New service design of medical cloud service: A perspective of Activity Theory

Abstract

This study explores the new service design (NSD) of medical cloud service (MCS) based on the perspective of activity theory. The activity theory consists of six elements concerning object, tool, subject, rule, community, and division of labor. This study adopts the method of case study. The secondary data of the case originally has 2,322 events about service innovation; however, only 109 events are directly related to NSD projects through analyzing the collected data. Based on semantic analysis, content analysis and in-depth interviews, this study obtains the following findings: There are 32 NSD models existing in MCS innovation, where the community plays key driver role and objective is the least. MCS is provided with master-slave NSD model and slave model is driven by community. In addition, the collaboration and quality control between subject and community can be contributory to NSD performance.