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1 – 10 of 345Ruihe Yan, Kem Zikun Zhang and Xiang Gong
Listing popularity indicates the public’s interest in a listing on peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation platforms. Although listing popularity is crucial to the survival and…
Abstract
Purpose
Listing popularity indicates the public’s interest in a listing on peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation platforms. Although listing popularity is crucial to the survival and development of the P2P accommodation platform, this issue has received limited attention in the tourism management discipline. Drawing upon the heuristic-systematic model and uncertainty reduction theory, this study aims to examine the impacts of host and property attributes on listing popularity.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was empirically validated using a data set of 6,828 listings on a popular P2P accommodation platform called Airbnb. This study chooses a hierarchical regression analysis to perform the model validation.
Findings
The findings reveal that host self-disclosure, host reputation and host identity verification are key host attributes in promoting listing popularity. Meanwhile, property visual description, property photo verification and property visual appeal are important property attributes in facilitating listing popularity.
Research limitations/implications
The study adds useful insights on understanding on determinants of listing popularity. Future researchers are recommended to empirically verify the underlying psychological mechanism by which host attributes and property attributes influence listing popularity.
Practical implications
The P2P accommodation platform should promote the listing popularity by taking advantage of the host attributes and providing property attributes.
Originality/value
First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few studies to explore the formation of the listing popularity. Second, this study examines how the host and property attributes promote the listing popularity through the heuristic and systematic information processing modes.
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Weihua Deng, Ming Yi and Yingying Lu
The helpfulness vote is a type of aggregate user representation that, by measuring the quality of an online review based on certain criteria, can allow readers to find helpful…
Abstract
Purpose
The helpfulness vote is a type of aggregate user representation that, by measuring the quality of an online review based on certain criteria, can allow readers to find helpful reviews more quickly. Although widely applied in practice, the effectiveness of the voting mechanism is unsatisfactory. This paper uses the heuristic–systematic model and the theory of dynamics of reviews to shed light on the effect of various information cues (product ratings, word count and product attributes in the textual content of reviews) on online reviews’ aggregative voting process. It proposes a conceptual model of seven empirically tested hypotheses.
Design/methodology/approach
A dataset of user-generated online hotel reviews (n = 6,099) was automatically extracted from Ctrip.com. In order to measure the variable of product attributes as a systematic cue, the paper uses Chinese word segmentation, a part-of-speech tag and word frequency statistics to analyze online textual content. To verify the seven hypotheses, SPSS 17.0 was used to perform multiple linear regression.
Findings
The results show that the aggregative process of helpfulness voting can be divided into two stages, initial and cumulative voting, depending on whether voting is affected by the previous votes. Heuristic (product ratings, word count) and systematic cues (product attributes in the textual content) respectively exert a greater impact on the two stages. Furthermore, the interaction of heuristic and systematic cues plays an important role in both stages, with a stronger impact on the cumulative voting stage and a weaker one on the initial stage.
Practical implications
This paper’s findings can be used to explore improvements to helpfulness voting by aligning it with an individual’s information process strategy, such as by providing more explicating heuristic cues, developing different methods of presenting relevant cues to promote the voting decision at different stages, and specifying the cognitive mechanisms when designing the functions and features of helpfulness voting.
Originality/value
This study explores the aggregative process of helpfulness votes, drawing on the study of the dynamics of online reviews for the first time. It also contributes to the understanding of the influence of various information cues on the process from an information process perspective.
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Aruba Sharif, Tahir Mumtaz Awan and Osman Sadiq Paracha
This study aims to understand how fake news can cause an impact on consumer behavioral intentions in today’s era when fake news is prevalent and common. Brands have not only faced…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how fake news can cause an impact on consumer behavioral intentions in today’s era when fake news is prevalent and common. Brands have not only faced reputational losses but also got a dip in their share prices and sales, which affected their financial standing. Hence, it is significant for brands to understand the impact of fake news on behavioral intentions and to strategize to manage the impact.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses several branding and marketing concepts such as brand experience, brand trust, brand credibility, consumer behavioral intentions along with variables suggested by Elaboration Likelihood Model and Heuristic Systematic Model such as personal relevance/involvement. For fake news, news truthfulness, news credibility and source credibility are used.
Findings
The results of this study shows that positive brand experience, brand trust, brand credibility help in creating positive behavioral intentions for brands. This study shows that brands focusing on providing positive brand experience have a stronger brand trust and credibility and are affected less by fake news than those brands which do not emphasize on these factors.
