Consumer Value Preferences in Healthcare
Emerging healthcare practices emphasize a value-driven approach in healthcare management by pressing the need to highlight more at what matters to the patient against what is generally offered in the service provision. Agarwal et al. (2020) observed that the healthcare landscape is shifting towards emphasizing value over volume (service provisions) as consumer preferences and experiences play a central role in determining healthcare experience. This shift is paralleled by long-standing research focus on consumer value (Gallarza et al, 2017; Holbrook, 1999) and a ground-breaking academic shift within services marketing driven by ‘service dominant logic’ (SDL; Vargo & Lush, 2004), which claims that value is co-created by a joint effort of service providers and consumers.
Researchers agree that consumers are seen as empowered actors whose involvement in value creation phenomenologically determines the final value in terms of their experiential outcomes. Research on patient choice management facilitates value-sensitive consumer decisions in healthcare.
Research on ‘consumer value in healthcare’ has been scant with some exceptions and very little is known about the role of a consumer’s value preferences in value creation process. To extend knowledge contribution in this area, this study attempts to examine various forms of consumer value and their nature (positive or negative), which are likely to shape consumer value preferences. from the online platform ‘HealthGrades’ (www.healthgrades.com) website was selected based on higher review volume and credibility. First, it provides empirical evidence to the claim that all value types are not positive.
Consumers often make trade-offs between positive and negative value types while evaluating the services. This study underscores the trade-off perspective of consumer value. Second, aligning with the emerging academic advances in transformative service research the research emphasizes consumer well-being outcomes as an essential component of value in healthcare services. Well-being has subjective traits that depend on in process value experience.
Every individual defines their well-being based on personal cognitive and emotional perceptions. It is implied that if the healthcare consumer perceives themself in a positive state of well-being (during or post treatment), then their overall experience of healthcare value would also be positive. The importance of well-being is also echoed in a recent framework for value-centred marketing, where wellbeing outcomes take the central role in delivering value-based care. To add utility for practitioners, the research study provides an insight to create value in service provisions as per the consumer preferences. Understanding the changing perception of value from consumers’ perspectives is important to have insights into their future value preferences.
Article Details
Consumer Value Preferences in Healthcare: Insights for Value-centred Management
Sumit Saxena, Amritesh, Subhas C. Misra
First Published September 4, 2021
Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/23949643211042246
Journal of Creating Value