Factors influencing adoption and diffusion of private umbilical cord blood banking services in Malta

Abstract

The concept of private umbilical cord blood banking has been around since the early 1990s. Yet, many still consider it as an innovation and many more do not even know of its existence and are therefore discarding cord blood as medical waste rather than storing it for possible future therapeutic use. This study takes a holistic view by analysing the factors involved in the spread of this medical innovation through the theoretical lens of Rogers’s Diffusion Of Innovation Theory. The study is a first of its kind; previous studies have been concerned with understanding the reasons why parents opt to purchase the service. Accordingly, the focus has concentrated on measuring the level of knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of expectant parents towards the practice of storing cord blood as a means of private insurance against unforeseen medical transplantation needs. The majority of the previous studies have discussed umbilical cord blood banking within the never-ending controversy between public and private banking. The present study takes a different approach. Through the aid of established theories in consumer behaviour and diffusion of innovations it discusses the multiple factors that are involved in the decision to adopt, postpone or reject an innovation. The discussion is presented in a holistic form using Rogers’s Diffusion Of Innovation Theory as a model to facilitate description. The study finds that while marketing initiatives aimed at increasing the level of knowledge are an important factor in expanding the awareness about private umbilical cord blood banking, the decision to adopt the service involves a complex process of decision making. In the absence of a reference point to rely on, the decision to adopt the concept of cord blood banking is heavily influenced by the parents’ disposition to conduct personal research as well as with the type and form of social interactions that the individual experiences during the process that leads to the adoption or otherwise of the medical innovation. The study concludes by recommending commercial cord blood banks to reposition their service from the existing image that perceives them as blood collectors and storing facilities to an image that projects them as the vital link that connects medical science to people. Such repositioning will integrate these banks with the wider social network of medical professionals. A holistic marketing strategy that incorporates such a broad perspective will focus on diffusing the innovation among practising physicians that are intrinsically motivated to learn about the benefits that the medical innovation provides them with in exercising their profession. The marketing strategy should then focus on allowing the diffusion process to cascade down the established networks of the social structure by facilitating the spread of information through word of mouth during medical visits and structured educational programmes delivered by these medical experts and practicing physicians.