Putting Digital into Health: Market Creation, Conversion or Change?

Time & Place

Time: Tuesday, 10 October 2017, 11:00-12:00
Place: Room D4.20, Solbjerg Plads 3, DK-2000 Frederiksberg

Sign up

To join us for the seminar, please send an e-mail to competitiveness@cbs.dk.

About the seminar

How do markets change? More specifically, how do markets change in the face of so-called ‘transformative’ technology infusion? And are changes wrought by digital transformation simply a particular case of market transformation, or are there substantial and noteworthy differences?

This question has never been as crucial to answer as in an era where the digital ‘disruption’ or transformation of markets appears as a daily occurrence in industries ranging from finance, travel, and banking to media, manufacturing and automotive. While a myriad of popular business books offer managerial ‘playbooks’ for digital transformation within the organization, marketing and organizational researchers have rarely attempted a systematic answer to our opening questions.

In addition, reflections on market-level change has by and large been limited to issues of broadly institutional nature, chiefly among those market legitimation and category creation. On the other hand, management research on industry convergence has been characterized by a certain degree of managerial determinism, leaving little space for conceptualizing the effects and counter-effects of technological ruptures on market forms, actors and activities.

In this paper, I address the issue of market change during phases of digital infusion through a longitudinal in–depth study of one market that has been in the throes of ‘digitization’ for the past decade: Healthcare. Healthcare is an exemplary market for the purpose of investigating market change as it seems almost immovable: it is traditionally heavily relationship-based, features large and mostly fixed infrastructures, is heavily invested with institutional power, status and expertise perpetuated through professional associations and educational facilities, practitioners are often risk-adverse and trained in a long legacy of practices, and for consumers themselves engaging in the healthcare market is often associated with a high level of perceived risk.

Innovation in this market has traditionally happened within relatively narrow parameters and mostly through well-known paths of product innovation in either the pharmaceutical or medical device industries.

Yet, starting in the mid-2000s, a broad set of digital technologies loosely known as “digital health” or “eHealth” have emerged and attracted ample commentary, entrepreneurial attention and financial investment. Indeed, by many indicators the emergence of digital health technologies has engendered a veritable market hype. So, what exactly happens if a market such as healthcare is ‘disrupted’ or ‘transformed’ by large-scale technology infusion? Who and what exactly gets transformed? Or, rather than a process of disruption, do we discern one of market convergence, of two market spaces and forms coming together? What are the parameters along which these changes happens? And what lessons can we learn for how markets change more generally?

This presentation proposes some exploratory answers to these questions by first surveying extant bodies of literature for frameworks explaining market change through technology infusion and digitalization. I will then present insights from my empirical work before building an analytical framework of market change in the face of digital transformation.

Bio

Susi Geiger is a Full Professor of Marketing & Market Studies at UCD College of Business. Educated in Germany, France and Ireland, Susi's academic work investigates sales and marketing interfaces in complex markets. Her specific interests lie in technology and health care markets. Her current research is focused on navigating and innovating digital health markets as part of a Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship and in collaboration with UC Berkeley, California and the Center for the Sociology of Innovation (CSI), Ecole de MINES ParisTech. At UCD, Susi has held positions including Vice-Principal of Research, Innovation and Impact and the Academic Director of the Diploma in Sales Management. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Universities of California, Berkeley, University of Auckland, École des Mines de Paris (MINES ParisTech) and Stockholm School of Economics. Her work has appeared in a wide range of international journals including Research Policy, Organization Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and many others. Susi has published two books: "Concerned Markets: Economic Ordering for Multiple Values" (2014, with D. Harrison, H. Kjellberg and A. Mallard) and "Sales Management: A Multinational Perspective" (2011, with P. Guenzi, Bocconi University). She also sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Marketing Theory, Valuation Studies and Consumption, Markets and Culture. Her global research network spans several disciplines including STS, economic sociology, management, and innovation.

Sign up

To join us for the seminar, please send an e-mail to competitiveness@cbs.dk.