Date of Award

8-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Discipline

Business Administration

Abstract

The healthcare sector faces escalating cybersecurity risks due to its reliance on electronic health records, legacy systems, medical devices, and health information exchanges. These interconnected technologies expand attack surfaces and create vulnerabilities that threaten patient data, operational continuity, and public trust. These challenges cause many healthcare organizations to struggle to implement effective cybersecurity strategies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence healthcare cybersecurity effectiveness by integrating Institutional Theory, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Top Management Support, and IT Infrastructure Quality. A survey was administered to healthcare IT, cybersecurity, and executive professionals across the United States. The final dataset was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The guiding research question was: What are the factors that influence healthcare cybersecurity effectiveness? Factors included institutional pressures (mimetic, coercive, normative), top management support, IT infrastructure quality, and dynamic cybersecurity capabilities (sensing, seizing, transforming).

Results revealed that mimetic pressures and normative pressures had a significant influence on top management support. Specifically, IT Infrastructure Quality had a significant influence on cybersecurity sensing capabilities, which further had a significant influence on cybersecurity seizing and cybersecurity transforming capabilities. Cybersecurity seizing capabilities had a significant influence on cybersecurity transforming capability, which further had a significant impact on perceived healthcare cybersecurity effectiveness. The model offered insight into how strategic alignment and institutional forces jointly shape cybersecurity effectiveness in complex healthcare environments.

This study contributes to both theory and practice by presenting a validated model that integrates organizational, institutional, and technological factors. The findings may inform healthcare executives, policymakers, and IT leaders who seek to enhance cybersecurity readiness, improve system resilience, and mitigate breach-related risks.

Keywords: healthcare cybersecurity, institutional theory, dynamic capabilities, top management support, IT infrastructure quality, sensing capabilities, seizing capabilities, transforming capabilities, PLS-SEM

Committee Chair/Advisor

Thiagarajan Ramakrishnan

Committee Member

Louis Ngamassi

Committee Member

Hesam Shahriari

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

8/27/2025

Contributing Institution

J. B . Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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