Stakeholder Engagement in Value Co-Creation and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Healthcare

Using a field experiment and an efficiency study that employs a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) modeling framework, we find that stakeholder engagement via instrumental communication improves the efficiency of delivering medical care in the oncology clinic of a major hospital. Importantly, we document the role of a synergistic effect that involves three different groups of primary stakeholders (patients, physicians, nurses) who, together, contribute to value creation. Our findings have important implications for the performance and competitiveness of organizations in industries like healthcare as they strive to reduce costs, improve access, and upgrade quality simultaneously.