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The purpose of this paper is to explore the supply-side factors that determines the quality of global healthcare services from medical tourism healthcare providers’ (MTHP) perspective, which provide value-in-medical-travel to foreign patients/medical tourists, who travel to India for medical treatment/surgery.

The thematic content analysis of in-depth interviews with 15 senior MTHP, from 15 private hospitals in India was undertaken, to generate the themes, and identify the supply-side factors necessary for sustainable medical tourism management.

The findings conclude that MTHP ranked in ascending order, less waiting-time for surgery, healthcare quality and accreditation, staff/surgeon’s expertise, healthcare information, hospital facilities and services, patient-safety, travel-risk, surgical costs and holiday opportunity as essential factors for providing sustainable quality and value-in-medical-travel to patients.

Many private hospital spokespersons declined to be interviewed due to confidentiality and privacy policy

The findings are generalised in case of global private hospitals treating foreign patients. Policy implications suggest that private hospitals in developing countries need to focus on providing value-in-medical-travel, such as accreditation quality of healthcare, no waiting-time, patient-safety, qualified and experienced medical and non-medical staff, hospital facilities and post-surgery care with positive healthcare outcomes.

Medical-tour facilitators, hotels and tourism sites need to collaborate with agencies to provide inclusive built environment, first-aid and wheelchair access, to medical tourists, having financial and legal implications for business.

There is little qualitative empirical research on the views of MTHP, regarding management of essential supply-side factors that provide value-in-medical-travel to attract medical tourists to India.

医疗保健提供者对印度医疗旅行价值的看法

本文的目的是从医疗旅游医疗保健提供者的角度探讨决定全球医疗服务质量的供应方因素, 这些因素可为前往印度求医的外国患者/医疗游客提供医疗旅行的价值治疗/手术.

对印度15家私立医院的15家高级医疗旅游保健提供者（MTHP）进行了深度访谈, 对主题内容进行了分析, 以生成主题并确定可持续医疗旅游管理所必需的供应方因素。

研究结果得出结论, MTHP以升序排列的顺序是：手术等待时间, 医疗质量和认证, 工作人员/外科医生的专业知识, 医疗保健信息, 医院设施和服务, 患者安全, 旅行风险, 手术费用和度假时间机会是为患者提供医疗旅行可持续质量和价值的重要因素。

由于医院的机密性和隐私权政策, 许多私立医院发言人拒绝接受采访。

如果全球私立医院为外国医疗游客提供治疗, 那么研究结果将得到概括。政策含义表明, 发展中国家的私立医院需要集中精力提供医疗旅行价值, 例如无需等待时间的医疗保健认证质量和患者安全, 合格和经验丰富的医务人员和非医务人员, 医院设施和后期医疗服务。具有积极医疗效果的手术护理。

旅馆, 医疗旅行促进者和旅游景点需要与机构合作, 为医疗游客提供紧急急救和轮椅通道, 这对企业有财务和法律影响。

关于MTHP观点的定性实证研究很少, 涉及对提供医疗旅行价值以吸引医疗游客前往印度的基本供应方因素的管理。

印度, 医疗旅游, 全球化 等待时间, 患者安全, 认证质量

研究论文

Perspectiva del valor de los proveedores del cuidado de la salud en viajes con propositos medicos a la India

El propósito de esta investigación es explorar los factores que del lado de la oferta determinan la calidad de los servicios globales de salud desde el punto de vista del proveedor, el cual agrega valor al viaje con propósitos médicos a pacientes/turistas médicos quienes viajan a la India para tratamientos médicos ó cirugía.

El análisis de contenido temático de las detalladas entrevistas, con-15 proveedores experimentados de asistencia sanitaria de turismo medico, en-15 hospitales de la India, fué realizado para generar los temas é identificar los factores que del lado de la oferta son necesarios para la gestión sostenible del turismo médico.

Los hallazgos concluyen que proveedores experimentados de turismo ranquearon en orden ascendente la reducción en tiempos de espera para cirugías, acreditación de la calidad del cuidado de la salud, experticia del personal no médico y de cirugía, información del cuidado de la salud, servicios é instalaciones de los hospitales, seguridad del paciente, riesgos de viaje, costos de cirugías, y oportunidades vacacionales, como factores esenciales para proveer calidad sostenible y valor en los viajes con propósitos médicos a los pacientes.

Muchos representates de los hospitales privados se rehusaron a ser entrevistados debido las políticas de privacidad y confidencialidad del hospitales.

Los hallazgos son generalizables en el caso de hospitales privados globales que tratan a turistas médicos extranjeros. Las implicaciones políticas sugieren que los hospitales privados en los países en vía de desarrollo necesitan enfocarse en agregar valor al viaje médico, por medios como la calidad de acreditación de la atención médica, reduccion de tiempos de espera y la seguridad del paciente, personal médico y no médico calificado y experimentado, instalaciones hospitalarias y servicios posoperatorios con resultados sanitarios positivos.

