1 + 1 does not always equal value creation: The case of YouTube

Early services literature and the original service-dominant logic (SDL) work of Vargo and Lush (Journal of Marketing 68(1):1–17, 2004a) have suggested a dyadic customer and company relationship in the value creation process. While extant literature increasingly acknowledges more complex relationships between provider and customer networks to create value, we show that widely used e-services such as YouTube are based on relationships in which such provider and customer roles can vary significantly. However, we also assert that in the case of e-services, value is created primarily between and among customers rather than by the provider, as had been the case in earlier goods-dominant logic literature. Reflecting the research context, this paper seeks to extend various SDL foundational premises to the experience of e-services, discussing their generalizability and concluding with recommendations for further research.