The Impact Of ICT On Health Expenditure And Behavioral Change:Evidence From The Healthcare Sector And E-commerce

Healthcare is a basic need for common people.So,the concern of researchers and policymakers was to provide a healthy lifestyle to common people.The emergence of information and communication technology(ICT)provides a solution to researchers and policymakers concerning better healthcare.Additionally,environmental degradation also plays a critical role in the healthcare sector like poor air quality harmfully affects human health which ultimately causes in increasing health expenditure(HE).Furthermore,renewable energy consumption(REC)also has a significant effect on the healthcare sector and plays a significant role in reducing HE.However,the first core purpose of this dissertation is to check the dynamic linkages among HE,economic growth(EG),CO2 emission(COE),ICT and REC in the case of Pakistan over the period of 1995-2017.For accomplishing the first core objective of this dissertation,the ARDL technique is employed to explore the dynamic linkages between HE,REC,ICT,EG and COE.Based on empirical results,all underlying variables are co-integrated.The ARDL estimation results confirm the short-run and long-run negative impact of ICT and REC on HE.While COE and EG have a substantial positive impact on HE.On the other hand,the results of VECM Granger causality confirmed the bidirectional causality between HE,EG,COE and ICT.while the unidirectional causality is running from REC to these variables.Furthermore,short-run causality is running from REC to HE and GDP.Short-run causality is also running from ICT to GDP.Consequently,this study empirically confirms the critical role of REC and ICT on HE.Despite the study limitation,this study not only provides future direction to researchers but also provide numerous policy recommendation to policymakers based on the econometric findings of this section of this dissertation.In the healthcare sector,the best indicator to explore the diffusion of ICT is the Hospital information system(HIS)because HIS integrates all information systems of the hospital and widely used by hospitals.However,the second chief objective of this dissertation is related to HIS adoption.HIS is an electronic system that aims to provide comprehensive information related to hospitals and patients to authorized people on one click.In simple words,the HIS is an integrated information system that assists patients and hospital personnel to use all information system of the hospital on one platform.The diffusion of HIS is in the early phase,and the rate of adoption is very slow in Pakistan.Data were collected through a questionnaire from two major cities of Pakistan.This dissertation conducted two studies to fulfill the second core objective of this dissertation.The first study examines the data and tests the hypothesis of this dissertation by using Confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)and Structure Equation Modeling(SEM)technique.The empirical results clarify that top management support,financial revenue,relative Advantage,compatibility,coercive pressure,and mimetic pressure are positive while complexity is negatively influencing the adoption of HIS.The second study on HIS adoption use DANP(Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory(DEMATEL)based Analytic Network Processes(ANP))method,according to the expert's knowledge and experience,the results indicate that perceived technical competence,compatibility,top management support,and vendor support is found to be most essential variables for the successful adoption of HIS concerning human,technology organization and environment respectively.Hence,the finding of this study has contributed theoretically,and the practical implementation of these integrated models will give deep insight to healthcare providers for the successful implementation of HIS.The third core objective of this dissertation was to identify the critical elements that play a substantial role in the acceptance of HIS.The principal HIS users are physicians,who play a preeminent role in healthcare services.Gleaned from hospital physicians in Pakistan,questionnaire data help evaluates HIS acceptance.The critical factors affecting it are assessed through SEM,using a partial least squares(PLS)software.The results show that human compatibility,organizational support,and HIS quality positively affect both HIS perceived usefulness and HIS perceived ease of use.Subsequently,these two intermediate factors positively affect hospital information system acceptance.Despite its limitations,the study not only contributes theoretically but also yields both future-research directions and practical policymaking guidelines,so that healthcare providers deliver what HIS users need.Moreover,if we talk about the objective of this dissertation regarding behavioral change then we can study more than one sector because it doesn't affect the overall objective of the dissertation.Specifically,it will provide more detailed insight in order to explore the impact of ICT on behavioral change.However,to investigate the behavioral impact of ICT on e-commerce,this dissertation studied mobile food delivery apps(MFDAs)due to its growing trend.The emergence of MFDAs has entirely changed the working pattern of restaurants and provide high-quality services to both restaurants and their customers.This part of this dissertation pinpoints the imperative factors that hinder or motivate the customer's attitude and intention to continue using MFDAs.To achieve the study objective,the required data collected from MFDAs users and the data analyzed through the SEM technique by using SPSS and Amos.The empirical consequences confirm the role of navigational design,online rating,online tracking and online review,user self-efficacy,subjective norms,perceived risk and task technology fit to build a positive attitude and intention of customers to continue using MFDAs.Accordingly,theoretical and managerial application explained in detail,however,the MFDAs developer offer what the MFDAs users want.