ABSTRACT
An essential feature of human progress is the use of different modes of learning so agents acquire the appropriate behaviour to survive in a changing environment. Learning may result from agents who discover new knowledge on their own (individual learning), or imitate the behaviour of others (social learning). Social learning is less costly than discovery, but imitation might yield no benefit. Early theoretical models of a population consisting of purely individual and purely social learners found that both types are present in an evolutionary equilibrium. However, the presence of social learners did not provide any improvement to the average population fitness. Subsequent research showed that the presence of social learners could improve the average population fitness, provided that the pure characterisation of the agents' learning is relaxed. We return to the pure conceptualisation of agents to challenge an assumption in the early work: agents were guaranteed enough resources to perform their desired learning. We show that, if the resources an agent receives are uncertain, this turns social learning into a source of fitness improvement at the population level. Perhaps counter-intuitively, uncertain provision of resources prompts an increase in the proportion of the population that pursues the costlier individual learning activity in equilibrium.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Digital innovation, introduced across many industries, is a strong force of transformation. Some industries have seen faster transformation, whereas the health care sector only recently came into focus. A context where digital corporations move into health care, payers strive to keep rising costs at bay, and longer-living patients desire continuously improved quality of care points to a digital and value-based transformation with drastic implications for the health care sector. OBJECTIVE: We tried to operationalize the discussion within the health care sector around digital and disruptive innovation to identify what type of technological enablers, business models, and value networks seem to be emerging from different groups of innovators with respect to their digital transformational efforts. METHODS: From the Forbes 2000 and CBinsights databases, we identified 100 leading technology, life science, and start-up companies active in the health care sector. Further analysis identified projects from these companies within a digital context that were subsequently evaluated using the following criteria: delivery of patient value, presence of a comprehensive and distinctive underlying business model, solutions provided, and customer needs addressed. RESULTS: Our methodological approach recorded more than 400 projects and collaborations. We identified patterns that show established corporations rely more on incremental innovation that supports their current business models, while start-ups engage their flexibility to explore new market segments with notable transformations of established business models. Thereby, start-ups offer higher promises of disruptive innovation. Additionally, start-ups offer more diversified value propositions addressing broader areas of the health care sector. CONCLUSIONS: Digital transformation is an opportunity to accelerate health care performance by lowering cost and improving quality of care. At an economic scale, business models can be strengthened and disruptive innovation models enabled. Corporations should look for collaborations with start-up companies to keep investment costs at bay and off the balance sheet. At the same time, the regulatory knowledge of established corporations might help start-ups to kick off digital disruption in the health care sector.
