Understanding Physicians’ Motivation to Provide Healthcare Service Online in the Digital Age

This study aims to investigate the factors that affect physicians’ healthcare service provision behavior on healthcare service platforms. A research model was proposed based on the related literature and uses and gratifications theory and self-determination theory. The empirical data were collected from a popular Chinese healthcare service platform, and negative binomial regression was employed to test the proposed research model. The results indicate that competence satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction, and economic benefit have positive impacts on their service provision behavior and that when physicians have a higher level of offline status, they would be less likely to provide consultation service online if they have a higher level of competence satisfaction. This study contributes to the existing literature by integrating intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to investigate how they affect physicians’ healthcare service provision behavior online. Findings from this study may derive recommendations for improving the features and design of healthcare service platforms.