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Value creation for online collaboration between doctors and medical institutions: empirical evidence from online health communities

Manyang Zhang (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China) (School of Medical Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
Han Yang (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
Zhijun Yan (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
Lin Jia (School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)

Internet Research

ISSN: 1066-2243

Article publication date: 7 November 2023

Issue publication date: 30 September 2024

520

Abstract

Purpose

Doctor–medical institution collaboration (DMIC) services are an emerging service mode in focal online health communities (OHCs). This new service mode is anticipated to affect user satisfaction and doctors' engagement behaviors. However, whether and how DMIC occurs is still ambiguous because the topic is rarely examined. To bridge this gap, this study explores doctors' participation in DMIC services and its effects on their online performance, as well as its effect on patients' evaluation of them on OHC platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose hypotheses based on structural holes theory. A unique dataset obtained from one of the most popular OHCs in China is used to test the hypotheses, and difference-in-differences estimation is adopted to test the causality of the relationship.

Findings

The results demonstrate that providing DMIC services improves doctors' online consultation performance and patients' evaluations of them but has no significant effect on doctors' knowledge-sharing performance on OHC platforms. Doctors' knowledge-sharing performance and consultation performance mediate the relationship between participation in DMIC services and patients' evaluation of doctors. Regarding doctors' participation in DMIC services, its impact on doctors' consultation performance and patients' evaluation of them is weaker for doctors with higher professional titles than for doctors with lower professional titles.

Originality/value

The findings clarify the value creation mechanisms of online collaboration between doctors and medical institutions and thereafter facilitate doctors' participation in DMIC services and enhance the sustainable development of OHCs.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant numbers: 72110107003 and 72172013] and the China Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant number: 2023CX13023].

Citation

Zhang, M., Yang, H., Yan, Z. and Jia, L. (2024), "Value creation for online collaboration between doctors and medical institutions: empirical evidence from online health communities", Internet Research, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 1714-1743. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-09-2022-0723

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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