• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Factors in Customer Decision-Making for Choosing between Public and Private Healthcare Services

Student: Artemova Daria

Supervisor: Kirill Chmel

Faculty: Faculty of Creative Industries

Educational Programme: Advertising and Public Relations (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 9

Year of Graduation: 2021

The study aims to determine provider characteristics that significantly influence consumer decisions in selecting health providers and identify the role of factors related to communication between consumers and health workers in such decisions. The study is based on theoretical models of consumer decision-making and literature on consumer decision-making in choosing healthcare providers and customer satisfaction with health services. In accordance with the goal of the study and the theoretical framework, nine different provider characteristics, namely waiting time, doctor’s expertise, type of provider, cost of healthcare services, explanation of diagnosis, hospital personnel, attention to patients, responsiveness to patient inquiries and provision of information about services are chosen as studied factors. Two methods, namely an analysis of active digital traces and a conjoint analysis, are adapted are used in the present study. The former is used to check the validity of the selected factors, while the latter – to test the significance of factors and define effect sizes. It was found that all factors except the type of provider significantly affect consumer choice of health providers. In terms of the importance of the provider characteristics for consumers, most prominent features were price, provision of information about procedures, waiting time, doctor’s expertise and explanation of diagnosis. This indicated that factors related to communication between patients and healthcare professionals were indeed considered by consumers on a par with more general factors, such as cost of treatment, waiting time and qualification of workers. This paper advances the sparse body of research focusing on the impact of factors related to communication between patient and healthcare personnel and provide valuable insights for both private and public healthcare providers what can be used to build effective marketing communication strategies.

Full text (added May 25, 2021)

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses