The impact of healthcare 4.0 technologies on healthcare supply chain performance: Extending the organizational information processing theory

Increasing supply chain performance in an uncertain environment is a challenge for every industry, predominantly, healthcare sector. To address such issues, there is an urgent need for healthcare organizations like hospitals to build new capabilities. We suggest using organizational information processing theory (OIPT) as theoretical foundation for developing research model that investigates how healthcare 4.0 technologies (big data analytics, artificial intelligence and blockchain) enhance hospital supply chain processes and thereby the performance. According to our analysis of survey data from around 255 hospital managers in Indian hospitals, the three hospital supply chain processes, viz., operations, innovations, and risk management, and the supply chain performance are significantly impacted by these healthcare 4.0 technologies. Additionally, hospital supply chain operations and innovations partially mediate the association between healthcare 4.0 technologies and performance. We also found, the interaction between healthcare 4.0 technologies and hospital supply chain operations is moderated by type of healthcare organizations (private, and public hospitals). In addition to extending and validating the OIPT in context of digital hospital supply chains, these findings offer healthcare professionals empirical evidence to further maximize the benefits of healthcare 4.0 technologies for sustained hospital supply chain performance and integrate digital supply management into health system development.