Designing a model for developing brand citizenship behavior in medical tourism

Brand citizenship behavior is one of the new concepts in branding with emphasis on the role of employees. This study aims to provide a model for development of brand citizenship behavior in a way that is compatible with the local environment of medical tourism in Iran.

The present qualitative research is based on the systematic database method. The required data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 experts in medical tourism and academic experts using judgmental, snowball, and accessible sampling methods, following the saturation rule. Data analysis was done using the Strauss and Corbin model and in three stages of open, central and selective coding.

The results indicated that the causal conditions of factors related to employees, organization and medical tourism and intervening factors of organizational structure, management performance, characteristics of the treatment industry, environmental factors, career history and quality of personal life in the framework of social capital of the organization, organizational justice, quality of work life, competitive atmosphere of the work environment, and social responsibility of the organization form the central phenomenon and it is implemented with human resources support strategies and comprehensive planning of marketing and branding, and affects the medicine, organization, employees and  has extra-organizational results.

The model obtained from this research shows the influence of several factors in the formation of brand citizenship behavior of medical staff, which, if paid attention to by managers, will lead to the satisfaction and attraction of tourists and gain a competitive advantage.