Abstract
In this study, we focus on the effects of doctors’ provision of online health consultation service (OHCSV) on the review valence provided by patients. We develop a unique panel dataset based on over 3,000,000 reviews for 493,548 doctors on a leading online healthcare community in China. Coarsened exact matching and difference-in-difference estimators are used to determine causality. Findings corroborate that doctors’ provision of OHCSV increases the review valence posted by patients and significantly changes the valence structure by increasing and decreasing the proportion of positive and negative valences, respectively. Effects of OHCSV also differ among various review dimensions and doctors’ hierarchical levels. Doctors at lower hierarchical levels experience stronger positive provision effect than their counterparts. Such findings contribute to literature on sustainable doctor–patient relationship and expert service, and similarly generate implications for the sustainability of health platforms.
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