Doing well while doing good? An integrative review of marketing criticism and response. J Bus Res 68:2452–2463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchman M (1995) Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. Acad Manag Rev 20(3):571–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sundbo J, Toivonen M (2011) Introduction. In: Sundbo J, Toivonen M (eds) User-based innovation in services. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp 1–25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Toivonen M (2010) Different types of innovation processes in services and their organizational implications. In: Gallouj F, Djellal F (eds) The handbook of innovation and services – a multi-disciplinary perspective. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 221–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Tost LP (2011) An integrative model of legitimacy judgments. Acad Manag Rev 36(4):686–710

    Google Scholar 

  • Umashankar N, Raji S, Dustin H (2011) Developing customer service innovations for service employees: the effects of NSD characteristics on internal innovation magnitude. J Serv Res 14(2):164–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo SL (2008) Customer integration and value creation: paradigmatic traps and perspectives. J Serv Res 11(2):211–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2004) Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. J Mark 68(1):1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2008) Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. J Acad Mark Sci 36:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2016) Institutions and axioms: an extension and update of service-dominant logic. J Acad Mark Sci 44:5–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voima P, Heinonen K, Strandvik T (2010) Exploring customer value formation: a customer dominant logic perspective. Working paper 552. Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki

    Google Scholar 

  • Wäger K, Roos I, Ravald A, Edvardsson B (2012) My customers are in my blind spot: are they changing and I cannot see it? J Serv Res 15(2):150–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeithaml VA, Parasuraman A, Berry LL (1985) Problems and strategies in services marketing. J Mark 49(2):33–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Note

The chapter is partly based on the author’s PhD dissertation: What’s at stake? Critically exploring the concept of value co-creation in service research – Or an anthropologist going na(rra)tive within business administration. Roskilde University, 2016

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Anne Vorre Hansen

Authors
  1. Anne Vorre Hansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Vorre Hansen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Hansen, A.V. (2019). Legitimizing Catchwords of Service Marketing: The Role of Academia. In: Rendtorff, J. (eds) Handbook of Business Legitimacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_40-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_40-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68845-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68845-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation