The adoption of e-Health in public hospitals. Unfolding the gender dimension of TMT and line managers

Within the public management literature, this paper analyses the contribution of women in top and line managerial positions for the public hospital’s innovation in terms of e-Health. It empirically examines Italian public hospitals and uses a combined measure of innovation by relying on different e-Health solutions. Findings show that female managers, especially when characterized by a legal background, foster the implementation of innovative strategies and facilitate the e-Health adoption. However, results report that gender similarity increases the rivalry between top management team and line managers thus limiting the adoption of e-Health solutions.