The Development of Value Proposition in Healthcare in the Course of Digital Transformation

Recent research differentiates digital transformation from former transformations by the concept of value proposition. However, with this distinction, it remains unclear, particularly in knowledge-intensive sectors such as healthcare, how the core value-defining activities change and when they are considered extended or changed. As it is expected in research and practice that the healthcare sector is facing a fundamental digital transformation, this sector is particularly suitable for exploring how a changed value proposition can be conceptualized. This is particularly relevant as it helps further understand healthcare's underlying transformation dynamics. To identify core value-defining activities and their changes, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with employees from various healthcare organizations. We analyze the interviews with the inductive category formation of qualitative content analysis. The analysis enables us to classify the identified categories into five non-transformative cases, in which the value-adding activities of an organization are supported by IT, and four transformative cases, in which the value-adding activities of an organization are redefined. Overall, our findings contribute to a better understanding of the digital transformation at the organizational level in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, we highlight important areas for future research based on the four identified DT characteristics.