The Moderating Effect of Organization Culture on Competition Intensity and Hospital Quality

Abstract

This study empirically tests the relationship between hospital competition intensity and its quality, and the moderating impact of hospital culture on this relationship. An emailed questionnaire collected data from 239 American hospital CEO's to validate the measures and test the hypothesized relationships. The results corroborated the importance of competition intensity as determinant of hospital quality and the positive moderating impact of hospital organization culture as measured here. Future research should expand this model to include other potential determinants of hospital quality such as economic conditions and hospital size. Also, future research should explore other potential moderators and mediators for inclusion in a more elaborate model. While hospitals administrators cannot control the intensity of their competition, and are forced to do everything they can to improve hospital quality (including establishing a helpful organization culture), understanding how to measure these constructs and manage their relationships should be very useful.