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Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) natural language processing may see the emergence of algorithmic word of mouth (aWOM), content created and shared by automated tools. As AI tools improve, aWOM will increase in volume and sophistication, displacing eWOM as an influence on customer decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the socio technological trends that have encouraged the evolution of informal infulence strategies from WOM to aWOM.

This paper examines the origins and path of development of influential customer communications from word of mouth (WOM) to electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and the emerging trend of aWOM. The growth of aWOM is theorized as a result of new developments in AI natural language processing tools along with autonomous distribution systems in the form of software robots and virtual assistants.

aWOM may become a dominant source of information for tourists, as it can support multimodal delivery of useful contextual information. Individuals, organizations and social media platforms will have to ensure that aWOM is developed and deployed responsibly and ethically.

aWOM may emerge as the dominant source of information for tourist decision-making, displacing WOM or eWOM. aWOM may also impact online opinion leaders, as they may be challenged by algorithmically generated content. aWOM tools may also generate content using sensors on personal devices, creating privacy and information security concerns if users did not give permission for such activities.

This paper is the first to theorize the emergence of aWOM as autonomous AI communication within the framework of unpaid influence or WOM. As customer engagement will increasingly occur in algorithmic environments that comprise person–machine interactions, aWOM will influence future tourism research and practice.

The purpose of this study to shed light on the importance of social media hosted content related to socially-motivated discussions. Moving from the field of communication for development, the research leverages social media as a powerful tool for collecting and analyse peer-to-peer communication towards the conceptualization of eVoices of Unheard. The deep understanding of these conversation can generate recommendations for organizations and governments designing and providing interventions fostering local socio-economic development.

The study presents a large-scale analysis of social media interactions on the topic “#favela” to generate insights into a social network structure, narrative contents and meaning generated.

Structurally, the analysed networks are comparable with those presented in current academic literature; automatic text analysis confirmed the promise of the inner value of communication for development opening the floor to conceptualization of the “eVoices of unheard”, which is the collective and conscious use of social media to mediate community discussions about tangible and intangible issues related to socio-economic development.

Framed within the rise of interactive communication for development this research show that social media an support the notion of voice proposed by Couldry (2010) moving from process (i.e. the recording of the voice) towards value (i.e. the possibility of giving an account of one’s life and its conditions to have an impact on human life and resources) thereby understanding intangible issues related with socio-economic development.

This study, first, reviews the existing literature on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and, using communication theory, examines its impact on its readers’ decision-making processes. Second, this paper aims to propose some elements of eWOM communications that might be further researched.

A literature review of relevant academic articles produced 97 works related to social communication theory, eWOM and new artificial intelligence trends in hospitality. Thereafter, potential avenues for future research were explored.

The study results showed: valence, relevance, understandability and visual cues are the most important antecedents of message usefulness and the reader’s behavioral intentions; source credibility is the sender characteristic that most affects the reader’s behavioral intentions and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is the receiver characteristic that most influences their attitudes and behavioral intentions. In addition, the study highlights four relevant aspects for future research. First, more research into online fake reviews is needed to better understand sender motivations. Second, companies should actively manage negative reviews. Then, the careful choice of platforms on which companies promote their products/services. Finally, the role of artificial intelligence in increasing the effectiveness of eWOM in the hospitality industry.

This paper integrates – grounded on communication theory – results from previous studies about the central elements of communication (message, sender and receiver) and discusses the main trends in hospitality-related eWOM. In addition, the paper examines the potential of specific eWOM elements as future lines of research, in particular: fake reviews, strategies for dealing with negative reviews, the eWOM platform used and artificial intelligence applications.

Este estudio, en primer lugar, revisa la literatura existente sobre el boca-oído electrónico (eWOM) y, utilizando la teoría de la comunicación, examina su impacto en los procesos de toma de decisiones de sus lectores. En segundo lugar, proponemos algunos elementos de las comunicaciones eWOM que podrían investigarse más adelante.

Una revisión de la literatura de artículos académicos relevantes produjo 97 trabajos relacionados con la teoría de la comunicación social, eWOM y nuevas tendencias de inteligencia artificial en hotelería. A partir de entonces, se exploraron posibles vías de investigación futura.

