Understanding the influence of professional status and service feedback on patients' doctor choice in online healthcare markets
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 4 December 2020
Issue publication date: 12 July 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the prevalent use of professional status and service feedback in online healthcare markets, the potential interaction relationship between two types of information is still unknown. This study used the signaling theory to examine the substitute relationship between professional status and service feedback in patients' doctor choice, as well as the moderating effect of illness severity.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the paper's hypotheses, we constructed a panel data model using 418 doctors' data collected over a period of six months from an online healthcare market in China. Then, according to the results of the Hausman test, we estimated a fixed-effects model of patients' choice in online healthcare markets.
Findings
The empirical results showed that the effect of a doctor's professional status and service feedback on a patient's doctor choice was substitutable. Moreover, patients' illness severity played a moderating role, in that the influence of professional status on a patient with high-severity illness was higher than that on a patient with low-severity illness, whereas the influence of service feedback on a patient with low-severity illness was higher than that of a patient with high-severity illness. In addition, we found that illness severity negatively moderated the substitute relationship between professional status and service feedback on a patient's choice.
Originality/value
These findings not only contribute to signaling theory and research on online healthcare markets, but also help us understand the importance of professional status and service feedback on a patient's choice when seeking a doctor online.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant [grant numbers 71901073; 71572050; 71571180; 72001049].
Citation
Yang, H., Du, H.S. and Shang, W. (2021), "Understanding the influence of professional status and service feedback on patients' doctor choice in online healthcare markets", Internet Research, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 1236-1261. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-10-2019-0429
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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