Save Face or Save Life: Physicians’ Dilemma in Using Clinical Decision Support Systems

Huigang Liang () and Yajiong Xue ()
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Huigang Liang: Department of Business Information and Technology, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152
Yajiong Xue: Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858

Information Systems Research, 2022, vol. 33, issue 2, 737-758

Abstract: Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) provide advice to physicians that could save patients’ lives, but they could also make physicians feel losing face. Considering the pivotal role of face in social interactions in China, this research attempts to understand Chinese physicians’ dilemma of choosing between saving face or saving patients and how this dilemma makes them reluctant to follow CDSS recommendations. Drawing from the dual process theory, we postulate that physicians’ resistance to CDSS recommendations is reduced by their rational perception of the system’s usefulness and increased by their experiential belief of face loss and that these effects are contingent on two contextual factors, professional autonomy, and time pressure. Based on a longitudinal field survey with 182 physicians and follow-up interviews in a large Chinese hospital, we find support for the opposing effects of face loss and perceived usefulness. Furthermore, we show that face loss has a stronger effect on CDSS resistance at a high level of professional autonomy. In addition, when time pressure is high, perceived usefulness more strongly reduces while face loss more strongly increases CDSS resistance, thus amplifying the dilemma. This research makes a significant contribution by integrating the concept of face loss into information technology resistance research and revealing the dark side of professional autonomy and the paradoxical moderating effect of time pressure in the healthcare context.

Keywords: face loss; professional autonomy; time pressure; resistance; dual process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:737-758

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