Joanna Burzec
Vrije University, Amsterdam
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Oral Health Dent Manag
Adoption of innovation is a challenge in many industries and the dental market is a unique example of this phenomenon. The market researches and the strategic models created in this study help to improve the understanding of the specifics of the Digital Impression innovation acceptance and explain the inhibitors and promoters standing behind (relatively slow) adoption of DI all over the world, presenting also the phenomenon of the Italian dental market. The first part of the researches aims to discover the nature of innovation adoption generally, its types, predictors and the specifities of industrial goods acceptance. Providing a lot of models and methods, the theories emphasize the challenges and complexity connected to the technological innovation adoption. It includes e.g.: Typology of countries according to their adoption, innovation and cooperation level; Theoretical framework for the 27 predictors of adoption organized by the contextual levels; Model of Five Stages in the Innovation Decision Process; Diffusion of Innovation, UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology), the Framework of investigated dental service attributes based on Donabedianâ??s perspective and Supply/ Demand Chain for industrial goods- adapted to the dental market. The second part is the analysis of the quantitative research made with the random Italian dentists plus some comments were added from the specific qualitative research made with CAD/CAM systems users- both dentists and labs. Here specific factors are analyzed, which affect the innovation adoption readiness. The models, which were constructed as the result of the theoretical and empirical studies, were e.g.: Porterâ??s 5 Forces Analysis for Digital Impression, SWOT Analysis for DI. As the final consequence adapted specifically to the DI Innovation acceptance, there was created a new model, called DITAM (Digital Innovation Technology Acceptance Model), which exhibits in a detailed manner all the external and internal factors, which influence the decision of the potential adopter of digital impression. The analysis revealed significant insights into the dentistâ??s opinions, needs and preferences, with the focus on the Italian market and expanded, generalized explanations. Many problems were identified and their solutions, aimed to increase the Digital Impression Innovation spread in the near future. Many valuable conclusions were given of how to enhance the DI adoption and as a conclusion; the future importance of industrial products innovation was analyzed. The thesis was awarded as the best bachelor thesis in Mannheim, 2014.
Email: joanna.burzec@gmail.com