IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jinfst/v73y2022i9p1279-1296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is my doctor around me? Investigating the impact of doctors’ presence on patients’ review behaviors on an online health platform

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoxiao Liu
  • Mingye Hu
  • Bo Sophia Xiao
  • Jingbo Shao

Abstract

Patient‐generated online reviews are well‐established as an important source of information for people to evaluate doctors' quality and improve health outcomes. However, how such reviews are generated in the first place is not well examined. This study examines a hitherto unexplored social driver of online review generation—doctors' presence on online health platforms, which results in the reviewers (i.e., patients) and the reviewees (i.e., doctors) coexisting in the same medium. Drawing on the Stimulus‐Organism‐Response theory as an overarching framework, we advance hypotheses about the impact of doctors' presence on their patients' review behaviors, including review volume, review effort, and emotional expression. To achieve causal identification, we conduct a quasi‐experiment on a large online health platform and employ propensity score matching and difference‐in‐difference estimation. Our findings show that doctors' presence increases their patients' review volume. Furthermore, doctors' presence motivates their patients to exert greater effort and express more positive emotions in the review text. The results also show that the presence of doctors with higher professional titles has a stronger effect on review volume than the presence of doctors with lower professional titles. Our findings offer important implications both for research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoxiao Liu & Mingye Hu & Bo Sophia Xiao & Jingbo Shao, 2022. "Is my doctor around me? Investigating the impact of doctors’ presence on patients’ review behaviors on an online health platform," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(9), pages 1279-1296, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:73:y:2022:i:9:p:1279-1296
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.24632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24632
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.24632?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rishika Rishika & Ashish Kumar & Ramkumar Janakiraman & Ram Bezawada, 2013. "The Effect of Customers' Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 108-127, March.
    2. Urs Fischbacher & Simon Gachter, 2010. "Social Preferences, Beliefs, and the Dynamics of Free Riding in Public Goods Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 541-556, March.
    3. Robert G. Fichman & Rajiv Kohli & Ranjani Krishnan, 2011. "Editorial Overview ---The Role of Information Systems in Healthcare: Current Research and Future Trends," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 419-428, September.
    4. Ellen L. Rubenstein, 2015. "“They are always there for me”: The convergence of social support and information in an online breast cancer community," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(7), pages 1418-1430, July.
    5. Arman Cohan & Sydney Young & Andrew Yates & Nazli Goharian, 2017. "Triaging content severity in online mental health forums," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 68(11), pages 2675-2689, November.
    6. Monic Sun, 2012. "How Does the Variance of Product Ratings Matter?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(4), pages 696-707, April.
    7. Lu (Lucy) Yan & Xiangbin Yan & Yong Tan & Sherry X. Sun, 2019. "Shared Minds: How Patients Use Collaborative Information Sharing via Social Media Platforms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(1), pages 9-26, January.
    8. Seyed Amin Mirlohi Falavarjani & Jelena Jovanovic & Hossein Fani & Ali A. Ghorbani & Zeinab Noorian & Ebrahim Bagheri, 2021. "On the causal relation between real world activities and emotional expressions of social media users," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(6), pages 723-743, June.
    9. Hang Yin & Shuang Zheng & William Yeoh & Jie Ren, 2021. "How online review richness impacts sales: An attribute substitution perspective," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(7), pages 901-917, July.
    10. Wendy W. Moe & David A. Schweidel, 2012. "Online Product Opinions: Incidence, Evaluation, and Evolution," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 372-386, May.
    11. Dandan Qiao & Shun-Yang Lee & Andrew B. Whinston & Qiang Wei, 2020. "Financial Incentives Dampen Altruism in Online Prosocial Contributions: A Study of Online Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1361-1375, December.
    12. Warut Khern-am-nuai & Karthik Kannan & Hossein Ghasemkhani, 2018. "Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Rewards for Contributing Reviews in an Online Platform," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 871-892, December.
    13. Robert S. Chirinko, 1990. "Altruism, Egoism, And The Role Of Social Capital In The Private Provision Of Public Goods," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(3), pages 275-290, November.
    14. Susan F. Lu & Huaxia Rui, 2018. "Can We Trust Online Physician Ratings? Evidence from Cardiac Surgeons in Florida," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2557-2573, June.
    15. Lu (Lucy) Yan, 2020. "The Kindness of Commenters: An Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Perceived and Received Support for Weight‐Loss Outcomes," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(6), pages 1448-1466, June.
    16. Judith A. Chevalier & Yaniv Dover & Dina MayzlinDina Mayzlin, 2018. "Channels of Impact: User Reviews When Quality Is Dynamic and Managers Respond," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(5), pages 688-709, September.
