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A Response Surface Analysis of the Online-Offline Congruence Effect of Healthcare Service Quality

Xin Bao et al.

Journal of the Association for Information Systems2026https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.18103article
AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Background: The integration of online and offline services has become critical in healthcare settings, where technical and interpersonal service qualities are essential for maintaining patient satisfaction and engagement. However, discrepancies between these offline and online dimensions can significantly impact physician performance. Understanding how these discrepancies influence healthcare outcomes is crucial for optimizing service strategies. Method: Using a unique dataset of 3,878 physicians from a large Chinese online health platform, this study employed a prompted generative AI model to extract technical and interpersonal qualities from patients’ online and offline reviews. We then adopted polynomial modeling and response surface analysis (PMRSA) to test our hypotheses. Results: Our findings reveal that as online-offline service quality (either technical or interpersonal service quality) increases in the same direction, physician performance increases first and then decreases, exhibiting an inverted U-shape relationship. Moreover, as the degree of incongruence between online and offline service quality (either technical or interpersonal service quality) increases, physician performance decreases. Conclusion: Balancing online and offline technical and interpersonal services is critical for maximizing patient volume in healthcare settings. This study underscores the reliability of AI-based approaches for assessing service quality and extends the service quality literature by offering strategies to enhance physician performance. Our work provides managerial insights for healthcare providers by emphasizing the importance of maintaining consistent service quality across both online and offline platforms. The results emphasize the importance of integrated, balanced service delivery in the emerging era of medical digitalization in the Asia-Pacific region.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.18103

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@article{xin2026,
  title        = {{A Response Surface Analysis of the Online-Offline Congruence Effect of Healthcare Service Quality}},
  author       = {Xin Bao et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of the Association for Information Systems},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.18103},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.