Abstract
Since little is known about how service are adopted by consumers, this paper explore the opportunity using the influencing factors to innovation from a service context. For this purpose, we use a meta-narrative approach. This allows us to put into evidence the importance of passive and active innovation resistance in relation to explicit and implicit factors of resistance and acceptance. By systematically reviewing the relevance of those factors on self-service technologies in healthcare. This leads us to propose a research agenda focusing on the concept of technological believability, which encompasses the factors that we have identified as critical.
Introduction
The need to reduce the demand placed upon certain infrastructures has become a great concern to many nations across the globe. Healthcare in particular are on a quest for ways to significantly decrease spending as global healthcare bill continues to rise, from 6.5 trillion dollars in 2012 to 7.2 trillion dollars in 2013 and expected to reach 9.3 trillion dollars by 2018 (WHO updates 2012; Deloitte 2015). This situation may not be peculiar to healthcare, but largely influenced by the health needs of the elderly, which has nearly doubled in countries like the United States (Deloitte 2015).
The U.S. ageing population increased from 9% in 1960 to about 17% in 2014. Chronic disease associated with this population group is also on the rise and lastly is the concern on adherence to medication. Figures suggest that about 50% of chronic patients are non-adherent to their medication (Alaiad et al., 2014; Deloitte 2015; Population bulletin 2015-WHO). This context of medication follow-up is one example among many where self–service technologies can help (Joss 2011; Deloitte 2015).
Self-service technologies (SSTs) are defined as “technological interfaces that enable customers to produce a service independent of direct service employee involvement” (Meuter et al. 2000, p.50). SSTs are widely used in different domains to boost individual, social and economic wellbeing (Ryzhkova et al. 2016). The innovation comes in different forms, from relatively common mobile applications to sophisticated drones or robots (Alaiad et al., 2014; Rijsdijk & Hultink, 2009). According to some experts, this new approach is more than a technical development but it is also an epitome of a paradigm shift, with the potential of dramatically changing the future of service consumption (Gershenfeld et al., 2004; Evans 2011; Ostrom et al. 2015). An element that makes this approach remarkable is the self-service aspect. As it demonstrate the unique nature of value co-creation and without such consumer participation, the efficiency of the innovations are questionable (World Health Organisation 2016; Ostrom et al. 2015).
No wonder, the successful diffusion of these innovations in healthcare seem to be hindered with concerns over user’s comfort (i.e. the risk to privacy, moral values and human health), some of which are evident in the studied cases of abandonment and rejection, recently estimated at 50% failure rate (Andrew and Sirkin 2003; Castellion and Markham 2013).
References: Fully provided upon request.