An expanded and strategic view of discontinuous innovations: deploying a service-dominant logic

The service-dominant logic (S-D logic) provides a novel and valuable theoretical perspective that necessitates a rethinking and reevaluation of the conventional literature on innovation. This literature is built upon a goods-dominant logic and has resulted in a restricted and out-moded perspective that overlooks many major discontinuous innovations. In this article, we show how many innovations can be better understood by deploying a S-D logic perspective. We present six S-D logic categories of discontinuous innovation positing that they can help scholars and managers analyze, design and implement breakthrough advances in resource use. We argue that discontinuous innovation can arise by changing any of the customers’ roles of users, buyers and payers on the first dimension. On the second dimension, the firm changes its value creation by embedding operant resources into objects, by changing the integrators of resources, and by reconfiguring value constellations. Finally, we offer some managerial and research implications of this expanded and strategic view of discontinuous innovation.

The service-dominant logic and a hierarchy of operant resources: developing masterful operant resources and implications for marketing strategy

Marketing’s evolution toward a new dominant logic requires the focus of marketing to be on the intangible, dynamic, operant resources that are at the heart of competitive advantage and performance. First, building on resource-advantage theory’s notion of basic resources and higher-order resources, this article proposes a hierarchy of basic, composite, and interconnected operant resources. Second, reviewing research on business strategy and marketing strategy, several resources that correspond to the proposed hierarchy are identified and discussed. Third, the notion of developing masterful operant resources is introduced. Fourth, based on the proposed hierarchy and the notion of masterful operant resources, some exemplars of potential research avenues for marketing strategy are provided. Finally, the article concludes with the discussion of implications for marketing practitioners, researchers, and educators. In sum, this article extends and elaborates the concept of operant resources in the service-dominant logic of marketing.     

The evolving brand logic: a service-dominant logic perspective

The meanings of brand and branding have been evolving over the past several decades. This evolution is converging on a new conceptual logic, which views brand in terms of collaborative, value co-creation activities of firms and all of their stakeholders and brand value in terms of the stakeholders’ collectively perceived value-in-use. The authors argue that this new logic parallels and reflects the related, evolving service-dominant (S-D) logic in marketing. They provide an historical account of the branding literature, organize it into eras, and connect it to the evolution in marketing as captured by S-D logic. The analysis provides further support for the S-D logic of marketing and suggests a related research agenda for furthering the understanding of brand and branding. It also suggests that marketing managers might benefit from investing resources in building strong brand relationships with all of their stakeholders and a service-dominant firm philosophy built around brand value co-creation.     

Extending the service-dominant logic: from customer centricity to balanced centricity

This is a contribution to the reorientation of marketing. It aligns the service-dominant logic with other developments in marketing and management. It claims that the marketing concept and customer-centricity are too limited as a foundation for marketing and have not—and cannot—but partially be implemented in practice. It urges marketing scholars and educators to accept the complexity of marketing and develop and teach a network-based stakeholder approach—balanced centricity—epitomized by the concept of many-to-many marketing.     

Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution

Since the introductory article for what has become known as the “service-dominant (S-D) logic of marketing,” “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” was published in the Journal of Marketing (Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2004a)), there has been considerable discussion and elaboration of its specifics. This article highlights and clarifies the salient issues associated with S-D logic and updates the original foundational premises (FPs) and adds an FP. Directions for future work are also discussed.     

Institutionalization of ethics and its consequences: a survey of marketing professionals

Because of increasing ethical problems in business, organizations have tried to control these problems by institutionalizing ethics, such as by creating new ethics positions and formulating codes of ethics. In this study, the authors develop a scale for measuring the institutionalization of ethics in organizations and assess it for dimensionality, reliability and validity. Two separate studies are conducted, both using samples drawn from an American Marketing Association practitioner population. In Study 1, using a sample of 126 marketing practitioners, we performed exploratory factor analysis on 44 institutionalization items resulting in two separate dimensions of the institutionalization of ethics construct: implicit and explicit institutionalization. Using a national sample of 306 marketing practitioners in Study 2, we performed confirmatory factor analysis on these two dimensions and investigated the effects of these dimensions on perceived importance of ethics, job satisfaction, esprit de corps and organizational commitment. Implicit institutionalization had a significant direct affect on all four of these constructs. On the other hand, explicit institutionalization significantly influenced only the perceived importance of ethics.     

