Comparative Analysis and Empirical Testing of Major Theories’ Contextual Fits in the Medical Tourism Field

Abstract

Purpose - The medical tourism industry is recognized as one of the most promising industries in Korea. Identifying the factors affecting foreign medical tourist purchasing behaviors has become increasingly important to the industry’s sustainable development. In the field of medical tourism, major approaches adopted to explain medical tourist purchasing intentions can be categorized into three groups: the rational choice model, the socio-cultural approach, and the institutional approach. The first purpose of this study is to compare these three theories, and to examine which has greater explanatory power in describing medical tourist behaviors. The second purpose is to find the contextual fit, or the context each theory fits well. Design/Methodology/Approach - Key constructs for each model are developed to compare the explanatory power of the three approaches (the rational choice model, the socio-cultural approach, and the institutional approach). To examine how medical tourist personal characteristics impose restrictions on the scope of the explanation of the three approaches, three constructs (innovativeness, Internet search competence, and gender) were introduced as moderating variables. The relationship between independent variables and dependent variable (purchasing intention) may or may not be affected by the moderating variables. Findings - Judging from hypotheses testing, it can be roughly said that the socio-cultural approach is the most explanatory, followed by the rational choice model and the institutional approach. The rational choice model fits well when medical tourists are innovative, competent at Internet searches, and male. The socio-cultural approach fits less or poorly when medical tourists are innovative and competent at Internet searches. The institutional approach fits less when tourists are competent at Internet searches. Research Implications - Three major theories in the field of medical tourism have not been empirically compared to see which has greater explanatory power in describing medical tourist behaviors. The attempt to find the major theories’ contextual fits is a kind of investigation that is rare and pioneering in this area of research. This study’s findings are expected to facilitate a similar kind of research.