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ABSTRACT
Online healthcare communities (OHCs) have become increasingly popular and now impact the way that doctors connect with patients. In the OHCs, many doctors have become multitype service providers. Considering that doctors’ contributions to online free services and the private benefits of online paid services are both important, it is vital for platforms to encourage doctors’ online participation. Yet little is known about the spillover effects of the contributions to online free services on doctors’ private benefits regarding paid services. In our study, we investigate the relationship between online free services and the private benefits of online paid services based on the theory of the spillover effects and the signaling theory. We analyze a panel data set from 1,349 doctors participating in an OHCs in China. Our results indicate that participation in online free services significantly increases the private benefits of family doctors before a certain value. Moreover, a doctor’s ranking has a moderating effect on this relationship. Our results highlight the spillover effects of an online free service and make contributions to signaling theory, and they have important implications for doctors, OHCs platform, and governments.
Acknowledgments
This study was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 71622002, 71771065, 71531007, 71471048, 71401046, 71871074, 71871073).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Min Zhang
MIN ZHANG ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate in information systems at the Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Her research focuses on online health communities, social media, and social networks in healthcare. Her work has been published in Expert Systems with Applications and the proceedings of International Conference on Smart Health.
Xitong Guo
XITONG GUO ([email protected]; corresponding author) is a professor of information systems at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems at the City University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering at the University of Science and Technology of China. His research focuses on eHealth. His work has been published in Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Journal of the AIS, European Journal of Information Systems, and Decision Support Systems, among many others.
Tianshi Wu
TIANSHI WU ([email protected]; second corresponding author) is an assistant professor of information systems at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in information technology (IT) management from Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on IT business value, e-health, and learning curves in service organizations, such as hospitals and customs. His work has been presented in many journals and conferences, including Decision Support Systems, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, the Production and Operations Management Society Annual Meeting, and the Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, among others.