Technological, Organizational, and Environmental Factors Influencing Social Media Adoption by Hospitals in Switzerland: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Social media platforms are important tools for hospitals. These platforms offer many potential benefits in various areas of application for hospitals to connect and interact with their stakeholders. However, hospitals differ immensely in their social media adoption. There are studies that provide initial findings on individual factors influencing social media adoption by hospitals, but there is no comprehensive and integrated model. Objective This study aimed to develop a comprehensive model of social media adoption by hospitals in the context of the Swiss health care system and to test the model with empirical data from Switzerland. Methods To develop our model, we applied the general technology-organization-environment framework of organizational technology adoption and adapted it to the specific context of social media adoption by hospitals in Switzerland. To test our model, we collected empirical data on all 283 hospitals in Switzerland and identified the accounts they operate on 7 different social media platforms (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, XING, and YouTube). We tested the hypotheses of our model by means of binary logistic regression (dependent variable: platform adoption) and negative binomial regression (dependent variable: number of different platforms adopted). Results Our general model on social media adoption received broad support. Overall, hospitals in Switzerland are more likely to adopt social media if they have a higher share of patients with voluntary health insurance or have a higher patient volume. In contrast, they are less likely to operate their own social media accounts if they are associated with a hospital network. However, some hypotheses of our model received only partial support for specific social media platforms; for instance, hospitals in Switzerland are more likely to adopt XING if they provide an educational program and are more likely to adopt LinkedIn if they are located in regions with higher competition intensity. Conclusions Our study provides a comprehensive model of social media adoption by hospitals in Switzerland. This model shows, in detail, the factors that influence hospitals in Switzerland in their social media adoption. In addition, it provides a basic framework that might be helpful in systematically developing and testing comprehensive models of social media adoption by hospitals in other countries.

The Impact of Employer Brand on Job Seekers’ Attitudes and Intentions: The Moderating Role of Value Congruence and Social Media

“…Extrinsic attributes are used to strengthen the image of the employer and are inferred by its notoriety and the echoes made in social media. Its main objective is to promote a single job promise, distinct from its competitors (Beier and Früh 2020a;Charbonnier-Voirin and Vignolles 2015), to promote the attractiveness of the company (Cable and Turban 2001;Collins and Steven 2002;Knox and Freeman 2006) and the quality of applicants (Kapoor 2010;Roy 2008).…”

Attitudes, Preferences and Usage Behavior of the Population Regarding Social Media Pages of Hospitals - Results of a Quantitative Survey in the DACH Region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

“…In general, social media platforms are considered an important tool for communication and marketing by hospitals (Smith 2017). In this context, social media platforms offer hospitals many potential benefits in various areas of application, but in some respects they also require adjustments in terms of how hospitals communicate with their stakeholders (Beier and Früh 2020a).…”

“…For example, early studies in this fairly young field of research first investigated exhaustively the extent to which hospitals maintain their own pages on social media platforms (social media adoption) and what reach (measured as the number of followers on the pages) they generate with them (e.g., Beier and Früh 2019a;Bermúdez-Tamayo et al 2012;Huang andChang 2012, Martinez-Millana et al 2017;Thaker et al 2011;Van de Belt et al 2012;Vanzetta et al 2014;Wong et al 2016). Likewise, some other studies have investigated which factors influence whether hospitals maintain their own pages on social media platforms and what reach they achieve with their activities (e.g., Beier and Früh 2020a;Griffis et al 2011;Yang et al 2018).…”

“…In addition, numerous studies have examined how hospitals use their own activities on social media platforms in specific contexts or for specific purposes (Beier and Früh 2020a). For example, studies have examined how and to what extent hospitals use social media platforms as a communication and marketing tool to reach potential patients, provide information on health topics, establish a public presence, or showcase their own service offerings (Diddi and Lundy 2017;Kordzadeh and Young 2018;Smith 2017;Wong et al 2016).…”

Factors Associated with Website Operation among Small Hospitals and Medical and Dental Clinics in Korea

“…This raises a research question regarding differences between small hospitals and clinics with and without websites. In this study, we investigated this research question based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework of organizational technology adoption following a previous study [ 20 ]. While that study was focused on social media adoption, we chose this model because website adoption and social media adoption are similar in promoting consumer engagement [ 21 , 22 ], and both relate to information technology.…”