An Empirical Study on the Determinants of Hospital Brand Asset and Brand Performance

Abstract

Under the rapidly changing business environment, corporations tend to pay attention to managing the brand empirically and in the business practices, recognizing the value of brand as a source of competitive advantage. Although many studies have developed the model of analyzing and managing the brand assets, the research on brand assets coupled with the hospital management is relatively limited. In particular, the changes in consumer behaviors, such as a higher expectation about medical services and the improvement in personal income levels have led to the change in the determinants influencing the brand asset and performances. It means that the medical services experience the paradigm shifts from the supplier-dominant market (i.e., the treatment-centered services), to the market for the consumers (i.e., precautionary medical services). This study empirically examines the impacts brand may have on consumers’ purchasing behaviors to address the importance of brand management in the medical industry. Specifically, this paper would contribute the research in this field in that it extends the existing hospital brand model to develop a new type of brand diagnosis model. That is, this paper focuses on analyzing and estimating the brand asset and performances for the large hospitals rather than on identifying the brand strategy required to obtain the competitive advantage in the theoretical ground. Using a survey method involving the medical consumers in the 5 largest hospitals in Korea, the determinants of the brand asset and performances were analyzed. The results show that, although the effect of brand performance on the set of variables, such as brand power, differs widely across characteristics like hospital size, these factors play an essential role in managing hospital brand effectively. As the importance of the hospital brand increases over time, the management need to find ways to reinforce brand reputation by measuring and managing key factors influencing hospital brand. This empirical study provides the practical implications applicable to the hospital industry in developing brand strategies in a more efficient way.