Factors affecting hospital’s adoption of a market orientation

Part of : WSEAS transactions on business and economics ; Vol.8, No.2, 2011, pages 66-78

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Pages:
66-78
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Abstract:
This study investigates factors affecting hospital΄s adoption of a market orientation and the difference between public and private hospitals in Taiwan in their market orientation after implementation of the National Health Insurance program. Hospitals, both private and public, with more than 100 sickbeds are selected from three municipalities in Taiwan, namely Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. The subjects are high-ranking executives in these hospitals. A total of 152 copies of the questionnaire are distributed. Empirical results are as follows: (1) Private hospitals are faced with a higher degree of environmental uncertainty than public hospitals and are thus characterized by higher levels of market orientation; (2) Private hospitals are more influenced than public hospitals by their organizational entrepreneurship in market orientation; (3) Private hospitals pay more attention to professional ethics and are more market-oriented than public hospitals; (4) Market orientation has significant and positive influence on hospital΄s organizational performance. Compared with previous studies, this study has the following features: (1) Difference in market orientation between public and private hospitals in Taiwan is seldom addressed in previous studies. Unlike these studies, which are mainly focused on hospitals in the US and European nations, this paper discusses market orientation among hospitals in Taiwan. (2) Previous research on issues concerning hospital management is mostly concentrated on discussion of medical quality, and the research on factors affecting hospital΄s market orientation is really rare. However, investigation of these factors is really necessary. (3) Integration of multivariate analysis and nonlinear fuzzy neural network model for an empirical test is rare among previous studies of related issues. This methodology is expected to be more contributive to the academic area.
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Keywords:
market orientation, environmental uncertainty, entrepreneurship, professional ethics
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