Healthcare 3D Printing Service Innovation: Resources and Capabilities for Value Co-Creation

Abstract

Healthcare 3D printing (3DP) is in nascent stage and some service providers are facilitating its adoption across hospitals in the world. There is limited research on healthcare 3DP services, the business models of such service providers, the value they provide to the surgeons and the hospitals and the co-creation process needed to deliver such service innovation. The objective of this research is to identify the value proposition, value creation, value capture and value provided to users by the healthcare 3DP service providers and to identify the resources and capabilities needed by the healthcare 3DP service providers and the clinical team to co-create value. Interviews are conducted with seven healthcare 3DP service providers, three surgeons, and a healthcare 3DP design expert along with secondary data collected from the service providers to answer the research questions. The results show that healthcare 3DP service providers utilise their exploitative capabilities while the surgeons used both explorative and exploitative capabilities to engage in the co-creation process and to create perceived value for patients. The findings also show that integrated healthcare 3DP service providers by providing knowledge, expertise, insights and training to the surgical teams are better suited to improve the absorptive capacity of hospitals to adopt 3D Printing than specialised implant developers.