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This paper is the first to apply the services marketing framework of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) to enhance understanding of patient conceptualizations of value in the context of cancer health services. Using data from a case study, the findings reveal that ‘value’ is a temporal, experiential, and complex concept. Three dominant themes are identified as contributing to value creation; access to resources, quality of interactions, and resource use. Although these findings show a broad degree of support for the S-D logic framework, distinctive variations emerge from this application in a health-care context.

Patient engagement has gained increasing prominence within academic literatures and policy discourse. With limited developments in practice, most extant academic contributions are conceptual, with initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) concentrating at macro- rather than at micro-level. This may be one reason why the issue of ‘value co-creation’ has received limited attention within academic discussions of patient engagement or policy pronouncements. Drawing on emerging ideas in the services marketing and public management literatures, this article offers the first elucidation of the importance of studying ‘value co-creation’ as a basis for further empirical analysis of patient engagement in micro-level encounters.