Using service for defining place value propositions

Purpose - Researchers have drawn on established principles of service(s) marketing to problematize urban areas as value propositions aimed at a range of potential place users, such as residents, businesses, tourists, and also inward investors. Frameworks which have been used to accomplish this include, for example, the servicescape and also the servuction system. However, more recent advances in service(s) research have the potential to extend our understanding of marketing in this specific spatial context. These advances underpin three relevant research streams when applied to places: (1) the S-D logic (e.g. urban places as value propositions created via resource integration by various place stakeholders); (2) service science (e.g. the 'smart cities' concept); and (3) network & systems theory (i.e. recognizing the inherent situational complexity in terms of the range of actors involved in creating a spatial value proposition and the 'nesting' of places, consistent with the service ecosystem concept). Design/Methodology/approach - Using the metaphors of ‘house’ and ‘home’ to contrast the concepts of territory and place, the paper integrates the contribution of S-D logic, service science and network & systems theory, along with relevant literature from the discipline of human geography to review and synthesize service(s) research as applied to cities and towns. Findings – The review and synthesis of the application of concepts relating to service(s) research in the context of places provides an opportunity to identify avenues for further research into this particular context. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual approach developed in the paper should inevitably be further substantiated by empirical research. Nevertheless, the work could provide a first conceptual step for future research. Practical implications – The work is useful to find new approaches to theoretically underpin place marketing and place management activities from a service-oriented perspective. Originality – The use of the metaphors of house and home to contrast the concepts of territory and place is innovative because it is a means to underline the particularity of definitions of the concept of ‘place’ and its connection with the concept of ‘value proposition of territories’.