Search

PurposeThe study examines the amplifying role of users in the e-healthcare sector and holistically show its current state and potential. The paper aims at contributing to the scientific literature with a comprehensive review of the current state of the art on the application of user innovation (UI) in the e-healthcare sector, as a solid step for discussing the potential, trends, managerial gaps and future research avenues in this field. Despite the crucial importance of the topic and increasing attention toward it in the last few years, there is a lack of comprehensive scrutiny on different angles of involving users in health technology innovations so far.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines two methods of bibliometric analysis and extensive content analysis of 169 journal articles on Scopus and Web of Science to unfold five research questions regarding the mechanisms of involving users, innovations characteristics and the role of users throughout the innovation process.FindingsA clear result of the applied methodology is the profiling of users involved in e-health innovations in seven categories. The results of this study shed light on the current practice of not involving users in all the stages of the innovation process of m-health, telemedicine, self-managing technologies, which is contrary to the best practices of the UI application.Research limitations/implicationsCollection of relevant studies due to lack of comprehensibility of the keywords.Practical implicationsThe offered propositions can act as a roadmap to potential research opportunities as well as to organize such innovations from a managerial perspective in particular healthcare organization managers and the middle managers operating at R&D sectors and policymakers.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind that digs out the application of UI strategies such as user-centered design in the context of e-healthcare and provides a bibliometric and extensive content analysis of the studies conducted in this theme over the years.

Universities are rethinking their teaching and research programs and their whole third mission in response to the framework provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But how do universities walk the talk? What are the main strategies and activities undertaken by universities to implement the 2030 Agenda? While the higher education literature has documented the growing number of practices and strategies around SDGs, there have been few attempts to synthesize these scholarly resources. Moreover, the knowledge base revolves around an array of activities, which makes the literature seem fragmented. To fill this gap, the present paper conducts a systematic literature review and derives a method of categorizing activities that can support further knowledge growth. We classified 130 selected papers based on the type of university activities considered (research, teaching, third mission, and managing operations) and the level of the implemented action (macro, meso, and micro). Subsequently, we identified the main gaps in the literature and discussed future research avenues for addressing higher education's role in accomplishing SDGs.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41307-022-00277-x.

The purpose of this study is to systematize and consolidate a scattered literature on the theme of firm-user collaboration by focusing on the strategic, organizational, and managerial dynamics of firms. To achieve this aim, a systematic review of 152 articles was carried out. Papers were first organized into six clusters of firm-user collaboration: (1) Identifying and Selecting Users and Ideas, (2) Organizing Collaboration with Users, (3) Networking with Users, (4) Engaging Users in the Innovation Process, (5) Developing Resources and Capabilities to support Collaboration with Users, and (6) Strategizing for Users’ Involvement. The main topics within each area were then organized sequentially, following a typical innovation-management process to facilitate the identification of further research opportunities and under-addressed topics that could be relevant to tackle. The paper contributes to the innovation literature by providing a firm-centered perspective on the strategic, organizational, and managerial preconditions and dynamics needed to enable and enhance collaboration with users.

The phenomenon of embedded lead userness has gained considerable attention in the past years. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and embedded lead userness when mediated by creative bootlegging. After analysing the data collected from 554 employees in 41 Italian and Croatian firms, our study unveils that entrepreneurial self-efficacy exerts a positive impact on embedded lead userness when mediated by creative bootlegging. Consistent with research on identity work, these results suggest that employees who show self-motivation and conviction in entrepreneurial activities tend to commit to unofficial innovation projects, which in turn, makes them act as lead users of the products and services. The study’s contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

Prior research indicated that mindfulness has the potential to enhance individuals’ functioning in many ways. However, its relationship with creativity elicited contrasting results, remaining unresolved, and with a lack of clear understanding of its underlying processes. In this paper, we examine how two creative methods of solving open-ended problems – conceptual and experimental – as contrasting processes are acting in the relationship between mindfulness and creativity. We test our research model in three studies: two field studies (crowdwork Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, and employees from Italian and Croatian SMEs), and an experiment conducted at an EU-based university. The results of three studies converge in indicating that high mindfulness contributes to higher levels of conceptual creative method which, in turn, stimulates high creativity. However, mindfulness does not demonstrate the same effects on participants using the experimental creative method, and thereby creativity. Contributions and implications for the study of mindfulness and creativity are discussed.