The mediating role of behavioral intention and social media use in the relationship between corporate trust and loyalty

With the influence of information technologies and social networks developing today, social media has become an important communication tool for both individuals and institutions. The aim of this study is to decipher the mediating role of social media usage in the investigation of the relationships between corporate trust, behavioral intention and loyalty. In the study, first of all, the concept of hospital, general information about its characteristics, and then the concepts of loyalty, corporate trust, social media and behavioral intention were discussed, respectively. In this context, it is aimed to investigate the level of health service search, access to hospitals' social media accounts, reliability and users' intention to buy again through the social networks created by health enterprises. In order to test the structural model developed in accordance with the purpose of the study, Cronbach Alpha (CA) and Compound Reliability (CR) values were examined primarily while evaluating the measurement model. The minimum sample size of the study was calculated as 385 people with a frequency of 50%, a confidence December of 95% and a margin of ±5 error with the Open Epi Version 3.01 program. The link of the questionnaire prepared in Google Documents environment to reach the social media users who are the target audience of the research, was shared from social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter. Direct access has been provided to the social media users who are within the scope of the research survey. The study was collected in a web2 environment with social media users who agreed to participate. Research data were collected in August-September 2023. A total of 404 questionnaires were completed. However, after the incomplete and erroneous questionnaires were removed, 387 questionnaires that were completed completely and correctly were evaluated within the scope of the study. In the first part of the data collection form, there were questions to determine the business and personal characteristics of the participants. In the second part, the trust scale for the institution; the patient satisfaction scale for social media use, the hospital-patient relations scale and the perceived image of the hospital scale were used, as well as the behavioral intention scale and the loyalty scale. In this study, the effect of trust in the institution of those who received services from a public hospital on loyalty was found to be stronger than those who received services from a private hospital. The perceived image of the hospital from the dimensions of trust in the institution, behavioral intention, social media increases patient loyalty.