Nexus among artificial intelligence implementation, healthcare social innovation, and green image of hospitals’ operations management in Egypt

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to decipher and investigate the relationship between artificial intelligence implementation (AII), healthcare social innovation (HSI) and hospitals’ green image (HGI) in an Egyptian emerging market. An interdisciplinary research with a mixed-methods approach was conducted to add bricks, conceptually and empirically, that fill a literature gap between using this evolving AI-technology and sustaining socially-innovative medical operations and supply-chain management (OSCM) practices in a dynamic green healthcare industry. After scanning the relevant transdisciplinary literature, the authors developed and tested a conceptual model through analysing data collected from 116 quantitative questionnaires answered by healthcare managers/leaders in 46 Egyptian hospitals. After applying structural equation modeling using SmartPLS-v4, the results illustrated that AII has a positive significant impact on HSI, which has a positive significant influence on HGI. Furthermore, AII-HGI relationship can be fully-mediated significantly by HSI, which confirms the significant role of AI-powered technology in reinforcing socially-innovative medical OSCM processes to sustain an environmental-friendly image of Egyptian hospitals. Based on these quantitative findings and qualitative fruitful interviews with healthcare leaders and technology experts, this article used a comprehensive approach to contribute to AI-enhanced healthcare OSCM literature in interdependent ways. It encapsulated the benefits and obstacles of using AI-driven socially-innovative green medical OSCM practices in emerging healthcare markets similar to Egypt. Moreover, it proposed a balanced scorecard map for communicating and evaluating socially-responsible ecofriendly OSCM strategy of AI-powered hospitals. As for the practical implications, the medical operations and supply-chain managers of similar emerging healthcare markets can benefit from the exemplars highlighted throughout this paper on how their hospitals can invest in AI-based healthcare processes/services, which can provide creative and scientific solutions for social, educational, environmental and economic problems within their countries. Thus, reflecting on the social implications, these digitally-transformed hospitals can contribute innovatively to the social wellbeing of their communities and promote their green image among their supply-chain stakeholders.