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The purpose of this paper is to examine how effectively hotels are using Facebook as a marketing tool and how consumers are interacting with the property by measuring the number of fans, customer comments, and accuracy of information provided.

This paper is based upon a content analysis, inquiring into 100 hotels' Facebook pages.

Findings demonstrate that the use of Facebook features by hotels varied widely. Some hotels utilize Facebook solely as a means for posting property information, whereas others focus on facilitating customer engagement.

Literature related to the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool within the hospitality industry is severely limited, thus this research highlights the challenges some hotels are experiencing with maximizing the reach of their Facebook pages, suggests possible approaches for improvement and makes recommendations for structuring social networking strategies.

Results demonstrated many hotels failed to interact with customers, provide accurate and timely information, and entice prospective purchasers by showcasing the property through photos and videos. Practitioners would be well served to improve upon these aspects to better appeal to consumers and recognize a significant return on investment.

This study investigates the extent to which Facebook is being utilized by the top 100 domestic US hotels. Evaluation criteria included three aspects: content information, property details, and interactions between hotels and customers. Literature related to social network marketing is sparse, thus the present research is intended to provide a basis for future research and guidance for industry professionals to best maximize technological marketing channels.

Technology has advanced and led the revolution of the online e-commerce industry through various online platforms. These online platforms were integrated to enhance customer's shopping experience, promoting different business models including consumer-to-consumer (C2C) secondary e-commerce market. This new online business model has been gaining interest in both academia and industry due to potential opportunities and challenges to serve customers effectively. This study aims to draw upon the means-end theory to test a conceptual model to understand the role of engagement between different types of trust and satisfaction toward shopping on C2C e-commerce.

A quantitative survey method was developed to test the antecedents and mediator of C2C customer satisfaction. A panel service was used to collect the dataset (n = 294) to test the proposed extended means-end chain theory (MEC) model.

The authors found that the role of trust toward the platform provider and the third-party seller differs based on the perceived value (functional and emotional) and impact of trust on satisfaction. This study provides a rich conceptualization of an instrument for a C2C experience that can serve as a starting point for future research to investigate the antecedents and impacts of the C2C context.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed hypotheses further in a different context (e.g. country).

The paper includes implications for a guide to designing an effective online C2C retailing strategy.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how engagement serves different role depending on the trust consumers have toward the intermediary vs the seller, which has a subsequent effect on consumer's satisfaction.

This study aims to investigate a sharing economy context, where vacation rental units that are owned and operated by individuals throughout the world are rented out through a common website: vrbo.com. It is posited that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a common indicator of the level of economic development of a nation, will impact the likelihood that prospective travelers will choose to book accommodations in the sharing economy channel (vs traditional hotels). The role of online customer reviews in this process is investigated as well, building upon a significant body of extant research which shows their level of customer decision influence.

An empirical analysis is conducted using data from the website Vacation Rentals By Owner on 1,940 rental listings across 97 countries.

GDP per capita serves as risk deterrent to prospective travelers, making the sharing economy an acceptable alternative to traditional hotels for the average traveler. It is also found that the total number of online customer reviews (OCR volume) is a signal of popularity to prospective travelers, while the average star rating of those online customer reviews (OCR valence) is instead a signal of accommodation quality.

This study adds to a growing agenda of research investigating the effect of online customer reviews on consumer decisions, with a particularly focus on the burgeoning sharing economy. The findings help to explain when the sharing economy may serve as a stronger disruptive threat to incumbent offerings. It also provides the following key insights for managers: sharing economy rental units in developed nations are more successful in driving booking activity, managers should look to promote volume of online customer reviews and positive online customer reviews are particularly influential for sharing economy rental booking rates in less developed nations.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the relative impacts of trust and risk on individual’s transaction intention in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-marketplaces from both the buyers’ and the sellers’ perspectives.

Two surveys were used to collect data regarding buyers’ and sellers’ perceptions and transaction intentions at a typical C2C e-marketplace. Partial least squares was used to analyze the data. A complementary qualitative study was conducted to triangulate the results from the quantitative study.

