Hsin Hsin Chang
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Title: Social capital, transaction cost, and co-creating it value on inter-organizational electronic medical records exchange
Biography
Biography: Hsin Hsin Chang
Abstract
This study adopts social capital theory (SCT) and transaction cost theory (TCT) to explore the feasibility of an inter-organizational cross-hospital electronic medical records (EMR) exchange system, and the factors that affect its adoption. The concept of value co-creation is also used to assess such a system, and its influence on the performance of participating medical institutes. This work has the following four objectives: (1) construct a model using SCT and TCT to investigate whether performance improvements can be achieved with the use of an inter-organizational EMR system, (2) examine whether the use of SCT (social interaction ties, norm of reciprocity, and shared values) could enhance medical institutes’ investments in relation-specific assets, and subsequently increase the value co-created with the inter-organizational EMR system, (3) examine whether the use of TCT (asset specificity and uncertainty) could increase internal costs when adopting cross-hospital EMR exchanges, and further decrease co-creating IT value, and (4) examine whether the value co-created when using an inter-organizational EMR system could enhance the performance of participation in medical institutes. This research collected 330 valid paper-based questionnaires from the medical staff of various institutes. The results showed that social interaction ties and shared vision positively affected medical institutes’ willingness to adopt the EMR exchange system, while asset specificity and uncertainty increased the related transaction costs. With a greater willingness to invest in relation-specific assets and to meet the related transaction costs, this behavior lead to an increase in medical IT value , as well as better results for the related medical institutes, medical staff, and patients. Therefore, this study suggests that such institutes encourage their medical staff to participate in seminars or reunions in order to develop their professional and social networks, and set up clear schedules and desire for expected effects when introducing the cross-hospital EMR exchange system.