SMART JOURNAL OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT STUDIES VOL. 12 NO. 1 PAPER 5
DOI : 10.5958/2321-2012.2016.00005.1
PREDICTORS OF OVERALL SERVICE QUALITY IN MEDICAL TOURISM IN KERALA STATE
 
Shiva Kumar. R* Reeves Wesley. J** and Clement Sudhahar. J***
*    Research Scholar, Karunya School of Business, Karunya University, Coimbatore, TamilNadu
**    Professor, VIT Business School, VIT University, Chennai
***    Professor, Karunya School of Business Karunya University, Coimbatore, TamilNadu
 
Medical Tourism is an emerging industry in India and Kerala State has been found to be a favourable destination. Limited studies have been conducted, to assess the quality of services, rendered by the medical tourism facilitators and healthcare providers. This study was undertaken to establish relationship between the five service quality factors and the overall service quality. The measurement model of service quality was first tested by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results indicated that the model was fit and all the variables were significantly loaded. Thereafter, the structural model, consisting of the five service quality factors and overall service quality, was tested by using multiple regression. Regression results reported significant relationship between the five service quality factors and the overall service quality. The authors have discussed the result and presented the implications for the healthcare and service providers in this study.
 
KEYWORDS: Medical tourism, Kerala State, Service quality JEL CLASSIFICATIONS: M1 FULL TEXT