Strategic Management in the Healthcare Sector: The Debate About the Resource-Based View Flourishes in Response to Recent Commentaries.

Ewan Ferlie,Anna Peckham,Tessa Crilly,Graeme Currie,Susan Trenholm,Ashok Jashapara

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.205

Abstract

Strategic Management in the Healthcare Sector: The Debate About the Resource-Based View Flourishes in Response to Recent Commentaries.

Highlights

Ferlie moves across macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis
There is a strong tradition of patient and public involvement (PPI) in health services research. Drawing on their national (English) evaluation of Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs) which can be defined as network-based organizations dedicated to the promotion of evidence-based change and systemic knowledge mobilisation in regional patches, Burton and Rycroft-Malone[4] suggest that such PPI informed approaches could be usefully extended to the domain of ‘implementation.’ But we ask: PPI involvement could contribute to the implementation of what? There appears here to be an attachment to an evidence-based healthcare (EBHC) agenda – as CLARHCs are mandated to pursue – that may be rather narrow in current policy terms[6] which emphasises the more rapid diffusion of value creating innovations and wealth enhancement
Harvey and Kitson[7] argue firstly that ‘competitive advantage’ is not easy to define in healthcare settings, they acknowledge that market or quasi market reforms in many health systems have eroded the traditional boundaries between public and private sectors

Summary

Introduction

Meso, and micro levels of analysis. Clearly their argument that RBV is but one theoretical strand which can be used to study KM processes in healthcare is a valid one: we should not claim too much for it. There is increasing interest in – and debate about – the extent to which key concepts from the resource-based view (RBV) of the Firm school of strategic management can be usefully applied to study knowledge mobilization (KM) processes in healthcare and other public services settings.[1,2,3] This transfer process is an interesting example of how a school of thought originally developed in private sector settings helps in understanding how publicly funded healthcare organizations behave, its concepts may still require adaptation as they cross-sectoral boundaries.

Results

Conclusion