IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v59y2017icp254-266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Barriers to business relations between medical tourism facilitators and medical professionals

Author

Listed:
  • Skountridaki, Lila

Abstract

This paper examines facets of the developing business relations between two important actors in the supply-chain of transnational healthcare: medical tourism facilitators and medical doctors (MDs) practicing privately and internationalising their services. The empirical focus is Greece, an emerging destination for medical care. Drawing on the sociology of the professions as an analytical framework, rich qualitative data reveals a conflictual aspect in the relation between the two actors, and informs the literature on transnational healthcare of barriers to market development. Particularly, MDs practicing privately often resist what is perceived to be medical tourism facilitators' pressures to control the 'rules of the game' in the submarket which inhibits their collaboration. The paper contributes, thus, to the sociology of the professions by bringing to light a new challenge for MDs engaged in the transnational business arena, represented here by the facilitators; and encourages tourism practitioners to consider MDs' self-understanding, attitudes, and expectations.

Suggested Citation

  • Skountridaki, Lila, 2017. "Barriers to business relations between medical tourism facilitators and medical professionals," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 254-266.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:254-266
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2016.07.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517716301169
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.07.008?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. Peay, Marilyn Y. & Peay, Edmund R., 1988. "The role of commercial sources in the adoption of a new drug," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 1183-1189, January.
    2. Cabiedes, Laura & Guillén, Ana, 2001. "Adopting and adapting managed competition: health care reform in Southern Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1205-1217, April.
    3. Salhani, Daniel & Coulter, Ian, 2009. "The politics of interprofessional working and the struggle for professional autonomy in nursing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1221-1228, April.
    4. Arnold, Patricia J., 2005. "Disciplining domestic regulation: the World Trade Organization and the market for professional services," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 299-330, May.
    5. Tountas, Yannis & Karnaki, Panagiota & Pavi, Elpida & Souliotis, Kyriakos, 2005. "The "unexpected" growth of the private health sector in Greece," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 167-180, October.
    6. Jean-François Chanlat, 2007. "Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour," Post-Print halshs-00656905, HAL.
    7. Ormond, Meghann, 2015. "Solidarity by demand? Exit and voice in international medical travel – The case of Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 305-312.
    8. Connell, John, 2013. "Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-13.
    9. Lee, Hwee Khei & Fernando, Yudi, 2015. "The antecedents and outcomes of the medical tourism supply chain," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 148-157.
    10. Scott L. Greer & Simone Rauscher, 2011. "When Does Market‐Making Make Markets? EU Health Services Policy at Work in the United Kingdom and Germany," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 797-822, July.
    11. Chuang, Thomas C. & Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lee, Yachi, 2014. "The main paths of medical tourism: From transplantation to beautification," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 49-58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Soojung Kim & Charles Arcodia & Insin Kim, 2019. "Critical Success Factors of Medical Tourism: The Case of South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Hallow Al-Talabani & Hasan Kilic & Ali Ozturen & Suhad Othman Qasim, 2019. "Advancing Medical Tourism in the United Arab Emirates: Toward a Sustainable Health Care System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Iva Bulatovic & Katia Iankova, 2021. "Barriers to Medical Tourism Development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Tyrone T. Lin & Hui-Tzu Yen, 2020. "The Criteria of Optimal Training Cost Allocation for Sustainable Value in Aesthetic Medicine Industry," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Dalia Perkumienė & Milita Vienažindienė & Biruta Švagždienė, 2019. "Cooperation Perspectives in Sustainable Medical Tourism: The Case of Lithuania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Pham Ngoc Thuy & Le Nguyen Hau & Nguyen Kim Ngoc Duyen, 2019. "A value perspective of service interaction quality: the case of immigrants returning to native countries as medical tourists," International Journal of Quality Innovation, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Peiman Ghasemi & Amir Mehdiabadi & Cristi Spulbar & Ramona Birau, 2021. "Ranking of Sustainable Medical Tourism Destinations in Iran: An Integrated Approach Using Fuzzy SWARA-PROMETHEE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-32, January.

