Overview #
This study explores how NGOs in Spain that support individuals with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) are co-creating value through a social marketing lens. While ABI presents complex medical, emotional, and social challenges, the organizations analyzed in this research offer a unique opportunity to understand how community-based, user-centered services can generate multidimensional value across functional, emotional, social, and societal domains.
Abstract #
Drawing from Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) and stakeholder theory, this qualitative study conducted 15 in-depth interviews with individuals affected by ABI and their family caregivers. Thematic analysis revealed that value is not merely delivered but co-created through relationships, recognition, and ongoing engagement with stakeholders. Functional value emerged through rehabilitation, access to services, and autonomy.
The team often described key foundational actions that NGOs take that the participants highlighted as being crucial for their recovery. These included empathy, validation, and trust from professionals and peers. These factors all played a critical role in their recovery and identity reconstruction.
Barriers to value co-creation were also identified, including emotional resistance, lack of system coordination, and communication breakdowns. These were not only structural (e.g., bureaucratic fragmentation) but also deeply personal. Including, shame, cognitive impairments, or lack of awareness limited engagement in several cases. Participants consistently noted that NGOs often filled the gaps left by public services, acting as emotional anchors, educational facilitators, and policy advocates.
The findings led to the development of a conceptual framework illustrating how value is co-created across the ABI recovery journey- particularly in the acute, subacute, and chronic phases. Key enablers included emotionally intelligent professionals, peer mentors, and ecosystem “integrators” such as social workers. Conversely, the absence of coordinated discharge planning, inconsistent stakeholder involvement, and inaccessible communication strategies undermined the potential for sustainable value exchange.
This research contributes to the theoretical development of social marketing by demonstrating that value co-creation in health contexts requires more than transactional service provision. It must be relational, participatory, and sensitive to emotional and social dimensions. The team revealed not as a by-product but as an actively cultivated process essential for.
Access #
Juan Miguel Rey-Pino, Rey Pino, Ph.D. – Universidad de Granada (jrey@ugr.es)
Location #
Spain
Key words #
Acquired Brain Injury, Social Marketing, Co-Creation, NGOs, Stakeholders, Rehabilitation, WSMC conference 2025