Los hoteles, los facilitadores de toures médicos y los sitios de turismo necesitan colaborar con las agencias para proveer primeros auxilios de emergencia y acceso en silla de ruedas a los turistas médicos, teniendo esto implicaciones financieras y legales para los negocios.

Existe poca investigación empírica cualitativa sobre los puntos-de vista-de (MTHP) proveedores de asistencia sanitaria de turismo médico con respecto a la gestión de los factores esenciales del lado de la oferta que agregan valor al turismo con fiines médicos para atraer turistas médicos a la India.

India, globalización, turismo médico, tiempo-de-espera, calidad, seguridad-del- paciente

Trabajo de investigación

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Americans choose a country and medical facility to travel abroad for medical treatment based on the following factors country environment, tourism destination, medical tourism costs and medical facilities and services.

Online survey with the help of Amazon Mechanical Turk website was used for data collection, and 541 valid cases were used of American residents who had travelled abroad for medical tourism. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were undertaken to validate the scales.

Findings indicated four major factors that can influence American medical tourists’ choices of medical tourism destinations. These factors are overseas’ country factors, attractiveness of tourism destination, medical tourism costs and facilities and services. Both the convergent and discriminant validities for the constructs were established. The results of the measurement-model-fit based on various measures were within the suggested cut-off values.

Out of the 541 responses of post-travel experienced medical tourists, it is hard to tell how similar/dissimilar the participants are in terms of ranking the four factors. To be competitive to attract global medical tourists, research suggests that the five popular countries of treatment, India, China, Thailand, Mexico and Turkey, identified in this study should provide high quality of medical and tourism facilities to patients.

This study contributes to the understanding of the underlying factors, which influence American medical tourists’ choice of destinations, with validated scales. For this exploratory research, 25 new items together with 34 items from other studies were adapted.

The purpose of this paper is to segment the Australian organic food consumer market.

A nationwide online survey was conducted for collecting data about the Australian organic food consumer market. Various statistical techniques were used for analyzing the data and identifying market segments.

The key market segmentation variables that significantly characterize the Australian organic food consumer market include age, income, education, metro/city-vs-rural/region, purchase frequency, weekly expenditure, consumption period, retail outlets, perceived values, self-image, and perceptions about organic foods.

Australia, like many other countries, is an emerging market for the organically produced and marketed food products. The current review unfolds the fact that there are limited studies in market segmentation, and no study in the Australian context, in particular. The current paper contributes to the organic food market segmentation literature and provides several implications for market segmentation strategy.

This study aims to examine the relationship between brand orientation and financial performance in business-to-business (B2B) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines the impact of brand-oriented strategy on financial performance through four branding constructs, namely, internal branding, brand communication, brand awareness and brand credibility.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 250 Finnish B2B SMEs. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the validity of the constructs, whereas structural equation modeling was used to test proposed hypotheses of the study.

The results suggest that brand orientation improves the effectiveness of brand communication and internal branding in building brand awareness and credibility. Brand awareness emphasizes an external route through brand communication, whereas brand credibility emphasizes an internal route through internal branding. Brand awareness has a positive impact on brand credibility, and brand credibility has a positive impact on financial performance, highlighting the importance of both brand performance components for financial performance.

This study addresses the research gap in the B2B branding literature regarding the role of branding in enhancing financial performance. The results suggest that brand-oriented strategy can contribute to financial performance through brand awareness and brand credibility in the context of B2B SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an integrated-process model/an index model by incorporating the antecedents and consequences of service quality in a higher education context.

This research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The data from three focus groups, conducted at an Australian University, generated key themes and their interrelationships. The theoretical model was then tested using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique on a sample of 528 University students.

The findings show that information (or marketing communications) and past experience are the antecedents of perceived service quality (PSQ). PSQ is a second order construct and has three dimensions: academic, administrative and facilities. The consequences of PSQ include trust, satisfaction, university-brand (UniBrand) performance and behavioural intentions. Overall, the results suggest a good validity of the model, and the nine path coefficients are found statistically significant.

The model explains how service quality is formed, and how PSQ affects UniBrand and positive behavioural intentions overtime. This paper develops and validates three new constructs including information, past experience and UniBrand performance. In addition, it improves and validates other constructs including service quality, satisfaction, trust and behavioural intention. The paper also advances service quality literature and validates five hypothesised relationships between constructs that are relatively new in the service quality literature. Finally, this study validates a comprehensive three-tiered “integrated-process” model/an index model that includes antecedents, dimensions and consequences of service quality taking a University as a case. Universities aiming for a sustainable presence in a competitive global market and intending to enhance brand performance and attract and retain students are encouraged to consider this model and its implications.

This study aims to empirically validate the holistic consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) framework and establishment of the cross-over effect using consumer preferences for wine “regions.”

The authors utilize a sample of 275 regular wine purchasers in Australia, who were aged above 30 years old and had consumed regional wine in the last 3 months through an online consumer panel survey.

