Value creation potential of individual and organizational memory in health care services

This study focuses on social capital and knowledge storage, and specifically how these factors influence service performance in the healthcare industry. Accordingly, this study analyzes the impacts of personal relationships, individual memory, and organizational memory on hospital service performance. An empirical model is developed to explore the links among contextual variables. To clarify the relational influences of these variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine the fit of the hypothesized model and related hypotheses. By analyzing data from a survey of 610 participants from 22 medical centers in Taiwan, the empirical results show that knowledge storage (that is, individual memory and organizational memory) is a fully mediating factor between personal relationships and hospital service performance. Moreover, the results also show that personal relationships may facilitate knowledge storage, in turn affecting service performance. Findings and their implications are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.