Refugee social services : an examination of institutional logics and value co-creation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the much-understudied area of refugee services in the services marketing literature by using SDL as a theoretical lens to study refugee social services’ institutional arrangements and their impact on refugees’ and service providers’ value co-creation. This study sought to gain insight into the perspectives of the institutional logics of staff and clients of refugee social services. To investigate the dynamics of power and culture in relation to these perspectives, a government-funded and a non-government-funded refugee social services organisation was chosen. The study also looked at the impact of power, culture, and these perspectives of institutional logics on perceptions of value that the refugees gained in the service experience, and the value co-creation and co-destruction behaviours of staff and clients. To achieve this, a qualitative approach was taken, and interviews were conducted with the service providers and clients from both organisations. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that power and culture had a significant impact on the perspectives of the institutional logics of the organisations, perceptions of clients, value gained, and value co-creation and co-destruction behaviours. Results showed incongruence in the staff and client perspectives on institutional logics for the government funded organisation based on the refugees’ lack of power and cultural understanding of the service experience, resulting in clients overestimating value gained and positive value-co-creation behaviours. The staff, though more powerful than the refugees, also lacked power in the organisation, resulting in value co-destruction behaviours. Conversely, the staff and clients of the non-government funded organisation, shared cultures and power and consequently shared perspectives of the institutional logics of the organisation. This resulted in mostly positive value co-creation behaviours. This study contributes to the much-needed marketing literature on refugee services and adds to the SDL and value co-creation literature, particularly as it relates to the impact of political economic factors. The managerial implications of the study stand to improve services for refugees in social services and other contexts by creating new ways to conduct research with them and educating refugees and stakeholders on how to better co-create value.