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Physicians' online popularity and price premiums for online health consultations: A combined signaling theory and online feedback mechanisms explanation

  • Georgia State University
  • School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Online health consultation communities (OHCCs) provide a digital channel for physicians to signal their professional competence (i.e., credibility) and compassionate care (i.e., benevolence), and for patients to spread word-of-mouth reviews. The valence, volume, and variance of patient reviews may shape the effectiveness of signals transmitted by physicians in OHCCs. We investigate the interactions between the signaling mechanism and the online feedback mechanism through which OHCCs help physicians build online popularity and achieve price premiums for online health consultations. We are using web scraping to collect weekly data for 12 months from a large OHCC in China. Applying mixed effects models on the data collected to date, we find online popularity and price premiums to be two benefits that physicians can derive from OHCCs. Importantly, in the presence of benevolence actions, an absence of consistently favorable online feedback slows down physicians' online popularity and reduces price premiums for online health consultations.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2015 International Conference on Information Systems
Subtitle of host publicationExploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Print)9780996683111
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015 - Fort Worth, United States
Duration: 13 Dec 201516 Dec 2015

Publication series

Name2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015

Conference

Conference2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityFort Worth
Period13/12/1516/12/15

Keywords

  • Online feedback
  • Online health consultation communities (OHCCs)
  • Online trustworthiness
  • Popularity
  • Price premiums
  • Signaling theory

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