J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2008) 36:21–24 DOI 10.1007/s11747-007-0072-y

BRIEF REPORT

Service-dominant logic and resource theory Eric J. Arnould

Received: 9 July 2007 / Accepted: 16 July 2007 / Published online: 3 August 2007 # Academy of Marketing Science 2007

Taking inspiration from the importance accorded resources in the emergent-service dominant logic marketing researchers might develop a more robust marketing ecology based on existing resource theories. Researchers may begin to think of firms and their customers as deploying operant and operand resources both to co-create discursively legitimated market spaces and provide inputs for value definition and delivery within them (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Spaces ranging from the Web, to industry clusters, to trade shows, and experiential retail exemplify the former (Leigh et al. 2006; Peñaloza 2000; Spohrer et al. 2007). Service is the master category that defines that later, of which examples are legion (Arnould et al. 2006). Several literatures present themselves for developing resource centered ecological theory. I will highlight a few specific points of interest related to the resource based theory of the firm; organizational ecology; cluster theoretic models; social capital theory; and Foa’s interpersonal resource model. Each provides some distinctive contributions; each has limitations that would invite further theoretical development and empirical research. One source is the resource based theory of the firm that shares with the S-D perspective an interest in the strategic value of firms’ skills, knowledge and cultural competencies (Day and Wensley 1988; Wernerfelt 1995). This literature argues that such resources are heterogeneously distributed across firms, and that these distributions

E. J. Arnould (*) Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210033, 1110 E. South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721-0033, USA e-mail: [email protected]

are relatively stable over time, thereby conveying a superior ability to capture resources (primarily economic) from customers. Aspects of operant resources that may generate sustained competitive advantage – value, rareness, imitateability, and substitutability – have been identified, but empirically-grounded dimensions could be better developed. Day (1994) and Hunt and Morgan (1995) famously suggest market orientation is such an advantage, or in Day’s terms, market sensing and customer linking capabilities. A paradox worth further exploration is Barney’s (1991) contention that if a firm’s advantageous resources were clearly defined, they would become replicable by competitors and their advantage lost versus Hunt and Morgan’s contention that causal ambiguity about operant resources represents a firm vulnerability. More generally in a fully networked economy, the idea of information asymmetry is problematized. Opportunities exist to specify the precise nature of firm sensing and customer linking capabilities, comparative typologies thereof, and the nature of their links to firm value propositions. Research that focuses on how organizational schema for market sensing and intervention are learned and deployed holds promise for helping us understand how firms co-construct marketspaces and populate them with value propositions (Gebhardt et al. 2006). In addition, this literature would benefit from a customer centric model of firm resources to know with what kinds of firm resources customers wish to engage on a transaction specific or relational level. Finally is a customercentric model of firm lifetime value imaginable? A second source of insight is organization ecology. This literature is concerned with deterministic models of the growth, development, and death of firms within a competitive resource space. Thus the unit of analysis is not the firm, but firms within a resource space (Haveman 1995; Ruef 1997; Van Witteloostuijn and Boone 2006). One

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interesting theme in this work is efforts to help explain why competitive landscapes take more oligopolistic forms or alternatively are characterized by larger numbers of small firms as a result of characteristics of environmental resources and firm resource capturing capacities. Perhaps surprisingly the literature in this area includes compelling longitudinal studies of industry specific competitive landscapes such as breweries and gasoline stations (Carroll and Swaminathan 2000; Usher and Evans 1996). This work lends itself to formal modeling and provides alternatives to more inductive models. This research tradition would benefit from operationalizing diverse customer resources in the environment and analyzing their contribution to macro level processes. This might include not just economic demand, but at a minimum positive word-of-mouth and customer citizenship behaviors as well. Third, building off long-standing management interest (Saxenian 1990; Storper and Christopherson (1987), cluster theory has enjoyed a vogue. Clusters share many characteristics of networks but are differentiated by co-location and “active efficiencies” (Gordon and McCann 2000). From a resource perspective, positive externalities associated with geographic clustering are of interest (Gertler 1995; Håkanson 2005). Firms’ geographic and social relationships with external players may be conceived of as resources that affect their learning abilities, innovation outcomes, and ultimate success (Ganesan et al. 2005). Cooperation across firms may improve collective abilities to accrue customer resources. And, the development of social capital resources across firms increases information flows and reduces costs of qualifying exchange partners, moral hazards, and enforcement of exchange agreements. Firms sometimes invest in educational institutions that increase collective access to human social capital as in the case of a contemporary Brazilian furniture cluster (Dantas, personal communication), and the foundation of France’s top business schools by regional chambers of commerce. Some scholars argue clusters may represent a novel approach to third world development challenges (Arnould and Mohr 2005). However, the cluster concept needs conceptual precision (e.g., distinguishing different cluster types, processes and spatial scales of economic localization) and measurement (e.g., identifying and quantifying spill-over effects; linkage effects) to better realize promised theoretical and practical benefits to S-D logic (Martin and Sunley 2003). A fourth intriguing resource theory is the interpersonal resource exchange theory of Foa (1993) and the circumflex resource model at its heart. This theory is of interest to marketers because of its effort to systematize consumer resources (e.g, Brinberg and Ganesan 1993; Brinberg and Wood 1983), but has fallen out of favor, perhaps because of doubts about the robustness of the resource constructs and their underlying dimensions, i.e., concreteness and partic-

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2008) 36:21–24

ularism. Recent work that reexamines resource allocation and exchange within households (Commuri and Gentry 2005) suggests there may be a role for a revived theory of interpersonal resources in value co-creation. Interpersonal resource theory could be advanced by integrating social support theory (Adelman and Ahuvia 1995; Rosenbaum 2006), sociologically complex resources (see below), and variables like centrality and relative engagement in consumption collectivities (Cova and Cova 2002; Sirsi et al. 1996). Finally, a burgeoning literature is concerned with individuals’ and firms’ social and cultural capital resources (Bourdieu 1984). This work has spawned consumer research that shows how capitals are enlisted in creating distinctive consumer lifetyles (Allen 2002; Bernthal et al. 2005; Holt 1998), and emphasizes that how people dispose of capital resources is more diagnostic of consumption patterns than what is consumed. A management literature argues social and cultural capital are competitive resources that enhance firm performance (Lesser and Storck 2001; Luo et al. 2004; Luthans and Youssef 2004). More work like Thompson (2003) is needed to show how consumer-generated social and cultural capital resources are deployed in market spaces to create value via more sophisticated models of practices and performances (Warde 2005; see also Allen 2002; House 2000; Zukin 1990). Finally, a critical literature (Savage et al. 2005) draws attention to problems of construct validity, inviting further theoretical development and empirical research. This brief review suggests that resource theory inspired by S-D logic could draw on numerous theoretical resources to focus on some of the following opportunities: & & & & & & & &

Bring greater specificity to identification of firm operant resources, comparative typologies thereof, knowledge asymmetry, and links to firm offerings. Develop customer centric models of firm resources, e.g., value propositions. Model specific customer resources in the organizational environment and link them to macro level processes like organizational genesis, growth and death. Specify more precisely inter-firm value-creating processes and how these become embedded in routines and organizational learning. Clarify spatial scales of economic localization that produce cluster benefits. Develop better measures of resource spill-over and firm linkage effects. Develop more sociologically enriched and complex models of inter-agent resource exchange than those envisaged by Foa and colleagues. Conduct empirical studies to show how complex social and cultural capital resources are deployed in market

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2008) 36:21–24

&

spaces to create value via sophisticated models of consumption practices and performances. Create hybrid models that bring various research streams together.

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