A Study of Brand Image, Perceived Service Quality, Patient Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention among the Medical Tourists

Objective – This paper aims to examine the importance of brand image, and its impact on hospital service quality as perceived by the medical tourists. Moreover, this paper also evaluates the interrelationships among perceived service quality, patient satisfaction, and behavioural intention. Methodology/Technique – Based on quota sampling method, a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 400 medical tourists to test the hypothesized relationships in this study. Findings – The findings from this study indicate that brand image has a significant positive influence on perceived service quality; and brand image is significantly and positively related to medical tourists' behavioural intention (i.e., their revisit intention). The findings also show that level of satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between service quality and behavioural intention among medical tourists. Novelty – This study is one of the very few empirical studies that examine the importance of brand image in the context of medical tourism. Moreover, this study is also one of the few studies that addressed patient satisfaction as a mediator in the healthcare context. Type of Paper: Empirical