    17. Danish H. Saifee & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng & Indranil R. Bardhan & Atanu Lahiri, 2020. "Are Online Reviews of Physicians Reliable Indicators of Clinical Outcomes? A Focus on Chronic Disease Management," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1282-1300, December.
    18. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    19. Chong (Alex) Wang & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Il-Horn Hann, 2018. "Socially Nudged: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Friends’ Social Influence in Online Product Ratings," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 641-655, September.
    20. Keller, Kevin Lane, 1987. "Memory Factors in Advertising: The Effect of Advertising Retrieval Cues on Brand Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 316-333, December.
    21. Paulo B. Goes & Mingfeng Lin & Ching-man Au Yeung, 2014. "“Popularity Effect” in User-Generated Content: Evidence from Online Product Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 222-238, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marios Kokkodis & Theodoros Lappas, 2020. "Your Hometown Matters: Popularity-Difference Bias in Online Reputation Platforms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 412-430, June.
    2. Cheng Zhao & Chong Alex Wang, 2023. "A cross-site comparison of online review manipulation using Benford’s law," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 365-406, March.
    3. Xitong Li, 2018. "Impact of Average Rating on Social Media Endorsement: The Moderating Role of Rating Dispersion and Discount Threshold," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 739-754, September.
    4. Christoph Schneider & Markus Weinmann & Peter N.C. Mohr & Jan vom Brocke, 2021. "When the Stars Shine Too Bright: The Influence of Multidimensional Ratings on Online Consumer Ratings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3871-3898, June.
    5. Ji Wu & Haichuan Zhao & Haipeng (Allan) Chen, 2021. "Coupons or Free Shipping? Effects of Price Promotion Strategies on Online Review Ratings," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 633-652, June.
    6. Dandan Qiao & Shun-Yang Lee & Andrew B. Whinston & Qiang Wei, 2020. "Financial Incentives Dampen Altruism in Online Prosocial Contributions: A Study of Online Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1361-1375, December.
    7. Peiyu Chen & Lorin M. Hitt & Yili Hong & Shinyi Wu, 2021. "Measuring Product Type and Purchase Uncertainty with Online Product Ratings: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Application," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(4), pages 1470-1489, December.
    8. Tao Lu & May Yuan & Chong (Alex) Wang & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, 2022. "Histogram Distortion Bias in Consumer Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 8963-8978, December.
    9. Liuan Wang & Lu (Lucy) Yan & Tongxin Zhou & Xitong Guo & Gregory R. Heim, 2020. "Understanding Physicians’ Online-Offline Behavior Dynamics: An Empirical Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 537-555, June.
    10. Chan, Haksin & Yang, Morgan X. & Zeng, Kevin J., 2022. "Bolstering ratings and reviews systems on multi-sided platforms: A co-creation perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 208-217.
    11. Hülya Karaman, 2021. "Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias in Online Review Distributions and Increase Their Representativeness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4420-4445, July.
    12. Sungsik Park & Woochoel Shin & Jinhong Xie, 2021. "The Fateful First Consumer Review," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 481-507, May.
    13. Hu, Xin & He, Liuyi & Liu, Junjun, 2022. "Status reinforcing: Unintended rating bias on online shopping platforms," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Pei-Yu Chen & Yili Hong & Ying Liu, 2018. "The Value of Multidimensional Rating Systems: Evidence from a Natural Experiment and Randomized Experiments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(10), pages 4629-4647, October.
    15. Dominik Gutt & Jürgen Neumann & Steffen Zimmermann & Dennis Kundisch & Jianqing Chen, 2018. "Design of Review Systems - A Strategic Instrument to shape Online Review Behavior and Economic Outcomes," Working Papers Dissertations 42, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    16. Carlson, Keith & Kopalle, Praveen K. & Riddell, Allen & Rockmore, Daniel & Vana, Prasad, 2023. "Complementing human effort in online reviews: A deep learning approach to automatic content generation and review synthesis," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 54-74.
    17. Pauwels, Koen & Aksehirli, Zeynep & Lackman, Andrew, 2016. "Like the ad or the brand? Marketing stimulates different electronic word-of-mouth content to drive online and offline performance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 639-655.
    18. Erfan Rezvani & Christian Rojas, 2022. "Firm responsiveness to consumers' reviews: The effect on online reputation," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 898-922, November.
    19. Antioco, Michael & Coussement, Kristof, 2018. "Misreading of consumer dissatisfaction in online product reviews: Writing style as a cause for bias," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 301-310.
    20. Qian Wang & Michael Chau & Chih-Hung Peng & Eric W. T. Ngai, 2022. "Using the Anchoring Effect and the Cultural Dimensions Theory to Study Customers’ Online Rating Behaviors," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1451-1463, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jinfst:v:73:y:2022:i:9:p:1279-1296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.