مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

Healthcare systems in theWestern world are confronting a significant pressure to reduce costs while improving last decades’ quality of health service delivery. Several factors, such as an aging population, increasing mobility of patients, or lack of qualified health works, complicate the fulfillment of this purpose (Hedberg & Morosi, 2015). In addition, society expects solving today’s problems through the extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in healthcare; thus, Eysenbach (2001) introduced the term eHealth, which emerges as a silver bullet for achieving cost-savings, efficiency, and quality in healthcare (Car, Black, Anandan, Cresswell, & Pagliari, 2008).

Many eHealth innovation projects have emerged in the last few years, but most of them remain in a permanent pilot state, which is a growing concern among researchers and policymakers. Scholars have identified the need to uncover mechanisms that help in achieving successful eHealth implementation (Andreassen, Kjekshus, & Tjora, 2015). Previous work identifies capabilities that organizations need to innovate and, more specifically, to co-create value and knowledge with other stakeholders in innovation projects (Den Hertog, Van der Aa, & de Jong, 2010; Kazadi, Lievens, & Mahr, 2016; Sharma, Conduit, & Hill, 2014). However, the scientific literature on the required capabilities to implement innovation projects after the pilot stage is scarce.

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the organizational capabilities necessary in innovation projects after the pilot state, focusing on eHealth projects. Organizational capabilities are bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge that enable companies to coordinate activities and use their assets (Day, 1994). These capabilities allow companies to respond quickly to changing customer preferences and creating a competitive advantage. Therefore, understanding the organizational capabilities that a company needs to lead the successful implementation of innovation projects in general, and eHealth projects in particular, is of great theoretical and practical importance. This study aims to respond to the following research question: How do organizational capabilities contribute to take eHealth innovation projects from a pilot stage to a real implementation?