Abstract

Service-dominant logic (SDL) cannot satisfactorily explain processes regarding value in consumption contexts. Thus, this paper attempts to build a framework that can better meet this need. The aim is pursued by sharing with SDL the idea that value is always related to the services that consumers benefit from, either directly by interacting with a service provider or indirectly by using goods as mechanisms for service provision thanks to the knowledge they embed. The second key idea is the need to contextualize value processes in order to understand them. The paper analyzes different contexts highlighting dualities that together define an original approach to value creation in consumption contexts: potential value versus actual value, value creation versus value determination, demand-side beneficiary versus supply-side beneficiary, service self-production/value self-creation versus service co-production/value co-creation, use value versus symbolic value. The approach to value proposed in the paper consists of this set of invariant dual constructs necessary to analyze consumption contexts. At the same time, it conceptualizes the variety of such contexts, that is, the different ways in which consumers self-produce or co-produce services, self-create or co-create value