Abstract
Although physician appearance has been a topic of discussion in the medical literature for many years, less research has been performed on this topic from a service marketing point of view by considering patients as “consumers” and physicians as their “service providers”. The present study extends existing literature to a Middle Eastern context and focuses on investigating the possible effects of cultural artifacts on patient preferences in Iran. Research was conducted in the waiting room of a private medical laboratory located in the north center of Tehran and data collected using a patient-completed survey. Five hundred patients viewed photographs of either a young or old doctor in a variety of outfits before responding. Results indicate preference for formal attire, with the majority of respondents choosing professional dress consisting of a white coat with necktie. The paper closes with discussion of the results, managerial implications, and directions for further research.
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Ghazisaeedi, M., Campbell, C., Ashnai, B., Chakrabarti, R. (2015). Blind Judgment at First Sight: Trusting Physicians from Their Attire. In: Robinson, Jr., L. (eds) Proceedings of the 2008 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10963-3_149
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10963-3_149
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10963-3
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