Redesign of Home Care Service Delivery: A Systemic Approach to IT Innovations

Abstract

This paper delineates how systemic innovations coevolve with organisations in the context of home care and describes the dynamics in shared innovation activities when information technology IT systems are developed for such services. Innovation literature is presented from the system perspective to highlight non-technological characteristics. The case study of home-care services in Finland in 2010-2014 shows that systemic innovations result from collaborative actions because the complexity of these innovations requires knowledge and skills from different fields, which no single entity possesses. The multi-level dynamics challenges the management alternatives that focus either on larger development platforms for transitions, or product-based diffusion-then facing later obstacles related to fragmented solutions when merging IT systems and processes. This study contributes by exploring the complexity of developing innovative solutions under dynamic conditions, when actors have different focuses, interests and interdependencies.