Abstract
Doctors’ online knowledge sharing enhances patients’ access to medical knowledge and interactions between doctors and patients. Given its importance, previous studies have discussed the impact of doctors’ knowledge sharing on patient choice. However, these studies mainly focus on the relationship between knowledge sharing and patients’ choices within a single platform (i.e. online consultation platform). Very few studies notice the cross-platform spillover effect of doctors’ knowledge sharing and compare the difference between the within-platform spillover effect and cross-platform spillover effects. Drawing on the theory of trust transfer, this study investigates the difference between the within-platform and cross-platform effects of doctors’ knowledge sharing on patients’ consultation choices. We analyzed a panel dataset generated between 2017 and 2023 and found that doctors’ knowledge has both with-in-platform and cross-platform spillover effects on the patient’s choice. In addition, the within-platform spillover effect is stronger than the cross-platform spillover effect. The findings in this study provide vital managerial insights for knowledge-sharing platforms and healthcare platforms in their function management.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Jiang, J., Yang, M., Kiang, M., Cameron, A.F.: Exploring the freemium business model for online medical consultation services in China. Inf. Process. Manage. 58(3), 1–24 (2021)
Douyin Homepage. https://www.douyin.com/note/7219193337868340535. Accessed 27 Jan 2024
Wu, H., Deng, Z., Wang, B., Wang, H.: How online health community participation affects physicians’ performance in hospitals: empirical evidence from China. Inf. Manage. 58(6), 103443 (2021)
Kraft, T., Valdés, L., Zheng, Y.: Consumer trust in social responsibility communications: the role of supply chain visibility. Prod. Oper. Manag. 31(11), 4113–4130 (2022)
Meng, F., Zhang, X., Liu, L., Ren, C.: Converting readers to patients? From free to paid knowledge-sharing in online health communities. Inf. Process. Manage. 58(3), 102490 (2021)
Xiaohe Health Homepage. https://www.xiaohe.cn. Accessed 27 Jan 2024
Haodf Online Homepage. https://www.haodf.com. Accessed 27 Jan 2024
Zhang, X., Guo, F., Xu, T., Li, Y.: What motivates physicians to share free health information on online health platforms? Inf. Process. Manage. 57(2), 102166 (2020)
Ma, D., Zhang, C., Hui, Y., Xu, B.: Economic uncertainty spillover and social networks. J. Bus. Res. 145, 454–467 (2022)
Gong, Y., Wang, H., Xia, Q., Zheng, L., Shi, Y.: Factors that determine a patient’s willingness to physician selection in online healthcare communities: a trust theory perspective. Technol. Soc. 64, 101510 (2021)
Lu, Y., Yang, S., Chau, P.Y., Cao, Y.: Dynamics between the trust transfer process and intention to use mobile payment services: a cross-environment perspective. Inf. Manage. 48(8), 393–403 (2011)
Shi, Y., Sia, C.L., Chen, H.: Leveraging social grouping for trust building in foreign electronic commerce firms: an exploratory study. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 33(3), 419–428 (2013)
Lee, K.C., Chung, N., Lee, S.: Exploring the influence of personal schema on trust transfer and switching costs in brick-and-click bookstores. Inf. Manage. 48(8), 364–370 (2011)
Lu, J., Bai, J., Zhao, H., Zhang, X.: The effect of “offline-to-online” trust transfer on the utilization of online medical consultation among Chinese rural residents: experimental study. J. Med. Internet Res. 25, e43430 (2023)
Zhao, K., Lu, Y., Hu, Y., Hong, Y.: Direct and indirect spillovers from content providers’ switching: evidence from online livestreaming. Inf. Syst. Res. 34, 1526–5536 (2022)
Geng, S., Yang, P., Gao, Y., Tan, Y., Yang, C.: The effects of ad social and personal relevance on consumer ad engagement on social media: the moderating role of platform trust. Comput. Hum. Behav. 122, 106834 (2021)
Iacono, S.L.: Does community social embeddedness promote generalized trust? An experimental test of the spillover effect. Soc. Sci. Res. 73, 126–145 (2018)
Libai, B., Muller, E., Peres, R.: The role of within-brand and cross-brand communications in competitive growth. J. Mark. 73(3), 19–34 (2009)
Wang, L., Yan, L., Zhou, T., Guo, X., Heim, G.R.: Understanding physicians’ online-offline behavior dynamics: an empirical study. Inf. Syst. Res. 31(2), 537–555 (2020)
Geng, S., et al.: The association between linguistic characteristics of physicians’ communication and their economic returns: mixed method study. J. Med. Internet Res. 26, e42850 (2024)
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71901150 and 72334004), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2022A1515012077), Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (GD23XGL113), and Guangdong Province Innovation Team (2021WCXTD002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chen, L., Lai, Q., Geng, S., Wang, J., Lin, Y., Qian, Y. (2024). The Spillover Effect of Doctor’s Knowledge Sharing on Their Online Consultation Volume. In: Tu, Y.P., Chi, M. (eds) E-Business. New Challenges and Opportunities for Digital-Enabled Intelligent Future. WHICEB 2024. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 517. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60324-2_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60324-2_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-60326-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-60324-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)