Latent theoretical constructs of service dominant logic

Purpose. The paper explores latent theoretical constructs of Service Dominant Logic (SDL). As pointed out by Leroy et al. (2013), there is a risk of premature black-boxization to consider closed the debate on SDL perspective (Vargo and Lusch, 2004; Vargo and Morgan, 2005, Vargo et al., 2006) in marketing and management theory. SDL is acquiring an iconic status thereby precluding any further controversy. This theoretical paper on the debate of SDL in management theory (Vargo and Lusch, 2011; Lusch and Vargo, 2011; Achrol and Kotler, 2006) aims to assess its distinctive contribution, also latent one, and eventual pitfalls. This assessment is carried out identifying, selecting and analyzing the main literature on the topic (conference papers, working papers and management reviews articles). Design/Approach/Methodology. The research design is innovative because it adopts a methodology of text mining on SDL literature base to zooming in its latent theoretical constructs, and authors’ speculative reflections, to zooming out for SDL theory advancement. The literature on SDL - 78 among papers, working papers and management reviews articles - has been examined through a text mining software in order to classify and analyze the literature corpus as unique text corpus by the means of k-means cluster analysis on a multidimensional scaling (MDS) chart. Findings/Originality. Originality is in the research design. Very few are the literature reviews based on statistical text mining techniques. The expected finding is to assess the real scientific contribution at the date of SDL, identifying its latent theoretical constructs. Research Limitations. The research has a descriptive and explorative nature. It hasn’t been explored, at this stage of research study, any empirical validation. Implications. To identify further literature research directions for SDL definitive consolidation. The paper is mainly a theoretical one. Managerial implications might be only incidental.