Why services are not immaterial goods: Additional comments on a long-standing debate

Abstract

The article illustrates that services are not immaterial goods. The widespread understanding of services as immaterial goods is based on the ontological misconception of describing services with the help of object characteristics. It is shown that the core characteristics of true immaterial goods, nonrivalry and quasi-arbitrary copyability, do actually not apply to services, neither from a process-oriented nor an output-oriented perspective.