eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Research Objectives The purpose of this thesis is to examine the subsistence of Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) in Finnish property market. The theoretical objectives for this thesis are to first isolate the most central concepts of S-D Logic and second, to discover salient S-D logic aligned value creation concepts suitable for business-to-business context. On basis of the theoretical review a theoretical framework is formulated. The objective of the empirical research of this thesis is then to discover the extent to which the most central concepts of S-D logic and S-D logic aligned business-to-business value creation is descriptive of Finnish property market. On basis of the empirical findings a modified framework is proposed.

Research Sample In theoretical review, most recent S-D logic elicited marketing theory was examined. In empirical research, eight respondents from Finnish property market firms were interviewed.

Research Methodology For this thesis, qualitative research was deployed. Data collection was based on interviews in which categories derived from theoretical review were assessed. In the data analysis, for the purpose of discovering salient themes and reducing bias, a structured five stage analysis was used.

Main Findings The findings of this thesis show that Service-Dominant logic is descriptive of Finnish property market in terms of networked value creation, overall dialogical and relational orientation of exchanges between primary market actors, and solutions as the primary market offering. The subsistence of these three S-D aligned phenomena can be primarily seen as a result of the highly aggregate nature of the market and consequent institutional dialogue between the property market actors. On the other hand, the property market is closely rooted in G-D logic in terms of its embedded value emphasis, prevailing view of financial performance as profit maximization as opposed to learning mechanism, and prevailing view of customer as an operand resource to which offerings are marketed to. The subsistence of these three G-D aligned phenomena can be seen as a result of the dominance of the development process of raw land into a finished property which has traditionally been the most central value creation activity. Most notably, the property market appears to be in transition towards to service-dominant modus operandi due to market actors’ efforts to shift their strategic focus in opportunities in latter stages of the property lifecycle. More specifically, the transition is evident in terms of conceptualization of market offering as property market actors have clearly strived to expand to services and offerings. Moreover, property market has accordingly shifted towards market orientation in response to increasing competition. Yet, the seeming path dependency resulting from the potent industry recipe of property market restrains adoption of completely S-D logic aligned value creation.