The Googling Effect on patient co-creation in physiotherapy service exchange

We study the process of value co-creation in physiotherapist-patient relationships and the underlying mechanisms of this process. We present the Googling Effect Model outlining the relationship between patients' pre-encounter online information search and their commitment to compliance in physiotherapy service exchange. We tested the model on a sample of physiotherapy service patients (n = 446) in the United States. We analyzed the collected responses using the partial least squares method, using SmartPLS 4.0. Our study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in several ways. We developed and tested the Googling Effect Model. Doing so adds to the healthcare literature on value co-creation in physiotherapy. The Googling Effect Model increases the predictive value of the Service-Dominant Logic as it outlines the mechanism underlying value co-creation in healthcare, including the role and importance of pre-encounter online information search in collaborative healthcare. Moreover, the findings illustrate how the underlying mechanism through which pre-encounter online information search affects commitment to compliance differs between men and women and different ethnic groups. These findings can be used to create an environment that increases service engagement and commitment to compliance by accounting for patients' gender and ethnicity.