Vargo and Akaka_2009: Service-Dominant Logic as a Foundation for Service Science:Clarifications service science is an emerging discipline concerned with the evolution, interaction, and reciprocal cocreation of value among service systems (Maglio and Spohrer 2008; Spohrer et al. 2008). Servicedominant (S-D) logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004a 2008) is an alternative to the traditional, goods-dominant (G-D) paradigm for understanding economic exchange and value creation. This service-centered view is based on the idea that service – the application of competences for the benefit of another – is the basis of all exchange. S-D logic has been identified as an appropriate philosophical foundation for the development of service science (Maglio et al. 2009). However, perhaps partly because S-D logic is first necessarily encountered through the G-D logic paradigm to which it runs counter, it is sometimes misinterpreted and thus misrepresented. This paper discusses S-D logic as a foundation for service science by reviewing the foundational premises of S-D logic and clarifying several misinterpretations related to 1) the S-D logic meaning of “service,” 2) the role of service in economic exchange, and 3) the nature of value cocreation. Drawing on these clarifications, implications of an S-D logic foundation for service science are proposed. |