Thinking, feeling and coping by BoP healthcare consumers: policy-based intervention in an emerging market

Abstract

We examine the co-creation of value by bottom of the pyramid consumers in the health services context. Following a qualitative approach, we use the empirical context of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in India, one of the largest healthcare policy inter-ventions in the world. Our grounded theory-based research used semi-structured interviews conducted in 28 villages across three states using a purposive sample (NRHM beneficiaries). The qualitative data were analysed utilising a discovery-oriented approach, in accor-dance with the value co-creation and service-dominant logic frame-works. We draw insights about the roles of individual agency, the individual’s social milieu, and supplementary forces in affecting dif-ferent types of individual wellbeing. Our results help to explicate the processes of the exploitation, combination and reinforcement of resources within a co-created healthcare ecosystem, and six proposi-tions explain value co-creation-driven health service delivery. We also discuss implications for marketers and policy implementers.