Design for Service comes to Service Logic

Purpose This article aims to bridge recent work on Service Logic with practice and research in Design for Service to explore if and how human-centered participatory design approaches could provide an ideal source for interpreting existing service systems, proposing new ones and thus realize service logic in organizations. Design/methodology This paper compares existing theoretical backgrounds and frameworks from Service Logic and Design for Service studies that conceptualize core concepts for value co-creation: actors, resources, resource integration, participation, context and experience. Findings Service Logic provides a framework to understand service systems in action by focusing on how actors integrate resources to co-create value, while Design for Service provides an approach and tools to analyze current service systems in context to imagine future service systems and how innovation may develop as a result of reconfigurations of resources and actors. Design for Service also provides frameworks, competence and tools enabling involved actors to participate in and be part of the service system re-design. Based in this the model Design for value co-creation is presented. Research implications The authors bridge service research studies with Design for Service, articulating how Design for Service could be a key factor in realizing Service Logic in organizations. Emerging research questions and potentials for interdisciplinary work are part of our final conclusions. Originality/value The paper extends the Service Logic literature by 1) repositioning service design from a phase of development to Design for Service as an approach to service innovation centered on understanding and engaging with customers’ own value creating practices 2) extends the meaning of value co-creation to include collaborative approaches for generation of new resource constellations and through this process achieving value co-creation in designing.