Dynamic Customer Value Cocreation in Healthcare

In managing a chronic illness, customers have the opportunity to play an active role in their healthcare—by cocreating value. For example, customers can adhere to medical advice, seek out information about their condition(s), manage their diet, and interact with family and friends. Moreover, across an extended treatment period, customers may dynamically adjust their level of value cocreation. In this study, we examine 307 healthcare customers receiving treatment for cancer, with 12 value cocreation activities tracked longitudinally over 4 survey waves. Using a hidden Markov model, we reveal three latent states of customer value cocreation: low, moderate, and high. We then determine which of the 12 value cocreation activities are most strongly associated with transitions among cocreation states. Finally, we show that transitioning to a cocreation state with a higher level of cocreation activity positively correlates with customer and marketing outcomes, including customer quality of life and satisfaction. Our findings show that an increase in six cocreation activities—actively sharing information, compliance with medical requirements, interacting with staff, maintaining a healthy diet, interacting with others who receive treatment, and maintaining a good physical appearance—yields positive gains for both customer and marketing outcomes. In contrast, an increase in emotion regulation negatively affects customer outcomes.