Abstract
This chapter acts as both a review and an empirical framework analysis piece. It argues that technological acceptance and adoption by healthcare firms still suffers from oversimplification of its development, and specially, it measurement processes. There is a common thought both in business and academia that the technology adoption process is a key component of success and allows firms to achieve and sustain competitive advantages. In a digital era, these advantages arise from the potential of information and communication technology to improve firms’ daily activities. This research tries to reinforce the assessment of ICT impacts on healthcare firm performance, presenting a set of induced and intangible benefits besides the traditional financial benefits, as well as measuring IS integration impact. To do so, a structural equation model is applied to a large database sample covering firms from 17 European countries. The results reinforce the importance of induced and structural benefits in firms’ overall performance. It also found a positive relationship between IS integrated systems and performance. These results can be a starting point for a rethinking of the measurement models used in healthcare firms, and reinforce the argument stating that an IS integrated approach can provide better outcomes. Nevertheless, some questions remain unanswered regarding the impacts of ICT acceptance process on overall benefits, and therefore, future research will focus on this domain.
TopBackground
In the mid-1980s, information and communication technologies have achieved a dominant role, leading to several changes in the internal organizational environment regardless of the sector of activity. In today's competitive global context, they act as an imperative for reducing the uncertainties relating to production and services processes, as well as supporting administrative tasks (Dewett & Jones, 2001) and subsequent achievement of sustainable competitive advantage (McKee, Varadarajan, & Pride, 1989).
A review of the existing literature related to information and communication technologies and IS impacts on organizational performance may enable a more effective implementation of these tools and how organizations can take advantage of their application (Eder & Igbaria, 2001). However, even though there remains considerable interest in the relationship, the body of work that focuses on the contributions of technology on organizational performance could be enlarged (Eder & Igbaria, 2001; Pae, Kim, Han, & Yip, 2002; Maria Teresa Borges Tiago, Couto, Tiago, & Vieira, 2007; Tiago, et al., 2008) and emphasis could be put on particularities of specific sectors, such as the healthcare sector.
Key Terms in this Chapter
ICT ROI: Financial accountable benefits driven from the value gains and cost reduction.
ICT Induced Benefits: Intangible benefits achieved by the adoption and use of ICT in healthcare.
ICT Acceptance: Individual and firms ‘attitudes regarding technology and their intention to use.
ICT Performance: ICT can give significant boost productivity gains of a firm, which can be measure through financial and non-financial metrics.
ICT Benefits: Positive impacts driven from ICT implementation in different domains: market coverage; firm’ growth; productivity and efficiency gains; employees satisfaction and motivation; organizational strategy; firm competitiveness’; among others.
HIS Measurement: Methods to evaluate outputs and outcomes of the use of IT-based systems in medical informatics.
ICT Performance: ICT can give significant boost productivity gains of a firm, which can be measure through financial and non-financial metrics.
HIS Measurement: Methods to evaluate outputs and outcomes of the use of IT-based systems in medical informatics.
ICT Acceptance: Individual and firms ‘attitudes regarding technology and their intention to use.
ICT Interoperability: ISO/IEC 2382-01 defines interoperability as follows: “The capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units.
ICT Induced Benefits: Intangible benefits achieved by the adoption and use of ICT in healthcare.
ICT Interoperability: ISO/IEC 2382-01 defines interoperability as follows: “The capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units.
ICT Benefits: Positive impacts driven from ICT implementation in different domains: market coverage; firm’ growth; productivity and efficiency gains; employees satisfaction and motivation; organizational strategy; firm competitiveness’; among others.
ICT ROI: Financial accountable benefits driven from the value gains and cost reduction.