Los resultados del estudio señalaron: 1) la valencia, la relevancia, la comprensibilidad y las señales visuales son los antecedentes más importantes de la utilidad del mensaje y las intenciones de comportamiento del lector; 2) La credibilidad de la fuente es la característica del emisor que más afecta las intenciones de comportamiento del lector; 3) La susceptibilidad del consumidor a la influencia interpersonal es la característica del receptor que más influye en sus actitudes e intenciones de comportamiento. Además, el estudio destaca cuatro aspectos relevantes para futuras investigaciones. Primero, se necesita más investigación sobre las reseñas falsas en línea para comprender mejor las motivaciones del emisor. En segundo lugar, las empresas deben gestionar activamente las críticas negativas. Luego, la cuidadosa elección de las plataformas en las que las empresas promocionan sus productos/servicios. Por último, el papel de la inteligencia artificial en el aumento de la eficacia de eWOM en la industria hotelera.

Este artículo integra –con base en la teoría de la comunicación– resultados de estudios previos sobre los elementos centrales de la comunicación (mensaje, emisor y receptor) y analiza las principales tendencias en eWOM relacionadas con la hostelería. Además, el artículo examina el potencial de elementos específicos de eWOM como líneas futuras de investigación, en particular: revisiones falsas, estrategias para lidiar con críticas negativas, la plataforma eWOM utilizada y aplicaciones de inteligencia artificial.

Palabras clave: eWOM, Teoría de comunicación, Revisiones falsas, Revisiones negativas, Inteligencia artificialTipo de artículo: Revisión de la literatura

本研究, 首先, 回顾了现有的关于电子口碑（eWOM）的文献, 并利用传播理论, 研究了它对读者决策过程的影响。其次, 我们提出了一些可能需要进一步研究的电子口碑传播的要素。

对相关学术文章的文献回顾产生了97篇与社会传播理论、eWOM和酒店业新的人工智能趋势有关的作品。此后, 对未来研究的潜在途径进行了探讨。

研究结果显示。1）价值、相关性、可理解性和视觉线索是信息有用性和读者行为意图的最重要的前因; 2）来源的可信度是最能影响读者行为意图的发送者特征; 3）消费者对人际影响的易感性是最能影响他们态度和行为意图的接受者特征。此外, 该研究还强调了未来研究的四个相关方面。首先, 需要对网上虚假评论进行更多的研究, 以更好地了解发送者的动机。其次, 公司应该积极管理负面评论。然后, 谨慎选择公司推广其产品/服务的平台。最后, 人工智能在提高酒店业eWOM的有效性方面的作用。

本文以传播理论为基础, 整合了以往关于传播中心要素（信息、发送者和接受者）的研究结果, 并讨论了与酒店业相关的电子WOM的主要趋势。此外, 本文还研究了特定的eWOM要素作为未来研究方向的潜力, 特别是：虚假评论、处理负面评论的策略、使用的eWOM平台和人工智能应用。

关键词：eWOM, 传播理论, 虚假评论, 负面评论, 人工智能。

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the planned project to create the first presidential library in Africa, the Obasanjo Presidential Library.

Focusing on public concerns and criticisms in the media, the obstacles that may prevent the Obasanjo Presidential Library from being completed are enumerated.

While the Obasanjo Presidential Library is intended to record the President's activities, foster democracy and promote good governance, the methods used to raise fund to date have been controversial. There is widespread criticism of the donations raised for the library project, even though most people see the library as a worthy project to pursue.

Provides an example of how even the most worthy project may be headed for failure if not handled properly. The general support for the presidential library may not be enough to see it to completion due to the controversial methods used to secure funds for the project.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend how AI aids marketers in engaging customers and generating value for the company by way of customer engagement (CE). CE is a popular area of research for scholars and practitioners. One area of research that could have far-reaching ramifications with regard to strengthening CE is artificial intelligence (AI). Consequently, it becomes extremely important to understand how AI is helping the marketer reach customers and create value for the firm via CE.

A detailed approach using both systematic review and bibliometric analysis was used. It involved identifying key research areas, the most influential authors, studies, journals, countries and organisations. Then, a comprehensive analysis of 50 papers was carried out in the four identified clusters through co-citation analysis. Furthermore, a content analysis of 42 articles for the past six years was also conducted.