Institution-based trust (IBT) exerts a stronger influence on transaction intentions for buyers than for sellers. Sellers perceive a stronger impact of trust in intermediary (TII) than buyers on transaction intentions. The impacts of perceived risk in transactions are not different between buyers and sellers. Furthermore, IBT mediates the impacts of TII and perceived risk on transaction intentions for buyers.

The results indicate that the impacts of trust and risk on transaction intention in e-marketplaces do differ between buyers and sellers. This suggests a need to further investigate the buyer–seller difference in online transactions.

Intermediaries need to focus on different types of trust-building mechanisms when attracting buyers and sellers to make transactions in the e-marketplace.

C2C e-marketplaces cannot survive without participation from both buyers and sellers. Most prior research is conducted from the buyers’ perspective. This research sets a starting point for future research to further explore the differences between buyers’ and sellers’ behavior in C2C e-commerce environments.

The confirmation of receipt of orders by consumers means that the online retailer actually receives the payments on many retail platforms (e.g. Taobao). In order to recoup funds as soon as possible, the retailer will take steps (e.g. improving the level of delivery and adopting a rebate policy) to encourage consumers to confirm receipt earlier. It is significant for the retailer to identify an appropriate strategy and determine the optimal product price. To address the above issues, this paper examines and compares the pricing strategies and profits under different strategies to show some managerial insights for the retailer's decision-making.

In this paper, the authors discuss four models, i.e. adopting common delivery and offering consumers no rebates, adopting common delivery and offering rebates, adopting fast delivery and offering no rebates and adopting fast delivery and offering rebates, which the retailer may consider. Under different models, consumer utility and firm's profit structure are disparate. After comparing the retailer's profits under four models, the optimal strategy, profit and product price are obtained.

Some interesting results are as follows. When the cost of fast delivery is not very high, improving the level of delivery would bring more profit to the retailer and create a positive impact on consumers. Interestingly, our results also show that offering proper rebates to stimulate consumers to confirm receipt early only serves to improve the profit only when the motivation of consumers to confirm the receipt is very low. Moreover, the authors find that a higher level of delivery services can promote the implementation of the rebate policy to improve the retailer's earnings.

This paper is the first study on the transaction mode of retail platforms and the problem of confirming receipt by a model-based method.

Recent substantial developments of consumer-to-consumer social commerce platforms (C2C-SCPs) emboldened consumers/users to be involved as sellers. Considering C2C social networks that privilege local reach, this paper aim to explore how the practice-based view informs non-professional sellers' involvement.

Underpinned by data from 29 semi-structured interviews with non-professional sellers on Kaskus, one of the largest local Indonesian C2C-SCPs, the study reveals the emergence of a novel structural practice that we call casual selling.

The findings show that casual selling allows non-professional sellers' involvement in C2C-SCPs through three broad categories of practices: priming oneself, producing commercial operations and valuing others. Within these three categories, non-professional sellers are found to generate both personal and collective involvement along nine situated market practices.

This paper adds to previous research by introducing the practice-based view to social commerce literature. In doing so, it deals with the under-investigated seller's perspective and activities that prevail in C2C-SCPs.

In C2C-SCPs, casual selling constitutes a distinct mode of involvement in social commerce in which established professional selling standards are suspended. As a structural practice, it entices non-professional sellers to consider a wider variety of situations in which they are in dialogue with other individuals (buyers and sellers) to shape s-commerce potential. In doing so, C2C-SCP users draw on a dynamic intertwining between digital technology and the socio-cultural environment surrounding s-commerce.

Digital platforms for the provision of food information-based services (FISs) represent a consolidated business with increasing revenue streams for entrepreneurs. Such platforms have transformed and clarified the nature of uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in the traditional food sector entrepreneurial processes. Anyway, a clear understanding of the value of digital platforms for FISs is not yet consolidated in the literature. With this paper, the authors try to fill this gap through a critical literature review of scientific research that combines knowledge on food consumer's behavior and user's knowledge behavior.

