Filling in the gaps: a service ecosystem perspective on purchase groups as interstitial markets

• Published in: The Journal of services marketing Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 691 - 710
• Main Authors: Gupta, Aditya, Roy, Sheila, Kamath, Renuka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Santa Barbara Emerald Publishing Limited 25-06-2024; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Consumers; Consumption; COVID-19; Curfews; Ecosystems; Gated communities; Households; Marketing; Packaged goods; Pandemics; Mumbai India; India; Qualitative research; Service ecosystem; Service encounter; Servicescape; Collective consumption; Interstitial markets
• ISSN: 0887-6045; 0887-6045; 2054-1651
• DOI: 10.1108/JSM-08-2023-0302

Purpose
Given the continuing need to study service marketing adaptations that emerged in the wake of Covid-19, this paper aims to look at the formation and evolution of purchase groups (PGs) that arose in Indian gated communities during the pandemic and have continued functioning in the post-pandemic marketplace. Not only did these groups act as much-needed interstitial markets during a time of significant external disruption, but they also served as sites of value co-creation, with consumers collaborating with each other and with service providers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a phenomenological research approach, the authors conducted 22 in-depth interviews with Indian consumers and small service providers to gather accounts of how PGs started and evolved with time. Subsequent data coding and analyses are conducted with NVivo 12.
Findings
Using the service ecosystem perspective, the authors illustrate seven distinct themes that capture the nuances of the formation and evolution of PGs. These consist of entrepreneurality, collectivity, and fluidity at the service ecosystem level, hybridity and transactionality at the servicescape level, and mutuality and permeability at the service encounter level.
Originality/value
This study provides an empirical and theoretically grounded account of a long-term service marketing adaptation that has persisted in the post-pandemic marketplace. This helps us address recent calls for such research while also adding to the work on value co-creation in collective consumption contexts and extant discourse on service ecosystems.