Competitive priorities and engagement: can they be a source of satisfaction? Customer-centered model

Purpose - This study aims to investigate and test the impact of competitive priorities, in terms of quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, cost and patient engagement, on patient satisfaction with healthcare services. It considers patients' rather than managers' points of view to collect responses about competitive priorities. Design/methodology/approach - This research employed a cross-sectional survey design to analyze a sample of customers through an empirical study of 488 patients in Qatar's healthcare service context. Findings - The confirmatory factor analysis results show that competitive priorities and engagement positively and significantly impact patient satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - Researchers can use this methodology to explore the role of competitive priorities in different service contexts and sectors. The researchers conducted the study in Qatar; therefore, the results are not generalizable to all healthcare sectors. However, regardless of geographic location, the research approach can be used in healthcare. Practical implications - Managers can employ the developed scales to diagnose competitive priorities and improve customer service experiences. Originality/value - The paper is original as it suggests using competitive priorities as a measurement tool for predicting patient satisfaction compared to prior research that mostly measured competitive priorities based on internal perspectives (managers' perspectives). Further, this paper is original because it depends on the external perspective (customers' perspective) for the competitive priorities for measuring patient satisfaction.