기존 심리학 연구에 의하면, 사람들이 본인과 유사한 대상에게 더 높은 수준의 도움을 제공하고자 하는 까닭은 본인과 유사한 내집단 구성원에게 더 높은 공감을 경험하기 때문이다. 본 연구는 이와 같은 도움의향에 있어서의 내집단 편향의 크기를 매개하는 공감의 효과를 세계시민주의 수준이 조절하는지를 검증하기 위하여 실시되었다. 본 연구에서 참가자들은 문화 유사성 수준이 각기 다른 국가 출신의 교환 학생들에 대한 설명을 읽고, 공감 수준과 도움의 향, 세계시민주의 성향을 측정하는 문항에 응답하였다. 연구 결과, 도움을 필요로 하는 대상과의 문화 유사성과 도움의향의 관계를 공감이 매개한다는 사실이 확인되었으며, 문화 유사성과 공감의 매개 모형에 있어서의 세계시민주의의 조절효과가 지지되었다. 구체적으로, 세계시민주의 의식이 낮은 사람 참가자들은 대상과의 문화 유사성이 높을 때 더 높은 공감 수준을 보였지만, 세계시민주의 의식이 높은 참가자들은 대상과의 문화 유사성이 높고 낮음과 관계없이 도움이 필요한 대상에게 유사한 수준의 공감 수준을 보여주는 것으로 나타났다.

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients’ decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers’ own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers’ choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers’ decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology – We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers’ decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions – Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists’ decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.