Research Dive: 'Hijacked, Blindfolded, and Handcuffed' from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

This Research Dive covers the publication, "Hijacked, blindfolded, and handcuffed: Navigating the turbulent consumer journey for mental illness treatment services" from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2025).

In a fascinating article in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science that should be required reading in business schools, Justine Rapp Farrell of the University of San Diego, along with her coauthors, takes aim at one of the most taken-for-granted ideas in business: the customer journey. Drawing on interviews with individuals and families navigating mental illness treatment, Farrell introduces the concept of the turbulent consumer journey—a prolonged, high-stakes experience marked by crisis, ambiguity, and deep uncertainty. Farrell, a marketing scholar at USD’s Knauss School of Business whose work centers on consumer well-being and transformative service experiences, brings a human-centered lens to markets that are often analyzed in purely technical terms. The result is a reframing of consumption not as a sequence of choices, but as an ongoing struggle to make sense of a confusing and often failing system.

There is a quiet assumption underlying most management thinking: that people know what they are trying to do. If firms provide the right information, reduce friction, and optimize touchpoints, customers will move smoothly from need recognition to purchase and beyond. It is a reassuring model—linear, rational, and manageable. Farrell’s research suggests otherwise.

In turbulent contexts like mental health care, the “journey” is anything but orderly. Consumers are not simply choosing among alternatives; they are trying to understand what problem they face, whether a solution exists, and what progress even looks like. The authors argue that we have mistaken situations requiring sensemaking for ones requiring decision-making. That distinction is critical. Traditional marketing tools—choice architecture, nudges, personalization—presume a stable frame. But here, the frame itself is in flux.

These journeys often begin invisibly. Early signals are ambiguous and easily dismissed: a child seems difficult rather than anxious, a student unfocused rather than depressed. People anchor on a sense of normalcy, and no one recognizes they are already on a journey. By the time a crisis forces recognition, the situation is already complex and emotionally charged.

What follows is not a linear progression but a series of cycles. Consumers notice cues, draw inferences, act, and then confront new consequences that require reinterpretation. Each step generates fresh uncertainty. Initially, many assume the problem will be easily managed—that a competent expert will diagnose and fix it. When that fails, they blame individual providers and move on, searching for someone who can deliver the expected outcome.

Only after repeated disappointments do they reach a more troubling conclusion: the system itself may be broken. At this point, the journey shifts. The goal of returning to “normal” is replaced by managing a condition. Responsibility shifts as well. Consumers and their families become coordinators of care, stitching together fragmented services and making consequential decisions with limited expertise. This is not empowerment in any meaningful sense. It is compensation for system failure.

The implications for managers are significant. Much of the customer experience literature focuses on optimizing touchpoints and reducing friction. But in turbulent journeys, the problem is not friction—it is uncertainty. Customers do not need faster processes; they need help interpreting what is happening. That means designing services that support sensemaking: clarifying expectations, explaining pathways, and acknowledging that outcomes may be ambiguous and nonlinear.

It also means rethinking coordination. In many of these settings, consumers are forced to integrate resources across disconnected providers. Organizations that can reduce this burden—by aligning services, sharing information, and guiding next steps—create value not by simplifying decisions, but by stabilizing the environment in which those decisions are made.

Perhaps most challenging, firms must reconsider what success looks like. In turbulent journeys, the original goal—restoring a prior state of normalcy—may be unattainable. Customers eventually adopt a “new normal,” recalibrating expectations and redefining progress. Organizations that continue to promise resolution risk eroding trust when those promises cannot be kept.

There is a broader lesson here. As modern institutions grow more complex and specialized, more areas of life begin to resemble turbulent journeys. Healthcare is the most obvious example, but similar dynamics appear in finance, education, and public services. In each case, individuals face unclear goals, shifting rules, and fragmented systems that require them to act as their own coordinators.

The comforting fiction of the well-managed customer journey begins to break down in such environments. The real challenge is no longer guiding customers along a predefined path but helping them move forward when the path itself is uncertain.

That is a harder problem—but a more realistic one.

Robert Eberhart, PhD, is an associate professor of management and global business research scholar at the University of San Diego's Knauss School of Business.