How Price Affect Online Purchase Behavior in Online Healthcare Consulting? Perceived Quality as a Mediator

Price has a major influence on online health consulting purchases; however, healthcare customers regard perceived quality based on the exposed information about physicians' abilities as an important basis for decision-making. This research examined the influencing mechanism of price on purchase behavior in the e-health context using a data set of 1,785 physicians from one largest online healthcare consulting platform. The results show that perceived quality has an incomplete mediating effect on the impact of price on purchase behavior. It means that the online healthcare counseling price not only has a direct positive effect but also indirect effect mediated by perceived quality on purchase behavior.