Highly regulated industries such as healthcare can reap major benefits from new digital technologies. However, adopting such technologies is a slow and difficult process due to institutional constraints. Technology providers need to legitimize their underlying technologies to the customers and other stakeholders in the field. Drawing on multiple case studies in the healthcare industry, this article demonstrates how technology providers deploy two legitimizing practices: solution selling and issue selling. These activities lead to the emergence of open innovation ecosystems that help technology providers overcome adoption barriers.
