DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE: A REVIEW AND FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDAS

Abstract

Disruptive innovation (DI) refers to a mode of low cost high ancillary performance innovation that starts at the lower end of the market and gradually moves up to eventually displace its incumbent counterparts. The concept of DI has become more and more popular in the healthcare sector. The paper studies how healthcare research has embraced the concept of DI in various areas within the healthcare sector. Areas of healthcare, where DI has been adopted as a management strategy, were identified in the last two decades, through initially shortlisting 157 papers and the final reviewed set of 117 papers. Through a multi-method approach comprising of co-word analysis, identification of themes, mapping of research work across these themes and geography, the study found that, although from a management perspective there are 13 major themes, the majority of the focus is on four major themes–healthcare delivery and services, healthcare administration, technology and equipment, and nursing and palliative care. Furthermore, the majority of the geography-specific research was conducted in developed countries, especially the USA. It was also observed that organisational strategies for successfully implementing DI in the healthcare sector are still in the nascent stage and the focus is mostly in the area of healthcare delivery and administration from the management perspective. Future research studies could aim at looking at the role that DI plays in the healthcare sector of the developing countries, as well as using DI in other areas of healthcare, rather than a few concentrated areas.