Portsmouth Business School

Thesis summary

Over recent years, the private sector of health services in Greece knows rapid growth, supported by investment groups, which enter in the industry dynamically and change radically the landscape, which up to the present time, was charachterised mainly by small or family firms.

The highly competitive and fluid business environment leans on organisations to go through innovations and to exploit business opportunities. Innovation is essential in order to generate long-term stability, growth, shareholder returns and sustainable performance as well as to maximise employee happiness (Cottam et al, 2001; Davis & Moe, 1997; van der Panne et al, 2003). On the other hand, a large number of authors have argued that corporate entrepreneurship focuses on newness, as the primary catalyst for innovation, generating wealth creation by offering new products, developing new processes or expanding into new markets (e.g. Ireland et al, 2003; Amit & Zott, 2001; Hitt & Ireland, 2000; Priem & Butler, 2001).

In addition, service firms should involve users in their service development process to deliver superior value to their customers. Customer orientation is a complementary but critical element in new service development. There are numerous studies in the marketing literature that describe customer orientation as a unique capability of organisations (e.g. Harris, 1996; Slater & Narver, 2000; Appiah-Adu & Singh, 1998; Doyle & Wong, 1998; Kohli & Jaworski, 1990). Especially in knowledge intensive industries such as health care, customer involvement is beneficial to new service development process.

Therefore, a holistic approach is needed in order a firm to strengthen its position, creating, at the same time, satisfied and loyal customers. This research investigates the interactions between innovation and corporate entrepreneurship as well as new service development and customer orientation. It also highlights the differences between entrepreneurial opportunity and new service development opportunity within the health care industry.

This thesis aims to identify and to fill the gaps in the literature with regard to the development of new health services, where customer involvement is necessary and valuable. It will also enhance the existing literature and give another perspective on how health care organisations choose to develop new business ventures in order to deliver new service offerings.