Focus
Research results of the key research projects of the National Natural Science Foundation presided over by Professor of BIT are published
News Source & Photographer: School of Management and Economics
Editor: Zhao Qiang
Reviewer: Yan Zhijun
Translator: Long Xiaofei & Qin Yao
Recently, "Prosocial behaviors and economic performance: Evidence from an online mental health platform", the latest research result of "Research on Active Intelligent Screening, Assessment, Intervention Methods and Privacy Protection Mechanism for Depression in a Mobile Internet Environment", the key international (regional) cooperative research project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China chaired by Professor Yan Zhijun of the School of Management and Economics, was published in Production and Operations Management. This study explored the impact of prosocial behaviors on the economic performance of counselors in online mental health communities, and verified the direct and intermediary effects of prosocial behaviors. This research was completed jointly by Professor Yan Zhijun's team and Professor Liangfei Qiu of the University of Florida.
Mental illness is a huge and increasing global burden but the related medical resources are extremely limited. While the emergence of online mental health services can narrow the gap between demand and supply of mental health services to some extent, there is still a serious problem of information asymmetry in online mental health service transactions due to the complexity of mental illness and treatment methods, and the general lack of residents' mental health knowledge. Participating in prosocial activities, especially providing free services, is a common strategy adopted by online service providers. This method can effectively alleviate the problem of information asymmetry.
On online mental health service platforms, on the one hand, free service provision may erode paid consulting services and affect the economic performance of psychological counselors. On the other hand, free services, as a prosocial behavior, may influence the economic performance of counselors through both direct and indirect effects on their relationship capital and reputation capital . Based on Signal Theory and Promise Theory, this study establishes hypothetical models between prosocial behavior, relational capital, reputation capital, and economic performance. The results show that free services have a significant comprehensive impact and direct effect on the economic performance of psychological counselors, and providing free services can increase the sales of paid consulting services of counselors by 5%. Besides, the study found that the change in the sales of paid consulting consultants is mainly directly affected by the free services they provide, and partly affected by the intermediation of relationship capital. Finally, the analysis results of the impulse response function show that the response of relational capital and reputation capital to prosocial behavior shocks is positive and diminishes sharply with time, while the response of economic performance to relational capital shocks is also significantly positive and diminishes sharply.
This research studies the influencing factors of online economic performance of psychological counselors from the perspective of free service supply. It enriches the existing research results of online mental health services, deepens the understanding of online medical and health operation management, and provides guiding opinions for the functional design of online medical platforms and the free service supply of psychological counselors.
Production and Operations Management is one of the 24 top academic journals of business schools (UTD 24) selected by the University of Texas at Dallas, and one of the 50 top academic journals of business schools (FT50) rated by the Financial Times. It enjoys a high academic reputation in the international management community. The UTD24 and FT50 journals list are widely recognized by universities around the world and are one of the important references for business school/management school rankings and other matters.
Paper link address:
Yan, Z., Kuang, L., & Qiu, L. (2022). Prosocial behaviors and economic performance: Evidence from an online mental healthcare platform. Production and Operations Management, 31, 3859– 3876.