Determinants of Brand Loyalty and Brand Equity in Personal Health Assistant Services for Hypertension Patients of a Private Hospital in Thailand
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the determinants of brand equity in personal health assistant services for hypertension patients. Research design, data and methodology: Research conceptual framework was constructed with six variables, namely, perceived service quality, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, brand image, brand loyalty, and brand equity. Samples of 500 patients with hypertension symptoms were collected for the analysis. Sampling techniques of purposive sampling, stratified random sampling, and convenience sampling were used to scope the target population, divide samples proportionally between age groups, and collect data from available respondents. Before distribution of questionnaire, Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) and pilot test were conducted to validate the reliability of variables measurement items. Data obtained has applied Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for analysis. Results: Brand loyalty is the strongest indicator of brand equity. Perceived service quality significantly impact satisfaction, which leads to preferences and continual behavior on brand loyalty. Brand loyalty also positively impacted brand image that formulated from word-of-mouth from other consumers. Conclusions: Marketers and brand managers should emphasize on building superior service quality and experience, the fundamental ground, in order to create satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth, branding assets of image, loyalty and ultimately brand equity in personal health assistance service.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The submitting author warrants that the submission is original and that she/he is the author of the submission together with the named co-authors; to the extend the submission incorporates text passages, figures, data, or other material from the work of others, the submitting author has obtained any necessary permission.
Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY What does this mean?). This is to get more legal certainty about what readers can do with published articles, and thus a wider dissemination and archiving, which in turn makes publishing with this journal more valuable for you, the authors.
References
Aaker, D. A. (1991). Managing brand equity capitalizing on the value of a brand name (1st ed.). The Free Press.
Adom, D., Hussein, E. K., & Agyem, J. A. (2018). Theoretical and conceptual framework: Mandatory ingredients of a quality research. International Journal of Scientific Research, 7(1), 438-441.
Almsalam, S. (2014). The effects of customer expectation and perceived service quality on customer satisfaction. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 3(8), 79-84.
Altaf, M., Tabassum, N., & Mokhtar, S. S. M. (2018). Brand equity and the role of emergency medical care service quality of private cardiac institutes: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 12(1), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-09-2016-0046
AMA Digital Health Study. (2020, February). AMA digital health research: Physicians’ motivations and requirements for adopting digital health adoption and attitudinal shifts from 2016 to 2019. American Medical Association. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-02/ama-digital-health-study.pdf
Ampaw, E. M., Chai, J., Liang, B., Tsai, S.-B., & Frempong, J. (2020). Assessment on health care service quality and patients’ satisfaction in Ghana. Kybernetes, 49(12), 3047-3068. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-06-2019-0409
Andaleeb, S. S. (2001). Service quality perceptions and patient satisfaction: a study of hospitals in a developing country. Social Science & Medicine, 52(9), 1359-1370.
Arbuckle, J. (1995). AMOS: Analysis of moment structures user’s guide. Small Waters.
Asenso-Okyere, W. K., Anum, A., Osei-Akoto, I., & Adukonu, A. (1998). Cost recovery in Ghana: are there any changes in healthcare seeking behaviour. Health Policy and Planning, 13(2), 181-188.
Atilgan, E., Aksoy, S., & Akinci, S. (2005). Determinants of the brand equity: a verification approach in the beverage industry in turkey. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 23(3), 237-248.
Bambauer-Sachse, S., & Mangold, S. (2011). Brand equity dilution through negative online word-of-mouth communication. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(1), 38-45.
Bellio, E., & Buccoliero, L. (2021). Main factors affecting perceived quality in healthcare: a patient perspective approach. The TQM Journal, 33(7), 176-192. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-11-2020-0274
Boakye, K. G., Blankson, C., Prybutok, V. R., & Qin, H. (2017). An assessment of national healthcare service delivery: a Ghanaian illustration. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 34(5), 649-666.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-12-2014-0200
Boo, S., Busser, J., & Baloglu, S. (2009). A model of customer-based brand equity and its application to multiple destinations. Tourism Management, 30(2), 219-231.
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen, & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models (pp. 136-162). Sage.
