Version 1.0, October 2026. 98 constructs in 18 families across 7 eras, with 18 imported theories below. Selecting a cell reveals its family, era, block, tier, and anchor works, each anchoring reference linking to the publisher’s page. Explore the 18 Family Deep Dives for granular sub-tables, or visit Resources to use the four interactive analytical tools.
Each cell: number, influence pips, block code, then symbol, construct, and anchor works
open frontier position
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Detached series · Theories imported from adjacent fields, each set near the families it feeds
Series
T
Imported Theories
17FC
Sx
Services Marketing
Family
10. Service, Value, and Experience (IV · Customer and Brand Assets)
Era
Period 2: Planning, 1970s
Block
FC · Formulation, content
Tier
Major
Cell card
Description
Shostack argued that services are intangible processes that cannot be marketed by translating product-based frameworks, proposed a molecular model of tangible and intangible elements, and called for services marketing as a field of its own.
Managerial Implications
Services are intangible, so customers judge them by tangible cues: people, facilities, process, and communication. Manage the evidence deliberately. Blueprint the service process to find where customers form impressions and where failures occur. Even product companies sell mostly service now; the implication is to design the experience around the delivery, not only the thing delivered.
How to read. Down a column follows one research stream through time. Across a row shows what the field studied in an era. Color marks the strategy domain, after Morgan et al. (2019). Pips give an influence tier. Numbers run by era, then family. Placements, anchors, and tiers are editorial judgments, and anchors are entry points rather than a complete record of any stream. Anyone who uses or adapts this table is responsible for verifying its contents against the original works.
