Abstract: With the development of service innovation and diversity, the focus of online medical service has been transitioned from early service adoption to service management. Based on the signal theory, this paper aims to explore the influence of diversity of doctor services and quality of service signals on patients’ choice of physicians in the context of online medical services. After collecting the data from “good doctor online”, propensity score matching (PSM) was used to control other variables to study the effect of service diversity on patients’ choice of physicians who were classified by the title, the popularity, and the average service price separately. The PSM within the group was used to study the influence of service diversity on patients’ choice of physicians in different contexts. In addition, the OLS regression model was further used to explore the influence of the number of service categories, the popularity of doctors, and the price of doctors on patients’ choice. The results show that in the low-price group, service diversity has no significant effect on patients’ choice. Compared with the middle-price groups, service diversity has a greater influence on patients’ decision-making than that in the high price group. Compared with the median and low popularity group, the influence of service diversity on patients’ decision-making is stronger than that in the high popularity group. Compared with other clinic title groups, the influence of service diversity on patients’ decision-making is greater in the associate chief physician group than that in other groups. The number of service types can significantly positively affect the decision-making of patients, and the popularity of doctors and service prices play an effective positive regulating role.  The conclusion of this paper can provide an important practical reference for doctors and online medical platforms.

Key words: service diversity, service type, patients’ choice, online medical services, service willingness

摘要： 随着服务创新和服务多样性的丰富，在线医疗服务的焦点已从早期的服务采纳向服务管理过渡。基于信号理论，本文旨在探索在线医疗服务情境下的医生服务多样性、服务质量信号对患者选择决策的影响。采集好大夫在线平台中的二手数据，利用倾向评分匹配（PSM）方法和OLS回归等方法，研究不同情境下的服务多样性对患者决策的影响。结果显示：在低价格组，服务多样性对患者选择没有显著影响；与中等价格组比，高价格组的服务多样性对患者决策的影响更大。与中、低热度的医生组相比，高热度组医生的服务多样性对患者决策的影响程度更大；与其他职称组相比，在副主任医师的服务多样性对患者决策的影响大于其他组。服务种类数目会显著正向影响患者决策，同时，医生热度、服务价格起到有效的正向调节作用。研究结论为医生和在线医疗平台提供了重要的实践价值。

关键词: 服务多样性, 服务种类, 患者选择, 在线医疗服务, 服务意愿