Abstract
Chapter 1 starts by outlining the complex setup in the healthcare sector that shows structural differences to other sectors. Recent developments in the field of innovation advocate for the approach of open innovation that may help to tackle these challenges. Especially using the innovation potential of healthcare consumers appears to be a critical resource hardly explored. Through the proliferation of health-related online platforms that pool various types of healthcare consumers, the need emerges to better understand the contribution of such platforms for innovation in healthcare. Four examples from practice illustrate available models today and demonstrate its relevance. Apart from its real‐world relevance, the academic relevance is derived in Chap. 1 by specifying current research gaps that provide the motivation for this research. Based on that, the research questions for this work are formulated. Chapter 1 then finishes with an overview of the structure of this thesis.
Without radical innovation it seems unlikely that we can sustain the kind of healthcare which we associate with highly developed societies.
—John Bessant
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Notes
- 1.
In 2012, health spending in the EU member states consumed on weighted average 10.1% of their GDP while annual growth in health spending more than doubled GDP growth over the past decade (OECD 2014).
- 2.
Especially in biomedical and health research, the time lag between research and its translation into products, policy, or practice has been estimated to be at 17 years (Hanney et al. 2015; Morris et al. 2011).
- 3.
Merck Sharp & Dohme is an American pharmaceutical company and one of the largest in the world.
- 4.
Psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease that affects the skin by red, itchy, scaly patches. It is typically a lifelong condition with currently no cure.
- 5.
The underlying literature equally refers to co-creation with customers (e.g., Greer and Lei 2012; Piller et al. 2012) as well as co-creation with consumers (e.g., Hoyer et al. 2010; Vernette and Hamdi-Kidar 2013). With regard to the heterogeneity of actors within healthcare (cf. Sect. 1.1), the term consumer is considered more suitable in the context of this work.
- 6.
The acronym B2C needs to be interpreted in the present context of healthcare. While the B usually designates private sector businesses, in this work, the B stands for healthcare organizations (HCOs) no matter if belonging to the private or public sector. The C designates healthcare consumers accordingly.
- 7.
cf. Sect. 3.2.1 for further explanation.
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Künne, C.W. (2018). Introduction. In: Online Intermediaries for Co-Creation. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51124-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51124-5_1
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