Title: Exploring stakeholder interests in the health sector: a pre and post-digitalisation analysis from a developing country context

Authors: Mansah Preko; Sheena Lovia Boateng

Addresses: Department of Information Systems and Innovation, School of Technology, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, P.O. Box AH 50, Achimota, Accra, Ghana. 233 ' Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Ghana Business School, P.O. Box LG 78, Legon, Accra, Ghana. 233

Abstract: Underpinned by stakeholder and agency theories, this study adopts a qualitative multiple-case study approach to explore and analyse various stakeholder interests and how they affect digitalisation in the health sector of a developing country (DC). The study's findings revealed that four key stakeholder interests - political, regulatory, leadership, and operational - affect digitalisation in the health sector of DCs. Further, the study found that operational and leadership interests were emergent and were triggered by some digitalisation initiatives, which included, inter alia, the use of new eHealth software and the COVID-19 vaccination exercise, which established new structures and worked better through digitalisation. Conversely, political and regulatory interests were found to be relatively enduring since they existed throughout the pre- and post-digitalisation eras. The study also unearthed principal-agent conflicts arising from technological, organisational and regulatory factors that contribute to the paradoxical outcomes of digitalisation in the health sector.

Keywords: healthcare; digitalisation; stakeholder; stakeholder interest; eHealth; developing country.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2024.140385

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2024 Vol.21 No.2, pp.143 - 167

Received: 12 Jul 2023
Accepted: 18 Apr 2024
Published online: 06 Aug 2024 *

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