Managing value co-creation in pharmacy

Purpose - The paper investigates the possible enablers and barriers of value co-creation processes in pharmacy, with the aim of enriching previous managerial and organisational contributions in the pharmacy management domain. Design/methodology/approach - Building upon the interpretative contributions provided by the service logic and systems thinking approaches, this paper proposes a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework to analyse enablers and barriers in the value co-creation process. The findings are analysed using a semistructured survey completed by human resources staff involved in pharmacy management which were verified by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to allow us to determine the relevance of the findings in a changing social and economic environment, improve skills and capabilities, and analyse competitors. Findings - This paper offers an exploratory picture of the opinions of the human resources staff involved in pharmacy management, focusing on (1) possible enablers and barriers for value co-creation and (2) their correlation with pharmacy revenues. Research limitations/implications – The reflections and empirical research herein are the first of many studies investigating research pathways supplying both providers’ and users’ perceptions in the pharmacy domain about the value co-creation process. Practical implications – The empirical evidence shows the relevance of some dimensions in defining opportunities and barriers for value co-creation process and – consequentially - the pharmacy’s economic performances. Originality/value – This paper combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to enrich the theoretical and practical contributions to the field of value co-creation processes.