Chahal, H., & Bala, M. (2012). Significant components of service brand equity in healthcare sector. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 25(4), 343-362. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526861211221518
Cham, T. H., Cheng, B. L., Low, M. P., & Cheok, J. B. C. (2021). Brand image as the competitive edge for hospitals in medical tourism. European Business Review, 33(1), 31-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-10-2019-0269
Cham, T. H., Lim, Y. M., Aik, N. C., & Tay, A. G. M. (2016). Antecedents of hospital brand image and the relationships with medical tourists’ behavioral intention. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 10(4), 412-431. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-02-2016-0012
Chaudhuri, A. (1997). Consumption emotion and perceived risk: A macro-analytic approach. Journal of Business Research, 39(2), 81-92.
Chih-Chung, C., Chang, C., Wei-Chun, L., & Yau-Nang, L. (2012). The effect of advertisement frequency on the advertisement attitude the controlled effects of brand image and spokesperson’s credibility. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 57, 352-359.
Cho, E., & Fiore, A. M. (2015). Conceptualization of a holistic brand image measure for fashion related brands. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 32(4), 255-265.
Das, G., & Mukherjee, S. (2016). A measure of medical tourism destination brand equity. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 10(1), 104-128. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-04-2015-0015
Datta, D. K., Guthrie, J. P., & Wright, P. M. (2005). Human resource management and labor productivity: does industry matter?. Academy of Management Journal, 48(1), 135-145.
Dayan, M., Al Kuwaiti, I. A., Husain, Z., Ng, P. Y., & Dayan, A. (2022). Factors influencing patient loyalty to outpatient medical services: an empirical analysis of the UAE's government healthcare system. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 39(1), 176-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-11-2020-0373
De Keyser, A., Verleye, K., Lemon, K. N., Keiningham, T. L., & Klaus, P. (2020). Moving the customer experience field forward: introducing the touchpoints, context, qualities (TCQ) nomenclature. Journal of Service Research, 23(9), 1-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670520928390
Dimitriadis, E., & Zilakaki, E. (2019). The effect of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty in mobile telephone companies. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 3(4), 433-450.
Do, Q., & Vu, T. (2020). Understanding consumer satisfaction with railway transportation service: an application of 7Ps marketing mix. Management Science Letters, 10(6), 1341-1350.
Erden, T., Swait, J., Broniarczyk, S., Chakravarti, D., Kapferer, J. N., Keane, M., Roberts, J., Steenkamp, J. B. E. M., & Zettelmeyer, F. (1999). Brand equity, consumer learning and choice. Marketing Letters, 10(3), 301-18.
Farquhar, P. H. (1989). Managing brand equity. Marketing Research, 1, 24-33.
Fatima, T., Malik, S. A., & Shabbir, A. (2018). Hospital healthcare service quality, patient satisfaction and loyalty: An investigation in context of private healthcare systems. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 35(6), 1195-1214. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-02-2017-0031
Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. (2020, September 22). What is digital health?. https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health-center-excellence/what-digital-health
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.
Gonçalves, F. M. R. R., Cândido, C. J. F., & Feliciano, I. M. P. L. (2020). Inertia, group conformity and customer loyalty in healthcare in the information age. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(3), 307-330.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-08-2019-0184
Grönroos, C. (1982). Strategic management and marketing in the service sector. Chartwell-Bratt.
Hair, J., Black, W., Babin, B., Anderson, R., & Tatham, R. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Pearson Education.
Hair, J. F., Harrison, D., & Risher, J. (2018). Marketing research in the 21st century: Opportunities and challenges. Brazilian Journal of Marketing, 17(5), 666-699. https://doi.org/10.5585/bjm.v17i5.4173
Hulin, C., Netemeyer, R. G., & Cudeck, R. (2001). Can a reliability coefficient be too high?. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 10(1), 55-58.
Jalilvand, M. R., & Samiei, N. (2012). The effect of electronic word of mouth on brand image and purchase intention: an empirical study in the automobile industry in Iran. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 30(4), 460-476.
