The book features 9 previously published journal articles written by Christian Gronroos between 1979 to date. Four of the articles will be on service marketing and four on relationship marketing, which emphasize his knowledge and expertise in the field of service, and relationship marketing during the last 27 years. The articles build to form a clear picture of the continuous development of the field, leading to a synthesis article and a comprehensive concluding chapter. The author offers an alternative to the mainstream marketing mix logic and has consistently pursued the search for an alternative logic for marketing.

Christian Grönroos is Professor of Service and Relationship Marketing at the Hanken Swedish School of Economic and Business Administration in Finland. He is also the Chairman of the board of its research and knowledge centre, CERS – Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management. He is the author of the best-selling textbook Service Management and Marketing – now in its third edition. Grönroos is a pioneer in his field and is one of the first to be associated with the term ‘service management’ to describe market-oriented management. He also introduced the concept of ‘service competition’ to describe modern service and information technology driven competition.