Strategic change in the health sector: a literature review and future challenges
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN: 0953-4814
Article publication date: 13 April 2023
Issue publication date: 10 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The health sector is increasingly dynamic and complex, in which (strategic) change has become a constant in the sector's adaptation to different challenges. This study aims to meet the need to understand which trends in the literature on strategic change in the health sector and which elements comprise it.
Design/methodology/approach
To advance research in this area, the authors systematically review 285 articles collected from the Scopus database. The authors conducted a bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer software by applying the bibliographic matching method to understand how these articles were grouped and thus characterise the literature trends.
Findings
Through a systematic literature review (SLR), this study analyses the various lenses of literature on strategic change in the context of the health sector, classifying and conceptually mapping existing research into four thematic groups: key factors in strategic change, theories and models underlying strategic change, decentralisation in strategic change and the challenges to strategic change in this millennium.
Research limitations/implications
The trends in the literature on strategic change in the health sector explore strategic change from different perspectives. Key features in strategic change suffered reciprocal influence from the theories/models of strategic change and decentralisation of health care so that the health sector could define strategies to respond to the challenges it faced.
Originality/value
The health sector has been in great prominence worldwide, specifically due to the recent events that have occurred on a planetary scale. Therefore, a systematic review is essential to help understand the strategic changes that have occurred in the health sector and their impact. The authors did not find any SLR that focuses on global strategic changes in the health sector, so this study will fill this gap, systematising the main topics on strategic change in the health sector. The authors also suggest an integrative research framework and a future research agenda.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., under the project “UIDB/04630/2020”.
Citation
Pereira, S.A.F., Ferreira, J.J., Rammal, H.G. and Peris-Ortiz, M. (2023), "Strategic change in the health sector: a literature review and future challenges", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 346-388. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-05-2022-0144
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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