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The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework along with underlying propositions for the design and deployment of telemedicine projects which provide healthcare organizations with strategic benefits.

Field research conducted at four healthcare organizations along with academic literature in the areas of telemedicine and process management form the basis for the conceptual framework and propositions provided in this paper.

Telemedicine can be used as a process enabler for enhanced healthcare‐delivery systems. However, there are several challenges which must be considered prior to its implementation. The framework and propositions provided in the paper can be used to facilitate successful telemedicine project deployments.

The framework and propositions are derived from a small sample and must be validated through more rigorous empirical research studies.

The concepts presented in the paper can be used by healthcare planners to increase the likelihood of telemedicine deployment success within their organizations.

This paper begins to fill a void in the literature concerning how telemedicine can be used as a process enabler for improving healthcare‐delivery systems.

Drawing broadly from the technology frame (Davidson, 2002) and organizing vision perspectives (Swanson and Ramiller, 1997) which consider the business value of information technology as resulting from actors' efforts to make sense of new technology, the study applies Ojala's (2016) business model framework to examine how different sets of actors understand the value of blockchain within the healthcare sector.

To include the perspective of different sets of actors, the research combines a systematic literature review to capture academic research, semi-structured interviews with blockchain experts, with an analysis of blockchain healthcare vendors.

The study finds a high degree of congruence between the perspective of different actors, with key sources of blockchain value concentrated around value proposition, particularly enhancing privacy and security; value capture, specifically cost savings, and value network, mostly enhancing data accessibility and reducing intermediation. Value delivery is the least emphasized value creation mechanism and concerns primarily improvements in supply chain transparency. Minor variations between actors' interpretations of value exist, mostly around the contribution of blockchain to support the value proposition and include the provision of social value, the creation of trust, supporting automation and improving employment.

Recognizing that the value of new technology is as much the result of actors' interpretations, as the objective outcome of its deployment, this study takes a multi-stakeholder perspective to examine blockchain's business value and highlights new aspects of value associated with blockchain deployments. The findings include a value outcome framework that allows systematic comparisons between blockchain implementations across contexts.

Quality and value are currently convergent concepts in healthcare. The importance of patients as customers has increased the focus on quality management and value delivery. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Rotorua is a specialist hospital for rheumatic disease and rehabilitation. It has a clear mission for the delivery of customer quality and in fulfilling this mission uses a holistic approach (a value chain approach) to customer care. The value chain study of QEH’s product/service delivery has enabled medical, medical support staff and management to review both value delivery quality and delivery methods. The study explored the QEH value chain organisation and process structures and has identified questions concerning healthcare delivery and alternative methods for achieving current results and the future direction of the organisation. Value chain analysis encourages an intra‐ and inter‐organisational review of resource application and identifies alternative methods and structures for meeting objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of conflict and conflict resolution on employee perceptions of unit social capital. The paper aims to test the overarching proposition that social capital is affected by different types of conflict and by organizational methods used to manage them.

The paper's hypotheses were tested using survey data collected as part of a case study conducted in a large Ohio hospital that had adopted a conflict management system. Survey data from 791 hospital employees were used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between conflict and its management and social capital.

Analysis of the data supports the paper's proposition that different forms of conflict affect perceptions of social capital differently. Relationship and task conflict were significantly and negatively related to employee perceptions of social capital. Conflict regarding patient care issues, on the other hand, was significantly and positively related to employee perceptions of social capital. Results support the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of conflict management on social capital. In addition to directly increasing perceptions of social capital, one of the conflict management options examined (supervisor‐assisted) moderated the relationship between relationship and task conflict and social capital.

The research implies that organizational conflict affects social capital. More importantly, different forms of conflict affect social capital in different ways. Furthermore, the findings imply that organizational management of conflict plays an important role in increasing perceptions of social capital. Shortcomings include the use of cross‐sectional data and the generalizability of findings from one hospital to other settings.

The findings suggest that an organization's approach to conflict and conflict management will affect perceived levels of social capital. In addition, organizations must be nuanced in the way they manage and resolve different types of conflict. Finally, findings suggest that supervisors play an important role in increasing unit social capital by assisting employees in resolving conflict.

The paper provides one of the first empirical examinations of the relationship between conflict, conflict resolution and social capital.

Worldwide, healthcare systems struggle to sustain the delivery of services at a time of increasing demand, limited resources and growing expectations from users, coupled with dealing with the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of other outbreaks. There has never been a more important time to sustain innovation and improvements. Using an illustrative case, the authors assess the application of two existing frameworks to identify the key propositions and dimensions required to deliver sustainable services.

This illustrative case study focuses on a service provided by a chronic disease, multidisciplinary community healthcare team in the UK. Experienced-based interviews were conducted with health professionals, patients and relatives to provide a rich account of a care pathway design. A high-level process map is used to visualise the key touch points.

The authors identify all seven propositions of the SERVICE framework being present along with additional dimensions relating to sustaining innovation and improvement.

This research is limited to a chronic disease care pathway. However, the authors believe the results could be applicable to other medical conditions, which are supported by a similar multi-disciplinary service delivery model.

The authors provide a sustainable public service operations SERVICES framework for health professionals and managers to consider when (re)designing care pathways.

This research contributes to the emerging discipline of public service operations research by empirically testing for the first time the SERVICE framework within healthcare. The authors have included additional factors associated with innovation and improvement and recommended further development of the framework to include factors, such as economic sustainability, highly relevant to the context of universal healthcare systems.

