Effect of Doctor's Reputation on Patient Appointment in Online Health Communities

Research scarcely explores whether the effect of doctor's reputation on the first-visiting and revisiting patients are identical in online health communities (OHCs). Based on Reputation Theory, the effect of doctor's online and offline reputations on first-visiting and revisiting patients are investigated by using the data from an online medical community. Moreover, the moderating roles of doctor's personal effort and patient disease type are explored. Doctor's reputation can be seen to have a stronger effect on revisiting patient than first-visiting patient. Specifically, doctor's online reputation exerts a positive effect on both first-visiting and revisiting patients, whereas doctor's medical title in doctor's offline reputation has no significant effect. Research results have significant practical values to promote the making of a tendentious resource arrangement in the OHCs.