现在的中国正在逐渐改变其世界工厂的形象, 并随着中国经济的持续发展, 世界格局也由原来的八国集团(GroupofEight)变为中美携手合作解决世界经济问题的“G2”体系。中国经济的崛起和中国消费者收入的日益增多, 使健康(well-being)成为了中国消费者的生活模式主流, 从而带动了世界保健旅游(Healthcare Tourism), 特别是医疗旅游(Medical Tourism)产业的飞速发展。本文以计划行为理论(Theory of Planned Behavior)为基础, 考虑到访韩的中国患者大多都是女性, 所以以潜在的中国女性医疗旅游消费者为研究对象, 分析其韩国医疗旅游的行为意向(BehaviorIntention), 为韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品构筑理论模型, 同时本文通过人口统计学和韩国医疗旅游的分类(治疗型和保健型), 找出中国女性医疗旅游消费者行动意图的差异, 提出相关的营销建议。
本文的主要结论如下:
1) 本文首先确认了韩国医疗旅游态度(Attitude)对中国女性消费者行为意向有显著影响, 而且和主观规范(SubjectiveNorm)及知觉行为控制(PerceivedBehavioralControl)比起来, 态度的影响力最为显著, 所以韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品时, 应该特别注重中国女性消费者的态度。
2) 本文还确认了韩国医疗旅游主管规范对中国女性消费者行为意向有显著影响, 但其影响力不及态度的影响力, 所以韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品时, 虽然应该特别注重中国女性消费者的态度, 但是如果能有效地利用中国女性消费者周边亲人、朋友及同事所带来的社会压力, 可以大大提高营销策略的效果。
3) 知觉行为控制(PerceivedBehavioralControl)是指中国女性消费者对来韩国做医疗美容难易程度的感知, 其影响因素主要为时间、金钱、机会和韩国医疗旅游的信息。通过本文的研究确认了韩国医疗旅游知觉行为控制对中国女性消费者行为意向没有显著影响, 这说明了随着中国消费者收入的增加, 中国女性消费者决定是否来韩国做医疗美容时, 时间、金钱等因素已经不被她们所考虑。所以韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品时, 不需要考虑中国女性消费者是否有时间、有经济能力来韩国做医疗美容。
4) 本文还研究了对于不同类型的韩国医疗旅游, 人口统计变量的影响是否有差异。研究结果如下:
*治疗型韩国医疗旅游:中国女性消费者的年龄越大, 月收入越多, 学历越高, 态度对韩国医疗旅游行为意向的影响力越大, 而主管规范对韩国医疗旅游行为意向的影响力却是逐渐减弱, 直至消失。同时也证明了知觉行为控制对中国女性消费者行为意向没有显著影响。所以韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品时, 应该以态度为中心, 兼顾主管规范, 同时对于不同年龄、不同学历、不同收入的中国女性消费者应该采取本土化营销策略(Localization Strategy)。
*保健型韩国医疗旅游:虽然保健型韩国医疗旅游态度对中国女性消费者行为意向有显著影响, 但是不存在治疗型韩国医疗旅游的渐变性变化, 这说明了中国女性消费者对保健型韩国医疗旅游没有普遍性的认识, 所以韩国企业开发医疗旅游产品时, 应该以态度为中心, 兼顾主管规范, 采取标准化营销策略(Standardization Strategy)
With the change of the image of the “world factory” and rapid economic development of China, the world economic structure is undergoing change too, from Group of Eight to the China-US cooperation system, the G2 system. With the rising of the economy and of people’s income in China, well being has become one of the major concerns of Chinese customers. Under such circumstances, healthcare tourism, especially the medical tourism industry, is gaining rapid growth. Since most Chinese medical tourists who go to South Korea for medical treatment are female, this paper takes the potential female medical tourists as research subjects and analyzes, on the basis of Theory of Planned Behavior, their intention in travelling to South Korea for medical tourism with the purpose of providing theory models for companies developing medical tourism products in South Korea. Additionally, based on demographic knowledge and classification of medical tourism in South Korea (therapeutic and health-care), this paper reports research on the differences among female Chinese medical tourists’ intentions and gives targeted product marketing suggestions.
Conclusions:
1) The study concludes that the service attitude of the medical tourism industry in South Korea has significant influence on female Chinese medical tourists’ intentions, which is dramatic compared to the impact of the subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Therefore, in developing medical tourism products, companies in South Korea should place much stress on service attitude to female Chinese tourists.
2) Further, this paper also confirms that said tourists’ behavior intention is greatly influenced by the subjective norm of South Korea medical tourism. However, this kind of influence is less significant than that of service attitude. Hence, besides paying high attention to service attitude, the companies should make effective use of the social pressure on said tourists brought by their relatives, friends and colleagues to promote the products.
3) The Perceived Behavioral Control refers to the female Chinese medical tourists’ perception of the level of difficulty of cosmetic surgery in South Korea, which can be influenced by several factors, such as time, cost, chance and information about medical tourism in South Korea. This study shows that Perceived Behavioral Control has no significant influence on the medical tourists’ intention, which means, with the increasing of income, most female Chinese medical tourists care little about the time, cost or other factors of cosmetic surgery in South Korea. Accordingly, the companies should not considerate these factors too heavily while developing medical tourism products.
4) This paper also explores whether the demographic variables have different influences on different medical tourism categories in South Korea. The results are as follows:
① Therapeutic medical tourism in South Korea: For female Chinese medical tourists to South Korea, the older in age and higher in income and educational degree, the bigger the influence of service attitude and the smaller the influence of subjective norm becomes, which also demonstrates the small influence of Perceived Behavioral Control on Chinese medical tourists’ behavior intention. That means that for companies in South Korea, the service attitude is the core in developing products, and the subjective norm should also be considered properly. Meanwhile, for female Chinese medical tourists with different ages, educational degrees and income levels, localization strategy should be adopted in product marketing.
② Health-care medical tourism in South Korea: Although service attitude of health-care medical tourism in South Korea also has strong influence on female Chinese medical tourists, it has no continuous change as in therapeutic medical tourism. That means Chinese female medical tourists know little about the health-care medical tourism in South Korea. Hence, companies should focus on the service attitude and subjective norm while developing their medical tourism products and adopt a standardization strategy in product marketing.