Purpose The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the status, vulnerability and needs of the health-care and nursing service customers’ (hereafter, care service customers’) loved ones. Design/methodology/approach The position and vulnerabilities of secondary customers of care services are studied and examples provided by reviewing empirical research reported in the care service literature. A conceptual discussion is developed on the “customer” concept in an extended sense, beyond the focal customers. The “primary customer” and “secondary customer” concepts are employed to supplement the extant discussion on customer units and ecosystems. Findings Secondary customers are exposed to secondary vulnerability and their well-being is affected by the services provided primarily to their loved ones. The most recurring needs of secondary customers concern psychosocial support, communication and information and cultural sensitivity. Practical implications New perspectives on understanding the “customer” concept in an extended sense. This assists in supporting the customers’ dynamic activities and processes within the customer ecosystems. To address care service customers’ loved ones’ vulnerabilities and needs and to support their well-being, they should also be recognised as customers – “secondary customers” – with patients being the “primary customers”. Social implications The results are especially relevant when considering services’ influences on vulnerable customers’ ecosystems and on individuals within them. It is important to recognise that beyond a vulnerable customer, several secondary customers may be exposed to secondary vulnerability, needing support. Originality/value The paper is apparently the first to connect the constructs “primary” and “secondary customer” and customer vulnerability to the customer ecosystem discussion. Also, essential future research questions are provided.

This study deepens knowledge on the implementation of core values in servicescapes by analyzing how core value trade-offs and spillovers occur within servicescapes and how vulnerable stakeholders cope with them. We use an explorative approach and draw on rich data collected in two nursing homes. Our study demonstrates how the autonomy-security trade-offs originate in different dimensions of the servicescapes. Further analysis reveals how individual customers may conflict with the core values and core purposes of the respective servicescapes. We also contribute to the discussion on customer vulnerability by considering vulnerability in the extended customer entity and by identifying the active coping mechanisms of vulnerable customers. Practitioners can increase the quality of care by identifying and taking into account the core values of both vulnerable primary and secondary customers and by deliberately supporting their coping with core value trade-offs and spillovers.

Purpose Secondary customers often experience secondary vulnerabilities that manifest in family-centred transformative services as other- and self-related customer needs. Yet, a relational perspective on primary and secondary customers’ needs is lacking. The study analyses secondary customers’ needs and their relationship to primary customers’ needs to enhance well-being in customer entities. The service inclusion lens is used to understand customers’ experiences of vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach The study uses an exploratory approach. The data consists of ethnographic observations and interviews of elderly residents (primary customers), their family members (secondary customers) and nurses in two nursing homes. Findings Primary and secondary customers’ needs are interrelated (or unrelated) in four ways: they are separate, congruent, intertwined or discrepant. The vulnerability experiences fluctuate in intensity and over time, individually reflecting on these need dimensions. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to service research concerning customers’ experiences of vulnerability, secondary customers and their inclusion in services. Primary customers’ service inclusion may increase/decrease secondary customers’ service inclusion and their experience of vulnerability. Moreover, secondary customers’ inclusion is often necessary to foster primary customers’ inclusion and well-being. Practical implications Fostering service inclusion and well-being for primary and secondary customers requires balanced inclusion and acknowledging the needs of both groups. Service providers may need to act as moderators within customer entities if discrepant needs occur. Originality/value The study addresses the under-researched areas of family members’ customer needs, their relation to primary customers’ needs, experiences of secondary vulnerability and context-related vulnerability.

Current understandings of emotional value focus on integral affects that are directly related to present judgements and choices. This neglects recent research on the complexity of affect and dismisses affects triggered by situations, events, or persons encountered in daily life outside of the decision-making situation or process; that is, incidental affects. In this article, we analyse the interplay between customers’ incidental and integral affects in value experience during life transitions. Based on the qualitative data collected on real-estate services, we unveil the internal dynamics of affective value by showing the intrapersonal and interpersonal forms of interplay (spillover, ambivalence, divergence and convergence) between integral and incidental affects. This advances knowledge on the composition and dynamics of the concept of affective value and on the affective value experience in life transitions.

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