Economic Success of Physicians in the Online Consultation Market: A Signaling Theory Perspective

Li, Jia; Tang, Jie; Jiang, Linan; Yen, David C.; Liu, Xuan

doi:10.1080/10864415.2018.1564552

Cited by 85 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…An OHC is a platform on which patients are now able to consult physicians on health issues and the treatment of their illness anytime and anywhere. Current evidence shows that OHCs have considerably significant effects in terms of reducing medical costs, improving operational efficiency and effectiveness, enhancing the equity of medical resources, and meeting patient satisfaction [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Customers rely on several different sources to gather information on a variety of products or services prior to purchase [ 13 - 15 ]. Similarly, patients rely on OHC information from multiple sources to select a physician, and the physician’s personal website gathers this OHC information (eg, online and offline information [ 4 , 5 ], individual and organizational information [ 16 ], and system-generated and patient-generated information [ 12 ]). Among them, system-generated information is created by the platform where physicians work, and reveals the service provider’s contribution, grade, popularity, and other characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the information presented in a personal website also includes information generated by the physician’s own online behaviors and activities (ie, physician-generated information) [ 18 ]. For example, the number of articles published by a physician can be used to measure their activeness [ 18 ], knowledge contribution [ 5 ], and professional capital [ 20 ]. In addition, physicians’ online behaviors and activities are important cues to reflect their delivery process quality [ 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous studies have started to explore the benefits of OHCs from different perspectives. For example, Li et al [ 5 ] explored the economic success of physicians in the online consultation market. Guo et al [ 20 ] analyzed how physicians gained social and economic returns in OHCs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Converting Visitors of Physicians’ Personal Websites to Customers in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

Chen¹,

Yan²,

Zhang³

2020

J Med Internet Res

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Background With the dramatic development of Web 2.0, increasing numbers of patients and physicians are actively involved in online health communities. Despite extensive research on online health communities, the conversion rate from visitor to customer and its driving factors have not been discussed. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the conversion rate of online health communities and to explore the effects of multisource online health community information, including physician-generated information, patient-generated information, and system-generated information. Methods An empirical study was conducted to examine the effects of physician-generated, patient-generated, and system-generated information on the conversion rate of physicians’ personal websites by analyzing short panel data from 2112 physicians over five time periods in a Chinese online health community. Results Multisource online health community information (ie, physician-generated, patient-generated, and system-generated information) positively affected the conversion rate. Physician-generated and patient-generated information showed a substitute relationship rather than a complementary relationship. In addition, the usage time of a personal website positively moderated patient-generated information, but negatively moderated physician-generated information. Conclusions This study contributes to the electronic health literature by investigating the conversion rate of online health communities and the effect of multisource online health community information. This study also contributes to understanding the drivers of conversion rate on service websites, which can help to successfully improve the efficiency of online health communities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Converting Visitors of Physicians’ Personal Websites to Customers in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

Chen¹,

Yan²,

Zhang³

2020

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The initial trust problem applies to unknown physicians who do not have enough initial trust, so they will not have any ratings, followers, or appointments. However, if a physician does not have any ratings, followers or appointments, she is less likely to gain user trust [8]. Therefore, how to build initial trust in unknown physicians is an important research question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Joining a Team on the Initial Trust in Online Physicians

Bao

Liu

et al. 2020

Healthcare

Self Cite

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Introduction: Trust is a major challenge for the online market and this is especially the case for e-consultation platforms. Research that promotes online physician trust is highly desirable. In this study, we focus on whether joining a team led by a well-known physician will increase physician trust and what team characteristics will affect this trust. Materials and Methods: Brand extension theory is applied to the healthcare context to explain the impact of joining a team on physician trust. Specifically, both team strength and team similarity are hypothesized to have the main effects. In addition, team size is hypothesized to have a moderating effect. A 2 × 2 × 2 experiment was conducted to test the proposed research model. Results: The results indicated that joining a team would significantly increase physician trust (p < 0.001). Both team strength (p < 0.001) and team similarity (p < 0.001) had positive impacts on physician trust. In addition, a larger team size resulted in a reduced positive effect of team strength on physician trust (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Joining a physician team is an effective and low-cost method to address the initial trust problem of unknown online physicians.

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Is my doctor around me? Investigating the impact of doctors’ presence on patients’ review behaviors on an online health platform

Liu

Xiao

et al. 2022

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Patient-generated online reviews are well-established as an important source of information for people to evaluate doctors' quality and improve health outcomes. However, how such reviews are generated in the first place is not well examined. This study examines a hitherto unexplored social driver of online review generation-doctors' presence on online health platforms, which results in the reviewers (i.e., patients) and the reviewees (i.e., doctors) coexisting in the same medium. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory as an overarching framework, we advance hypotheses about the impact of doctors' presence on their patients' review behaviors, including review volume, review effort, and emotional expression. To achieve causal identification, we conduct a quasi-experiment on a large online health platform and employ propensity score matching and difference-in-difference estimation. Our findings show that doctors' presence increases their patients' review volume. Furthermore, doctors' presence motivates their patients to exert greater effort and express more positive emotions in the review text. The results also show that the presence of doctors with higher professional titles has a stronger effect on review volume than the presence of doctors with lower professional titles. Our findings offer important implications both for research and practice.

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Economic Success of Physicians in the Online Consultation Market: A Signaling Theory Perspective

Cited by 85 publications

References 48 publications

Converting Visitors of Physicians’ Personal Websites to Customers in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

Converting Visitors of Physicians’ Personal Websites to Customers in Online Health Communities: Longitudinal Study

The Impact of Joining a Team on the Initial Trust in Online Physicians

Is my doctor around me? Investigating the impact of doctors’ presence on patients’ review behaviors on an online health platform

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