Work

It Never Ends: Vulnerable Consumers’ Experiences of Persistent Liminality and Resource (Mis)Integration

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Transformative Service Research (TSR) highlights the fundamental importance of resource integration for consumer well-being. However, recent research suggests that resource integration can be problematic and imperfect, particularly for vulnerable consumers with complex and ongoing resource requirements. Such vulnerable consumers may face transition challenges and end up in an uncertain “in-between” experience of liminality, where the linkage to resource integration remains under-researched. In response to recent service prioritization challenges, we explore how vulnerable actors experience liminality and resource integration in service systems. The vulnerable actors highlighted in this study are parents in families of children with life-long conditions (e.g., autism spectrum disorder/ASD and Down syndrome). We reveal a new form of liminality as a persistent, relational phenomenon that interdependent vulnerable actors with ongoing complex resource needs collectively experienced within service systems. Further, we identify the dynamics of persistent liminality as Precipitating, Subsisting, and Resisting. Finally, in line with TSR, we shed light on the resource constraints that decrease the well-being of vulnerable consumers. We also identify implications for theory, practice, and future research.

Source: Journal of Service Research

DOI: 10.1177/10946705231184610

Authors: Deirdre O’Loughlin, Johanna Gummerus, Carol Kelleher

Institutions: University of Limerick, Hanken School of Economics, University College Cork

Language: English

Topic: Service and Product Innovation

Subfield: Marketing

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,500