Abstract

Paid online healthcare is becoming pervasive among physicians and patients alike especially in developing countries such as China and India. However, there is little research about what influences the number of sales an online physician receives. This paper examines the effect of trust and price on online sales performance for patients with high mortality rate (high-risk) and low mortality rate (low-risk) diseases. Using logarithmic linear regression modeling, we analyze the data of 2,355 physicians from 457 hospitals in a Chinese online healthcare service platform. The result of this study show that the number of a physician’s orders is positively associated with price as well as their trustworthiness reflected by ability, reputation and benevolence. Our study contributes to the existing theories of trust and price-perceived quality relationships, as well as provides a guideline to help online healthcare practitioners to effectively improve their sales performance.

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