The Yerkes–Dodson Law in the synergistic effect of cumulative volume and dynamic flow on patients’ decision in online heath consultation

Internal seminar for researchers

Abstract: Cumulative volume and dynamic flow of a physician’s online health consultation (OHC) service both serve as significant indicators of the physician’s popularity. Previous studies have verified their individual influence on patients’ choice of physicians, but little attention has been given to their synergistic effect. Based on the data collected from a popular OHC platform in China, this study investigates how these two indicators synergistically determine the decision-making of future patients. The methods of 2SLS and threshold regression are employed to test the main hypothesis proposed, and a series of robustness tests are conducted. The findings indicate that the synergistic effect of cumulative volume and dynamic flow on patients’ choice of physicians follows the Yerkes-Dodson Law. Specifically, this synergy demonstrates a Matthew effect before reaching a certain threshold, after which it transitions into a crowding effect. Moreover, heterogeneities in this synergistic effect are observed according to the type of patients’ diseases and the professional titles of physicians. Despite the limitations of this study, the findings yield several theoretical and managerial implications.