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Electronic Commerce Research

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16-08-2021

The influence of patient-generated reviews and doctor-patient relationship on online consultations in China

Authors: Yajie Hu, Huiwen Zhou, Yuangao Chen, Jianrong Yao, Jiangwu Su

Published in: Electronic Commerce Research | Issue 2/2023

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Abstract

Online reviews are increasingly being used and researched by people worldwide. Compared with previous studies on traditional products or services, research focused on online health communities (OHCs) is still insufficient. Thus, based on cue diagnosticity theory, this research concentrates on combining two mainstream studies by incorporating the patient-generated review with the unique characteristics of online medical services–the doctor-patient relationship–to study the information processing issues in choosing consultations. We clawed the dataset, including 2865 doctors related to 152,864 patient-generated reviews and information, from the GoodDoctor website. We then employed a negative binomial regression to test our hypotheses. Interestingly, we found that the effects of review length and review volume on doctors’ consultations can be negatively moderated by the doctor-patient relationship. Our findings can serve patients, doctors, platform managers, and others to optimize the application of patients’ information processing when choosing consultations.

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Title: The influence of patient-generated reviews and doctor-patient relationship on online consultations in China
Authors: Yajie Hu
Huiwen Zhou
Yuangao Chen
Jianrong Yao
Jiangwu Su
Publication date: 16-08-2021
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Electronic Commerce Research / Issue 2/2023
Print ISSN: 1389-5753
Electronic ISSN: 1572-9362
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-021-09506-8

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