Stakeholders in the medical trade: The case of South Korea's networks with China and the United States

This study analyzes the stakeholder networks that have developed in the medical tourism industry centered around South Korea. The network that 14 leading Korean medical tourism stakeholders have with China and the United States are investigated considering General Agreement on Trade in Services four modes and analyzed via social network analysis. The stakeholders of each mode with China and the United States depict relational structures that vary in their degree of similarity and disparity on the basis of their centralization. This study contributes to the literature by bringing order to and providing a structural framework for the network complexity of the medical trade in relation with the medical tourism industry.