• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.41-52
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• 2015

Purpose - Given globalization, the new niche market of medical tourism is likely to experience sustainable growth for various reasons, such as aging populations and a shift in the medical consumerism paradigm toward prevention. Importantly, understanding medical customers' behavior is necessary to benefit from a competitive advantage in this industry. The existing research primarily accessed the key factors of medical quality and costs to explain health customers' behavior but is limited in terms of enabling an understanding of the decision process. This limitation exists because, given the intangibility and greater associated risks in the highly professional industry of international medical tourism, most customers lack the knowledge and experience needed to evaluate the central factors-such as the medical competence of health care countries-before purchases. Therefore, they actively search for useful information through various distributions to reduce uncertainty and to make better choices. Interestingly, most of these information channels are associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). However, no evidence is found in the literature to estimate the effect of WOM in the medical tourism field. Thus, this study focuses on WOM to explore its interaction with key medical characteristic factors and the attractiveness of destinations referred to by sources. This study also affects customers' evaluations and, in turn, influences their intention to seek health care services abroad. Research design, data, and methodology - The literature review addressed an interesting research model for estimating the relations among WOM, medical characteristics, attractiveness, and customers' choice intention regarding international health care. In the key economic regions in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, 2,500 survey questionnaires were distributed to potential customers of different ages, education, and income levels. A resulting 1,717 (68.68 percent of the original 2,500) usable surveys were obtained for analysis. Moderated regression analysis was used to determine the effects of WOM in the decision process regarding international health care destinations. Results - The results indicate that WOM is a good moderator of the relationships between the factors evaluated by sources and customers. More importantly, the WOM effects reflect the factors of tie strength, credibility, and vividness. The results also reveal that, given the moderating role of WOM, the intention of potential Chinese customers to seek the referred health care country varies according to the medical characteristics of medical competency and reputation as evaluated by customers. In contrast, the travel attractiveness of the attractions, facilities, accessibility, and social environment are critical determinants of destination choice intention. Conclusions - The moderating role of WOM has been confirmed through the international healthcare destination selection process. Medical tourism managers should user WOM as an effective marketing tool for industry development. Specially, marketers should consider the effects of WOM determinants, such as tie strength, credibility, and vividness, to develop an effective strategy. Furthermore, this study estimates the factors that affect customers' selection of medical tourism destinations. Health care managers or policy makers should consider a broad variety of variables that may attract more Chinese customers to international health care.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.58-70
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the preparation of medical institutions for medical tourism and its effects. The sample of this study were 99 case which were selected from Korea Health Industry Development Institute list. Data were collected through the mail questionnaire survey from Sept. 15 to Oct. 30 in 2010. The collected data were analyzed using Chisquare test, t-test. The main findings of study are as follows: Using Chisquare test, we found statistically significant differences in resources prepared for medical tourism between hospitals and clinics. In general, hospitals were well prepared in human resources(e.g., proportion of employees with foreign language capability) and physical resources(e.g., helpdesk, brochures) compared to clinics.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2018

Since the introduction of the Foreign Patient Assistance Law in 2009, more than 300,000 foreign patients are visiting Korea each year due to the efforts of overseas patient attraction organizations, host companies and governments. Despite these achievements, however, the company is confronted with limitations in product development and the rate of patient population growth is slowing. Therefore, this study suggests the importance and meaning of various product development through the hierarchical analysis (AHP) on the major factors of product development of medical tourism services, and suggests direction of product development in domestic medical tourism industry in the future.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients' decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers' own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers' choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers' decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology - We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers' decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions - Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists' decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2018

Objective: This study conducted an empirical research on foreign patients who had visited the medical institutions of Daegu region in order to identify the effects of the factor satisfaction and experience satisfaction with medical services on their revisit intentions. Methods: This study reviewed the existing studies on medical services to foreign patients with a main focus on medical tourism, and conducted the empirical research through a survey on foreign patients from the Russian, Chinese and English-speaking regions based on the Daegu Medical Tourism Promotion Institute's DB of foreign patients. The empirical research conducted a multiple regression analysis on factor satisfaction and experience satisfaction regarding return visit intentions. Results: The multiple regression analysis results showed that both the factor satisfaction and the experience satisfaction with medical services of foreign patients had positive effects on their return visit intentions, especially, with a relatively greater effect from the factor satisfaction. Specifically, it was found that factor satisfaction elements of 'friendliness of employees', 'good communication', and 'expertise of medical workers'; and experience satisfaction elements of 'reliability of medical information', 'efforts to minimize incompatibility towards foreigners', 'convenient access to medical information' and the like enhanced the return visit intentions. Conclusion: We discovered that, in the context of medical tourism activities, it is important to enhance factor satisfaction and experience satisfaction with medical services in order to promote return visits of the foreign patients who we once attracted. Especially, there are implications that reliability of medical information and efforts to minimize incompatibility towards foreigners enhance return visits of foreign patients.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2010.05b
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• pp.1033-1036
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• 2010

