This conceptual paper addresses the issue of value creation in the field of higher education and presents a new theoretical perspective by assigning the Service Dominant Logic (SD-logic) and developing a higher education value framework, consisting of ten "foundational premises" for a better understanding of higher education phenomena. Furthermore, based on the theoretical findings this paper presents the Empirical Research Map as a holistic, intermediate learning- and teaching-tool that provides a navigational aid through the entire socio-scientific empirical research process and visualizes all interlinked research steps on a single DIN-A-3-sheet. The empirical research process is affected by high complexity and thus uncertainty. Students have to make many decisions and have problems in anticipating long-range and secondary effects. From a didactic perspective, the Empirical Research Map facilitates making important decisions, the anticipation of long-range and secondary effects and therefore provides additional value to researchers, teachers and students in the social sciences.