Abstract
Marketing was originally built on a goods-centered, manufacturing-based model of economic exchange developed during the Industrial Revolution. Since its beginning, marketing has been broadening its perspective to include the exchange of more than manufactured goods. The subdiscipline of service marketing has emerged to address much of this broadened perspective, but it is built on the same goods and manufacturing-based model. The influence of this model is evident in the prototypical characteristics that have been identified as distinguishing services from goods—intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability. The authors argue that these characteristics (a) do not distinguish services from goods, (b) only have meaning from a manufacturing perspective, and (c) imply inappropriate normative strategies. They suggest that advances made by service scholars can provide a foundation for a more service-dominant view of all exchange from which more appropriate normative strategies can be developed for all of marketing.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 324-335 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Service Research |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2004 |
Keywords
- goods
- heterogeneity
- inseparability
- intangibility
- perishability
- service
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Sociology and Political Science
- Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management