Introduction to the special issue on the service-dominant logic of marketing: insights from The Otago Forum

Radical reformulation of marketing thought is not new and arguably is part of the dynamic tension just under the surface calm of any discipline. However, not since the ‘breaking free’ of services marketing from goods marketing (Shostack, 1977) has a new reconfiguration of service logic attracted so much interest so quickly. The catalyst for this interest has been the publication of an award-winning article by Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch in the Journal of Marketing (2004a) entitled ‘Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing’. This was followed soon after by an article by the same authors in the Journal of Service Research (2004b), directly challenging the validity of the characteristic differentiators between services and goods (intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability). Of particular note is that these differentiators have been a matter of common agreement within the services marketing discipline since the early 1980s (Fisk et al., 1993). Concurrent with these publications, a special interest panel session on the service-dominant logic of marketing (S-D logic) was held at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Summer Conference in 2004. In Europe, a panel