The Impact of Geographic and Social Proximity on Physicians: Evidence from the Adoption of an Online Health Community

Panpan Wang (), Liuyi He (), Jifeng Luo (), Zhiyan Wu () and Han Zhang ()
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Panpan Wang: School of Management, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China
Liuyi He: Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan 410082, China
Jifeng Luo: Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Zhiyan Wu: School of Management, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai 201620, China
Han Zhang: Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308

Information Systems Research, 2025, vol. 36, issue 2, 690-708

Abstract: Although online doctor consultations are rapidly gaining popularity, physicians must actively participate in physician–patient interaction platforms to fully unlock their potential. Through a social influence lens, this study empirically investigates physician adoption behavior over time across regions in the diffusion of an online health community (OHC). We examined the impacts of geographically and socially close adopters and investigated the interaction of proximity influences and competition in adoption. We collected panel data on 21,654 physicians in 32 cities in three provinces in China from a large Chinese OHC. The results demonstrate that both geographic and social proximity facilitate adoption when local competition is low. However, as local competition increases, the impact of socially close prior adopters increases, whereas that of geographically close prior adopters decreases. This pattern becomes stronger for physicians with lower titles.

Keywords: online health community; social influence; geographic proximity; social proximity; adoption; local competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:690-708

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