The service-dominant logic and the future of marketing

According to Vargo and Lusch (Journal of Marketing, 68:1–17, 2004a, Journal of Service Research, 6:324–335, b), service is the appropriate logic for marketing. For them, service is an interactive process of “doing something for someone” that is valued. More radically, goods also render service and have value-in-use. In this context service becomes the unifying purpose of any business relationship. This marketing world-view involves broadening and reframing what by convention counts as service and stands in opposition to 200 years of mainstream economic logic in explaining productive capacity. In our view they have succeeded in applying their scholarly thinking to old themes with synergistic results. Their thesis challenges marketing orthodoxy, and will in our view support much future innovation in both theoretical and practical terms.     

Reconfiguration of the conceptual landscape: a tribute to the service logic of Richard Normann

This article is a tribute to the late Richard Normann, whose call for a “service logic” (Normann, Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape, Wiley, Chichester, p. 99, 2001) both parallels and enriches service-dominant (S-D) logic (Vargo and Lusch, J. Mark, 68:1–17, 2004a). Like Vargo and Lusch, Normann shifted the focus of the offering from an output to a process of value creation and perceived the firm as an organizer of this process, with the customer as a co-producer, rather than a receiver of value. He also argued that offerings are “frozen knowledge,” similar to Vargo and Lusch’s contention that the basis of exchange is applied operant resources (service) and suggested that the ‘dematerialization’ of resources increases their ‘liquidity’, which allows increased “density” for value creation. Thus, he suggested that firms need to “reframe business”—rethink the logic of value creation—to reveal opportunities in reconfiguring the value constellations of which they are part. This tribute explores these and other similarities and differences between Normann’s work and the evolving S-D logic.     

Evaluation of subsidiary marketing performance: combining process and outcome performance metrics

Issues in evaluating marketing performance and devising appropriate metrics for measurement have taken center stage in marketing thought and practice in recent years. We propose an empirical model that enables a multinational enterprise (MNE) to assess the marketing performance of its subsidiaries, taking into explicit consideration the fact that tactical actions by subsidiaries contribute to the creation of assets that can be harnessed for marketing outcomes. Thus, our model captures the asset creation abilities of marketing expenditures and also takes in to account the environmental differences of the context in which each MNE subsidiary operates. We evaluate comparative, overall, and process-level (creation of market assets and market yield) marketing performance in the context of multi-country operations. This simultaneous examination of marketing process and marketing outcome performance enables a global corporation to gain strategic, operational, and diagnostic insights into the performance of its subsidiaries. Our approach is empirically illustrated with an evaluation of the marketing performance of subsidiaries of a large global corporation.     

反思与定位:建构中国特色的政府绩效管理

当前中国政府绩效管理过程中政府自身之被动、学术界倡导绩效管理理念之冲动、媒体舆论对政府绩效评估之盲动、社会公民在政府绩效管理中之不动现象,值得剖析与反思;只有清醒领悟政府绩效管理是一场持续渐进之运动,只有建构以伦理与制度结合之中国特色的政府绩效管理,才有助于实现政府持续改进、人民满意与社会和谐之目的。     

伦理学说对经济发展的影响——新教伦理与中国传统儒家伦理的比较研究

新教伦理学说和传统儒家伦理学说分别对经济的发展产生正面和负面的影响。这是由两种学说的不同之处引起的。从二者如何处理义与利的关系的角度来看,尽管二者都以＂义＂为中心,但是新教伦理巧妙地处理义与利的关系,使得获利合法化,从而促进经济发展;中国传统儒家伦理则狭隘地处理义与利的关系,阻碍了经济发展。从二者如何理解＂自制＂概念的角度来看,新教伦理的＂自制＂保证了客观效果———经济发展的实现;传统儒家伦理的＂自制＂进一步强化了它对于经济发展的阻碍作用。     

