Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing

The text, an article from the Journal of Marketing, discusses the evolution of the dominant logic for marketing from a traditional goods-centered perspective to an emerging service-centered view. The authors, Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch, argue that the original model, inherited from economics, focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and discrete transactions. The new dominant logic emphasizes intangible resources like knowledge and skills, the co-creation of value, and ongoing customer relationships, positing that service provision is fundamental to economic exchange, even when goods are involved. This shift redefines concepts such as the role of goods (now seen as distribution mechanisms for service) and the customer (who is always a co-producer), leading to a new set of foundational premises for marketing theory and practice. The piece traces the historical context of marketing thought to illustrate this major paradigm change.