    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. Hilšerová Monika, 2022. "Medical Tourists’ Satisfaction and Decision-Making Factors with a focus on the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 11(1-2), pages 60-83, December.
    2. Jay Parekh & Azain Jaffer & Urvi Bhanushali & Shekhar Shukla, 2021. "Disintermediation in medical tourism through blockchain technology: an analysis using value-focused thinking approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 69-96, March.
    3. Jay Parekh & Azain Jaffer & Urvi Bhanushali & Shekhar Shukla, 0. "Disintermediation in medical tourism through blockchain technology: an analysis using value-focused thinking approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.
    4. Neha Malhotra & Kartik Dave, 2022. "An Assessment of Competitiveness of Medical Tourism Industry in India: A Case of Delhi NCR," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 215-228, December.
    5. Inessa Tyan & Antonio Guevara-Plaza & Mariemma I. Yagüe, 2021. "The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Medical Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-12, November.
    6. de la Hoz-Correa, Andrea & Muñoz-Leiva, Francisco & Bakucz, Márta, 2018. "Past themes and future trends in medical tourism research: A co-word analysis," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 200-211.
    7. Dalia Perkumienė & Milita Vienažindienė & Biruta Švagždienė, 2019. "Cooperation Perspectives in Sustainable Medical Tourism: The Case of Lithuania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Loh, Chung-Ping A., 2015. "Trends and structural shifts in health tourism: Evidence from seasonal time-series data on health-related travel spending by Canada during 1970–2010," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 173-180.
    9. Ahmet Savaşan & Mesut Yalvaç & Hüseyin Uzunboylu & Ediz Tuncel, 2018. "The attitudes of education, tourism and health sector managers in Northern Cyprus towards Education on Health Tourism," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 285-303, December.
    10. Kaspar, Heidi & Abegg, Alwin & Reddy, Sunita, 2023. "Of odysseys and miracles: A narrative approach on therapeutic mobilities for ayurveda treatment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    11. Peiman Ghasemi & Amir Mehdiabadi & Cristi Spulbar & Ramona Birau, 2021. "Ranking of Sustainable Medical Tourism Destinations in Iran: An Integrated Approach Using Fuzzy SWARA-PROMETHEE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-32, January.
    12. Siskou, Olga & Kaitelidou, Daphne & Papakonstantinou, Vasiliki & Liaropoulos, Lycourgos, 2008. "Private health expenditure in the Greek health care system: Where truth ends and the myth begins," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2-3), pages 282-293, December.
    13. Yuliani Suseno & Ashly H. Pinnington, 2018. "Building social capital and human capital for internationalization: The role of network ties and knowledge resources," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 1081-1106, December.
    14. Laura Kemppainen & Veera Koskinen & Harley Bergroth & Eetu Marttila & Teemu Kemppainen, 2021. "Health and Wellness–Related Travel: A Scoping Study of the Literature in 2010-2018," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, May.
    15. Boutsioli, Zoe, 2007. "Concentration in the Greek private hospital sector: A descriptive analysis," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 212-225, July.
    16. Santanu Mandal & Souvik Roy & G. Amar Raju, 2016. "Tourism supply chain agility: an empirical examination using resource-based view," International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(2), pages 151-173.
    17. Mihret, Dessalegn Getie & Mirshekary, Soheila & Yaftian, Ali, 2020. "Accounting professionalization, the state, and transnational capitalism: The case of Iran," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Csapó János & Marton Gergely, 2017. "The Role and Importance of Spa and Wellness Tourism in Hungary's Tourism Industry," Czech Journal of Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 6(1), pages 55-68, June.
    19. Ashley, Louise & Boussebaa, Mehdi & Friedman, Sam & Harrington, Brooke & Heusinkveld, Stefan & Gustafsson, Stefanie & Muzio, Daniel, 2023. "Professions and inequality: challenges, controversies, and opportunities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119522, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Suddaby, Roy & Cooper, David J. & Greenwood, Royston, 2007. "Transnational regulation of professional services: Governance dynamics of field level organizational change," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 333-362.

    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:eee:touman:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:254-266. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    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.