By testing competing CBBE models, the main research model was found to have the greatest predictive ability, due to its inclusion of both the rational and emotional paths and the cross-over effect between consumer brand judgment and brand feeling. This paper indicates that consumers enhance brand equity and develop a strong ongoing relationship with regional wine brands by simultaneously engaging in both mental behavior paths, where, in the meantime, rational processing has a cross-over effect on emotional processing.

This study expands the brand management literature by answering the future research on the CBBE model identified by Hall et al. (2021). Moreover, it establishes the underexplored cross-over effect within the CBBE literature. Furthermore, it adds to the marketing and wine-marketing literature by extending the concept of the brand to other attributes in consumer choice, such as a wine region as outlined by Giacomarra et al. (2020). Thus, this study advances the existing branding knowledge in a practical sense, which enables regional wine marketers and wine retailers to undertake promotional and product development strategies accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the demand-side factors that influence the inbound medical tourists’ (MTs) decision to travel abroad for medical treatment/surgery.

The researchers conducted thematic analysis of in-depth interviews in India with 24 foreign MTs’ to generate the themes, identify factors and propose a model with hypothesis for future quantitative survey.

The findings conclude that patients ranked in ascending order less waiting time for surgery, healthcare quality and accreditation, staff/surgeons expertise, healthcare information, hospital facilities and services, patient safety, travel risk, surgical costs and holiday opportunity as important factors that influence the decision to travel abroad for medical treatment/surgery.

Foreign patients from six private hospitals were willing to be interviewed with the permission of the hospital. Due to confidentiality and privacy policy, many hospitals declined interviews with foreign patients.

The findings are generalised in case of foreign patients as MTs and all private hospitals treating foreign patients in India and other global healthcare destinations. Policy implications suggest that private hospitals in developing countries need to provide first-class quality of healthcare as foreign patients look for internationally accredited quality, no waiting time, patient safety, qualified and experienced surgeons, healthcare workers education and experience hospital facilities and post-surgery care with positive healthcare outcomes.

There is little empirical research on the views of inbound MTs, about factors influencing their decision to travel abroad for surgery to India.

The aim of this study is to develop and empirically test an integrated model incorporating the antecedents and consequences of service quality in a higher education context.

This research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The data from three focus groups, conducted at the Central Queensland University (CQU), Rockhampton, Australia, generated key themes and their interrelationships. The theoretical model was then tested using structural equation modelling technique on a sample of 528 university students.

The findings show that information (marketing communications) is more statistically significant than past experience as the antecedents of service quality. The consequences of service quality are composed of trust, satisfaction, and image. Overall, the results suggest a good validity of the theoretical model and the key paths in the model are found statistically significant, except past experience affecting service quality.

The model provides a good explanation of a university brand image, and perceived service quality was found playing an important role in this model. Universities intending to enhance their image are encouraged to consider focusing their efforts on marketing communication information, service quality, student satisfaction and trust.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a model of brand engagement. More specifically, the aim is to evaluate both antecedents and consequences of brand engagement, from a management perspective.

A quantitative survey of 403 firms is undertaken to test the model. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to estimate the parameters of the model.

A reliable and valid measure of brand engagement is established. The SEM model works well, in terms of goodness of fit indices. The results demonstrate that there are major brand performance benefits (consequences) of brand engagement. Additionally, and important for the practical implications, the results show that brand orientation is a major antecedent to brand engagement.

The study needs to be replicated in other countries, with scope to add other explanatory variables for influencing brand engagement. The results have considerable practical benefits for guiding the introduction of measures to enhance brand engagement.

The study builds on earlier (mainly consumer) conceptual approaches to brand engagement, but goes further in that it provides empirical evidence about the nature, antecedents and consequences of brand engagement and further, offers a management rather than consumer perspective. Essentially, the study reveals a new perspective of factors that encourage firms to connect/engage their brands with consumers. Brand engagement is a dual concept, reflecting both a consumer and a firm perspective.

This paper aims to undertake an empirical study to investigate the nature and magnitude of potential benefits that accrue to firms that have a high level of brand orientation.

A quantitative study is undertaken. The sample of firms surveyed included more than 400. The scope of the study included measuring the level of brand orientation among other variables. A conceptual model linking brand orientation and performance is developed and tested.

The overall structural model fits the data well, giving confidence to interpreting the individual paths within the model. The main result is a very strong positive relationship between brand orientation and brand performance. Brand orientation also exerts another, less direct influence on performance, via brand distinctiveness. Innovation mediates the influence of brand distinctiveness.

The most obvious limitation is that the study pertains to one country only at this stage, pending more applications. The implication for firms is a very strong endorsement of the importance of using branding as a central driver of the entire marketing strategy process. The study identifies a number of brand barriers that stand in the way of becoming brand‐oriented. Recognising these brand barriers may assist firms to make progress towards becoming more brand‐oriented.

This is one of the first studies to quantify the performance benefits of being brand‐oriented. The study is also among the first to include the role of brand distinctiveness as a potential influence on brand performance.