Mobile technology to give a resource-based knowledge management advantage to community health nurses in an emerging economies context

Abstract

Purpose Knowledge is a key success factor in achieving competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to examine how mobile health technology facilitates knowledge management (KM) practices to enhance a public health service in an emerging economies context. Specifically, the acceptance of a knowledge-resource application by community health workers (CHWs) to deliver breast cancer health care in India, where resources are depleted, is explored. Design/methodology/approach Fieldwork activity conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with frontline CHWs, which were analysed using an interpretive inductive approach. Findings The application generates knowledge as a resource that signals quality health care and yields a positive reputation for the public health service. The CHW’s acceptance of technology enables knowledge generation and knowledge capture. The design facilitates knowledge codification and knowledge transfer of breast cancer information to standardise quality patient care. Practical implications KM insights are provided for the implementation of mobile health technology for frontline health-care professionals in an emerging economies context. The knowledge-resource application can deliver breast cancer care, in localised areas with the potential for wider contexts. The outcomes are valuable for policymakers, health service managers and KM practitioners in an emerging economies context. Social implications The legacy of the mobile heath technology is the normalisation of breast cancer discourse and the technical up-skilling of CHWs. Originality/value First, this paper contributes three propositions to KM scholarship, in a public health care, emerging economies context. Second, via an interdisciplinary theoretical lens (signalling theory and technology acceptance model), this paper offers a novel conceptualisation to illustrate how a knowledge-resource application can shape an organisation’s KM to form a resource-based competitive advantage.

Mobile phone use and the welfare of community health nurses in Ghana: An analysis of unintended costs

“…Similarly, Hampshire et al (2017) used qualitative approach to examine health-workers’ mobile phone practices and associated political-moral economies of care in Ghana and Malawi. In addition, Fletcher-Brown et al (2020) used this approach to examine the acceptance of a knowledge-resource application by community health workers (CHWs) to deliver breast cancer healthcare in India. In our study, nine (9) FGDs, three (3) in each region, were conducted with CHNs, reflecting the different experiences in urban, peri -urban and rural areas across the regions.…”

Guest editorial

“…Out of the six empirical papers, four papers focus on the issues related to KM at an individual level, one at the organizational level and one at the intersection of organization and community. Among those at an individual level, the Fletcher-Brown et al (2021) paper focuses on the frontline health workers in an Indian context. The Turulja et al (2021) paper focuses on health-care providers at the primary health care centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.…”

“…Depiction of diverse aspects of KM in the health-care domain types of technologiesm-Health, Web 2.0, messaging and text mining. The papers also include a range of different methodologies applied, from qualitative(Fletcher-Brown et al, 2021;Tripathi et al, 2021: Turulja et al, 2021 to quantitative…”

Knowledge management in health care: an integrative and result-driven clinical staff management model

“…In fact, the adoption of digital technologies can improve the performance of main health-care business processes and increase efficiency by allowing the delivery of better quality and reduced response times (Laurenza et al , 2018). A recent study with frontline community health workers in India (Fletcher-Brown et al , 2020) found that KM plays a facilitating role in mobile-health in an emerging economies context. KM is also found to have a decisive role in IoT-driven mobile-health, helping health organizations to identify business requirements and address privacy and security issues (Lokshina and Lanting, 2019).…”