Research On The Impact Of Online And Offline Signals Transmission In Leveraging Physicians' Economic Returns

With the growth in the Internet technology,physician rating websites(PRWs)have attracted the attention of researchers in the online health care field that how health consumers have been using the different online and offline signals(market and seller information)on PRWs to choose a right doctor.However,several PRWs are struggling to engage and retain those patients who are prepared to pay more.Health care professionals have also faced the added difficulty of standing out in a competitive environment where other physicians offer similar services.Using these channels,physicians can improve their financial performance by charging premium price against the quality of services they offer to their patients.Receiving a financial return may also be considered one of the main factors for physicians to stay on PRWs and provide the essential online services.Researchers have discussed the impact of different online signals and offline signals on consumers' purchase decision-making process in the context of search and experience goods,such as user willingness to pay price premium(WTPP)for accommodation,online auctions,and for products.However,this development is worth exploring in credence goods perspective such as online health care services,because a patient WTPP(i.e.,physicians' economic returns)has not received considerable attention in this domain.The study,therefore,explores how a physician can attain economic returns in the online health care environment.This research was,therefore,led with three key objectives: a)to investigate the direct impact of online reputation,credibility,and benevolence as market and seller signals on the patient decision-making process to pay a price premium.b)To explore the impact of offline reputation,service popularity,and online effort on physicians' economic returns.c)To examine the impact of linguistic signals on physicians' sales performance.Furthermore,the moderating effect of the disease risk on the above relationships was also explored.Also,different linguistic antecedents of information helpfulness and its mediating effects were investigated in the relationship between these linguistic signals and physicians' sales performance.The theoretical framework of the current study was developed based on the signaling theory.The signaling theory posits that signals are useful in shaping behavior and help to reduce information asymmetry between different stakeholders.Therefore,drawing on signaling theory,this study investigates the impact of various online and offline signals transmission(sent by market and seller)on physicians' economic returns.Furthermore,the signaling theory posits that the environment uncertainty might play a significant role in influencing the processing of the signals.Therefore,this study examines how the impact of different signals transmission varies across different environments(disease risk).The research context of the study was the two PRWs(Healthgrades.com and Vitals.com)in the United States.The proposed hypotheses were tested using data from both these platforms for approximately 11,227 physicians belong to different disease specialties.Empirical models were developed to analyze the collected data using AMOS and STATA.Descriptive statistics in the form of mean,standard deviation,and correlation coefficients were calculated for the study variables.The model fitness was checked using Confirmatory factor analysis(CFA),and the study's proposed hypotheses were tested by applying ordinary least squares(OLS)regression and Hierarchal moderation regression using STATA.Furthermore,the mediation hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling(SEM).Also,the current study applied a mixed-method approach(SEM,econometric analysis,and text mining)and used multiple sources investigation for data analysis.Also,a unique real-time online physician reviews dataset was implicitly analyzed using a text mining approach.In the case of the search equation,a significant positive association was found between online reputation and patient searches for health information.For the decision equation,online reputation,credibility,and benevolence significantly influence the patient WTPP.Moreover,findings suggest that disease risk positively moderated the relationships between online reputation,credibility,and the patient WTPP.This study also analyzes which online and offline signal has a significant association with the physicians' economic returns.The findings suggest that offline reputation,popularity,and online effort significantly influence physicians' economic returns.Also,the effect of popularity on physicians' economic returns is positive and stronger for high-risk disease than the low-risk disease.In addition,the impact of different linguistic signals transmission on physicians' sales performance was also investigated.It has been found that linguistic signals(negative sentiment,information quality,readability,depth,and spelling)significantly influence physicians' sales performance.Furthermore,the disease risk positively moderates the relationship between negative sentiment,information quality,depth,and physicians' sales performance.Findings also reveal that information helpfulness mediates the relationships between negative sentiment,information quality,depth,and sales performance.The findings of this study should be of great interest to investigators studying different signaling mechanisms(i.e.,online and offline signals)in the online health care environment.This research supports our views with a sound theoretical foundation.It fills the literature gap regarding the health care rating sites usage in the patient decisionmaking process and improving physicians' financial performance.The results support the inclusion of various online and offline signals into the model.Moreover,the moderating role of disease risk and the mediating role of information helpfulness add a sound contribution to the literature of health care social media usage in improving physicians' financial performance.In addition,this study developed a suitable metric to evaluate the constructs related to the proposed research model.This topic is not only attractive to the theory but also to the physicians,web designers,and policymakers as well who are intending to utilize PRWs as part of their promotion strategy.As more and more physicians,particularly the younger physicians are extensively relying on PRWs for improving their sales performance;they can also get critical insight from this study to include leading indicators on PRWs that may assist patients to better cope with demanding health care needs.In sum,current research extends a new vision for these stakeholders in the evaluation of the health care social media power transformation.This study further discussed the limitations and direction for future research.