Abstract

In specialized health care services, the context of this study, positive word-of-mouth and referrals are better devices than mass advertising and promotion techniques. Because advocacy intentions are conducive to success in such an industry, they are of prime interest in this study. A patient's willingness to talk to others about their service experience has serious financial outcomes and can serve as a valuable marketing resource to the facility as seen in this study on the Shouldice Hospital. Much literature agrees that service quality and satisfaction are antecedents to positive behavioural intentions. However, the research goal is to study various independent relationships that affect advocacy intentions specifically. This study attempts to prove that advocacy intentions will be highest when patients' perception of overall service quality, technical (physical signals) and functional (human interaction) quality, and satisfaction are at their highest. In addition, personality is added to the model to suggest that certain personality types are positively related to advocacy intentions over others, an area gone understudied