How trust links the association connecting use experience, word-of-mouth with use intention and use behavior - a case study on the service innovation in the aesthetic medical treatment

The recent rapid economy growth in the Asia region has reshaped the landscape of medicine industry. Aside from the conventional task of cure and treatment, many hospitals has started providing service innovation in the domain of anti-aging, face-lift, and aesthetic medicine, meeting people´s needs and demands to pursue rejuvenation. Experience and word-of-mouth (WOM) are two well-established antecedents to the use intention and behavior. However, differing from other sorts of service, the cosmetic surgery as an irreversible process inevitably arouses the concern and retards the adoption. Thus, trust toward the medical institution and practicing physician play the role of facilitator for decision making. Based on Bansal´s `theory of word-of-mouth´ and the `strategic experimental modules´ proposed by Schmitt, this study builds and empirically test a conceptual framework involving experience, WOM, trust, use intention and behavior. The finding is that experience weighs heavier than WOM in invoking trust, leading to use intention and behavior. Prospects´ levels of income also moderate the links between experience and trust, and between WOM and trust. It has implications with articulating clients´ decision making process in adopting the service innovation such as anti-aging and aesthetic reform treatment.