Legitimizing Digital Technologies in Open Innovation Ecosystems: Overcoming Adoption Barriers in Healthcare

Highly regulated industries such as healthcare can reap significant benefits from new digital technologies. However, due to institutional constraints, adopting such technologies is a slow and difficult process. Technology providers need to legitimize their underlying technologies to the customers and other stakeholders in the field. Drawing on multiple case studies in the healthcare industry, this article demonstrates how technology providers deploy two legitimizing practices: solution selling and issue selling. These activities lead to the emergence of open innovation ecosystems that help technology providers overcome adoption barriers.