Reaping the benefits of digital transformation through Public-Private Partnership: A service ecosystem view applied to healthcare

The ongoing digital transformation ushers unprecedented challenges for publicly owned healthcare organizations. Collaborative governance models, such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), advance their readiness to address such challenges, paving the way for the establishment of a viable service ecosystem. However, little is known about how PPPs enhance the publicly owned healthcare organizations’ ability to thrive amidst the digital transformation. The article investigates this issue, drawing on the exploratory case of “Lab@AOR”, a PPP established between Loccioni and the University Hospital of Marche (Italy) which focused on the robotization of a critical component of healthcare services’ delivery. Three ingredients have been found to nurture the PPP’s cohesiveness and success: (1) the alignment between the public partner’s needs and the private partner’s competences, (2) knowledge contamination, and (3) the adoption of patient-centeredness as the inspiring principle of the collaboration. The PPP represents an initial step of the transition towards a service ecosystem, entailing a fully-fledged partners’ integration for value co-generation.