Reducing inequalities through strengths-based co-creation: indigenous students’ capabilities and transformative service mediator practices

Abstract

Purpose Service marketers are increasingly aware of inequalities triggered by service systems and the need to prioritize practical strategies for reducing inequalities. A priority area for the Australian Government is reducing university education inequities for Indigenous Australians. This paper aims to examine how Indigenous Australian university students build and leverage their capabilities and strengths, harnessing service providers’ efforts towards enhancing participation (and completion) in university education – an essential transformative outcome for reducing inequalities. Design/methodology/approach A three-stage qualitative research process explored student retention/completion and capability building among a sample of Indigenous Australian university students, typically under-represented in the higher education sector. Findings Applying a manual thematic analysis, the findings reveal Indigenous students’ value co-creating capabilities (summarized in three dimensions) harness multi-actor processes extending beyond the service provider. Five dimensions summarize the service provider’s transformative service activities that strengthen capabilities for Indigenous Australian university students. Networks of place (a structured Indigenous Centre); processes (university systems); and people (social support), including peer-to-peer networks, are important service assemblages. Practical implications The authors present implications for supporting Indigenous students in persisting with and completing higher education. More broadly, the authors provide recommendations for service marketers to resolve barriers to service equality and enhance strengths-based approaches to value co-creation. Originality/value Underpinned by a strengths-based approach, the authors contribute towards an agenda of sustainable transformative services. Although considerable research reviews the experiences of Indigenous students, little research has taken a transformative service research perspective. Addressing this, the authors propose a conceptual framework linking consumers’ agentic capabilities with transformative service mediator practices.

Editorial: Service resilience in an increasingly ambiguous, dynamic and complex world – absorb, adapt and transform

“…In addition, earlier research on service inclusion by different service organizations (Davey et al. , 2021; Davey et al. , 2023) also stimulated our curiosity as to how strengths-based approaches foster or leverage resilience and how organizational culture, context and/or individual dispositions intersect with resilience.…”

Mediating roles of frontline employees in transformative service processes

“…Another exception is a recent study of Indigenous students’ co-creation capabilities in Australia (Davey et al , 2023), which identifies a set of TSM practices performed by transformative apomediaries that support well-being in the university system from the students’ perspective. In doing so, this study indicates that TSM practices can be embedded in a broad range of actors and entities within the university system, such as physical space, technologies, routines and staff, thereby implying that the TSM may be “an actor, service provider or service system” that “facilitates a number of roles, from intermediary to transformative apomediary roles” (Davey et al , 2023, p. 820).…”

“…Specifically, they involve a high degree of interpersonal interactions between users and service providers and thus position health-care professionals as key actors in supporting consumers’ or users’ well-being. The literature on TSMs also suggests that FLEs can take on roles as mediators in transformative service processes by supporting or constraining vulnerable service users’ value creation (Amine et al , 2021; Davey et al , 2023). Nevertheless, empirical research on TSM roles and their implications for service outcomes is relatively scant (Johns and Davey, 2019, 2021).…”

Service system resilience under resource scarcity: from vulnerability to balanced centricity

“…Thus, vulnerability to unforeseen shocks constrains the firm’s ability to create value for customers, markets and the economy. Although research on service firms providing enabling environments to mobilize capabilities and improve access to resources for customers has grown (Davey et al , 2021; Davey et al , 2023; Kubacki et al , 2020), most prior research has focused on specific actor groups experiencing vulnerability. Notably most research has focused on customer groups (Riedel et al , 2021; Rosenbaum et al , 2017).…”