Emerging themes explored through cluster analysis are CE concepts and value creation, social media strategies, big data innovation and significance of AI in tertiary industry. Identified themes for content analysis are CE conceptualisation, CE behaviour in social media, CE role in value co-creation and CE via AI.

CE has emerged as a topic of great interest for marketers in recent years. With the rapid growth of digital media and the spread of social media, firms are now embarking on new online strategies to promote CE (Javornik and Mandelli, 2012). In this review, the authors have thoroughly assessed multiple facets of prior research papers focused on the utilisation of AI in the context of CE. The existing research papers highlighted that AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer real-time interaction capabilities, swiftly addressing inquiries, delivering assistance and navigating customers through their experiences (Cheng and Jiang, 2022; Naqvi et al., 2023). This rapid and responsive engagement serves to enrich the customer’s overall interaction with the business. Consequently, this research can contribute to a comprehensive knowledge of how AI is assisting marketers to reach customers and create value for the firm via CE. This study also sheds light on both the attitudinal and behavioural aspects of CE on social media. While existing CE literature highlights the motivating factors driving engagement, the study underscores the significance of behavioural engagement in enhancing firm performance. It emphasises the need for researchers to understand the intricate dynamics of engagement in the context of hedonic products compared to utilitarian ones (Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2020). CEs on social media assist firms in using their customers as advocates and value co-creators (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Sawhney et al., 2005). A few of the CE themes are conceptual in nature; hence, there is an opportunity for scholarly research in CE to examine the ways in which AI-driven platforms can effectively gather customer insights. As per the prior relationship marketing studies, it is evident that building relationships reduces customer uncertainty (Barari et al., 2020). Therefore, by using data analysis, businesses can extract valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviour, equipping them to engage with customers more effectively.

The rapid growth of social media has enabled individuals to articulate their thoughts, opinions and emotions related to a brand, which creates a large amount of data for VCC. Meanwhile, AI has emerged as a radical way of providing value content to users. It expands on a broader concept of how software and algorithms work like human beings. Data collected from customer interactions are a major prerequisite for efficiently using AI for enhancing CE. AI not only reduces error rates but, at the same time, helps human beings in decision-making during complex situations. Owing to built-in algorithms that analyse large amounts of data, companies can inspect areas that require improvement in real time. Time and resources can also be saved by automating tasks contingent on customer responses and insights. AI enables the analysis of customer data to create highly personalised experiences. It can also forecast customer behaviour and trends, helping businesses anticipate needs and preferences. This enables proactive CE strategies, such as targeted offers or timely outreach. Furthermore, AI tools can analyse customer feedback and sentiment across various channels. This feedback can be used to make necessary improvements and address concerns promptly, ultimately fostering stronger customer relationships. AI can facilitate seamless engagement across multiple digital channels, ensuring that customers can interact with a brand through their preferred means, be it social media, email, or chat. Consequently, this research proposes that practitioners and companies can use analysis performed by AI-enabled systems on CEB, which can assist companies in exploring the extent to which each product influences CE. Understanding the importance of these attributes would assist companies in developing more memorable CE features.

This study examines how prominent CE and AI are in academic research on social media by identifying research gaps and future developments. This research provides an overview of CE research and will assist academicians, regulators and policymakers in identifying the important topics that require investigation.

Using the stimulus-organism-response model as the theoretical basis, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a social media-based destination brand community (SMDBC) on tourists’ emotions, and the subsequent effect on the intention to co-create value and visit.

The theoretical framework was tested using survey data from 551 Chinese social media users who were followers of Japanese social media pages. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was adopted to perform the latent variable analysis.

The findings reveal that SMDBC plays a considerable role in shaping tourists’ emotions, including joy, love and positive surprise, which, in turn, have a significant impact on consumers’ intention to co-create value and visit. Contrary to previous studies, the effect of joy on tourists’ intention to co-create and visit is found to be insignificant.

The present study elucidates the importance and relevance of SMDBC in evoking tourists’ positive emotions, and subsequently their intention to co-create value and visit. Future research is recommended to compare and contrast SMDBC with other marketing and branding activities to provide greater insights into the phenomenon in a dynamic environment.

