Extending the innovation of meaning to the service domain: an SDL-informed approach

The innovation of meaning process is defined as hermeneutic and interpretive and it is based on the understanding and interpretation of the socio-cultural dynamics to enable companies envision new meanings. However, people's meaning-making activities are characterised by both a social/institutional dimension and an individual one. The creation of meaning, while influenced by society, is ultimately a subjective experience. In this paper, we adopt a service-dominant logic perspective to explain the innovation of meaning as a process based on the integration of resources to drive the co-creation of meaning with customers. Through a thorough literature review on both concepts, we argue that the service-dominant logic may help further developing the innovation of meaning by informing the latter with its underlying principles. Based on this, we propose an interpretation of the innovation of meaning framework based on the service-dominant logic foundational premises. The innovation of meaning principles are re-worked to be applied to the service context and stimulate further refinement. The most promising directions for continuing the evolution are also provided, along with some fundamental research questions to be addressed in future studies. This research is the first effort to connect the innovation of meaning framework to the new dominant logic for marketing. This results in the resolution of paradoxes in the framework and the identification of research avenues to complete it, especially regarding how the meaning is proposed and co-created with customers.