Consumption Emotions and its Influence on Customer Behavior in the Context of Health Care Service An Empirical Study in Clinical Hospitals in China

The focus of this article is on the consumption emotions and its influence on customer behavior in the context of health care service. A comprehensive conceptual model is proposed to explain the factors and consequences of consumption emotions. The author tested the model by survey data of in-patients in two hospitals. The results indicate that both positive and negative emotions have either direct or indirect significant impacts on patients´ trust, the personal bonds between patients and the health service employee, the affective bonds between patients and hospitals, and patients´ repurchase and word-of-mouth intention. An important implication of this study is that the managers of hospitals need to pay great attention to patients´ emotional experience in their health care service consumption as they design the customer relationship management system of their hospitals.