Alignment of resources, actors and contexts for value creation

Purpose: This paper aims to deepen the understanding of resource integration for value co-creation within service-dominant logic (SDL), by drawing on key knowledge management (KM) concepts. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual study introduces three key KM concepts, namely, object, agent and context to SDL; thus, deepening the understanding of how resources are becoming when actors are engaged in co-creating value-in-context. Findings: This paper extends understanding of actors’ uses of knowledge in their efforts to co-create value. Paradoxically, SDL takes a phenomenological approach to understanding value co-creation, whereas KM embraces a realist-phenomenological view. Emphasizing knowing rather than knowledge reveals that there is no object without an agent, no agency without context and no knowledge without value-alignment. Thus, the paper contributes to theorizing about resource integration through SDL by identifying the need for effective alignment between relevant objects, capable agents and meaningful contexts for value to emerge. The paper also contributes with four facilitators of object-agent-context alignment: tacit knowledge contextualization, collective sensemaking, shared values among engaged actors and feedback on alignment effectiveness. Originality/value: It advances current conceptualizations of resource integration and value co-creation in SDL by paying explicit attention to a KM perspective.