Practical implications
This paper can assist brand managers in understanding the impact fake news can have on behavioral intentions of consumers. The managers can strategize such that the fake news affects their brands the least.
Originality/value
The authors in this paper attempt to fill in the gap in literature, which is to study how the fake news impacts the brands considering the credibility, trust and experience they establish with their customers. The existing literature discusses the generation and dissemination of fake news on social media and its impact on political scenarios and personalities. Also, studies explain the impact of fake news on the financial position of brands, but marketing facets are not tested empirically.
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Thanh-Thu Vo, Quynh Hoa Le and Linh N.K. Duong
This study investigates the role of social media brand posts on customer response and whether said impacts foster engagement in brand co-creation behaviors, especially in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the role of social media brand posts on customer response and whether said impacts foster engagement in brand co-creation behaviors, especially in the higher education sector. The study further explores the moderating role of a university's reputation in strengthening the effects on student response and co-creation behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted this research by using the dual processes of the heuristic–systematic model to understand the effects of brand post‐characteristics on student’s responses and behaviors. A dataset obtained from a survey of 755 students was employed to estimate the proposed research model.
Findings
The results illustrated two key characteristics of brand posts, namely argument quality (systematic processing) and quantity of posts (heuristic processing), positively affect cognitive and affective responses, thus encouraging students to co-create value for a university brand. Moreover, our study also found that university reputation plays a significant moderating role in strengthening the relationship between recipients’ responses and co-creation behavior.
Originality/value
Online brand posts not only enable institutions to exchange brand information but also allow students to contribute their own resources to co-create brand value. Thus, the study findings can help brand managers successfully implement co-branding efforts and foster students in the co-creation process.
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Devika Vashisht, HFO Surindar Mohan, Abhishek Chauhan and Raveesh Vashisht
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of game-product fit on brand advocacy and mediating role of thought favorability in fit and brand advocacy relationship in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of game-product fit on brand advocacy and mediating role of thought favorability in fit and brand advocacy relationship in the context of in-game advertising (IGA) using congruity theory and heuristic systematic model. This expounds the conditions under which in-game brand placements form favorable or unfavorable thoughts about the game and the advertised brand, and following brand advocacy.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 144 student-gamers participated in the study. One-way ANOVA and a path analysis were used for hypotheses testing.
Findings
Results showed that the high-fit game resulted in higher thought favorability and greater levels of brand advocacy than the low-fit game. Furthermore, results also revealed that thought favorability mediated the relationship of game-product fit and brand advocacy among players.
Research limitations/implications
Research on IGA is still in its relative infancy, and how gamers respond to brand placements in games has yet to be fully established. This paper’s theoretical implications are primarily in the context of in-game advertising and explain the role played by game-product fit as an originator to thought favorability that further adds value to thought favorability and brand advocacy relationship.
Practical implications
The study offers important implications for marketers, advertisers, policy-makers in terms of effective game-designing and IGA execution.
Originality
Since very little research has been done focusing on mediating role of thought favorability in game-product fit and brand advocacy relationship in the context of IGA from attention and elaboration perspectives, this paper scores as a pioneering study of its kind in India.
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This paper aims to first examine tourists’ perceptions of the source credibility and information quality of social media content to see whether they would have an impact on their…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to first examine tourists’ perceptions of the source credibility and information quality of social media content to see whether they would have an impact on their perceptions of the importance of shared content on social media. The moderating role of gender in this relationship was then examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The research sample was composed of domestic and foreign tourists in Alanya, an important tourist destination in Turkey. The data in the current study were collected by the questionnaire method. The structural relationships in the research were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling, and the moderating effect of gender was examined via the partial least squares multiple group analysis.
Findings
According to the research findings, tourists’ perceptions of source credibility regarding social media content had a positive impact on the importance attached to non-participant shared content, whereas their perceptions of information quality had a positive impact on the importance attached to participant shared content. Furthermore, it was also observed that gender had a moderating effect on the relationship between information quality and source credibility perceptions and the importance of shared content on social media.
Originality/value
Two important predictive variables have been examined in the current research in term of customer-generated contents. It has been demonstrated that the effects of these predictive variables on different customer-generated types could be different. Furthermore, it has been determined that the effects of these influences differ according to the gender of the individuals following the content. Thus, the current study provides significant findings to understand the impacts of these variables on the basis of gender.
