Social and economic benefits of doctors on online health-care platforms based on the social capital theory

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the factors and mechanism which influence the doctor’s social and economic benefits from the perspective of social capital.Design/methodology/approachThis paper mainly investigates the factors and mechanism influencing the doctor's social and economic benefits from the perspective of social capital and then constructs a doctor's social capital model and discusses the effects of doctor's social capital on their economic and social benefits; what is more, this paper also considers the moderating effect of patients’ group behavior.FindingsThe results show that the doctor's social capital has a positive and significant effect on doctor's economic benefits, while it has a negative and significant effect on doctors' social benefits. Patients’ group behavior plays an important moderating role; in particular, the number of online patients of doctors can effectively strengthen follow-up patients’ positive perception of the doctor capital, while the number of offline patients has a negative effect on doctors’ economic benefits, but it can reduce its negative impact on doctors’ social benefits by establishing trust between patient and physician.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the relevant research of social capital theory in the medical field and broadens the research about online health care. For platforms, they should give more attention to doctors and their income issues, which is of great significance for their healthy and sustainable development.