Jöreskog, K. G. (1969). A general approach to confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 34(2), 183-202.
Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. The Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1-22.
Koh, R. (2021, October 18). Thailand: Business opportunities in digital health. Switzerland Global Enterprise. https://www.s-ge.com/en/publication/guide/20213-c3-thailand-digital-health-medt2
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L. C., & Piercy, N. (2017). Principles of marketing. Pearson.
Martínez-Caro, E., Cegarra-Navarro, J. G., & Solano-Lorente, M. (2013). Understanding patient e-loyalty toward online health care services. Health Care Management Review, 38(1), 61-70. https://doi.org/10.1097/HMR.0b013e31824b1c6b
Maru File, K., Judd, B. B., & Prince, R. A. (1992). Interactive marketing: The influence of participation on positive word‐of‐mouth and referrals. Journal of Services Marketing, 6(4), 5-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876049210037113
NHS. (2019, October 23). Overview of high blood pressure (hypertension). https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/high-blood-pressure-hypertension/
Oliver, R. L. (1981). Measurement and evaluation of satisfaction processes in retail settings. Journal of Retailing, 57(3), 25-48.
Oliver, R. L. (1997). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. McGraw-Hill.
Oliver, R. L. (1999). Whence Consumer Loyalty. Journal of Marketing, 63, 33-34. https://doi.org/10.2307/1252099
Pakdil, F., & Harwood, T. N. (2005). Patient satisfaction in a preoperative assessment clinic: an analysis using SERVQUAL dimensions. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 16(1), 15-30.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12-40.
Polegato, R., & Bjerke, R. (2019). Looking forward: anticipation enhances service experiences. Journal of Services Marketing, 33(2), 148-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2018-0064
Powers, T. L., Sheng, S., & Li, J. J. (2016). Provider and relational determinants of customer solution performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 18(3), 1-10.
Riezebos, R. (2003). Brand management: A theoretical and practical approach. Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Rosario, A. B., Sotgiu, F., De Valck, K., & Bijmolt, T. H. A. (2016). The effect of electronic word of mouth on sales: a meta-analytic review of platform, product, and metric factors. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(3), 297-318.
Ruiz-Fernández, D., Marcos-Jorquera, D., Iglesias, V. G., & Vives, V. (2017). Empowerment of patients with hypertension through BPM, IoT and remote sensing. Sensors, 17(10), 2273.
Shekhar Kumar, R., Dash, S., & Chandra Purwar, P. (2013). The nature and antecedents of brand equity and its dimensions. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 31(2), 141-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501311312044
Sierra, J., & McQuitty, S. (2005). Service providers and customers: social exchange theory and service loyalty. Journal of Services Marketing, 19(6), 392-400.
Soper, D. S. (n.d.). A-priori sample size calculator for structural equation models. www.danielsoper.com/statcalc/default.aspx
Spreng, R. A., & Singh, A. K. (1993). An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale and the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. Enhancing Knowledge Development in Marketing, 4(1), 1-6.
Thailand Board of Investment. (n.d.). Thailand: Towards becoming no.1 medical hub of Asia.
https://www.boi.go.th/index.php?page=business_opportunities_detail&topic_id=117526
Wang, W. T., Cheng, S. Y., & Huang, L. Y. (2013). Technology-based service encounters using self-service technologies in the healthcare industry. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 29(3), 139-155.
Westbrook, R. A. (1987). Product/consumption-based affective responses and post purchase processes. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(3), 258-270.
World Health Organization [WHO]. (2019). Hypertension care in Thailand: Best practices and challenges 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1265400/retrieve
Yasin, N. M., Noor, M. N., & Mohamad, O. (2007). Does image of country-of-origin matter to brand equity?. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 16(1), 38-48.
Yatabe, J., Yatabe, M. S., & Ichihara, A. (2020). The current state and future of internet technology-based hypertension management in Japan. Hypertension research, 44(3), 276-285. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-020-00591-0
Zhou, W., Wan, Q., Liu, C., Feng, X., & Shang, S. (2017). Determinants of patient loyalty to healthcare providers: an integrative review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 29(4), 442-44.