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Perceived service quality’s effect on patient loyalty through patient attitude within the context of traditional Chinese medicine

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Abstract

Drawing on a sample of 245 patients from a tertiary general hospital in China, we examine the effect of perceived service quality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on patient loyalty. At the same time, both the mediating effect of patient attitude and the moderating effect of familiarity are tested. We find that perceived service quality of TCM has a positive effect on patient loyalty and this relationship is mediated by patient attitude. We also find that moderating effect of patient familiarity with TCM is not supported by the study. Finally, implications for management theory and practice are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank anonymous referees and editors whose comments helped to improve our study. This study was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71572130), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 22120180074).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Hongbo Li, Li Wang & Xuan Xia

  2. Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Hongbo Liu

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  1. Hongbo Li
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  2. Li Wang
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  3. Xuan Xia
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  4. Hongbo Liu
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Correspondence to Hongbo Liu.

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Li, H., Wang, L., Xia, X. et al. Perceived service quality’s effect on patient loyalty through patient attitude within the context of traditional Chinese medicine. J Comb Optim 42, 1030–1041 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10878-019-00520-z

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