Investigating the Impact of Virtual Communities on the Reputation of Romanian Health Care Organizations. A Qualitative Case Study

摘要

The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of electronic word-of-mouth messages from a health care virtual community on a health care organization's activity and to discover whether the online reputation formed on a patient oriented community is monitored by the marketing specialists. We interviewed 6 health care marketing specialists from Romania that have the greatest market shares in Bucharest to find answers to our research objective. Even if it was more of an exploratory research, the interviewer followed some guidelines to conduct the study. The results showed that the health care marketing specialists know what electronic word of mouth means but they do not monitor the health care forums.