Technology Integration in Care Service Systems: The Required Actions of Technology Developers

Abstract

Aging is a global phenomenon affecting the sustainability of national welfare systems. Care technologies are expected to improve the seniors' quality of life, remove the burden of the care personnel, and, consequently, enhance the welfare systems' sustainability. The effective technological development and integration of care technology has been actively studied and discussed, focusing especially on user involvement. However, few empirical studies have been performed on the required actions of the care technology developers for technology integration. Therefore, we conducted a multiple case study of the care technology developers to clarify the required actions for promoting care technology integration in the care service systems. Through semistructured interviews of six business cases in Japan and a qualitative thematic analysis of the individual ones, we obtained nine required actions for care technology integration that were categorized according to their major stakeholders and business phases. In addition, we carried out a cross-case analysis from the aspects of business types, firm sizes, and product types to examine the differences in the required actions. This article contributes to extending the research focus on care technology development and integration to its dissemination phase and the corresponding actions to offer an effective guidance for the care technology developers.