Navigating Consumer Emotional Vulnerability in Services

Abstract

The growing awareness that consumer vulnerability extends beyond a person’s fixed status or identity is prompting concern to better understand the overlooked lived experiences of vulnerability that are under-theorized, poorly accommodated, and potentially harmful. We take the cascading mental health crises around the world as a critical impetus to conceptualize consumer emotional vulnerability (CEV) in service ecosystems and define it as psychological fragility that increases a person’s susceptibility to emotional harm in service exchange. We identify four dynamic tensions of CEV—invisibility, inescapability, uncertainty, and hypersensitivity that clarify its meaning and two dimensions (velocity and duration) that describe how it is organized. Our conceptual analysis embeds CEV within a network of antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences; derives a framework for service providers to implement CEV interventions; and synthesizes key theories related to intervention design. We propose new interventions grounded in the defining tensions of CEV and offer guidance for future service research seeking to promote consumer agency and reduce psychological strain. We contribute to service research by theorizing a pervasive yet overlooked form of vulnerability and offering actionable strategies to effectively support emotionally vulnerable consumers in service interactions and ecosystems.