Determinants of dental patient loyalty to their service provider in South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMthombeni, Wandile
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-30T08:55:52Z
dc.date.available2019-10-30T08:55:52Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionA research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Johannesburg, 2018en_ZA
dc.description.abstractCustomer loyalty has been proven to increase revenue and value of service businesses. The healthcare sector is no exception, and with the increase competition in the dental industry in South Africa, practices need to understand the underlying drivers of patient loyalty. This research is conducted in three practices around Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa to investigate the determinants of dental patient loyalty to their dental providers. Customer loyalty is widely accepted as strategic objective for both product and services sectors. The conceptual framework of this research is derived from the drivers of customer loyalty within the mainstream services industry, and how it compares to the healthcare sector. Furthermore, it hypothesises a plausible framework for the dental industry. Patient trust, patient satisfaction, and patient perceived value are hypothesised as the determinants of patient loyalty to their providers, with patient trust having the strongest effect. The research was performed using a quantitative research methodology, with data collected using a survey method. A seven-point Likert scale questionnaire containing 19 items was used. There were 118 respondents recorded in three dental practices around Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa. The data was analysed using multiple regression. The determinants of dental patient loyalty are patient trust, patient satisfaction, and patient perceived value. Patient trust has the strongest effect on patient loyalty. The indicators of patient trust are credibility and benevolence, with credibility showing the most influence. However, the results show that there may be other underlying drivers to both intentional and behavioural patient loyalty which need to be explored. Customer loyalty has been successfully adopted as a key strategic objective by other service sectors like the banking industry. The healthcare industry is lagging behind both in research and implementation around this subject. The importance of gaining patient trust to the provider needs to be viewed as a point of parity within the healthcare sector.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianM T 2019en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/28300
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.titleDeterminants of dental patient loyalty to their service provider in South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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