Author(s)

YaNing Wang, YuWen Huang, Ran Wang^*

Affiliation(s)

School of Health Management, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453000, Henan, China.

Corresponding Author

Ran Wang

ABSTRACT

Against the backdrop of accelerating population aging and insufficient elderly care services in rural China, this paper explores how mutual aid models can address these challenges. Taking the "Time Bank" initiative implemented in Wuling Village, Xinxiang City, Henan Province as a case study, the research analyzes how diverse stakeholders—including the elderly, village committees, government agencies, and external organizations—collaborate and integrate resources to establish a sustainable mutual aid system for elderly care, focusing on the perspective of "value co-creation." The study indicates that Wuling Village's "Time Bank" integrates labor mutual aid with elderly care security by converting seniors' spare time into storable, exchangeable "service credits." This model not only activates internal social resources within the village but also gradually expands into deeper collaborations such as capacity training and resource linkage. However, its development faces challenges including insufficient trust, excessive resource dependency, and limited service capacity. Based on these findings, this paper proposes improvements in strengthening institutional trust, broadening resource channels, enhancing service capabilities, and optimizing participation mechanisms to ensure the long-term stability of mutual-aid elderly care models. Wuling Village's experience demonstrates that stimulating endogenous rural momentum and promoting multi-stakeholder collaboration are effective pathways for innovating rural elderly care service systems.

KEYWORDS

Mutual support for aging; Time bank; Value co-creation; Aging society

CITE THIS PAPER

YaNing Wang, YuWen Huang, Ran Wang. The construction and evolution of rural mutual aid elderly care models from a value co-creation perspective. World Journal of Management Science.  2025, 3(4): 19-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61784/wms3085.

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