| Description | Adaptive system of resource-integrating actors | Vargo and Lusch (2016) | System of actors and resources to achieve life goals | Heinonen and Strandvik (2015) |
| Nexus | Multiple actors, interconnected relationships | Chandler and Vargo (2011); McColl-Kennedy et al. (2020) | One focal actor (often labeled customer) among other actors representing a value unit | Baron and Harris (2010); Rihova et al. (2013); Lipkin (2016), Caic et al. (2019); Leino (2017) |
| Key elements | Shared institutional arrangements, social structures, practices, norms | Frow et al. (2019); Vink et al. (2020) | Customers’ emotions, experiences, actions and goals | Bowen (2008); Cova and Dalli (2009); Mickelsson (2013) |
| Process focus | Service-for-service exchange, service provision, resource-integrating interactions, shared wellbeing | Chandler and Vargo (2011); Frow et al. (2019) | Customers’ milestones and eudaimonia | Schau et al. (2009); Cova and Dalli (2009); Bhattacharjee and Mogilner (2014); Tikkanen (2019) |
| Orientation | Mutuality, cooperation and coordination | Vargo and Lusch (2016), Breidbach et al. (2016) | Heterogeneity, responsibilization and actionability | Epp and Price (2011), Thomas et al. (2013); Tikkanen (2019) |
| Position of the actors | Based on relevance for the service-for-service exchange | Chandler and Vargo (2011); Vargo and Lusch (2016) | Based on relevance for the customers in their lifeworlds | Lipkin (2016), Caic et al. (2019); |
| Philosophical foundation | Institutionalism | Vink et al. (2020); Vargo and Lusch (2016) | Humanism | Copson (2015); Heinonen et al. (2013), Caic et al. (2019) |