1Department of Public Health, Medicine Faculty, Andalas University, Padang, Indonesia
2Department of Management, Economics Faculty, Andalas University, Padang, Indonesia
In order to achieve effective and efficient organization in a hospital, the management team must ensure that the hospital continues to dominate in a highly competitive market. It has been established that brand equity and word of mouth play an important role in influencing patients’ purchase intentions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the dimensions of brand equity and the effect of word of mouth on customer purchase intentions in the health sector.
The survey method was used to collect data from 115 patients without national coverage at the specialist surgery hospital, Ropanasuri Padang, in Indonesia. Convenience sampling was used to choose the patients, and a cross-sectional design was also implemented. Hypothesis testing was performed using structural equation modeling.
This study demonstrates that brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty are important dimensions in building brand equity. In addition, brand equity and word of mouth were found to have a significant impact on patients’ purchase intentions in hospitals.
These results provide an insight into the importance of building strong brand equity dimensions in the highly competitive hospital services market.
Brand equity, hospital, purchase intention, word of mouth
