EXPLORING THE ROLES OF SERVICE SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS IN THAI MEDICAL TOURISM INDUSTRY

Abstract

Medical tourism, a promising industry offering significant economic potential, particularly for Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, has generated a critical academic discourse. The medical tourism industry is complicated by its nature, combining aspects of healthcare, hospitality, and customer satisfaction within a service supply chain. A key academic challenge in this industry is the insufficient exploration and understanding of service supply chain (SSC) performance measurements. The rapid growth of the industry and the existing research gap make a detailed academic study necessary. Addressing this challenge, this study narrows its focus on the important roles and interrelationship of SSC performance measurements within Thailand's medical tourism sector. Despite the industry's potential, there is a noticeable lack of research in this specific area, indicating a significant gap in knowledge. This study aims to fill this gap, providing the insights into the role and links between SSC performance measurements. This research design uses three-step approach, combining theory and empirical research. Author started with a thorough literature review to frame this study and set the objectives. Author then collected empirical data through interviews with professionals from JCI-accredited healthcare providers and analyze through selected research methods. All three phases in this study provide the current state of medical tourism, determine the importance of different SSC performance measurements, and examine the relationships between these measurements. The mixed research methods were selected to derive and interpret collected data including thematic analysis, MAXQDA2022 visualization, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM), and MICMAC analysis. The results reveal the seven main elements and 41 sub-elements, with Customer Relationship Management being the most important, and Capacity and Resource Management being the least. These insights can help those in the medical tourism industry improve their services. In addition to its academic contributions, this study offers practical insights by showing the differences in priorities among JCI-accredited healthcare providers. By suggesting ways to adapt SSC performance measurements to various departments within organizations. The contribution of this study can help understand changing preferences of medical tourists. This knowledge could lead to better strategies, strengthening the medical tourism industry in Thailand.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth
Supervisor	Shunmugham Pandian (Other Supervisor)