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Jie, Menglin (2023) An Empirical Test of the Impact of eWOMInformation on Chinese Consumers’ Online Healthcare Service Purchase Intention: Mediating Role of Trust. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
Due to the distinctive nature of the medical and health industries, the accuracy and veracity of medical information is directly related to the health of consumers and can even be fatal. Consequently, there are stringent requirements for precision and veracity. When searching for online health services, it is crucial to identify credible and useful information.
In China, eHealth research primarily focuses on macroscopic issues, such as the development of eHealth, how to protect patients' privacy during the eHealth process, legal issues associated with eHealth, and the medical concept and medical model. Extremely rare are eHealth studies on online word-of-mouth (eWOM). This study examines the characteristics of eWOM and eWOM receivers, analysing their impact on consumer trust and, ultimately, how they influence consumers' purchase intentions, using communication process theory.
The study explores the mechanism of eWOM on consumers' purchase intention in eHealth. A model is build based on the characteristics of eWOM (qunantiy, quality and timeliness), receiver’s eWOM usage experience, Trust (cognitive dimension and affective dimension trust) and Purchase intention in the Chinese context. The findings suggest that: (1) In the online medical environment, the quantity and timeliness of eWOM information have a positive effect on the purchase intent of eWOM recipients. However, the quality of eWOM information has no significant effect on the purchase intention. (2) The e-word-of-mouth information usage experience of eWOM information recipients has a positive influence on customer’s purchase intention. (3) Cognitive trust and affective trust of eWOM information recipients have a positive effect on the purchase intention of customers. In addition, results of this paper indicate that the influence of affective trust on the purchase intent of word-of-mouth recipients is a little superior to cognitive trust. (4) The quantity and timeliness of eWOM information has a substantial impact on the cognitive and emotional trust of eWOM recipients. However, the recipients' eWOM usage experience has no significant impact on their cognitive and emotional trust. This thesis found that eWOM information usage experience has a positive impact on users’ purchase intention. A discussion of the managerial implications and limitations of this study comes to a close.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Supervisors: | Name Email McCabe, TJ UNSPECIFIED |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Consumer Behaviour R Medicine > Healthcare Industry H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > Information Science > Communication > Medical Informatics |
| Divisions: | School of Business > Master of Science in International Business |
| Depositing User: | Tamara Malone |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Aug 2023 12:58 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Aug 2023 12:58 |
| URI: | https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/6784 |
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