System, interaction, customer: analysing religious organisations as value creators through three service perspectives
(R2023-117215)

AUTHORS

Anna Granstedt, Åbo Akademi University

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at religious organisations as value creators and particularly at their practices of creating immaterial value. Three service perspectives are being used to explain the phenomenon: Service-Dominant logic (SDL), Service Logic (SL) and Customer-Dominant Logic (CDL). This paper is the first to suggest how value creation takes places in religious organisations and presents a construct called the Divine Service System, which is divided into three spheres: provider/deity sphere, joint sphere/the religious organisation, and members’/customers’ experiential sphere. The service perspectives used in this paper focus on slightly different aspects of value creation within the Divine Service System: system (SDL), interaction (SL) and customer (CDL).