Sustainable Business Innovation: The Case of Smart Elderly Care Service in China

Abstract

As demographic transition gives rise to ageing societies, technological advancements have sparked the business world to leverage the growing tide of consumer demand for elderly care services. This study looks at the emergent smart elderly care service model in the People’s Republic of China to identify the priority strategies in decision making. A SWOT analysis is undertaken to bring out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the smart elderly care system in China through an extensive literature review. The impact and weight of these factors is calculated based on expert opinion. The scores are analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Based on the SWOT-AHP method, ST (strength-threat) strategy group emerged as the highest priority group. The findings of the study suggest that the sustainability of smart senior care can be enhanced through incentivizing age-tech business enterprises, investing in technology-based research and designing an affordable and tech-enabled ecosystem for aging-in-place.