Complex services, such as healthcare, struggle to realize the benefits of value co-creation due to the substantial challenges of managing such services over the long-term. Key to overcoming these challenges to value co-creation is a profound understanding of dialogue (i.e., 'quality of discourse' facilitating shared meaning) during service interactions. Contributing to an emerging literature, we undertake a longitudinal, ethnographic study to assess dialogue between professionals and patients through the lens of dialogic engagement (i.e., iterative mutual learning processes that bring about action through dialogue). We develop and empirically support six dialogic co-creation and co-destruction mechanisms that impact on the resolution of tensions and integration of knowledge resources between service providers and consumers. We reveal the multidimensional and dynamic nature of value created or destroyed through these mechanisms in dialogue over time. Taking healthcare as an exemplar, we offer a research agenda for developing our understanding of DE in complex services. Keywords Dialogic engagement. Dialogue. Healthcare services. Complex services. Value co-creation. Value co-destruction. Knowledge resources. Patients. Healthcare professionals During recent years it has been conclusively shown that consumers and service providers across diverse domains benefit from value co-creation (Vargo et al. 2017). Arguably, value co-creation holds the most potential for complex services, such as delivery of healthcare services. In this domain, policy reforms emphasize the development of consumer-centered care and surveys record patients' first priority to be desiring more active involvement in their encounters with healthcare professionals (HCPs) (Deloitte Insights 2018). The emerging consensus is that value co-creation has promise for muchneeded service delivery efficiencies and better health outcomes, against the backdrop of rapid increase in demand and critical service provider pressures (Best et al. 2019). In theory, value co-creation delivers such outcomes through engaging consumer-HCP interactions that facilitate dialogue and shared understanding. In practice, it has been Manjit Yadav served as Area Editor for this article.

Children have long been acknowledged as playing an important role within family purchase decisions, with their ability to directly and indirectly influence decisions. The research discussed in this paper arose from an identified opportunity to develop knowledge surrounding the important role that children play within family purchasing by including them as direct research respondents. The methods adopted included an in-depth interview with parents and children separately, and the completion of a decision mapping tool followed by a family interview. The findings address a specific and important aspect of the data, namely the influence behaviour adopted by children during high-involvement family purchase decisions. The children in all of the respondent families were found to have direct influence over the purchases discussed. They demonstrated a range of sophisticated influence behaviours that included justifying and highlighting the benefits of purchases, forming coalitions, compromising and remaining persistent. These behaviours were underpinned and enhanced by the use of product-related knowledge and information, which was viewed positively and encouraged by parents.

The concept of marketing has conventionally been viewed by public service professionals as inappropriate to organizations concerned with the delivery of public good services. However, the adoption of private sector based approaches to the organization of public services in many post-modern western economies has forced a fundamental reconsideration of the potential contribution of marketing to the delivery of public services. Against such a backdrop this paper critically reviews the underlying characteristics of public sector services and through articulating a classification of such services based on the nature of the organization-service user interaction, explores the application of particular conceptualizations of marketing to discrete categories of public services.

Online communities provide promising opportunities to support patientprofessional negotiations that address the asymmetries characterizing health services. Health Communities as Permissible Space 2This study addresses the lack of in-depth understanding of these negotiations, what constitutes successful negotiation outcomes, and the potential impact of negotiation on offline health behaviors. Adopting a netnographic approach, two threads were observed from each of four online health communities focusing on breast cancer, prostate cancer, depression, and diabetes, respectively. This analysis was supplemented with 45 in-depth interviews. The evidence suggests that online health communities can be constructed as permissible spaces. Such virtual spaces facilitate the type of patient-professional negotiations that can redress asymmetries. The critical elements of the negotiation process are identified as occupation, validation, advocacy, and recording. These support patients and professionals as they debate and resolve conflicts in how they experience health. Direct tangible offline negotiation outcomes are reported (e.g., changes in treatment plans). Implications for professional-patient partnerships are also explored.

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