Competing Through Service: Entrepreneurial Bricolage and the Servitization of Local Drug Markets

Customer services has long been a central pillar of drug sellers’ attempts to build and maintain customer loyalty. However, recent years have seen an intensification of this process. This article draws upon the concept of ‘entrepreneurial bricolage’ to elucidate customer service provisions as a marketing strategy in localized retail drug markets characterized by high degrees of disorganization and diversity. Drawing upon interviews with 28 customers who buy drugs from delivery dealers in Denmark, we argue that entrepreneurial drug sellers have changed their sales scripts through an innovative and serendipitous integration of supply logics, behavioural codes, and sales gimmicks commonly associated with the legal economy. We discuss how our findings can inform future research on drug market innovation and servitization.