Designing a Tool for Service-Dominant Business Strategies Using Action Design Research

Abstract

Both academic research and industrial practice recognize difficulties in translating the principles of service-dominant (S-D) business logic into actionable insights for practitioners, particularly when considering S-D logic at the strategic level. To address this problem, this paper focuses on the conceptualization, formulation, and communication of an S-D business strategy. From the theoretical standpoint, we conceptualize the elements of an S-D strategy by filtering the scattered literature about S-D strategy and business models through the lenses of traditional views of business strategy. From the practical standpoint, we develop a tool embedding our conceptual development to support practitioners in the formulation and communication of S-D strategy. While traditional strategy tools take a value chain perspective, our tool helps to position the focal organization at the center of a complex ecosystem of partners who are co-creating value. Following the principles of action design research, the tool is developed and evaluated in close collaboration with practice in a case study in the financial services industry. Consequently, this paper contributes both to the conceptual and the practical operationalization of S-D logic at the strategic level.