Market‐focused flexibility and innovative performance in public healthcare: Evidence from India

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Pradeep Kumar
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2809

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Market-focused flexibility and innovative performance in

public healthcare: Evidence from India

Pradeep Kumar

Marketing (School of Business), University of

Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun,

India

Correspondence

Pradeep Kumar, Marketing (School of

Business), University of Petroleum and Energy

Studies, Dehradun, India.

Email: pradeep.kumar@ddn.upes.ac.in

The healthcare sector is increasingly facing changing demand patterns and escalating

pressures for innovative services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Market-focused

flexibility refers to the capabilities of adaptation and facilitating the innovative per-

formance of the firm. Accepting the overall role of innovation in COVID-19 response,

this study aims to explore how public healthcare organizations exhibit market-

focused flexibility to introduce new and innovative services. This study conducts an

exploratory case study in a national-level healthcare firm in India. This study iden-

tifies four specific dimensions of market-focused flexibility that healthcare firms exe-

cute to deliver customized services. The study's findings contribute to an integrative

framework of market-focused flexibility and innovative performance in public

healthcare. The mechanisms of market-focused flexibility are unearthed and

explained how the different facets influence innovative services in various manners.

The implications to theory and practices are discussed, and future research avenues

are sketched.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19, innovative performance, market-focused flexibility, public healthcare, uncertainty

1|INTRODUCTION

In the healthcare sector, the prevalence of uncertain demands is con-

sidered a critical and ongoing issue. Turbulence and disorders in the

healthcare delivery environment attenuate and incapacitate services

management. Under emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, these

challenges are further exacerbated in India's public healthcare systems

due to a lack of medical infrastructure, limited capacity, and resources

(Fletcher-Brown et al., 2018; WHO, 2020). Confronting uncertainties

of COVID-19 in a resource-constrained healthcare setting need to

develop the capabilities of adaptation and a quick response mecha-

nism (Koffman et al., 2020; Kringos et al., 2020). Several reports indi-

cate that innovation is essential for responsiveness to and recovery

from medical emergencies like COVID-19 (Delloitte, 2020;

WHO, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic is a harsh reminder that flexi-

bility and adaptability are paramount for the survival of public

healthcare systems (Park et al., 2021). The public healthcare organiza-

tions seek meaningful engagement from the markets and enable an

effective response under the uncertainties. Therefore, public

healthcare organizations need a market-focused perspective while

executing flexible capabilities. This notion refers to market-focused

flexibility, representing the firm's ability to quickly reconfigure new

and innovative services for value creation (Johnson, Lee, Saini,

et al., 2003). Given that the healthcare firm's success and survival

depend on creating new services, the extant literature does not clarify

the underlying dynamics of market-focused flexibility and its crucial

role in developing new and innovative services. This study aims to

assess how public healthcare firms exhibit market-focused flexibility

and affects innovative performance.

Moreover, researchers posit that flexibility is a multi-faceted phe-

nomenon that generates responsiveness in several divergent ways

(Brozovic et al., 2016; Fiorotto et al., 2018). Scholars also assert that

flexibility is not accumulative and different types of flexibilities are

required to cope with different types of uncertainties (Dortland

et al., 2014; Gronroos & Gummerus, 2014; Skålén et al., 2015). The

COVID-19 pandemic has created several tensions and exerted high

pressure on the public healthcare systems. The public healthcare orga-

nization must maintain constant vigilance and enhance resources to

Received: 29 October 2020 Revised: 1 December 2021 Accepted: 22 December 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2809

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2809. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of15

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2809