Capital market impact of product marketing strategy: Evidence from the relationship between advertising expenses and cost of capital

To analyze the prospect of a firm’s advertising decision affecting shareholder wealth, this article investigates the relationship between a firm’s advertising expenditure and the market-imposed weighted average cost of capital. For a sample of U.S. firms, the results show that advertising expenditure is negatively related to the cost of equity and positively related to debt utilization, resulting in a lower weighted average cost of capital. A higher debt level, however, associates with a lower level of financial strength. In addition, and plausibly by lowering the cost of capital through product market advertising, firms with higher advertising expenditure experience higher performance in terms of market value added. Manohar Singh (msingh@willamette.edu) is an associate professor of finance at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His published research includes publications in theJournal of Banking and Finance, Financial Review, theJournal of Multinational Financial Management, and thePacific Basin Finance Journal, among others. His research interests include corporate governance and corporate finance and strategy. Sheri Faircloth (fairclos@unr.nevada.edu) is an associate professor of finance at the University of Nevada at Reno. She holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research interests include corporate finance, investments, and real estate finance. She has published in finance journals such as theJournal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, theJournal of Real Estate Literature, Review of the Academy of Finance, theJournal of the Academy of Finance, andApplied Economics. Ali Nejadmalayeri (aliala@unr.edu) is an assistant professor of finance at the University of Nevada at Reno. He holds an M.B.A. from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Arizona. He has published in finance journals such as theJournal of Business, theJournal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and theJournal of Multinational Financial Management. He was awarded the College of Business Researcher of the Year Award for 2004.     

高新技术产业项目的绩效管理——基于软件项目管理的实证研究

针对高新技术产业广泛采用项目驱动的管理模式,在理论分析和实地调查的基础上,实证研究了客户、项目经理和激励制度对项目业绩的影响。结果发现客户对定制化需求大,但对标准化软件却有更高的边际利润;政府机构是大客户,但其垄断地位,所带来的销售利润率和项目交付率并不高;地域商务环境影响交易成本,进而显著地影响了项目的业绩水平;项目业绩受项目经理激励程度和方式的影响,但与项目经理认知特征无显著关系。这些结论说明软件企业在制定战略时,需以定制产品和定制服务为起点,但最终必须研发成为具有行业特点的标准化应用软件;在资源分配时,应重点关注地域商务环境好的客户,适当提高非政府机构行业客户的资源分配比例;应健全项目经理激励制度,促使项目提前完工,从而降低开发成本,增加项目业绩。     

中国企业跨国经营绩效综合评价体系的重构与应用

对中国企业跨国经营绩效进行综合、科学的评价具有重要的意义.结合<境外投资综合绩效评价办法(试行)>和已有的研究成果,重构了中国企业跨国经营绩效综合评价体系.重构后的评价体系在资产、人员和运营绩效基础之上加入品牌、发展和外溢绩效共6个一级指标和18项二级指标的评价内容.运用AHP法对18项二级指标进行评价的结果表明,发展绩效、品牌绩效和资产绩效同等重要.     

一颗永远和少年儿童一起跳动的心——宋庆龄与新中国儿童教育

少年儿童的教育和健康成长,是宋庆龄一生关注的重要问题之一.新中国成立以后,宋庆龄更加热情地关怀少年儿童的健康成长.她发表的讲话,所撰写的文章,有相当大的一部分是论及教育,特别少年儿童教育工作的.她对教育的极端重要性、教育的内容和方法等有关新中国教育的重大问题,都作了比较充分的论述.这是一份极其宝贵的思想财富,具有重要的历史价值和现实意义.     

提高毛泽东思想和中国特色社会主义理论体系概论课教学实效性的路径研究

要提高毛泽东思想和中国特色社会主义理论体系概论课的教学实效,高校要坚持正确办学方向,加强对教师的培训;教师要正确把握社会形势,提升政治素养,提高专业素质;要创新教学理念,改进教学方法。