The open nature of innovation in the hospital sector: The role of external collaboration networks

Abstract The paper aims to identify the main drivers of innovation in the hospital sector. It further explores the mechanisms shaping how open hospitals are to external collaboration towards innovation. The paper pulls together data on organizational flexibility and innovation from 95 hospitals from the public sector in Portugal, collected through a survey and interviews to hospital boards. The main findings suggest that external cooperation is the major driver of innovation, while technology is rather seen as an enabler of innovation in hospitals. Results also highlight knowledge management, trust building, communication and focus on the user as the major mechanisms for opening up innovation. Within the context of open innovation, hospitals jointly with other health services, universities and users have the opportunity to shape policy and practice to accelerate innovation. Incentives are needed to drive systemic and cultural changes, as well as to establish a common platform for external.

[1]  Grid Thoma,et al.  Cross-Pollination in Science and Technology: Concept Mobility in the Nanobiotechnology Field , 2014 .

[2]  J. R. Steelman.  Science and Public Policy , 1948 .

[3]  Andrew Pettigrew,et al.  The Innovating organization , 1965 .

[4]  A. Salter,et al.  Searching high and low: what types of firms use universities as a source of innovation? , 2004 .

[5]  Juan Antonio Mondéjar Jiménez,et al.  Documento de trabajo , 2011 .

[6]  Manuel V. Heitor,et al.  Innovation, Competence Building and Social Cohesion in Europe: Towards a Learning Society , 2003 .

[7]  H. Chesbrough.  The Era of Open Innovation , 2003 .

[8]  J. West,et al.  Open innovation : researching a new paradigm , 2008 .

[9]  D. Berwick.  Disseminating innovations in health care. , 2003, JAMA.

[10]  D. Third.  OECD/Eurostat . Oslo Manual-Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Paris, France: , 2005 .

[11]  Recursos y resultados de los sistemas de innovación : elaboración de una tipología de sistemas regionales de innovación en España , 2002 .

[12]  K. Sivakumar,et al.  Implementation of industrial process innovations: factors, effects, and marketing implications , 1999 .

[13]  Dovev Lavie,et al.  Balance Within and Across Domains: The Performance Implications of Exploration and Exploitation in Alliances , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[14]  Bengt-Åke Lundvall,et al.  National Systems of Innovation: towards a theory of innovation and interactive learning London: Pint , 1995 .

[15]  Keith W. Hipel,et al.  The Future of Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Application Domains and Research Methods , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews).

[16]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  INNOVATION OBJECTIVES, KNOWLEDGE SOURCES, AND THE BENEFITS OF BREADTH , 2010 .

[17]  Diana Hicks,et al.  Hospitals: The hidden research system , 1996 .

[18]  G. Robert,et al.  Diffusion of innovations in service organizations: systematic review and recommendations. , 2004, The Milbank quarterly.

[19]  L. Etheredge,et al.  A rapid-learning health system. , 2007, Health affairs.

[20]  E. Ferlie,et al.  Interlocking Interactions, the Diffusion of Innovations in Health Care , 2002 .

[21]  B. Lundvall.  Dynamics of Industry and Innovation: Organizations, Networks and Systems National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool , 2022 .

[22]  Henry Chesbrough,et al.  Open Innovation: A research agenda , 2006 .

[23]  James M. Tien.  Individual-centered education: An any one, any time, any where approach to engineering education , 2000, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part C.

[24]  R. Nelson.  Modelling the Connections in the Cross Section between Technical Progress and R&D Intensity , 1988 .