Thursday, 3/7/2024
Kingsley Agyapong defends his doctoral thesis entitled "Customer
Experience in a Healthcare Co-creation Setting: Insights from Providers and
Patients in Ghana."
The School of Economics and Management of the University of Minho is
proud to announce that its doctoral student has defended his doctoral thesis
entitled "Customer Experience in a Healthcare Co-creation Setting:
Insights from Providers and Patients in Ghana."
The research work defended by Kingsley Agyapong, on March 4, 2024, at
the School of Economics and Management of the University of Minho, focused on
the process of value co-creation in the provision of healthcare in the
treatment of malaria.
According to the abstract presented below, the work comprises three
qualitative studies, with data collection carried out at a university clinic in
Ghana, and makes a threefold contribution to the literature.
"In the context of healthcare, this thesis seeks to enrich the
understanding of the process of value co-creation in encounters between
patients and healthcare providers in the process of treating malaria. Three
qualitative studies were conducted. Data collection involved face-to-face
interviews with 36 patients and providers conducted at a university clinic in
Ghana. The first study focused on patients' perspectives on value-in-use within
the co-creation experience. The second study reports on patients' experiences
of contextual elements for value co-creation. The third study investigates
smooth journeys within the patient journey of co-creation.
The contribution of this thesis to the literature is threefold.
Firstly, the thesis contributes to the role of the patient in creating value in
healthcare in the malaria treatment process from the perspectives of
communication and interaction, information sharing and access to information,
treatment and well-being. The thesis also contributes to the ways in which
continuous improvement in healthcare services facilitates the process of value
co-creation. Secondly, the thesis contributes to contextual dimensions during
patients' encounters with healthcare providers, indicating how contextual
elements facilitate co-creation in healthcare encounters. This focuses on
dimensions such as physical space, digital communication and location and
access to facilities, which facilitate patients' experiences when encountering
the service. Thirdly, the thesis contributes to how a smooth journey
facilitates the co-creation of value. The co-creation resources that emerge in
encounters of this type in the context of a healthcare environment include
openness, rapport, comfort in service encounters, satisfaction and
accessibility of healthcare providers.”
The doctoral thesis was supervised by Professor Cláudia Simões, a
professor in EEG's Management Department.
EEG - School of Economics and Management congratulates Kingsley
Agyapong on his defense and wishes him every professional and personal success.
Gabinete de Comunicação
Escola de Economia e Gestão
Universidade do Minho
Telefone: 253 604541
Email: gci@eeg.uminho.pt
