Blood is indispensable for life. The procurement of blood can be seen as an essential challenge of today’s health care sector (Hogan et al. 2007; Leigh et al. 2007). Neither a shortage nor excess of blood is desirable (Aravindakshan and Rubel 2015). Consequently, a “blood bank’s objective is to maintain the level of collected blood within a range that prevents both shortages and excess” (Aravindakshan and Rubel 2015:271). In order to achieve this objective, it becomes increasingly important to understand all the substantial determinants influencing the blood donation behavior of current and potential donors (Mews and Boenigk 2013; Leipnitz 2010; Tscheulin and Lindenmeier 2005). As word-of-mouth (WOM) strongly influences health care behavior (Heather et al. 2014; Bednall and Bove 2011; Lipscomb et al. 2004), including blood donation (Beerli-Palacio and Martin-Santana 2009; Tscheulin and Lindenmeier 2005), a deeper understanding of the effects of WOM towards the behavior of blood donors gains importance. Still, to our knowledge there exists no study which systematically investigates how WOM affects the behavior of Austrian blood donors.
Therefore, this paper aims to alleviate this lack of research by investigating Austrian blood donors as possible receivers as well as senders of WOM. When regarding donors as WOM-receivers, relevant research questions focus on the extent to which WOM affects (1) the awareness of the blood service and (2) the willingness to donate blood. When donors are seen as potential senders of WOM, the guiding research questions are (3) to what extent are donors willing to recommend the blood service to other potential donors; (4) what are the factors influencing the willingness to recommend; (5) who are the preferred WOM-receivers and (6) what communication channels are used.
To address the research questions a conceptual framework is applied which comprises the theory of perceived risk (Bauer 1967; Cox 1967), the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1957) and the theory of the strength of weak ties (Granovetter 1973). The theories are well established (Lim 2015; Su et al. 2015; Bawa and Kansal 2008) and provide various aspects explaining the blood donor as a potential sender and receiver of WOM. On the basis of this framework a survey was distributed to 300 donors of the Austrian Red Cross with a return of 245 surveys. The results highlight the strong influence of WOM on the awareness of the blood service and the willingness to donate blood. Further, structured and organized procedures, friendly employees, and respectful interaction were found to be important factors determining willingness to recommend blood donation. Family members as well as friends are the preferred WOM-receivers and the personal face-to-face contact is the favored channel of communication. The results also show that WOM-behavior is strongly influenced by factors such as age, gender, and donation frequency. By helping blood bank managers to better understand how WOM affects donation intention and behavior, this study provides a new approach to attract blood donors.
