Online selection of a physician by patients: Empirical study from elaboration likelihood perspective

Research concept model. According to Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Service Quality theory, service quality and eWOM have positive effects on patient consulting intention. Disease risk increases the importance of service quality on intention, and decreases the importance of eWOM on intention. Meanwhile, disease knowledge amplifies the effects of service quality on intention and abates the effects of eWOM on intention. Our hypotheses were shown in the Fig. 1., H1 to H4. By collecting data from an online healthcare in China, we verified most of the hypotheses, and only H4a was not proved.128