Developing Competitive Advantage through Digital Transformation Strategies in the Healthcare Industry: A Case Study

Abstract

This case study explores the effect of digital transformation (DT) strategies on creating a competitive advantage in healthcare organizations based on Porter’s (2008) five competitive forces. We develop a customer service value proposition model by analyzing individual customers' digital healthcare information in order to ascertain the effect of DT at hospitals. We focus on a healthcare provider for which DT motivated customers to participate in operational processes, thus positively influencing organizational competitiveness. The results indicate that DT-enabled competitive factors do contribute to the organization’s competitive advantage, and healthcare app service, data combination, algorithm differentiation, InsurTech product and service portfolio, and collaborative partners are especially important factors. These results can be used as guidelines by healthcare providers interested in implementing DT for improved competitiveness.