Purpose

Governments are increasingly marketising human services in developed countries, with the aim of giving individuals more choice and control over the support they receive. Marketisation effectively transforms “clients” into “consumers” who are exposed to competitive market conditions and the marketing strategies of service organisations. However, the heterogeneity amongst citizens leaves some segments of populations more vulnerable within marketised systems. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the marketisation of human services on the value delivered to consumers of disability services. Given that the nature of disabilities can vary greatly, the study also examines the impact of the degree of disability on value creation and destruction for disability service consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative, individual-depth interviews were conducted with 35 participants: 17 were consumers of disability services (either because they have a disability or care for someone who does) and 18 were disability service providers (for example, managers of disability programmes).

Findings

Factors that influence value creation and destruction include quality and turnover of staff, organisation and communication of service providers, ability to advocate effectively, level of funding and accessibility of services. Heterogeneity amongst consumers is also identified as a key factor affecting the creation and destruction of value.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply marketing techniques, such as market segmentation, to identify heterogeneity in relation to value creation and value destruction in the context of human services. It also considers the notion of consumer vulnerability, stemming from disability, as an important lens through which the outcomes of marketised human service systems can be evaluated.

中文翻译：

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人类服务市场化中的价值创造和破坏

目的

各国政府日益在发达国家将人类服务市场化，目的是使个人有更多选择和控制权。市场化有效地将“客户”转变为面临竞争性市场条件和服务机构营销策略的“消费者”。但是，公民之间的异质性使得某些部分人群在市场化系统中更容易受到伤害。这项研究的目的是检验人类服务市场化对交付给残疾服务消费者的价值的影响。考虑到残疾的性质可以有很大的不同，该研究还研究了残疾程度对残疾服务消费者的价值创造和破坏的影响。

设计/方法/方法

对35名参与者进行了定性的个人深度访谈：17名是残疾服务的消费者（因为他们有残疾或照顾有残疾的人），还有18名是残疾服务提供者（例如，残疾计划的经理）。

发现

影响价值创造和破坏的因素包括员工的素质和流动，服务提供商的组织和沟通，有效宣传的能力，资金水平和服务的可及性。消费者之间的异质性也被认为是影响价值创造和破坏的关键因素。

创意/价值

据作者所知，这是第一项应用市场细分等营销技术来确定与人类服务环境下的价值创造和价值破坏有关的异质性的研究。它还将源自残疾的消费者脆弱性的概念视为评估市场化人类服务系统的结果的重要依据。