B2B relationship calculus: quantifying resource effects in service-dominant logic

Abstract

Increasingly, knowledgeable business-to-business (B2B) customers and evolving customer needs are leading to seismic shifts in vendor-client interactions. Across industries, sellers are changing their business models from a simple goods orientation to a hybrid goods-services model, placing greater emphasis on delivering complete customer solutions. In such an environment, companies must find ways to prioritize investments in resource development. The servicedominant (S-D) logic framework offers significant insights into this challenge; however, these effects have not been tested quantitatively. This study addresses that gap, examining the influence of various seller resources on buyer satisfaction. An empirical analysis of buying organizations that purchased and implemented business intelligence systems finds that Baugmented^operant resources that the buyers ascribe to the software's sellers-resources that go above and beyond expectations-are the most significant predictors of both successful technology assimilation and overall customer relationship quality. In particular, an augmented operant resource reflecting a seller's ability to see value creation opportunities from the buyer's perspective (value mindset) has up to three times the effect on relationship satisfaction as Bcore^operant resources such as product-specific expertise or basic interpersonal service skills. These results can help sellers prioritize resource investments. Lusch 2004, 2008b) casts this question in terms of developing and applying Bresources^to create value. According to S-D logic, value is not intrinsic to the seller's Boperand resources^or tangible offerings such as physical products or software coupled with training or integration. Rather, sellers deliver value to buyers by applying operant resources such as skills and knowledge to the operand resources. Vargo and Lusch (2008a) maintain that the valuemaximizing application of resources-more than the specific goods-services offering mix-should be a company's primary marketing concern. To date, though, little quantitative analysis has been conducted to test the impact of these resources on value. Research has focused instead on classification systems (Madhavaram and Hunt 2008), consumer behavior (Arnould 2005), and conceptual integration into existing knowledge domains such as innovation theory (Michel et al. 2008). Recent qualitative studies have highlighted the importance of sellers customizing offerings and communicating value in customer-specific terms (Tuli et al. 2007;Ulaga and Reinartz 2011). But, again, the impact of such capabilities has yet to be assessed through quantitative analysis. Sci. (2017) 45:402-427 DOI 10.1007 Given the paradigmatic shift proposed by S-D logic, the first objective of our study is to quantitatively assess the extent to which both operant and operand resources affect value. We measure value in terms of project outcomes and customer relationship satisfaction. To do this we quantify relative effects both within operant resources, and betwe...

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