Brand equity and the role of emergency medical care service quality of private cardiac institutes: An empirical investigation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of health-care quality of emergency medical services on brand equity of cardiac institutes by using industry-specific measure, 5Qs model of health-care service quality (HCSQ). Design/methodology/approach Survey method technique has been used to collect data from the patients availing emergency medical services from 12 cardiac institutes. Effective responses have been received from 393 patients from four localities. Systematic sampling technique has been used to collect data from the respondents. Partial least square structural equation modeling using smartPLS 2.0 has been used to analyze the results. Findings Findings of the study reveal that HCSQ has weak relationship with hospital brand loyalty but strong relationship with brand image and brand awareness. Furthermore, brand awareness and brand image have strong relationship with brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand image and brand loyalty have strong relationship with overall hospital brand equity but found nonsignificant relationship of brad awareness with overall hospital brand equity. Originality/value The principal contribution of the paper is to provide the insight on the impact of emergency HCSQ on brand equity of the private cardiac hospitals. Second, this study is first in branding literature that has used industry-specific scale 5Qs model to measure the service quality of emergency medical care and its impact on private sector cardiac hospital's brand equity. Previously researchers used generic scales that were insufficient to measure the service quality of specialized industries (Babakus and Mangold, 1992; Carman, 1990; Caro and Garcia, 2007).