Table 1 Related research on patients’ purchasing behavior
Related research | Independent variables | Dependent variables | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
Yang, Guo, Wu and Ju (2015) [4] | The score of patients and the score of platforms as third party | The number of patients consulting online physicians | The synergistic effect between system-generated information and patient-generated information is positively correlated with the patient’s decision to consult a physician |
Zeng and Guo (2018) [21] | Personal attributes and word of mouth | Patients’ behavior to choose their physicians | The frequency of physicians’ reply, the number of services opened, the professional title of physicians, the degree of information disclosure, and the online word of mouth positively affect patients’ behavior of choosing physicians |
Liu, Wu and Lu (2017) [22] | Generate patients’ and physicians’ information, generate system information | Patients’ purchasing behavior | The generated information of patients and physicians has a positive influence on patients’ purchase of services, while the generated information of the system has no display effect |
Cao, Liu, Zhu, Hu and Chen (2017) [5] | Physicians’ service quality and electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM) | Patients’ selection decisions | Service quality and eWOM both had positive effects on patients’ selection decisions. Disease knowledge increased the importance of service quality on patients’ choice. Disease risk and disease knowledge reduce the influence of eWOM on patient choice |
Liu, Guo, Wu and Wu (2016) [7] | Multilevel and cross-level reputation | Physicians’ performance | The number of physicians’ appointments is positively correlated with their individual offline and online reputations, as well as the offline and online reputations of the hospitals where the physicians work |
Liu, Li and Ju (2019) [23] | Online service reviews and offline service reviews | Number of telephone consultation | Patients with high-risk diseases were more likely to pay attention to offline patient reviews, while patients with low-risk diseases were more likely to pay attention to online service reviews |
Wu and Lu (2017) [24] | Online text consultation, telephone consultation | Offline consulting service reservation | Text consultation was positively correlated with offline service appointment, while telephone consultation was negatively correlated with offline service appointment |
Li, Song, Zhao, Guo, Ju and Vogel (2019) [25] | Subjective and objective information in OHCs | Patients are transferred from online to the physician’s offline service | Patients are more likely to switch from online to offline medical services with physicians whose subjective and objective information on their homepages show a higher quality |
Shah, Yan, Shah, Shah and Mamirkulova (2019) [26] | Patient-generated signals (PGSs), system-generated signals (SGSs) | Physician choice | PGSs SGSs have a significant impact on patient decision. Disease risk negatively moderates the relationship between PGSs and information search, while disease risk positively moderates the effect of the two signals on patients’ willingness to pay prem |