Finding the hospital-in-the-home units' innovativeness

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of an organization's unlearning context and information systems (IS) capabilities on the organization's ability to challenge basic beliefs and to implement processes that are explicitly or tacitly helpful in the reception of new ideas (absorptive capacity). The authors also seek to examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and the existence and enhancement of innovativeness.Design methodology approach - These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 54 doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 hospital-in-the-home units (HHU) in Spain.Findings - The results show that absorptive capacity is an important dynamic determinant for developing a HHU's innovativeness. Moreover, this relationship is best explained with two related constructs. Firstly, the HHU's unlearning context plays a key role in managing the tension between potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity. Secondly, the results also shed light on a tangible means for health managers to enhance their units' innovativeness (quality of service) through IS capabilities.Research limitations implications - The cross-sectional design does not allow observation of the short- and long-term impact of absorptive capacity on the unlearning context, information systems capability and HHU's innovativeness. Although the model presented here proposes sequenced relationships between absorptive capacities (PACAP and RACAP), the unlearning context and IS capability, the authors measure all these constructs at one point in time.Practical implications - This sequential model presented in this paper provides practical steps for managers interested in organizational structures that support organizational innovativeness.Originality value - The contribution of unlearning context is related to its ability to prepare the ground for innovation processes.