Research traditions of innovation: Goods-dominant logic, the resource-based approach, and service-dominant logic
Managing Service Quality: An International Journal
ISSN: 0960-4529
Article publication date: 4 November 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a fresh framing of innovation, as service innovation/value innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
By examining the visions, patterns and outcomes of three different research approaches to understanding innovation – goods-dominant (G-D) logic, the resource-based approach and service-dominant (S-D) logic – the authors strive to outline the contribution of each to the debate on innovation. This investigation involves a comprehensive literature review. Scrutiny of a case company provides a means of identifying and illustrating how these approaches play out in a real business context.
Findings
A framework for innovation builds on the comparison of the three research approaches. G-D logic, when analysed in terms of new product development and new service development, positions innovation as an output (a new good or service) of a business's internal processes, with the firm as the main actor. The resource-based approach establishes the drivers of innovation as knowledge, capabilities and relationships, but the firm is still the main innovator. S-D logic addresses “open” innovation processes in which all actors in the network can mobilize and integrate their resources to become value co-innovators.
Research limitations/implications
This study builds on the literature review by offering a more systematic way of dealing with the different research traditions in innovation debate.
Practical implications
This study spurs managers to question the validity of dominant logic and how it affects the decision-making process. The conceptualization of innovation within S-D logic provides new avenues for decision makers and practitioners to tackle topical challenges of global competition.
Originality/value
The value of this paper lies in defending the premise that S-D logic is better suited than the other two research traditions to frame current innovation within the context of global competition because it moves innovation beyond mainstream conceptualization: from “products and services” to “service and value”, from “buyer-seller dyads” to “ecosystem relationships”, and from “closed/linear process” to “open/co-created process”.
Keywords
Citation
Mele, C., Colurcio, M. and Russo-Spena, T. (2014), "Research traditions of innovation: Goods-dominant logic, the resource-based approach, and service-dominant logic", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 612-642. https://doi.org/10.1108/MSQ-10-2013-0223
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited