Citizen Participation in Political Markets: Extending Service-Dominant Logic to Public Policy

Abstract

While service-dominant logic prescribes consumer participation with firms, some theorists of elitist democracy oppose citizen participation in governance because these theorists perceive citizens as being incompetent in political matters. This study, grounded in political marketing theory, suggests that citizens do, indeed, have the competence for participating in governance through the thin-participation methods (i.e., those not requiring citizen interaction in groups) presented herein. These methods feature relatively short amounts of time needed for individual respondents to learn about issues in an online environment and to take a survey including trade-off tasks as part of a discrete-choice experimental design. Set in the context of a budget crisis for a state (Wyoming), this study assessed citizens’ thoughts about the state’s political processes as well as about policy preferences for seven important policy areas of state budgeting. The results of this study provide evidence that citizens have the crucial operant resources (knowledge and skills) to participate in all types of political markets (electoral, governmental, and intragovernmental). The study offers researchers knowledge for further developing service-dominant logic in government ecosystems of service.

A meso-level exploration of citizen’s mGov adoption from SD logic perspective: the case of COVID-19 tracking app of India

“…In fact, they call for enhancements given the peculiar service ecosystem in the public service context, which is a complex and dynamic multi-actor service system. Also, due to differences in basic tenets, such as policymaking intends to impose uniformity, unlike the market, which thrives on the heterogeneity of consumer preferences (Peterson and Godby, 2020).…”

“…Value is cocreated through mutual interactions of producers and consumers in the process of service exchange, which involves integration of resources (Vargo et al , 2008). Recently, public policy researchers have started acknowledging the potential of SD logic in bringing more clarity to the process of value creation in the public service exchange between government and citizen-as-customer (Peterson and Godby, 2020).…”

Here Comes the Sun: Present and Future Impact in Marketing and Public Policy Research

“…We believe that current social justice movements will produce new paths to influencing policy (e.g., Bublitz et al 2021) and are worthy of increased scholarly inquiry. Recent work in JPP&M investigates social movements at the intersection of marketing and public policy (e.g., Eilert and Nappier Cherup 2020; Vredenburg et al 2020) to reimagine traditional boundaries and norms that shape how marketers, consumers, and governments interact (e.g., Korschun, Martin, and Vadakkepatt 2020; Peterson and Godby 2020). Drawing from these authors’ work, we believe current cultural shifts experienced across societies globally can eventually create significant policy shifts.…”

Marketing’s Role in Understanding Political Activity

“…A second set of actors is “citizen stakeholders,” a concept we derive from stakeholder theory (Freeman 1984) and stakeholder marketing (Bhattacharya and Korschun 2008; Hult et al 2011). Citizen stakeholders are individuals or groups who influence and are influenced by the business and political realms (see also Peterson and Godby 2020), including consumers, employees, business partners, and community members. These citizen stakeholders place personal resources at stake (e.g., money to purchase a product, a vote for a candidate, time and effort to create or sign a petition) and thereby have a claim on corporate and/or political outcomes (Post, Preston, and Sachs 2002).…”

“…Also representing a citizen–politician dialog is the Peterson and Godby (2020) study of state budgeting, where citizen input is intentionally sought by politicians. Rather than politicians marketing ideas and priorities to their constituencies, this study examines a state legislature directly involving their citizens to set budget priorities during times of economic shortfall.…”