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In the case of Gleevec described previously, consumers also used the online com-
munities to recruit people to participate in clinical trials in ways that bypass the
“lethal lag time.” These and other such examples indicate consumer participation in
health care can range from sharing knowledge (e.g., about providers' service quality
and pricing, about specific diseases and treatments, etc.) to creating new knowl-
edge (e.g., research-oriented disease databases, clinical trial experiences, etc.). Such
trends in consumer participation have the potential to radically change the medical
market place and the very way in which healthcare organization create value for
consumers. Organizations able to incorporate and support such consumer partici-
pation as part of their service infrastructures would likely succeed in creating truly
value-driven healthcare organizations (Liu & Yuh - Yun Lin, 2007).
The discussion so far indicates that healthcare organizations need to adopt a
knowledge management perspective in order to understand IT-enabled consumer
participation in service innovation and knowledge creation in health care and to
adopt appropriate set of support strategies and practices (Fottler, Ford, Roberts, &
Ford, 2000). We take the initial step toward this by presenting a theoretical frame-
work that draws on contemporary knowledge management theories to explain how
HIT - specifically, online health communities and health websites - can enable
consumer-driven service innovation in health care. We start by describing the
knowledge management perspectives relevant in this context.
8.5 Knowledge Management Perspectives
Despite all the evidence regarding consumers-driven service innovation in health
care, there hasn't been much theoretical effort expended to understand this phe-
nomenon or to identify the factors that may facilitate such participation. Two related
research streams in the area of knowledge management offer the foundation to
develop such a theoretical understanding of consumer participation in health care.
The first relates to the two modes of knowledge management while the second
offers a dynamic theory of knowledge creation. We now describe these knowledge
management research areas in more detail and then apply them to the context of
consumer participation in service innovation in health care.
8.5.1 Repository and Network Models of Knowledge
Management
Two primary models of knowledge management have been identified in the liter-
ature: the
repository model
and the
network model
(Alavi, 2000; Fahey & Prusak,
1998; Hansen, Nohira, & Tierney, 1999). The former relates to static knowledge
or knowledge that resides in inanimate objects (databases, reports, etc.) while the
latter relates to knowledge that resides in human beings and is accessible through
interactions.
While much of the early research on knowledge management adopted the
repository model perspective and focused on managing knowledge embedded in
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