The Spillover Effect of Doctor’s Knowledge Sharing on Their Online Consultation Volume

Doctors’ online knowledge sharing enhances patients’ access to medical knowledge and interactions between doctors and patients. Given its importance, previous studies have discussed the impact of doctors’ knowledge sharing on patient choice. However, these studies mainly focus on the relationship between knowledge sharing and patients’ choices within a single platform (i.e. online consultation platform). Very few studies notice the cross-platform spillover effect of doctors’ knowledge sharing and compare the difference between the within-platform spillover effect and cross-platform spillover effects. Drawing on the theory of trust transfer, this study investigates the difference between the within-platform and cross-platform effects of doctors’ knowledge sharing on patients’ consultation choices. We analyzed a panel dataset generated between 2017 and 2023 and found that doctors’ knowledge has both with-in-platform and cross-platform spillover effects on the patient’s choice. In addition, the within-platform spillover effect is stronger than the cross-platform spillover effect. The findings in this study provide vital managerial insights for knowledge-sharing platforms and healthcare platforms in their function management.