Competing Concerns on Emerging Welfare Technologies: A review of eight prevailing debates in current literature

Welfare technologies (WT) such as telecare, service robots, and other digital innovations for public sector service delivery are expected to improve and even radically transform health- and eldercare. However, despite political awareness and financial investments, many studies report promising inventions that fail to become implemented on a larger scale. Current research draws a fragmented and heterogeneous picture of this problem, with divergent implications for practice. This article reviews and discusses the extant literature to identify eight competing concerns central to how WT can become implemented on a large scale. By highlighting and contrasting practical and theoretical positions in this emerging and interdisciplinary research topic, the review contributes to understanding the complexities that managers and policy-makers must address to diffuse and sustain WT innovations from small to large scale.