Kirsti Askedal

• Askedal, Kirsti; Hausvik, Geir Inge & Vesterfjell, Arve (2025). Accelerating Digital Service Innovation in a Post-COVID Era: Key Recommendations for Healthcare Managers. Information Systems Journal. ISSN 1350-1917. 35(6), p. 1565–1581. doi: 10.1111/isj.12596. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Healthcare organisations stand at a critical juncture, facing pressing challenges such as constrained budgets, growing demands, workforce shortages and heightened public expectations. Now, more than ever, there is a dire need for innovative solutions. Digital service innovation holds immense promise, offering the potential to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, enhance service quality and elevate patient experiences. However, the adoption of these innovations has been slow. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst, dramatically accelerating the implementation of digital innovations in healthcare organisations. This rapid transformation was a necessary response to unprecedented conditions. However, there are concerns that the momentum gained during the pandemic is waning, with innovation rates slipping back to pre-pandemic levels. This paper argues that we must harness the lessons learned from the pandemic to sustain and increase the pace of innovation, addressing healthcare organisations' urgent challenges. It aims to provide practical insights for healthcare managers at various organisational levels, drawing from a compelling case study of digital service innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic at a Norwegian hospital. Here, practitioners will find six actionable recommendations designed to inspire and empower them to drive innovation in a post-pandemic era. By embracing these insights, healthcare managers can lead their organisations toward a more resilient, efficient and patient-centric future. Now is the time to build on the strides made during the pandemic and transform the healthcare landscape for the better.

• Hausvik, Geir Inge & Askedal, Kirsti (2023). Digital Innovation of Healthcare Services in Times of Crisis and Beyond. In Bui, Tung X. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 56thAnnual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. HICSS Conference Office. ISSN 9780998133164. p. 1828–1837. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide state of emergency, triggering extensive digital innovation within healthcare institutions to recover from the disrupted services caused by the pandemic. The purpose of this research is to explore the phenomena of digital innovation during these extraordinary conditions and to understand the impacts during the pandemic and beyond. To do so, we conducted a systematic literature review by analyzing 130 research articles across research disciplines that were published during the pandemic. We found that the innovation processes were highly iterative and focused on rapid diffusion to address the urgent need for stabilizing and recovering disrupted services. This short-term perspective may result in adverse impacts beyond the pandemic, such as increased inequity. Moreover, we found that some environmental factors were highly adaptive to the pandemic, whereas others were less so. We suggest that organizations should focus on the latter when building resilience to future pandemics.

• Askedal, Kirsti (2019). Understanding the complexity of benefits management in an interorganizational eHealth effort. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). ISSN 1530-1605. p. 3990–3999. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2019.484. Full text in Research Archive
• Askedal, Kirsti; Flak, Leif Skiftenes & Aanestad, Margunn (2019). Five Challenges for Benefits Management in Complex Digitalisation Efforts – and a Research Agenda to Address Current Shortcomings. Electronic Journal of e-Government (EJEG). 17(2), p. 64–78. doi: 10.34190/EJEG.17.2.001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Over the past decades a number of benefits realisation (BR) frameworks have been developed. The benefits management model (BMM) is considered to be the most widely adopted and is often seen as a reference for good practice in digitalisation efforts in single organisations. However, this literature provides little support for complex, inter‑organisational efforts. This is problematic, considering that digitalisation increasingly involves multiple organisations. To explore this gap, we studied the phenomenon in a Norwegian inter‑organisational eHealth effort. Based on a qualitative study involving 50 interviews, observations and document analyses, we identify five distinct challenges and suggest a research agenda with five propositions for benefits management in complex digitalisation settings that can be further explored and tested by other researchers. The challenges and propositions constitute novel insights into a poorly understood area and contain implications and directions that can benefit both researchers and practitioners working in similar contexts.

• Askedal, Kirsti & Flak, Leif Skiftenes (2017). Stakeholder Contradictions in Early Stages of eHealth Efforts. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). ISSN 1530-1605. p. 3431–3440. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2017.415. Full text in Research Archive
• Askedal, Kirsti; Flak, Leif Skiftenes & Abildsnes, Eirik (2017). Reviewing Effects of ICT in Primary Healthcare Services: A Public Value Perspective. In Strong, Diane & Gogan, Janis (Ed.), The 23rd Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 9780996683142. Full text in Research Archive
• Askedal, Kirsti; Flak, Leif Skiftenes; Solli-Sæther, Hans & Straub, Detmar W. (2017). Organizational learning to leverage benefits realization management; evidence from a municipal eHealth effort. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). ISSN 0302-9743. 10428 LNCS, p. 142–153. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-64677-0_12. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  While work with benefits realization requires organizational learning to be effective, emphasis on organizational learning is hard to find in benefits realization studies. To remedy this research gap, we study how organizational learning theory can contribute to improve benefits realization processes. A qualitative approach was used to gain in depth understanding of benefits realization in an ICT healthcare services project. We found that individual learning is present, but organizational learning has not been given explicit attention neither in the project nor in the literature of benefits realization management. We argue that the individual learning in the project forms an excellent basis for organizational learning, i.e., in the form of organizational structures, routines, and methods for benefits realization.

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• Johnsen, Hege Mari & Askedal, Kirsti (2026). BEHOVSSTYRT POLIKLINIKK: Digital hjemmeoppfølging av ortopediske pasienter ved bruk av digitalt spørreskjema fra CHECKWARE. Full text in Research Archive
• Johnsen, Hege Mari & Askedal, Kirsti (2026). BEHOVSSTYRT POLIKLINIKK: Digital hjemmeoppfølging av ortopediske pasienter ved bruk av digitalt spørreskjema fra CHECKWARE. Full text in Research Archive
• Askedal, Kirsti (2020). Enhancing the Benefits Management Model for Complex eHealth Efforts. Universitetet i Agder. ISSN 9788271179922. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis suggests five ways to improve BM in complex eHealth efforts. First, the concept of BR was defined to clarify the existing conflation of the BR and BM concepts. Second, an extended and enhanced BMM was developed that incorporated the BM context, levels of complexity for both organizational and interorganizational initiatives, and the critical aspects of learning and governance. Third, three propositions concerning learning and governance in BM were suggested based on the new model, which can be used to inform future BM studies and guide empirical work. Fourth, the propositions were further translated into a six-question checklist to stimulate learning from the BM process itself. Finally, I provide suggestions for BM governance in interorganizational ICT efforts aiming to realize societal benefits.

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