Paper info

The Role of Social Identity in a Successful Episodic Relationship: A Multiple Case Study in Health Care Services

Anita Virta and Jaana Tähtinen

The paper was published at the 27th IMP-conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011.

ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to elucidate the role of a customer’s social identity during the process of
an episodic health care relationship. The greater context of this study, healthcare service
relationships and more specifically episodic relationships, have not been the focus of existing indepth
studies The social identity of a customer (or patient) has an important role in the success of
an episodic treatment relationship. The role is studied here with the help of literature on social
identity and on buyer-seller relationship ending. This study suggests that the social identity of a
customer has two different roles in an episodic relationship: as a directive incident and as an
enabling stage. The study ends by discussing implications and suggestions for future research.
Keywords: dissolution of an episodic relationship, social identity, longitudinal case study, drug
rehabilitation treatment