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The introduction of clinical care pathways into one acute hospital trust provided the opportunity to investigate reasons why doctors behave the way they do, and to identify receptive and non‐receptive factors for change. A multi‐method research strategy was used to obtain primary data, both quantitative and qualitative material, namely responses to a questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was distributed to 70 consultants from a variety of medical and surgical specialties, and 42 questionnaires were returned (60 per cent response rate). Reports some of the findings and shows that consultant behaviour and the factors that influence that behaviour are affected by their own characteristics, specifically age and specialty, although all specialties agreed that non‐financial incentives would influence their behaviour. Characteristics of opinion leaders were also found to be specialty‐specific in their degree of influence. Concludes that the multi‐method research approach was effective in identifying factors which influence consultant behaviour, and further studies should be carried out in this area.