Exploring the Peer Effect of Physicians’ and Patients’ Participation Behavior: Evidence from Online Health Communities

Qiuju Yin, Haoyue Fan, Yijie Wang, Chenxi Guo and Xingzhi Cui
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Qiuju Yin: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100089, China
Haoyue Fan: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100089, China
Yijie Wang: School of Foreign Languages, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
Chenxi Guo: School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100089, China
Xingzhi Cui: International Department, Beijing 101 Middle School, Beijing 100084, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Background: Little research has studied the peer effect of physicians and patients in online health communities (OHCs) simultaneously. The study investigates the impact of the focal physician’s peers (F-peers) on the focal physician (F-physician), and the impact of patients of the focal physician’s peers (F-P-patients) on the focal physician’s patients (F-patients). Moreover, based on brand extension and accessible–diagnosable theories, this study explores the moderating effects of the intensity of F-peers’ knowledge sharing behavior and department reputation. Methods: This study collects data of 3297 physicians and related patients from Haodf.com platform between January 2019 and December 2019. Both two-way fixed effect and panel negative binomial regression are adopted to quantify the effects. Results: Results show that the behavior of F-peers positively affects the behavior of the F-physician, while the behavior of F-P-patients positively affects the behavior of F-patients. Moreover, both the intensity of F-peers’ knowledge sharing behavior and department reputation have a compound moderating effect. Conclusions: This study contributes to the literature of peer effects by constructing the conceptual framework of different types of individual participation behaviors in OHCs. The findings offer practical guides for establishing an incentive mechanism and formulating peer incentives or competition strategies in OHCs.

Keywords: online health communities; peer effect; physicians’ knowledge sharing behavior; patients’ services evaluating behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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