Role of Cultural Dimensions and Dynamic Capabilities in the Value-based Performance of Digital Healthcare Services

Abstract

Global lockdowns due to COVID-19 pandemic prompted healthcare providers to accelerate the utilisation of digital technologies in healthcare services, yet despite this push, the pace of deploying digital healthcare services is still unsatisfactory. While researchers in the field have mainly focused on the role of technology, the role of a country's cultural dimensions as antecedents of dynamic capabilities responsible for driving the digitalisation of the healthcare services is largely under-researched. Consequently, we aim to investigate the role of country's cultural dimensions and dynamic capabilities in the value-based performance of digital healthcare services. The study rests on multiple-case-study design, which was applied to examine the interlinkages between the cultural dimensions, dynamic capabilities and the value-based performance of digital healthcare services across Lithuania, the United States and Spain. Information was gathered through conducting 66 interviews with healthcare ecosystem stakeholders. The study results show that the low-scoring cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation and high-scoring dimensions of individualism, masculinity and indulgence are antecedents of strong dynamic capabilities, specifically with regards to strong environment scanning, employee engagement and organisational learning. Furthermore, strong dynamic capabilities were found to be associated with a more advanced implementation of digital healthcare services.