Service Quality Dimensions and Patients’ Loyalty: A Developing Country Perspectives

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the impacts of service quality dimensions on patients’ satisfaction and loyalty in Bangladesh as a developing nation. A quantitative survey was carried out at different privately owned healthcare institutions at Rajshahi in Bangladesh, and collected 164 usable data using convenience sampling technique. The Partial Least Squares–based Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized for analyzing the collected data. The estimation revealed that physical environment has a significant positive role on patients’ loyalty, while communication, responsiveness, medical care, nursing care, and cost do not have in this case. At the same time, physical environment, communication, and responsiveness significantly impact patients’ satisfaction, whereas, their satisfaction is not influenced by medical care, nursing care, and cost. However, patients’ satisfaction directly influences patients’ loyalty. In addition, patients’ satisfaction has a significant indirect effect on the relationships between physical environment, responsiveness, cost, and patients’ loyalty, whilst, it is not capable to mediate the relationships between communication, medical care, nursing care, and patients’ loyalty. The implications, conclusions, and future research directions are also outlined at the end of this paper.