The Emergence of Business Ecosystems in the Healthcare Industry

The healthcare sector is undoubtedly one of the largest and most complex in the global economy. A combination of social, demographic, regulatory, and economic challenges and trends, such as rising costs, patients’ increasing expectations due to globalization, and technological disruptions, have driven healthcare service systems and institutions to struggle for delivering higher levels of accessibility, affordability, and quality of healthcare. The imperative of transformative change through collaboration-driven solutions came about for healthcare organizations to address the above challenges and gain competitive advantage through value co-creation. In this context, the trend of business ecosystems, which refers to the continuous, interacting collaboration among multiple resource-integrating entities to capture and deliver value, has emerged and is leading to a new era, known as healthcare business ecosystems. The present research aims to examine and develop the main complications in the healthcare sector that drive the adoption of business ecosystems. A thorough review of healthcare ecosystems along with the main ecosystemic models is conducted. By studying all the abovementioned trends, it is evident that viewing the healthcare industry through the business ecosystem lens suggests an innovative solution for competitiveness and value creation, for patients and other stakeholders.