mHealth Business Model Types in Maternal and Baby Care – A Service-Dominant Logic View

The restructuring of the healthcare system as well as new technological innovations are driving the development of mHealth services. The successful introduction of such services to the market offers several challenges, including finding and implementing the right business model. Thus, it is necessary to develop a business model that suits the market environment it is applied in. Taking the lens of service-dominant logic, we conduct a mixed methods approach where we first qualitatively analyzed the business models of 74 entrepreneurial ventures in the context of maternal and baby care with the aid of a developed mHealth business model framework. Based on these results, we conducted a cluster analysis that revealed three distinctive types of mHealth business models. The findings are discussed against service-dominant logic and digital business model literature to contribute to different literature streams. With the aid of our findings, companies offering mHealth services can use our three business model types as a starting point when designing business models. In addition, the mHealth business model framework supports companies in developing, implementing and analyzing mHealth business models.