Reconceptualising Resources: A Critique of Service-Dominant Logic

This paper examines the interactive relationship between intangible, human capabilities (operant resources) and tangible, physical assets (operand resources) in an era of global interconnectedness. It does so within the context of service-dominant logic and the challenge of sustainability in a world of resource scarcity. It challenges conventional ideas about the superiority of certain kinds of resources and it confronts a pervasive culture of demateriality both in marketing and contemporary post-industrial theory – the idea that ‘stuff’ does not count. Building on calls for a revised theory of economics and society, this paper offers a parsimonious model of a more holistic conceptualization of resources. It demonstrates the complex entanglement of operant and operand resources, finding that this entanglement is a precondition to marketing-related issues of natural resource selection, globalization, sustainability, and distributive justice.