Managing intellectual capital in healthcare organizations. A conceptual proposal to promote innovation
| Published date | 24 August 2020 |
| Pages | 290-310 |
| Date | 24 August 2020 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-02-2020-0063 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
| Author | Hui Huang,Daniele Leone,Andrea Caporuscio,Sascha Kraus |
Managing intellectual capital in
healthcare organizations.
A conceptual proposal to
promote innovation
Hui Huang
School of Accountancy, Chongqing Technology and Business University,
Chongqing, China
Daniele Leone and Andrea Caporuscio
University of Naples–Parthenope, Napoli, Italy, and
Sascha Kraus
Durham University, Durham, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The present article aims at rising stream of literature about intellectual capital in healthcare
organizations, by exploring how knowledge-based activities are designed to promote innovation and create
value. This process concerns not only buyers and sellers of industrial products/services but, more widely,
larger networks of healthcare actors which include patients, payers and health institutions.
Design/methodology/approach –To answer the research question, we adopted a conceptual approach
aimed at reaching overall comprehension of healthcare innovation mechanisms. We have tracked the pivotal
extant studies for catching the roots and dynamics at the base of diffusion of healthcare innovation. This article
demonstrates, based on previous literature and theoretical speculations, the contribution that innovative
knowledge-based activities (e.g. market access a pproach) make to intellectual capital in healthcare
organizations to promote innovation and create value.
Findings –The results show that three knowledge-based activities of the healthcare ecosystem shape the
basis of the proposed conceptual framework. First, a value co-creation strategy to develop capabilitiesfor each
health stakeholder is intended as human capital. Second, the market access approach to promote innovation is
reported to the relational capital. Third, a digital servitization strategy is referred to the structural capital.
Research limitations/implications –This paper provides implications for the stream of literature about
intellectual capital in healthcare organizations. It aims at exploring three knowledge-based activities as value
co-creation, market access and digital servitization that respond to different intellectual capital levels
components (human, relational, structural).
Originality/value –This article provides a conceptual framework based on the linkage of two fundamental
streams of management studies, wh ich correspond to innovation diff usion and intellectual capital
management. This offers a more solid conceptualization for managing intellectual capital in healthcare
organizations with respect to previous studies and creates value in the ecosystem.
Keywords Intellectual capital, Healthcare, Market access, Innovation process, Digital servitization, Value
co-creation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the past two decades, a wide range of studies have turned their interest to exploring
intellectual capital for performance management practices in the healthcare industry (Peng
et al., 2007;Pirozzi and Ferulano, 2016;Cavicchi, 2017). Recent scholars have attested to the
development of knowledge-based activities as an important factor in adopting innovation in
every healthcare organization and institution (Piri and Asefzadeh, 2006;Peng et al., 2007;
Mura et al., 2012). These service-based organizations are intended as knowledge-producing
systems and as nodes in knowledge-exchanging systems (Kogut and Zander, 1992;
JIC
22,2
290
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 28 February 2020
Revised 3 June 2020
2 July 2020
30 July 2020
Accepted 31 July 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 22 No. 2, 2021
pp. 290-310
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-02-2020-0063
Greenhalgh et al., 2008). In the last few years, health organizations have seen the transition to
a business model focused on patient needs and composed of a plurality of stakeholders (e.g.
physicians, payers, decision makers) who actively participate in the challenges of the health
context (Omachonu and Einspruch, 2010). Thus, knowledge sharing among these various
actors has become fundamental in order to guarantee services’quality to be provided.
With reference to the importance of knowledge in the innovation decision process, Rogers
(2003) defined the adoption process as “the process through which an individual or other
decision-making unit passes from first knowledge of an innovation, to forming an attitude
toward the innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject, to implementation of the new idea, and
to confirmation of this decision”. The adoption decision can also involve the analysis of cost
and benefits (Greenhalgh et al., 2004). Other scholars have also noted the limits to the
diffusion of innovation that is influenced by technological, social and learning “conditions”
while operating in the contextual “domain”of the individual, community or market/industry
(MacVaugh and Schiavone, 2010). For instance, the existence of complementary technologies
can positively influence the diffusion and adoption of new technology (Gandal et al., 2000), but
can also represent a weakness for the community or market/industry. It is the case of new
pharmaceutical mechanisms that thanks to technological innovation are labelled as new
spectrum of medical products equipped by disruptive therapeutic features (Ciani et al., 2016).
In the health context, past attention did not focus on the fragmented power of different
health operators and, more importantly, on its effect on the relationship between companies,
patients and health stakeholders with regard to clinical and economic outcomes (Dansky and
Gamm, 2004). For these reasons, intellectual capital and its components (human capital,
relational capital and structural capital) have become key value drivers for service-based
organizations such as those for healthcare (Kianto et al., 2010). Evans et al. (2015) identified
the advantages of intangible resources in healthcare organizations, especially in
systematically managing these resources together, and their mutually increasing
interactions to promote innovation. These intangible res ources can manage several
dynamics (e.g. changing decision-making power) of the current healthcare environment to
support innovation. For instance, recent healthcare management studies established the
fundamental role of market access (MA) strategies in marketing authorization and in
promoting innovations in pharmaceutical products (e.g. drugs or medical devices) (Koch,
2015;Toumi, 2017).
The present article aims at contributing to the rising stream of literature about intellectual
capital in healthcare organizations (e.g. Peng et al., 2007;Pirozzi and Ferulano, 2016;Cavicchi,
2017;Paoloni et al., 2020) in a service-based ecosystem perspective (Chou et al., 2018)by
exploring how these knowledge-based activities (e.g. MA practices in healthcare) are
designed and implemented to promote innovation and create value not only for buyers and
sellers of industrial products/services but, more widely, for larger networks of healthcare
actors. Indeed, our research question is: “how do knowledge-based activities enable to the
intellectual capital to promote innovation? Using a conceptual approach based on the
literature analysis carried out, the management of intellectual capital is fundamental to
understand whether healthcare organizations can promote innovations providing benefits
and value to patients, health institutions and other stakeholders. As a result, three
knowledge-based activities of the healthcare ecosystem shape the basis of the proposed
conceptual framework.
First, a value co-creation strategy to develop capabilities for each health stakeholder is
intended as human capital. From this perspective, recent literature examined the value co-
creation process focusing not only on the skills of general physicians or the performance of
medical devices; for these reasons, we focus on the knowledge sharing activities at the level of
a patient who seems to be more indicated in intellectual capital exploitation to co-create value
(Piri and Asefzadeh, 2006;Camelo-Ordaz et al., 2011;Bordoloi et al., 2012). Second, the MA
Intellectual
capital in
healthcare
organizations
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