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Yolanda Y.Y. Chan and E.W.T. Ngai
In light of the growth of internet usage and its important role in the field of e‐commerce, electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) has been changing people's behavior and decisions…
Abstract
Purpose
In light of the growth of internet usage and its important role in the field of e‐commerce, electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) has been changing people's behavior and decisions. People count on other users' opinions and information; they sometimes even make offline decisions based on information acquired online. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise eWOM activity from an input‐process‐output (IPO) perspective; propose a classification framework based on the identified academic literature; analyze eWOM literature in terms of quantitative development and qualitative issues that are useful to both academics and researchers; and provide directions and guidelines for future research studies in eWOM.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors performed a systematic literature review of peer‐reviewed published journal articles and examined the current state of knowledge on eWOM literature based on a comprehensive search of several leading databases. In total, 94 articles were identified that comprised contributions from different strands of eWOM research. The scope of this investigation was limited to the timeframe of 2000‐2009.
Findings
The present study finds that research in eWOM is relatively new and has evolved only during the last ten years. This ten‐year study is deemed to be representative of the available eWOM literature. It is also shown that many scholars have incorporated established theories to explain eWOM communication phenomena. The current study not only fills the current gap in eWOM research but also provides a roadmap in analyzing eWOM communications.
Practical implications
This study serves as a consolidated database that may be used to guide future research. It provides a structured approach to analyzing the literature and identifying trends and gaps in order to map out an appropriate agenda for eWOM research. The proposed integrated classification framework can serve as a roadmap for academic research.
Originality/value
This paper systematically reviews the current state of eWOM research. To contribute to the development of a more comprehensive database for eWOM research, a classification framework of the eWOM literature is presented, building on the IPO model, by summarizing and organizing prior research into three areas covering antecedents, processes, and consequences of eWOM. The authors further summarize the theories and models that previous scholars have applied to their studies.
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Yaojie Li, Xuan Wang and Craig Van Slyke
Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the authors examine the influence of perceived professor teaching qualities, as central cues, on online professor ratings. Also…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the authors examine the influence of perceived professor teaching qualities, as central cues, on online professor ratings. Also, our study investigates how the volume and period of reviews, as peripheral cues, affect online professor ratings.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging stratified random sampling, the authors collect reviews of 892 Information Systems professors from 250 American universities. The authors employ regression models while conducting robustness tests through multi-level logistic regression and causal inference methods.
Findings
Our results suggest that the central route from perceived professor qualities to online professor ratings is significant, including most qualitative pedagogical factors except positive assessment. In addition to course difficulty, the effect of the peripheral route is limited due to deficient diagnosticity.
Research limitations/implications
Our primary concern about the data validity is a lack of a competing and complementary dataset. However, an institutional evaluation survey or an experimental study can corroborate our findings in future research.
Practical implications
Online professor review sites can enhance their perceived diagnosticity and credibility by increasing review vividness and promoting site interactivity. In addition to traditional institutional evaluations, professors can obtain insightful feedback from review sites to improve their teaching effectiveness.
Originality/value
To our best knowledge, this study is the first attempt to employ the ELM and accessibility-diagnosticity theory in explicating the information processing of online professor reviews. It also sheds light on various determinants and routes to persuasion, thus providing a novel theoretical perspective on online professor reviews.
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Hsuan-Yi Chou and Tuan-Yu Wang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of brand strategies and spokesperson expertise on consumer responses to hypermarket private-label products by combining…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of brand strategies and spokesperson expertise on consumer responses to hypermarket private-label products by combining concepts from consumer attitude change, resistance to persuasion and construal level theory (CLT).
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were conducted to test the propositions.
Findings
Consumers perceived the low-price (low-quality) characteristic of private-label products as a high-level (low-level) construal consideration when forming purchase decisions. Product relevance negatively affected consumers’ perceived product distance. Compared with store brands, separate brands enhanced consumer product attitudes and purchase intentions. Brand strategies and product distance affected consumer message-processing mindset (i.e. resistant to persuasion or open to persuasion) when processing advertisements, ultimately moderating the effect of spokesperson expertise.
Practical implications
The findings are useful for hypermarkets seeking to implement brand strategies and select spokespersons for private-label products. Additionally, the findings show that advertisers should design advertising elements to match consumers’ construal approaches to product-related information.
Originality/value
This study contrasts two common hypermarket brand strategies, identifies the construal levels corresponding to the dual roles of private-label products and expands CLT dimensions. Additionally, the results bridge two research approaches (persuasion and resistance to persuasion) and demonstrate the pivotal influence of brand strategies. The findings also advance understanding of the effects of spokesperson expertise and contribute to resistance theory by showing how to effectively reduce attitude certainty after resistance to persuasion.
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