Research agenda for health-care service experience research
| Gap identified | Future research direction | Expected contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Limited understanding of how value evaluations evolve across time | Investigate how patients reinterpret healthcare experiences longitudinally, examining how VALEX, MTT and affective forecasting interact across pre-service, encounter and post-service phases | Empirical validation of the processual framework; deeper understanding of how value is constructed and revised across the patient journey |
| Limited integration of emotional anticipation in healthcare experience research | Examine how patients forecast emotional responses prior to care and how anticipated emotions influence care-seeking, engagement and evaluation outcomes | Conceptual clarification of affective forecasting in healthcare; improved understanding of how uncertainty and emotional anticipation shape experience formation |
| Insufficient understanding of how healthcare experiences are embedded in patients’ lifeworlds | Examine how social context, cultural frames and everyday life conditions shape how patients interpret and revise healthcare experiences across time | Context-sensitive understanding of healthcare experience; insights into how value formation varies across patient groups and social environments |
| Limited knowledge of cognitive mechanisms underlying reinterpretation of healthcare encounters | Investigate how episodic memory and episodic foresight influence trust development, re-engagement decisions and reinterpretation of prior encounters | Theory development on memory-based value revision and temporal sense-making in healthcare service experience |
| Gap identified | Future research direction | Expected contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Limited understanding of how value evaluations evolve across time | Investigate how patients reinterpret healthcare experiences longitudinally, examining how VALEX, | Empirical validation of the processual framework; deeper understanding of how value is constructed and revised across the patient journey |
| Limited integration of emotional anticipation in healthcare experience research | Examine how patients forecast emotional responses prior to care and how anticipated emotions influence care-seeking, engagement and evaluation outcomes | Conceptual clarification of affective forecasting in healthcare; improved understanding of how uncertainty and emotional anticipation shape experience formation |
| Insufficient understanding of how healthcare experiences are embedded in patients’ lifeworlds | Examine how social context, cultural frames and everyday life conditions shape how patients interpret and revise healthcare experiences across time | Context-sensitive understanding of healthcare experience; insights into how value formation varies across patient groups and social environments |
| Limited knowledge of cognitive mechanisms underlying reinterpretation of healthcare encounters | Investigate how episodic memory and episodic foresight influence trust development, re-engagement decisions and reinterpretation of prior encounters | Theory development on memory-based value revision and temporal sense-making in healthcare service experience |