This study enables academics and business practitioners to better comprehend the effectiveness of SMDBC in driving tourists’ favourable assessment and behavioural intentions to improve resource allocation. In particular, destination marketers are recommended to optimise SMDBC and encourage discussion on SMDBC among users.

As literature in relation to the importance of SMDBC in evoking tourists’ emotions incorporating its link with tourists’ intention to co-create value and visit is relatively scarce, this study contributes to the branding and destination tourism research by empirically articulating the relevance of SMDBC in stimulating tourists’ emotions and subsequently value co-creation and visit intention.

The purpose of this paper is to study tourists’ spatial and psychological involvement reflected through tourism destination image (TDI), TDI is divided into on-site and after-trip groups and the two groups are compared in the frame of three-dimensional continuums.

By conducting latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling to tourism user-generated content, structural topic models are established. The topics separated out from unstructured raw texts are structural themes and representations of TDI. Social network analysis (SNA) reveals the quantitative and structural differences of three-dimensional continuums of the two TDI groups.

The findings reveal that from the stage of on-site to after-trip, tourist perception of TDI shifts from psychologically to functionally-oriented, from common to unique, and from holistic to more attribute focused. Also, it is suggested that from a postmodernism perspective, TDI is never unique, fixed or universal, but has different image perceptions and feedbacks for different tourists.

With the assistance of social sensing, a panoramic view of TDI could be established. Targeted and precision destination marketing and image promotion could be applied out to each individual tourist.

Combining with the perspectives of the tourist-destination space system and the tourism involvement theory, this research proposes a TDI transformation model and an explanation of the internal mechanism. The originality of research also lies in the methodological innovation of social sensing data and the LDA topic model.

本研究针对旅游目的地形象（TDI）及其体现出的游客空间和心理涉入, 将旅游目的地形象划分为在场形象和游后形象, 并将二者在TDI三维连续体（Three-dimensional continuums）框架下进行比较。

本研究应用内容分析法, 通过对旅游用户生成内容（tourism UGC）进行LDA（Latent Dirichlet Allocation）建模, 从非结构化的原始文本中建立起结构化的语义主题模型, 并且应用社会网络分析（Social Network Analysis）, 从定量和结构化的角度揭示了游中与游后目的地形象的差异。

研究发现, 从游中到游后, 游客的目的地形象感知经历了从心理到功能、从一般到特殊、从整体到属性的转变。同时, 基于后现代主义的视角, 旅游目的地形象并不是唯一的、固定的或放之四海而皆准的, 而是在不同的游客感知中有不同的形象和体现。

应用社会感知（Social Sensing）理论可以全面解析旅游目的地形象。同时可以针对特定游客采取精准定点的旅游目的地营销和形象推广手段。

本研究从旅游目的地空间系统和旅游涉入理论视角出发, 提出了旅游目的地形象转变的模型和其内在机制解释, 在方法上创新性地使用了社会感知数据和LDA主题模型。

关键词 旅游目的地形象, 在场形象, 游后形象, 旅游用户生成内容 (tourism UGC), LDA（Latent Dirichlet Allocation）建模, 社会感知

Para estudiar el grado de participación espacial y psicológica de los turistas reflejado en la imagen del destino turístico (TDI), el TDI se divide en grupo en el sitio y grupo posterior al viaje, y los dos grupos se comparan en el marco del continuo tridimensional.

Al modelar la posible asignación de Dirichlet (LDA) del contenido generado por el usuario turístico (UGC), se estableció un modelo de tema estructural. El tema que está separado del texto original no estructurado es el tema estructurado y la representación de TDI. El análisis de redes sociales reveló diferencias en el número y la estructura de los continuos tridimensionales de los dos grupos de TDI.

Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que, desde la escena hasta los viajes, la percepción de los turistas de TDI cambia de orientación psicológica a funcional, de lo ordinario a lo único, y de una atención general a más. Además, se sugiere que desde una perspectiva posmoderna, TDI nunca es único, fijo o universal, sino que tiene diferentes percepciones de imagen y comentarios para diferentes visitantes.

Con la ayuda de la detección social, se podría establecer una vista panorámica de TDI. El marketing de destino y la promoción de imágenes dirigidos y precisos podrían aplicarse a cada turista individual.

