TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying Consumer Value Co-created through Social Support within Online Health Communities
AU - Stewart Loane, Susan
AU - Webster, Cynthia M.
AU - D’Alessandro, Steven
PY - 2015/9/10
Y1 - 2015/9/10
N2 - Consumers increasingly turn to online health communities for health information and social support. Yet, the type of value consumers derive from online health communities is not well understood. This study examines social support as the mechanism through which consumers co-create and experience different types of value. Cutrona and Russell’s typology of social support and Holbrook’s consumer value typology are applied to posts and threads obtained from two online communities for people with Parkinson’s Disease and ALS. Results demonstrate that online health communities give consumers the opportunity to create and experience forms of consumer value that would not otherwise be available in a traditional health delivery system. The results lend support to a re-conceptualisation of medical practice and health delivery for consumers with chronic conditions.
AB - Consumers increasingly turn to online health communities for health information and social support. Yet, the type of value consumers derive from online health communities is not well understood. This study examines social support as the mechanism through which consumers co-create and experience different types of value. Cutrona and Russell’s typology of social support and Holbrook’s consumer value typology are applied to posts and threads obtained from two online communities for people with Parkinson’s Disease and ALS. Results demonstrate that online health communities give consumers the opportunity to create and experience forms of consumer value that would not otherwise be available in a traditional health delivery system. The results lend support to a re-conceptualisation of medical practice and health delivery for consumers with chronic conditions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938771561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0276146714538055
DO - 10.1177/0276146714538055
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84938771561
VL - 35
SP - 353
EP - 367
JO - Journal of Macromarketing
JF - Journal of Macromarketing
SN - 0276-1467
IS - 3
ER -