A dissertation submitted inpartial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013

Global business is shifting away from a product oriented focus to a service approach. Additional research in the field of services is primarily aimed at understanding customer empowerment and co-creation, especially in intangible services where customers{u2018} lack of information affects credence. This study researchedthe relationship between service provider communication and positive customer evaluation of credence services, and incorporates the effects of service provider source credibility and customer persuasion knowledge. Healthcareis selected as a service which has high credence quality. Physicians serve an important role as informative authorities and influencers in patient decisions, so health economics has positioned the physician as informational agency. Customer-centric communication has been emphasized extensively over the past 50 years and is referred to as shared decision making; however, its effect on customer satisfaction has not yet been confirmed, and the implementation of shared decision making in routine practice still poses a dilemma. Phenomenology research is commonly conducted to explore actual medical care experiences. In adopting this approach, we have endeavored to expand our understanding by focusing on successful service communication in the medical tourism industry, where relationships and trust occur despite the high cultural disparity and uncommonness of Western patient-Thai doctor relationships. The insights garnered from multisource informants into this phenomenon led us to focus on information sharing to enhance customer decision autonomy, not only the loci of decision making. This research attempts to examine the heterogeneity of provider source credibility and customer persuasion knowledge. We conducted a confirmatory investigation by experimental research. The findings suggest that information sharing is beneficial communication facilitating decision autonomy in the healthcarecontext. A further managerial implication suggests that information sharing is a determinant in positive customer evaluation and that service providers should adopt an appropriate customer communication approach that facilitates decision autonomy. Expert recommendation should beconsidered carefully,tobe used only whentheexpert isahigh credible source orthecustomer holds alow level of persuasion knowledge.