Social Media Usage as a Service: A Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

The wide use and distinctive novelties of social media have established the ever pervasive phenomenon a “hot topic” for information systems (IS) research and practice. In this regard, the Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic from the services marketing literature supports the notion that social media users and providers interact with each other and co-create the platform for benefit needs. In this paper, we applied the S-D Logic perspective to the specific usage context of social media. We developed a conceptual framework theorizing social media usage as a service in terms of service provision mechanisms, value propositions and co-creation, and associated value co-creation behaviors. The conceptual framework bears important implications for IS theory in enriching social media research in specific and elaborating the cumulative tradition of IS research in general. It also has practical and design implications for social media firms in improving long term survivability.