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Antecedents of customer loyalty in medical tourism
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With the rise in number of medical travelers exponentially, Indian medical tourism is witnessing a high rate of growth. As many countries are foraying into this promising industry, it is imperative for the medical tourist service providers in India to take cognition of their levels of service in order to meet the expectations of their global consumers. This paper explores the primary antecedents of medical tourists’ loyalty, considering both the functional and the hedonic components of the service. An instrument is also developed to obtain the perceptions of medical tourists as well as to measure the determinants of their loyalty. The major implications of this research are also discussed.
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... Numerous countries regard themselves as ideal destinations for medical tourism; however, many of the key features of medical tourism, as presented in the OECD report "Medical Tourism: Treatments, Markets and Health System Implications," are not widely known (Connell, 2011;OECD, 2011). Among those features, consumer decision making in medical tourism is the most ignored research topic (Padma, 2013). Existent studies on this subject are inadequate because they are based on available datasets, which are subject to industry optimism and boosterism (Hopkins et al., 2010;Johnston et al., 2010;Connell, 2013). ...
... Patients with chronic illnesses were clustered according to the type of clinic where they received treatment and then categorized them as either internal medicine or surgical clinic (Table 3). The distribution of international patients with a chronic illness diagnosis who visited Turkey to receive health care in 2011-2014 appears in Table 4. Cost is the prime motivator for most patients: the high cost of medical procedures drives patients to seek treatment elsewhere (Peters and Sauer, 2011;Padma, 2013;Altin et al., 2011;Connell, 2006;Makrai and Almsafir, 2014;Yu and Ko, 2012;Gray and Poland, 2008;Hall, 2011;Herrick, 2007;Horowitz and Rosensweig, 2007;Ormond, 2011;UNESCAP, 2007). Cost has a greater impact with respect to high out-of-pocket payments (Crooks et al., 2010). ...
Abstract: Medical tourism has grown rapidly with its increased availability in destination countries, which has resulted in intense competition to attract medical tourists. At the same time, the preferred destinations of medical tourists have shifted from developed to developing countries. This is a result of high costs, uneven health services and quality, long waiting lists, and poor access to health-care services in the tourists’ home countries coupled with greater privacy and confidentiality available overseas. The choice of location choice is likely to be affected by the treatment needed. Currently, few empirical studies have taken into account the heterogeneity in treatment types offered at a subnational level. The present study aims to address this gap: it analyzes the factors that affect the location choice of international patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses in need of treatment at surgical or internal medicine clinics in Turkey. The researchers use a panel of annual data for Turkish cities that hosted medical tourists over a 4-year period. It is found that patients who underwent treatment at surgical or internal medicine clinics evidenced different sensitivities to climate conditions, costs, and the ratio of private to total hospitals in their destination cities. However, this research discovered no considerable differences in the responses related to travel convenience or the existence of local medical expertise.
Medikal turizm, hastaların kaliteli ve ekonomik sağlık hizmeti alabilmeleri için kendi ülkeleri dışına gerçekleştirdikleri planlı seyahatler olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Medikal turizmde sağlık hizmetlerinin uluslararası alanda kabul görmüş standartlar doğrultusunda verilmesi hizmet kalitesi bakımından büyük önem arz etmektedir. Medikal turizmde hizmet kalitesini arttıran unsurlardan biri hasta güvenliğinin sağlanmasıdır. Bu çalışmada, medikal turizmde hizmet kalitesi ve hasta güvenliğinin önemi incelenmiştir. Medikal turizmde sağlık hizmetleri kalite standartları açıklanarak, hasta güvenliğinin önemi vurgulanmıştır. Medikal turizmde sağlık hizmeti sunan tüm çalışanların hasta güvenliği hakkında bilgi sahibi olmaları ve hizmetlerin bu bilinç doğrultusunda sunulması gerektiği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
Patients' planned travels to outside of their home countries to get an affordable and qualified health is defined as medical tourism. Providing health services towards international standards and auditing the service providers within the scope of these standards have an essential role in medical tourism. Patient safety is one of the important components of quality improvement in medical tourism. This study evaluates the importance of quality and patient safety in medical tourism. The quality standards of health services in medical tourism is described and the importance of patient safety is emphasised. It is concluded that, the factors increasing perceived quality for patient and patient's companion on patient safety must be determined. Health service providers must be aware of patient safety and the services must be provided towards this awarenessas as much as possible.
If service quality relates to retention of customers at the aggregate level, as other research has indicated, then evidence of its impact on customers’ behavioral responses should be detectable. The authors offer a conceptual model of the impact of service quality on particular behaviors that signal whether customers remain with or defect from a company. Results from a multicompany empirical study examining relationships from the model concerning customers’ behavioral intentions show strong evidence of their being influenced by service quality. The findings also reveal differences in the nature of the quality-intentions link across different dimensions of behavioral intentions. The authors’ discussion centers on ways the results and research approach of their study can be helpful to researchers and managers.
Both practitioners and academics understand that consumer loyalty and satisfaction are linked inextricably. They also understand that this relation is asymmetric. Although loyal consumers are most typically satisfied, satisfaction does not universally translate into loyalty. To explain the satisfaction–loyalty conundrum, the author investigates what aspect of the consumer satisfaction response has implications for loyalty and what portion of the loyalty response is due to this satisfaction component. The analysis concludes that satisfaction is a necessary step in loyalty formation but becomes less significant as loyalty begins to set through other mechanisms. These mechanisms, omitted from consideration in current models, include the roles of personal determinism (“fortitude”) and social bonding at the institutional and personal level. When these additional factors are brought into account, ultimate loyalty emerges as a combination of perceived product superiority, personal fortitude, social bonding, and their synergistic effects. As each fails to be attained or is unattainable by individual firms that serve consumer markets, the potential for loyalty erodes. A disquieting conclusion from this analysis is that loyalty cannot be achieved or pursued as a reasonable goal by many providers because of the nature of the product category or consumer disinterest. For some firms, satisfaction is the only feasible goal for which they should strive; thus, satisfaction remains a worthy pursuit among the consumer marketing community. The disparity between the pursuit of satisfaction versus loyalty, as well as the fundamental content of the loyalty response, poses several investigative directions for the next wave of postconsumption research.
Relationship marketing—establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges—constitutes a major shift in marketing theory and practice. After conceptualizing relationship marketing and discussing its ten forms, the authors (1) theorize that successful relationship marketing requires relationship commitment and trust, (2) model relationship commitment and trust as key mediating variables, (3) test this key mediating variable model using data from automobile tire retailers, and (4) compare their model with a rival that does not allow relationship commitment and trust to function as mediating variables. Given the favorable test results for the key mediating variable model, suggestions for further explicating and testing it are offered.
Western patients are increasingly travelling to developing countries for health care and developing countries are increasingly offering their skills and facilities to paying foreign customers. The potential and implications of this international trade in medical services is explored in this book through analysis of the market.