Högskolan i Skövde

In today’s experience-centric economy, organizational culture is increasingly recognized as a crucial, yet often overlooked, driver of value creation in the service industry. This thesis investigates how organizational culture can be redefined as a marketing asset through the lens of Service-Dominant Logic (SDL), using a single case study of a Swedish hospitality firm, Knistad Herrgård. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with staff and guests, the study explores how culture is enacted in everyday service encounters and how it shapes, and is shaped by, reciprocal interactions within a broader service ecosystem. 

The findings suggest that culture at Knistad functions not merely as an internal mechanism, but as a dynamic and relational resource that facilitates emotional resonance, adaptability, and co-creative engagement between staff and guests. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) is employed to analyze the interplay of cultural dimensions such as warmth, flexibility, and professionalism, which are shown to enable sustained guest satisfaction and loyalty. 

By conceptualizing culture as an operant resource within SDL, the study contributes to the theoretical understanding of value co-creation in hospitality contexts and offers practical insights for managers seeking to align internal culture with strategic marketing outcomes. The study also highlights the importance of culture as a co-creative infrastructure that enables service ecosystem evolution over time.