Award Winning US Marketing Professor Stephen L. Vargo has just arrived in the UK to undertake an extensive research collaboration as a Visiting Professor with WMG’s Service Systems group at the University of Warwick from Feb 1 to Sept 30, 2012.

Professor Vargo, who will be working on projects in WMG and around Europe this year, will collaborate with Professor Irene Ng and researchers at the Service Systems group on research efforts in the area of service and value. He is particularly known for his work in Service-Dominant Logic, which was first published in the ground-breaking article “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing” in the Journal of Marketing. It is the most-cited marketing article published in the last decade, having been cited over 1,800 times in the past seven years in the domain of management, marketing, operations, engineering and information systems.

Professor Vargo is the Shidler Distinguished Professor and Professor of Marketing at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. His primary research areas are marketing theory and thought and consumers’ evaluative reference scales. Professor Vargo was awarded the Harold H. Maynard Award by the American Marketing Association for his significant contribution to marketing theory and thought in 2004. In 2011, he was presented with the AMA/Sheth Foundation Award for his long-term contributions to the field of marketing.

Professor Vargo said:

"I feel privileged and distinctly honoured to be associated with the WMG Service Systems research group for the coming year. The commitment to innovation, as evidenced by the establishment of the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation and related facility, represents a nearly unprecedented initiative in a critically important research area. I look forward to working with Professor Ng and other WMG researchers toward a better understanding and execution of value co-creation through service-systems design and implementation."

Professor Irene Ng said:

"We are very pleased and honoured to have Professor Vargo with us during his sabbatical. Professor Vargo's seminal paper on Service-Dominant Logic is revolutionising how we innovate and build new markets. In a world where boundaries between sectors and disciplines are beginning to strain from technological connectivity and a rapid rate of change, SDLogic gives us a language to progress into the future. The team bids a warm welcome to Professor Vargo and we look forward to working with him on advancing the knowledge we so critically need at this time."

For further information please contact:

Lisa Barwick, Communications Manager
WMG, The University of Warwick
Direct line: 024 76 524721

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications
Communications Office, University House,
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 8UW, United Kingdom
email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)24 76 523708 Mobile/Cell: +44 (0)7767 655860

PR 6th March 2012