Value cocreation and innovation involving consumers and providers interacting with technology: a digital ethnographic study of online mental health forums
Farmer, Jane, Steiner, Artur, Kilpatrick, Sue, McCosker, Anthony, Carlisle, Karen, and Kamstra, Peter (2025) Value cocreation and innovation involving consumers and providers interacting with technology: a digital ethnographic study of online mental health forums. Journal of Service Management, 36 (2). pp. 270-290.
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Abstract
Purpose: This paper explores how users and providers cocreate value through interacting with online peer support mental health forum technology and offers insights into service ecosystem innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed digital ethnography and interviews and analysed data to identify themes about user practices, provider adaptations and cocreated value outcomes. Findings: The study shows how users engage with technology affordances to develop a community that supports their engagement in value cocreation and helps them access support. In turn, providers engage with user data generated through forum use and other sources to influence changes to forum institutions. By analysing a dataset of user interviews, value outcomes realised for forum users are identified. Using a diagram to illustrate how users and providers interact with technology to generate an evolving service ecosystem, the study also offers insights about a service ecosystem perspective of innovation. Research limitations/implications: The research shows the value of using mixed datasets to access granular, multi-actor data. Direct feedback loops between user practices and changes to institutions are implied rather than directly observable. Practical implications: The authors provide a worked example highlighting how consumers and providers interacting with forum technology supports value cocreation that contributes to problem-solving for consumers and service ecosystem innovation, and fills healthcare ecosystem gaps. Originality/value: The study provides novel empirical evidence about multi-actor interactions with technology in value cocreation and informs theory about a service ecosystem perspective of innovation by illustrating technological and market innovation. It extends knowledge about healthcare value cocreation in mental health.
| Item ID: | 88136 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1757-5818 |
| Keywords: | Consumers, Healthcare, Innovation, Technology, Value cocreation |
| Copyright Information: | © Jane Farmer, Artur Steiner, Sue Kilpatrick, Anthony McCosker, Karen Carlisle and Peter Kamstra Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2026 04:58 |
| FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420306 Health care administration @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2003 Provision of health and support services > 200303 Health surveillance @ 100% |
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