This study aims to explore the rise of virtual specialty care startups and understand how the ventures leverage digital services to create a new market space. Given the high level of competition in an established industry like health care, the authors investigate the business models and competitive strategies of leading virtual specialty care startups with unicorn status (i.e. emerging, current and exited unicorns).

The authors performed an analysis of Crunchbase data to examine whether rising virtual care ventures target specialty care. They focused on companies from the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The identified virtual specialty care ventures were investigated in-depth via a multiple case study. By reviewing corporate websites, Crunchbase data and media coverage, the authors analyzed the ventures’ business models and competitive strategies.

This study demonstrates that even in established and highly competitive markets such as health care, managers and entrepreneurs can still leverage digital services to unlock new market spaces. The data analysis reveals that virtual care startups target the field of specialty care. They create a new market space by focusing on fast access to services, personalization, measurable outcomes and affordability. The majority of investigated companies pursues a platform-based business model approach.

In the context of an established industry like health care, this study gives insights into a new generation of virtual specialty care ventures. By investigating the ventures’ business models and competitive strategies, the authors advance a young field of research.

People are responsible for their wellbeing, yet whether they take ownership of their own or even others' wellbeing might vary from actor to actor. Such psychological ownership (PO) influences the dynamics of how wellbeing is co-created, particularly amongst actors, and ultimately determines actors' subjective wellbeing. The paper's research objective pertains to explicating the concept of the co-creation of wellbeing and conceptualizing the dynamics inherent to the co-creation of wellbeing with consideration of the influences of all involved actors from a PO perspective.

To provide a new conceptualization and framework for the dynamics of wellbeing co-creation, this research synthesizes wellbeing, PO and value co-creation literature. Four healthcare cases serve to illustrate the effects of engaged actors' PO on the co-creation of wellbeing.

The derived conceptual framework of dynamic co-creation of wellbeing suggests four main propositions: (1) the focal actor's wellbeing state is the intangible target of the focal actor's and other engaged actors' PO, transformed throughout the process of wellbeing co-creation, (2) PO over the focal actor's wellbeing state is subject to the three interrelated routes of exercising control, investing in the target, and intimately knowing the target, which determine the instigation of wellbeing co-creation, (3) the level of PO over the focal actor's wellbeing state can vary, influence and be influenced by the extent of wellbeing co-creation, (4) the co-creation of wellbeing, evoked by PO, is founded on resource integration, which influences the resources–challenges equilibrium of focal actor and of all other engaged actors, affecting individual subjective wellbeing.

This article provides a novel conceptual framework that can shed new light on the co-creation of wellbeing in service research. Through the introduction of PO the transformation of lives and wellbeing can be better understood.

Technological developments have shed optimistic light on the future of telecommunications in healthcare. However, problems still prevail in the healthcare industry and the need for an effective solution in a rapidly evolving technological environment is imperative in the coming years. This paper defines the problem within healthcare delivery worldwide and theoretically explores a typical medical scenario in Kuwait, utilising the grounded theory method. It traces the social processes within medical work and network and attempts to understand the underlying relationships between the two. Analysis of the scenario leads to an understanding of the concepts and categories, enabling the interpretation of a theory that forms the basis of an architectural model, resulting in the proposition of a new telehealth paradigm, the pay‐per‐use concept. The research question focuses on the appropriateness of such a concept for the healthcare industry. Anticipates that the proposed new conceptual framework will be the evolving IT solution in healthcare delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of patient loyalty programs in healthcare environment, generally considered as a way to engage patients and potentially increase the perception of service quality of healthcare systems, but not systematically analyzed at the state of the art.

The Service Dominant logic and, in particular, the service ecosystem construct are adopted and integrated with relevant literature references and empirical studies on a sample of patients. Loyalty programs are interpreted as institutions coordinating actors of the healthcare service ecosystem.

A conceptual model linking loyalty programs to patients and healthcare providers’ co-creation practices, engagement, satisfaction, trust, and perception of service quality is build and explained based on literature and a case study, finding that loyalty programs can strengthen the adaptability and the well-being of a healthcare service ecosystem.

This contribution can have a significant impact on the design of new and the evolution of current healthcare service ecosystem, providing interesting insights to practitioners on the topic of loyalty programs, both for their development and their benefits.

The paper revised previous healthcare service ecosystems and highlights the role of the loyalty program institution at each level and between levels of the ecosystem.

Considering lean thinking inside and beyond the organisation's boundaries, in the extended supply chain, this paper aims to fill a literature gap clearly stating some outsourcing practices as lean practices and establishing a deployment evolution parallel between both practices.

A literature review was carried out collecting cases of lean deployment in healthcare, from both scientific and grey literature. Cases were classified according to lean deployment taxonomy in healthcare settings, showing some differences in lean journey stages in 15 countries.

There is an alignment between SCM thinking in healthcare and lean thinking that places a SCM decision as outsourcing as a lean practice serving not only strategic intent but solving operational efficiency. There is a match between different outsourcing drivers (transactional, strategic and transformational) and lean maturity levels. The main constraint to deployment of both lean and outsourcing practices are cultural differences.

Understanding lean and outsourcing different deployment maturity levels under the national cultural umbrella can open new perspectives to study lean sustainability factors and better outsourcing relationships in healthcare organisations.

This paper presents a merger between the state‐of‐the art of both lean and outsourcing practices in healthcare settings and suggests an outsourcing and lean evolving pathway.