Three perspectives on service management and marketing: rival logics or part of a bigger picture?

Purpose – To locate the underlying service logic of each of three leading texts and to examine points of variance. Design/methodology/approach – A critical review and comparative analysis of the main tenets of each text. Findings – Each text combines a service perspective and a relationship perspective to marketing management. Each author seems to favour a service perspective on some issues but at other times a relationship perspective. This apparent epistemological pluralism is resolvable and a pathway to synthesis suggested. Practical implications – What stands out in a critical reading of these texts is the provocation offered to readers to go beyond the limits of services marketing orthodoxy. In this there are implications for pedagogical development. Originality/value – Gives insights into the current debate on development of a more broadly based service‐dominant logic of marketing.