Better together: mitigating consumer vulnerability risk in healthcare systems through strengthening consumer co-production capacity

Thumbnail Image
Files
Date
2026-06
Authors
Leocadio, Paula
Kelleher, Carol
Fernández, Eluska
Hawkes, Colin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Published Version
10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116216
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
Service scholars tacitly assume that healthcare consumers, professionals, and researchers possess the requisite capacities and resources for service co-production with healthcare organizations. However, conflicting epistemes may increase experiences of vulnerability during co-production. Our paper aims to explore how healthcare organizations can enable and sustain meaningful consumer involvement in healthcare co-production to deliver transformative outcomes. Our participatory research with young people with type 1 diabetes and family members identified key practices (i.e., constructing, connecting, and co-learning) that support meaningful involvement of consumers in healthcare co-production. We introduce strengthening consumer co-production capacity as a means of mitigating risk of vulnerability and advancing epistemic justice in co-production. We demonstrate that healthcare organizations can and should prioritize continuous strengthening of consumers’ co-production capacity, acknowledge and respect differentiated expertise and perspectives, and foster mutual respect to maximize and sustain co-production partnerships.
Description
© 2026, The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/ ).
Keywords
Collective Social Futures , SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being , SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions , Co-production , Healthcare , Consumer vulnerability , Consumer capacity , Strengths-based approaches , [CUBS] , [Medicine]
Citation
Leocadio, P, Kelleher, C, Fernández, E & Hawkes, C 2026, 'Better together: mitigating consumer vulnerability risk in healthcare systems through strengthening consumer co-production capacity', Journal of Business Research, vol. 211, 116216, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.116216
Link to publisher’s version
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10468/18697
Collections
School of Medicine
Cork University Business School
Copyright
cc_by_nc_nd