Interpersonal Influence on Patients’ Choice of Medical Practitioners in A Less-Regulated Private Health Care Industry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individuals’ (consumers’) susceptibility to interpersonal influence is determined by their level of involvement in selecting private medical care practitioners (doctors) in the private healthcare industry in Sri Lanka. Data was collected from a sample of 800 adults in the Colombo District (i.e., the major commercial district) of Sri Lanka. The main findings indicate that patients display a strong interest in obtaining private medical services, and their susceptibility to informational influence from others is higher than the normative influence over the choice of private medical services. Patients were found to ‘express themselves’ in the presence of normative influence in selecting private medical professionals in Sri Lanka. Hence policies should seek to motivate people to make ‘informed decisions’ in relation to appropriate facets of consumer involvement, i.e., ‘perceived importance’, ‘risk’ and ‘probability of making mistakes. Personal networks of patients should be equipped with appropriate and accurate information on private medical services. More importantly, through public awareness campaigns patients should be discouraged from considering their choice of a health care practitioner as a way of ‘symbolising their self-identity’. This cross-disciplinary study is a first attempt in applying the concepts of consumer involvement and susceptibility towards interpersonal influence in a less regulated health care market setting where private medical services are provided.