0000000001067346
AUTHOR
Lisa Schuster
Online support for vulnerable consumers: a safe place?
Purpose This paper aims to examine the service experience in an online support community of consumers to understand the nature of social support and how it is experienced and enacted by vulnerable consumers. Design/methodology/approach A netnographic study was conducted to examine vulnerable consumers’ participation in an online support group for weight management. The Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) program was used, and additionally data were coded using open coding. A hybrid approach to data analysis was undertaken using inductive and deductive methods. Findings The findings suggest online social support groups can be used as an online “third place” to support vulnerable consumers, …
A transformative value co-creation framework for online services
Purpose: Online offerings for transformative services create value for consumers, although little research examines the process through which these services deliver this value. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework to capture the complexity of the co-creation of transformative value experienced by the consumers of online transformative services. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a netnography approach to examine longitudinal data from an online weight management program. In total, this research examines 15,304 posts from 3,149 users, including eight staff users. Findings: Consumers integrate a range of social support resources, from informational suppo…