Research trajectories of Service-Dominant Logic: Emergent themes of a unifying paradigm in business and management, Industrial Marketing Management, 2017
Attila Pohlmann, Valtteri Kaartemo

Branding will become peripheral to Service-Dominant Logic by the early 2020s. Systems will be the driving theme in the same timeframe. These were some of the results emerging from our extensive mixed methods analysis of the SD Logic research trajectories.

By carrying out a bibliometric analysis we identified the main concepts of SD Logic based research and categorized the themes on the dimensions of centrality-density. The centrality refers to how pertinent the theme is considered to be in the literature, and the density highlights how often the theme appears. These insights from the past and present were then reflected against the results of a Delphi panel discussion of SD Logic experts to formulate informed assumptions about the future of the SD Logic.

The extensive bibliometric analysis revealed four motor themes so far shaping the SD Logic approach: value co-creation, brands, resources (incl. integration), and innovation. By enriching these findings with the expert insights, we ultimately propose and discuss ten emerging themes anticipated to formulate the future of SD Logic approach: systems, value proposition, value co-creation, actors, service, resources, institutions, context, innovation and markets.

Our ambition in exploring the past, present and future research evolution of SD Logic was to advance its aspiration in potentially being the unifying paradigm about the true nature of economic exchange. Based on our learning, we expect the aforementioned thematic areas to be fruitful in bringing forth dynamic and versatile research across many disciplines.

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Valtteri Kaartemo
D.Sc