Constitutive pathway of an innovative health-tech ecosystem: the HealthwareGroup case study

Technology can enhance human abilities and limit human error. In a Service-Dominant (S-D) logic framework, technology is an operant resource that evolves when communicated and shared within the service ecosystem. A dense service ecosystem is built around healthcare 4.0 applications, where a rising demand and value co-creation meet actors’ interests. This context connects service provision and resource integration activities aimed at collective well-being. In this scenario, we present a single-case study on the Healthware Group as excellence in e-Health. We discuss the case within an S-D logic framework. Healthware Group owes its leading position to its ability to grow from a micro (managerial) to a meso-level of aggregation, connecting different actors in the health-tech ecosystem context. Its role as a connector of micro and meso-level actors contributes to defining a service ecosystem with challenging value propositions focusing on the individual well-being as a partial function of collective well-being. Healthware’s organizational growth from a micro-level software supplier to a meso-level actor affects the health-tech ecosystem. Its meso actions increasingly promote interaction networks among actors and enable new service exchange contexts. We provided a practical example of the S-D logic framework applied to healthcare. The case study analyzed shows the importance of a dense and distributed ecosystem to boost technological innovation.