Title: Innovation of healthcare services in pharmacies

Authors: Heiko Gebauer

Addresses: Institute of Technology Management, University of St. Gallen, Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland

Abstract: Confronted with competitive challenges and emerging market opportunities, pharmacies are being forced to innovate new healthcare services. Managers and researchers emphasise healthcare service innovation, but the approach in business practice and the literature has been unstructured. Based on 12 in-depth case studies, this paper explores the pattern of success factors for two opposite types of healthcare services. The two types are distinctive and customised, and incremental and standardised healthcare service innovations. The findings replicate the existing literature on success factors for service innovations such as service quality evidence, improved service experience, standardised service, client/need fit, innovation culture and management. The main contribution of this article is extending existing knowledge on the role of success factors for healthcare service innovations such as market potential, service complexity/cost, new service development process, strategy and resource fit, and market competitiveness.

Keywords: pharmacies; success factors; health service innovation; competition; emerging markets; distinctive innovations; customised innovations; incremental innovations; standardised innovations; service quality; service experience; client needs; innovation culture; innovation management; market potential; service complexity; costs; development processes; strategy and resource fit; market competitiveness; Switzerland; behavioural research; healthcare research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2009.032159

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.427 - 444

Published online: 11 Mar 2010 *

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