Rethinking Service Systems and Public Policy: A Transformative Refugee Service Experience Framework

The global refugee crisis is a complex humanitarian problem. Service researchers can assist in solving this crisis because refugees are immersed in complex human service systems. Drawing on marketing, sociology, transformative service, and consumer research literature, this study develops a Transformative Refugee Service Experience Framework to enable researchers, service actors, and public policy makers to navigate the challenges faced throughout a refugee’s service journey. The primary dimensions of this framework encompass the spectrum from hostile to hospitable refugee service systems and the resulting suffering or well-being in refugees’ experiences. The authors conceptualize this at three refugee service journey phases (entry, transition, and exit) and at three refugee service system levels (macro, meso, and micro) of analysis. The framework is supported by brief examples from a range of service-related refugee contexts as well as a Web Appendix with additional cases. Moreover, the authors derive a comprehensive research agenda from the framework, with detailed research questions for public policy and (service) marketing researchers. Managerial directions are provided to increase awareness of refugee service problems; stimulate productive interactions; and improve collaboration among public and nonprofit organizations, private service providers, and refugees. Finally, this work provides a vision for creating hospitable refugee service systems

Transformative learning: developing agency, independence and promoting a strong sense of self in teen mothers

Adolescents who become pregnant during their secondary education experience a range of challenges that intersect and limit their opportunities to complete schooling and take up university places. One approach to addressing this issue at an Australian regional university is through the Tertiary Preparation Pathway (TPP) which has been delivered within the Supporting Teenagers with Education, Mothering, and Mentoring (STEMM) program, since 2008. The STEMM program offers teen mothers an opportunity to continue or re-engage with education during and beyond pregnancy. Adopting an intersectionality lens, interviews with adolescent mothers identified three key elements underpinning the success of the TPP/STEMM program: recognising the educational aspirations of teen mothers, developing agency and independence and promoting a strong sense of self. This article aims to provide practical implications for educators wishing to establish or develop programs based on this transformative teaching

Resource integration in liminal periods: Transitioning to transformative service

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce a transformative service logic-based framework designed to help researchers and practitioners better understand resource integration in liminal periods

Addressing vulnerability: what role does marketing play?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the connection between social marketing and transformative service research (TSR), providing a conceptual framework and implications for both theory and practice. The research explores the role marketing plays in a political deterrence campaign and its impact on service systems in meeting the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative research is based on 24 in-depth interviews with service providers, and refugees and asylum seekers and a critical discourse analysis examining campaign materials including political press statements, news media articles and government policy documents. Findings: This paper explores where social marketing and TSR intersect in their aims to promote social change. TSR calls on marketers to address vulnerability related to social issues such as poverty, forced migration and discrimination. The research provides evidence that service systems actors use practices of resistance to challenge dominant discourses in attempts to relieve suffering for refugees and asylum seekers. Research limitations/implications: The authors contribute by extending the body of work that investigates how service systems can relieve suffering. The study also examines how marketing tactics and strategies underpin a political campaign designed to deter asylum seekers crossing sovereign borders. The research makes three important contributions. First, the research focuses on a significant international problem of better understanding how service systems can relieve suffering for refugees and asylum seekers. Second, it examines how oppositional discourses impact on service systems’ ability to create and sustain social change. Third, it investigates how service systems actors deploy practices of resistance to enact social change. Originality/value: This research highlights the important role of engaging as consumer-citizens to address social change, particularly for vulnerable groups, such as refugees and asylum seekers

Consumer-citizens mobilizing social capital following a natural disaster: Effects on well-being

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how vulnerable consumer-citizens mobilize social capital following a natural disaster, showing how different forms of social capital contribute to well-being and resilience. Design/methodology/approach: An embedded case study design comparing three different social networks is employed. Findings: Understanding the active role consumer-citizens play in provisioning within social networks provides a deeper understanding of the important mechanisms that explain how different forms of social capital contribute to well-being. The three identified networks demonstrate different structural signatures composed of differing forms of social capital that arise following a natural disaster. Research limitations/implications: Drawing on social capital theory, this study contributes to advancing transformative service research, providing implications for both theory and practice. Originality/value: This study is one of the first to empirically compare networks in a natural disaster context, demonstrating the effects of bonding, bridging and linking social capital on well-being and community resilience. This study shows how social network analysis can be used to model network processes and mechanisms. Findings highlight the important role of social provisioning to vulnerable consumer-citizens as an alternate form of consumption

Co-creating service experience practices

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is threefold: to introduce a practice-based framework designed to integrate and deepen our understanding of how individuals co-create service experience practices; to identify co-creating service experience practices; and to provide a compelling agenda for future research, and offer practical strategies to enhance co-created service experiences. Accordingly, we extend practice theory, building on Kjellberg and Helgesson's (2006) practice-based framework for markets by integrating Holt's (1995) consumer practices and social capital-based practices (Gittell and Vidal, 1998; Woolcock, 2001)

Tensions and trade-offs in multi-actor service ecosystems

The purpose of this article is to: (1) understand tensions and trade-offs that actors make through activities and interactions in their service ecosystem stemming from differing worldviews; (2) explicate how actors resolve tensions through trade-offs, identifying focal relationships and the relative influence of focal actors; (3) propose a conceptual framework of tensions and trade-offs in multi-actor service ecosystems. Drawing on Institutional Logics and Practice Theory this article provides new insights into multi-actor service ecosystems identifying tensions and trade-offs that actors make with other actors designed to achieve desired outcomes. In a first, authors demonstrate that actors exhibit different forms of focal relationships, with actors’ worldviews influencing roles and practices. Misalignment of worldviews can result in significant tensions. However, reconciling conflicting goals and practices is not always realistic or beneficial due largely to enduring worldviews of focal actors. Practical and theoretical implications are provided with an agenda to guide future research