Abstract
A structural-economic analysis of the national market for hospital information systems (HIS) is attempted. Supply-side determinants of sales, number of employees, software technology developments and expectations of HIS providers are investigated. A detailed survey on HIS providers was conducted. Since the complexity of the HIS market requires careful analysis of market segments, the intrinsic features of the German market in terms of autonomous and linked HIS are explored. Investigation into market morphology is difficult since providers of linked HIS offer turnkey facilities (from different hardware and software producers) which have substantial impact on the competitive structure of the market.