Diffusion of potential health-related e-services: An analysis of Swiss health customer perspectives

Abstract

Health-related e-services can be customised to the needs of different customer groups and as such have the potential to improve delivery efficiency and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Based on the diffusion of innovations theory proposed by E. M. Rogers, this paper investigates the attitude of Swiss university students (n = 2,775) regarding health-related e-service trends. The paper also investigates the impact of compatibility attributes on the adoption of health-related e-services, applying a case study research methodology based on an e-survey and cross-tabulation for the data analysis. Results show that health wikis, online health accounts and rating tools for care providers were highly rated by the students. Online forums and online patient communities seem to be increasing in popularity, whereas e-services providing only company/product information were generally rather poorly rated. Furthermore, the study finds that compatibility attributes have a significant positive effect on the adoption of online health accounts and when students adopt one health-related e-service they tend to adopt another. Understanding the perceptions of different customer groups can support the development of more customer-oriented health-related e-services that have a higher potential of being accepted and utilised by customers.