The transition from products to connected health: observations and avenues for future research

The transition of ResMed, the world’s leading manufacturer of therapies and devices for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, from a goods producer to an information-intensive firm presents a compelling opportunity for marketing scholars to revisit fundamental issues in strategic marketing’s theoretical past. These issues are still vitally relevant today and spark a host of interesting and important research opportunities for marketing scholars to pursue. In this commentary, we identify three important transformations undertaken by ResMed’s strategic leadership, which have strong ties to classical marketing theories and scholarship. First, ResMed moves from being a goods manufacturer to an information-intensive firm. This raises questions about the value of information that should intrigue marketing researchers. Second, the firm redefines its business, and does this not just once, but as is apparent from the case, on a dynamic basis. There are many avenues for marketing scholars of today to return to and explore in this regard. Third, ResMed makes substantial shifts in organizational culture, and also changes its structure as the result of its transformed strategy. While culture has been reasonably well considered in the marketing literature, the strategy-structure debate has mostly been conceded to strategic management scholars. There are still very fruitful research issues for marketing academics to explore in this regard.