Services for the underserved: unintended well-being |
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Authors: | Luis Javier Sanchez-Barrios Mario Giraldo Mahmoud Khalik Ricardo Manjarres |
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Affiliation: | 1. Business School, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via a Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombialsanchez@uninorte.edu.co;3. Business School, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via a Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia;4. School of Management, University of St Andrews, The Gateway, North Haugh, St Andrews, UK |
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Abstract: | There is a lack of research on service consumption practices of Base of the Pyramid consumers. This study contributes to the Transformative Service Research agenda by understanding stigmatized service consumption practices and their effect on the well-being of these consumers; this has not been fully addressed until now. Additionally, it is shown that understanding the relations among consumers, communities, and informal service offerings results in the design of services with unintentional positive effects on well-being at individual, collective, and relational levels. Findings show that informal service offerings are non-discriminatory, hassle-free, jargon-free, and reputation-based. These findings pave the way to further explore such complex contexts to better understand the impact of service design on the well-being of such consumers. Positive practices can be adopted by any service industry that intends to serve that segment through the intentional redesign of offerings that are engaging, inclusive, and simple and acknowledge social standing. |
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Keywords: | Unintended well-being transformative service research informal services base-of-pyramid |
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