A Framework of Services-as-Practices

Abstract

The idea of conceptualizing services as a type of discrete entity that are different from goods provided the initial conceptual foundation of service research. Today, this foundation has been denounced and replaced by the service-dominant logic (SDL), which suggests that service is a logic reffering to how resources are integrated by actors in order to cocreate value-in-use. However, researchers and practitioners still commonly refer to services as a type of discrete entity. To facilitate the understanding of services, this paper develops a services-as-practices (SaP) framework consisting of six propositions. Key to the SaP framework is the fact that services are conceptualized as bundles of value cocreation practices (VCPs). These VCPs are organized and recurring activities that are intended to cocreate value, but they can also codestroy (i.e., diminish) value when performed. The SaP framework contributes to service research by developing: (1) a novel conceptualization of services that realizes the long-lasting opportunity to understand services-as-activities, (2) a novel conceptualization of value that aligns theoretically with this understanding of services, and (3) the service research discipline as a whole. The latter contribution is accomplished by revising the notion of services as a type of discrete entity in such a way that a fruitful alternative perspective to focusing on service as a logic along the lines of the SDL is achieved. The SaP framework also provides practitioners with a novel perspective as regards understanding, managing, and developing services.