Combinando con las perspectivas del sistema espacial de destino turístico y la teoría de la participación turística, esta investigación propone un modelo de transformación TDI y la explicación del mecanismo interno. La originalidad de la investigación también radica en la innovación metodológica de los datos de detección social y el modelo de tema LDA.

This paper investigates the factors affecting customer lifetime value from an attitudinal and behavioural brand loyalty perspective in the Internet service industry. Specifically, willingness to pay more and word of mouth are categorised under attitudinal loyalty, while repurchase intention is classified under behavioural loyalty.

A self-administered questionnaire online survey via Google Forms was employed comprising a sample of 481 participants from the Internet service providers. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was applied for hypotheses testing.

The current study found that “brand credibility, special treatment benefits and confidence benefits had a positive and significant influence on willingness to pay more, word of mouth and repurchase intention, with confidence benefits and brand credibility showing as the greatest elements resulting in word of mouth and repurchase intentions, whereas special treatment benefits showing as the greatest element resulting in the willingness to pay more. The results of this study did not show any positive significant between service quality dimensions and true brand loyalty (word of mouth, willingness to pay more and repurchase intention). Results also found that confidence benefits, brand credibility and special treatment benefits had an indirect impact on true brand loyalty through customer satisfaction”.

Internet service providers should develop and maintain good relationships with their customers as the excellence of the customer–service provider relationship can enhance customer lifetime value.

The current work measured customer lifetime value in terms of both the behavioural and attitudinal aspects to represent loyalty, while most previous studies consider only one dimension for this representation. Particularly, customers' true brand loyalty is measured using separate components of repurchase intentions (RIs), willingness to pay more (WPM) and word of mouth (WOM) to deepen the understanding of both managerial interest and academic.

The present study attempts to shed some light on tourists’ destination brand loyalty (DBL) in the Malaysian ecotourism context. More specifically, this study aims to examine the relationships between electronic word of mouth (eWOM), destination brand quality (DBQ), destination brand image (DBI), psychological engagement (PE) and DBL.

Based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response theory and buyer black box model, this study developed a framework to address tourists’ loyalty towards ecotourism destinations. An online survey was carried out to collect data, which yielded 210 completed usable responses. Structural equation modelling – partial least squares was used to test the study hypotheses.

Findings from this study revealed that eWOM and destination product quality affect DBI. Moreover, data support the mediating effect of PE between DBI and DBL.

This study provides valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers of the tourism industry in creating a DBI, keeping tourists psychologically engaged and retaining their loyalty to the ecotourism destinations.

This study is amongst the first to examine the effect of eWOM and DBQ on DBI in the ecotourism context. It also examines PE in relation to the DBI, which is a comparatively new area in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine how consumer-brand engagement on social networking sites (SNS) is an outcome of the message orientation/vividness.

Message design is proposed to include two components, namely, orientation and vividness. The message orientation is classified as either task/instrumental or socioemotional. The message vividness is measured through content type. The consumer-brand engagement is conceptualized at three levels, namely, cognitive (comment), affective (shares) and conative (likes). A total of 1,000 posts were collected from the official Facebook pages of the 10 most popular travel brands, five each from India and the USA. These two countries were chosen as they are culturally different, with the former representing a largely collectivist culture and greater social connectivity and the latter representing primarily an individualistic culture.

The study reveals that greater message vividness, with more interactive/audio-visual content, leads to higher engagement. The task/instrumental message orientation leads to low-/medium-level engagement. Overall, a combination of high-vividness and socioemotional orientation generates maximum engagement. India and the USA depict unique effects of message orientations/vividness on the consumer-brand engagement levels, indicating cultural implications for the brand SNS messages – effectiveness.

The study’s conceptualization of consumer-brand engagement reflected through the consumers – responses to brands – SNS messages, represents new knowledge. The unique effects of message vividness and orientation on consumer-brand engagement and the variations across cultures is also a novel contribution to the extant branding literature.

The brand marketers should not only design their SNS messages with appropriate vividness/orientation but also tweak them across cultures, for maximum consumer engagement.

The study is a novel attempt to deploy the interaction process analysis framework in an SNS setting.