The authors carried out a critical literature review of scientific research combining knowledge of food consumer's and food information user's behavior. This allowed the identification of the main value components of FISs.

The authors propose a multidimensional framework for modelling the value proposition of digital platforms for FISs. Three main value dimensions have been identified: relevance, credibility, and accessibility. These dimensions concur with the consumer's perceived value of consumers in terms of benefits increase and cost reduction.

The research was intended to shed light on aspects characterizing consumers' perception of food information value. The authors put in evidence that the informational perspective of food communication is under-investigated. This study attempts to provide a holistic overview of the dimensions impacting on consumers' perception of the value of information for food consumers, opening new research perspectives.

The framework represents a tool for positioning food information offerings on the market, with the objective to analyze the value proposition of FISs according to a consumer perspective and to understand gaps of current offering of FISs. Moreover, it may support the design of a new generation of digital platform for food information provision, which would respond to consumers' expectations and information needs, highlighting emerging business opportunities for digital entrepreneurs.

Few research works provide a characterization of value proposition of digital platforms providing food information to consumers. In particular, to date, literature lacks of a holistic overview of the dimensions influencing consumer's perception of the information value of food communications.

The current study aims to systematically review the existing literature, identify the main determinants that impact individuals’ perceptions, attitude, intention and behavior and meta-analytically evaluate their respective strength. Moreover, this study examines the specific mechanism through which more distal factors, such as trust, risk, experience and enjoyment influence individuals’ decision in the context of online auction markets. Finally, the moderating effects of contextual and methodological factors that could potentially influence the relationships are explored. During the past two decades, a large number of empirical studies examined the factors that hinder or foster individuals’ initial and continued acceptance of online auction marketplaces.

Based on the effect sizes reported, 91 studies, including 95 independent samples (N = 36.788), the current study utilizes bivariate meta-analysis, meta-analytic structural equation modeling and weighted least squares regression moderator analysis to examine the nature of the identified relationships, the mechanisms through which they operate and the boundary conditions under which they do or do not hold.

The results show that trust and experience explain individuals’ initial usage intention, while risk and experience explain actual usage behavior, indicating that these variables are viable extensions to the technology acceptance model in the context of online auction marketplaces. The results also demonstrate that, once individuals participate in online auction markets, trust and enjoyment are important predictors of satisfaction, which, in turn, is the strongest determinant of loyalty intention. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that cultural context acts as moderator and, to some degree, explains the mixed empirical findings in prior research.

This study contributes to the existing literature by identifying the main determinants and their average direct and indirect effect on the individuals’ decisions in online auction marketplaces. The findings provide critical insights into the complex network of relationships which impact individuals’ perceptions, attitude, intention and behavior to initially and continuously use online auction marketplaces. Furthermore, the result contributes to the existing research by examining the effect of contextual and methodological boundary conditions – moderating factors that are difficult to test in primary studies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the factors influencing Chinese consumers to shop online by exploring the effects of user demographic characteristics and media characteristics on shopping intention.

A nationwide online survey of 503 Chinese consumers was carried out to test the proposed conceptual model of online shopping intention using hierarchical regression. The results support most of the proposed hypotheses.

Chinese consumers' age, income, education and marital status, and their perceived usefulness are significant predictors of online shopping intention.

Future research should use actual online purchases as the dependent variable and explore the effects of product characteristics, merchants and intermediate characteristics, as well as environmental influences in online shopping behavior.

Consideration of individual differences in explaining Chinese consumers' online buying intention could provide a better understanding of users' adoption of the internet as a shopping and transaction channel, as well as enhance an e‐tailer's market targeting and segmentation effectiveness. E‐marketers should incorporate features that can enhance online shopping efficiency.

Given the tremendous growth of B2C e‐commerce in China, there is a critical need for understanding what drives Chinese consumers to shop online. As one of the few large‐scale empirical studies on Chinese consumers' online shopping behavior, these results will enable e‐marketers to better design their e‐marketing strategies that cater to Chinese consumers' changing needs and lifestyles and improve their online shopping experiences and satisfaction.