The UN Sustainable Development Goals have firmly stressed the need to promote healthy lives and well-being for all the populations (UN General Assembly, 2015). In this context, healthcare organizations such as hospital and local health authorities have the responsibilities to guide the shift through sustainability including a more equitable provision of care and prevention to reduce costs of undue treatments, the reach of a more efficient system, and the reduction of the environmental impact of their structures. Looking at the limited case-studies reported in the literature, the SD projects implemented by HCOs are deeply affected by IC assets. Culture, leadership support and involvement of employees, time, dedicated competences through organizational structures, as well as the continuous involvement of stakeholders are considered as relevant to translate strategical SD goals in practical initiatives. Moreover, contextual factors related to investment in ICT and advanced technologies and on clinical possibilities have been shown to improve the performance of such initiatives. However, green intellectual capital in healthcare organizations have been scarcely studied. Current research is mainly characterized by studies regarding the firms’ sector testing the relation between IC and competitive advantage. From the strategical point of view, some articles have theorized the relevance of IC for strategy implementation, however empirical research on the topic is lacking. Thus, the present paper aims at analyzing the relevance of green intellectual capital in a sample of Italian Healthcare organizations for the implementation of a sustainable strategy in line with the actual context pushing for sustainability. The paper is structured as follows: the first section outlines the Italian Healthcare context in which IC has been recognized by healthcare authorities as relevant for the sustainability of the system; section two provides a literature review of current studies on the relation between green IC and sustainable development, while section three looks at green intellectual capital in healthcare organizations. Finally, some conclusions are presented.
Community pharmacies facing environmental changes: a knowledge management perspective
HEIDARI, Mahdi;VAGNONI, Emidia
2016
Abstract
The UN Sustainable Development Goals have firmly stressed the need to promote healthy lives and well-being for all the populations (UN General Assembly, 2015). In this context, healthcare organizations such as hospital and local health authorities have the responsibilities to guide the shift through sustainability including a more equitable provision of care and prevention to reduce costs of undue treatments, the reach of a more efficient system, and the reduction of the environmental impact of their structures. Looking at the limited case-studies reported in the literature, the SD projects implemented by HCOs are deeply affected by IC assets. Culture, leadership support and involvement of employees, time, dedicated competences through organizational structures, as well as the continuous involvement of stakeholders are considered as relevant to translate strategical SD goals in practical initiatives. Moreover, contextual factors related to investment in ICT and advanced technologies and on clinical possibilities have been shown to improve the performance of such initiatives. However, green intellectual capital in healthcare organizations have been scarcely studied. Current research is mainly characterized by studies regarding the firms’ sector testing the relation between IC and competitive advantage. From the strategical point of view, some articles have theorized the relevance of IC for strategy implementation, however empirical research on the topic is lacking. Thus, the present paper aims at analyzing the relevance of green intellectual capital in a sample of Italian Healthcare organizations for the implementation of a sustainable strategy in line with the actual context pushing for sustainability. The paper is structured as follows: the first section outlines the Italian Healthcare context in which IC has been recognized by healthcare authorities as relevant for the sustainability of the system; section two provides a literature review of current studies on the relation between green IC and sustainable development, while section three looks at green intellectual capital in healthcare organizations. Finally, some conclusions are presented.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