본 연구는 한국 의료관광의 국제 경쟁력 향상을 위한 전략으로 한식의 도입가능성을 알아보고 이를 활용할 수 있는 방안을 제시하기 위한 목적으로 연구되었다. 연구 결과 한식은 의료관광에 있어서 잠재적 가능성이 높은 자원으로 활용이 가능하며, 이를 위한 전략으로 약선음식과 같은 전통음식을 차용한 의료관광상품의 개발, 한국 의료관광에 한식의 이미지 도입을 통한 차별화 전략을 제시하였다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.408-418
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the official medical tourism websites in several countries. We compared the websites of three countries using the 4 criteria(e.g.,contents, convenience, design, interactivity). The evaluation of accessibility and subjective perception were conducted by websites users. Total 77 cases were used for the analysis. For the statistical analysis of data, MANOVA was used. According to the MANOVA analysis, The Malaysia website received the highest mark in accessibility and subjective perception. Each of the evaluations showed a significant difference among countries.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1517-1523
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• 2016

The global medical tourism industry including Asian market has been activating recently. That is as medical tourists are motivated to seek the higher quality of healthcare with lower costs, as well as of travel. The consumers in this field tend to need customized services of medical tourism. It is needed that the consumers get customized information on medical services and traveling, the clinics and hospitals resolve the issues of offering translation and luring medical tourists from overseas, and the guides, who offer tour and translation service, provide the consumers and the clinics with customized services so that they get the services needed for one another. This research studies the Offline to Online, called O2O, matching platform based on global clinics, which connects medical facilities, patients, and guides for traveling and language services. It presents the customized marketing plans by utilizing customers' experiences from medical services and traveling they use.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.73-83
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• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the CSR activities of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry in South Korea. Since previous research on CSR activities has considerably focused on large enterprises whereas small enterprises have relatively less attention, this study aims to explore the characteristics of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry and their CSR activities. Research design, data, and methodology - The population of interest for this study was social enterprises registered in Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency (2016), and it was used to verify the social enterprises which has a certification for social enterprises. From 1672 companies in total, the sampling frame was a database with 117 companies in hospitality and tourism industry. This study investigates social enterprises' CSR activities on the company's official websites (e.g., company reports, magazines, the news articles, and interviews). The websites of the selected enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry were analyzed for examining CSR activities by the quantitative content analysis. All of the CSR activities in small social enterprises were classified into six dimensions based on the stakeholder theory. Results - The findings of this study provide the characteristics of the 117 small social enterprises and their specific CSR initiatives. A total of eight main business lines were identified: 1) fair travel, 2) leisure/sports, 3) accommodation/camping, 4) medical tourism, 5) exhibitions/art events/cultural events, 6) leisure activities for vulnerable social groups, 7) Korean traditional culture, and 8) ecotourism/agricultural tourism. The CSR initiatives were classified into six dimensions: 1) environment, 2) employment, 3) multicultural families and vulnerable social groups, 4) local community, 5) economic prosperity, and 6) product. Conclusions - This study revealed the special CSR initiative examples of small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry. Small social enterprises participate in CSR activities mainly related to their own business lines. Moreover, these enterprises are more closely embedded in their local community development, job creation and education for local residents and vulnerable social groups, and traditional heritage preservation. The findings of this study provide theoretical and practical implications and they can contribute to enrich CSR with literature for small enterprises in hospitality and tourism industry.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

This research tried to understand the expectation and experience level of the medical service among the foreign patients who visit South Korea for a medical tourism, and to find out the effect of expectation and experience level on the satisfaction of medical service. Data collection was done through conducting a survey of inpatients in 4 hospitals located in Seoul, Korea. Total 110 cases were used for analysis. According to the study, expectation level had a significant difference between the group exposed to a word-of-mouth and the group not exposed to the word-of-mouth. The difference analysis of expectation and experience level of the foreign patients showed that all components of the service quality were satisfied. The component of perceived reliability was the only factor influencing the foreign patients' overall satisfaction on the medical service. The findings of this study will be provided a basic data for the marketing strategy which can apply to the satisfaction strategy differentiated from other countries.