Exploring the effects of patient-generated and system-generated information on patients’ online search, evaluation and decision

• Patients can access information on healthcare websites to determinate physicians’ quality.
• We verify the effects of physicians’ information on patients’ online reactions.
• Physicians’ information can be divided into patient-generated information and system-generated information.
• We find that the physicians’ information positively impact patients’ reactions at different stages.
• Moreover, synergies between two kinds of information are positively associated with patients’ decisions.

Owing to the limited information possessed by patients, there exists significant information asymmetry between patients and physicians. In addition, as services are intangible, inseparable, and heterogeneous, patients are difficult to judge the physicians’ service quality. With the development of online healthcare services, healthcare websites currently provide more information for patients, such as patient-generated and system-generated information. Those kinds of information can reflect the quality of physicians’ service outcome and delivery process to help patients to select physicians. However, there is scant research on the role of patient-generated and system-generated information in patients’ online behavior. Collecting data from a healthcare website, this paper develops a two-equation model to verify the effects of two kinds of information on patients’ search, evaluation and decision-making on healthcare websites. The results of our empirical research show that positive patient-generated and system-generated information on physicians’ service quality positively impact patients’ reactions at different stages. Moreover, we also find that synergies between patient-generated and system-generated information are positively associated with patients’ decisions to consult a physician. These findings provide valuable contributions to the online healthcare research.