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In the current dynamic context, organisations have to focus their management expertise on finding effective ways to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Investment in information technology (IT) is often perceived as a solution to successful business strategies. However, research and practice have shown that a considerable percentage of IT systems have failed to sustain any competitive advantage because managers have been focused on the IT infrastructure, leaving in the background its integration in the strategy of the company. One of the most common barriers to the effective use of technologies consists of the technology assimilation capability of its potential users. This research responds to the need for investigating the mediating role that such capabilities may have in the relationship between IT assimilation and firm performance. To achieve its aim, this study investigates how IT assimilation can encourage potential and realised absorptive capacity and how these can, in turn, facilitate organisational agility and organisational performance. A research model was developed and tested using a sample of 110 Spanish firms that employed more than 100 individuals and also made use of Editran tool, a platform for communications over data networks and the Internet. The data collected was analysed using a PLS approach. Our results suggest that IT assimilation support the development of both potential and realised absorptive capacities within the firm and this, in turn, have a positive effect on organisational agility. Thus, potential and realised absorptive capacities mediate the influence of IT assimilation on organisational agility. Furthermore, organisational agility has an effect on firm performance. The findings highlight the critical role of IT assimilation in improving firm performance through complementary relationships with absorptive capacity and organisational agility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to enhance their effectiveness, public health institutions are making a great effort to develop online health care services targeted to all citizens. This paper considers user e-skills as the antecedents of online health care services success. This skills are indispensable to ensure that non-ICT sectors, as well as society as a whole, draws the full benefits from advances in the ICT sector, especially through productivity gains and better social integration. The main focus of this paper is to link e-skills to e-loyalty through the Seddon's information system success model. To achieve this goal, an integrated model is developed and tested by using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach in a sample of 256 healthcare end users. The results obtained suggest that e-skills dimensions (i.e. self-efficacy and innovativeness) are antecedents of perceptual dimensions of individual benefits (i.e., perceived usefulness and satisfaction) and of organizational impact dimensions (i.e. eLoyalty), as Seddon' model suggests. Consistent with prior studies, satisfaction had strong effects on eLoyalty. Thus, healthcare providers must continuously work at obtain satisfied users to encourage their continuing using of online services. In order to develop patient satisfaction, our results support that perceived usefulness plays a major role in creating a pleasant environment to facilitate the utilization of health technology services. Hence, it is very important to work to get the highest perception of usefulness in users by enhancing their e-skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to enhance their effectiveness, public health institutions are making a great effort to develop online health care services targeted to all citizens. The initial acceptance of these services by patients is important but their success depends on its continued use, that is, on patients' electronic loyalty (eLoyalty). In this research, an integrated model combining the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Seddon's Model is developed to test online health care services success from a sample of 256 healthcare end users. The results obtained suggest that quality perception dimensions (i.e. information quality and system quality) are antecedents of perceptual dimensions of individual benefits (i.e., perceived usefulness and satisfaction) and of organizational impact dimensions (i.e. eLoyalty). Finally, the implications of the findings are discussed and useful insights to build patients' eLoyalty are provided [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Spanish healthcare system has undergone important changes, particularly with respect to the development of new hospital services. Today, more than ever, the factors that define the nature and structured of the Spanish healthcare environment (e.g. demand, costs, system deregulation) are undergoing rapid change thus obliging hospital administrators to develop and implement flexible and adaptive strategies in order to survive in an increasingly challenging environment facing hospital management. This work examines how the existence of some learning practices is linked to knowledge transfer and how this component is linked to relational capital. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 54 doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 Hospital-in-the-Home Units. In an applied sense, the findings provide homecare practitioners with identifiable factors, which enable two learning models (conceptual and operational) and address the relevant issues by changing strategies at both the individual and organisational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]