This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the healthcare systems’ transformations towards sustainability, considering COVID-19 pandemic. The paper aims to forecast changes in the healthcare sector’s greenhouse gas emissions of the EU countries. For gaining that purpose, the authors carried out the study in the following logical sequence. Firstly, the bibliometric analysis was conducted based on 2313 publications indexed by Scopus database. The study sample consists of 1995 publications indexed by the keywords such as healthcare, green, carbon and sustainable; and 318 publications – green, carbon-free, covid, pandemic, coronavirus and health. The fields for search are titles, keywords and abstracts. The search was limited to the subject areas such as Social science; Environmental sciences; Business, Management and Accounting; Economics, Econometrics and Finance. The time framework is 2000-2020. The scientific background analysis stated the strong relationship between implementing green innovation in the healthcare system towards gaining sustainable development goals. The obtained results indicated that the COVID-19 requires the decisive green transformation in the economy. Thus, the forecast of greenhouse gas volume from the healthcare activity (human health and social work activities; human health activities; manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations) until 2030 was conducted. The methodological tool of this research based on the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model. The software EViews 11 was used to provide empirical calculation. This study involved data of the EU countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, Malta, Denmark and Portugal from 1995 to 2019. The base of data is the EU statistical service Eurostat. Based on the obtained results, the authors concluded that there are still disparities in the healthcare sectors of the EU-countries towards sustainability. Therefore, the authors highlighted the necessity to improve the EU countries’ cohesion policy, which would allow decisively and quickly cooperate to find effective solutions towards developing resilience in the healthcare sector due to implementing green strategies. The authors emphasized that this study’s obtained results could be the base for future investigations devoted to effective green solutions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare activity.

Purpose: New technology based firm (NTBF) survival and growth are connected with strategic partnering alliances and open innovation within technology clusters. Strategic partnerships in the biotechnology industry allow new technology based firms to gain a foothold in this high-cost, high-risk industry. In this article, we examine the impact of strategic partnerships and open innovation on the success of new biotechnology firms in Belgium by developing multiple case studies of firms in regional biotechnology clusters. A longitudinal follow up of the Belgian biotech startup ecosystem is presented. We find that, despite their small size and relative immaturity, new biotechnology firms are able to adopt innovative business models by providing R&D and services to larger firms and openly cooperating with them through open innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This is a theory-driven paper with suggested theoretical model and case study research design. Originality/value: Although the literature on strategic partnerships is well developed, the majority of studies focus on large, established firms. There is absence of studies that look at strategic partnerships - and specifically the role of open innovation - in the development of small and innovative biotechnology firms. This article addresses this gap in the literature with a focus on new firms in the biotechnology cluster in Belgium, where there is a growing trend towards technological and market-driven relationships between large and small biotechnology firms. Practical implications: Our conclusion is that the future of new biotechnology firms in Belgium lies in the effective establishment of strategic partnering alliances. In future research, the impacts of open innovation and novel business models warrant further attention

Prior research shows that innovation performance is linked to system, collaboration and networking. There is a growing attention for open innovation. However, the interplay between regional systems of innovation, technology clustering, disruptive business models and open innovation practices is not sufficiently addressed in the global entrepreneurship and technology innovation literature. There is an absence of studies that look at strategic partnerships – and specifically the role of open innovation – in the development of regional technology clusters and novel business models. We observe that biotechnological firms have been engaged in open innovation for a long time by clustering and intensive partnering to innovate with knowledge from inside and outside the firms. In other words, they have been engaging in open innovation. This paper presents a case study of biotechnology clusters in Belgium and Germany. The focus is on the interplay between new biotechnology firms, strategic alliances and open innovation, within a regional system of innovation context. In particular, the article looks at the case-based evidence from biotechnology-related industrial or regional economic cluster policies.

Digitisation of business processes has attracted practitioner attention across a wide range of industries as it enables enterprises to better manage their processes and improve results. The rate of digitisation has grown over the last decade and has become essential for enterprises to handle unforeseen disruptions and promote better management of resources. The COVID-19 pandemic is one example of a recent major disruption that caught enterprises off-guard and had a major impact on their value chains. The adoption of digitisation of business processes has significantly sped up to improve enterprise and their value chain resilience and enable enterprises to survive and potentially thrive in today’s uncertain environment. Through this movement, innovative companies have embraced idea management to develop new business models and achieve competitive advantage. One of the major digital tools that support enterprises in their idea management efforts is web-based idea management systems. This study aims to show how enterprises can manage the rewards of platforms, such as web-based idea management systems, to achieve a first-in-class quality and quantity of ideas sourced from the stakeholders involved in these platform-based ecosystems. To reach this aim, a global survey study was conducted involving over 400 responses from enterprises that use web-based idea management systems and consequent results were analysed. The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on the results of enterprises is a well-researched area. To further verify the results, the authors have conducted ten expert interviews and a qualitative analysis of a data set sourced from a database that contained 129 company entries that utilise web-based idea management systems and was available for this research that was conducted over a two-year period. Results strongly indicate that mixed and financial reward type tasks result in a higher quantity of ideas created, however, higher idea quality—i.e., ideas selected—is higher for financial reward tasks. The research highlights that there could be differences between different web-based idea management systems application groups.