Can value co-creation in SMEs be obtained through mHealth service digitalization?

The holist nature that the service functions have and their impact on companies’ profitability have determined a movement from selling products to selling solutions also in the pharmacy industry. Many studies have been conducted in relation to consumers’ attitude towards the online medicines purchase and many have investigated how the e-services are perceived by consumers in the healthcare sector. The target of this exploratory study is, instead, is pharmacists, as SMEs owners, and their attitude towards new technologies. The purpose of the research is to explore the adoption of mobile apps by pharmacy owners. In this study, we were interested in pharmacist subjective experiences and how they made sense of them. The method adopted was the narrative inquiry technique combined with critical event analysis. Respondents’ experiences were categorized based on how they viewed new technology tools (mobile apps). Interpretative inductive analysis identified precise aspects of sense making of illustrative of non-adoption or confused adoption of new technologies by pharmacists. This investigates at what extent new technological tools, such as mobile apps, impact on retailers and consumers. The multi-channel communication and supply approach required to professional is not ignored and need for education comes as imperative. In addition, retailers in the pharmacy industry realize that a multi-channel strategy of distribution communication with clients is necessary and is becoming crucial to keep high the level of the services supplied and to have a proactive relationship with consumers in a value co-creation perspective.