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Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers’ voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms.

The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support – how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects.

Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support.

Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers.

Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth.

Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers’ voluntary behaviors via perceived support.

Customer identification leads to behaviors that are beneficial for firms. This paper aims to analyze the effect of firm identification and community identification on content creation, which indirectly may affect offline word of mouth and online word of mouth.

This paper proposes a research model that is tested using data from 491 users of online travel agencies. To do so, partial least squares method is used.

The results show a positive relationship between firm identification and community identification. Moreover, both variables exert a positive effect on content creation. Furthermore, content creation positively influences offline and online word of mouth. This influence is moderated by self-enhancement in the case of online word of mouth.

Firm managers must enhance customer identification, as it can turn in behaviors that are beneficial for the company. Moreover, firms that own online communities must apply segmentation strategies based on identification and self-enhancement to encourage positive behaviors from customers.

This research tests the relationship between firm identification and community identification. Additionally, this study jointly analyzes the impact of these variables on several beneficial behaviors.

La identificación del consumidor genera comportamientos que son beneficiosos para las empresas. Esta investigación analiza el efecto directo de la identificación con la compañía y la identificación con la comunidad sobre la creación de contenido, así como el efecto indirecto de estas variables de identificación sobre el boca- oído offline y online.

Esta investigación propone un modelo teórico, el cual es estimado mediante Partial Least Squares a partir de información procedente de 491 usuarios de agencias de viajes online.

Los resultados muestran una relación positiva entre la identificación con la firma y la identificación con la comunidad. Además, ambas variables ejercen un efecto positivo en la creación de contenido. Asimismo, la creación de contenido influye positivamente sobre el boca-oído offline y online. Esta influencia es moderada por la necesidad de reconocimiento de los consumidores.

Los resultados del trabajo recomiendan potenciar la identificación del cliente con la empresa, dado esta identificación conlleva comportamientos beneficiosos para la compañía. Además, las compañías que poseen comunidades online deberían aplicar estrategias de segmentación basadas en la identificación y la necesidad de reconocimiento de cara a potenciar que sus clientes llevan a cabo comportamientos positivos para la empresa.

Esta investigación examina la relación entre la identificación con la compañía y la identificación con la comunidad. Adicionalmente, este estudio analiza conjuntamente el impacto de estas variables en comportamientos que son beneficiosos para la empresa

Trabajo de investigación

Previous research into online reviews in the hospitality industry has focused mainly on big companies; thus, it is not yet known whether its findings apply also to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the most abundant in the sector. Focusing on online reviews in the hospitality sector, this study aims to analyse whether firm size moderates the relationship between online review valence and customer responses.

This study uses a 2 (positive vs negative online review) × 2 (SME vs big company) experimental research design conducted in two hospitality settings, hotels and restaurants.

The impact of online reviews on customer responses is less intense for smaller hospitality companies.

This study incorporates firm size as a moderator of the relationship between online review valence and customer responses in two hospitality settings, restaurants and hotels.

以往针对酒店业的在线评论研究主要集中在大型企业上, 因此这些研究结果是否也适用于中小企业尚不清楚, 而中小企业在该行业中最为普遍。本研究重点研究了酒店业中的在线评论, 分析了企业规模是否在在线评论极性与客户反应之间的关系中起到调节作用。

本研究采用2（正面与负面在线评论）×2（中小企业与大型企业）的实验研究设计, 并在两个实验环境下（酒店和餐饮）进行研究。

对规模较小的酒店企业来说, 在线评论对客户反应的影响并不强烈。

本研究将企业规模作为餐厅和酒店行业中在线评论极性和客户反应关系的调节变量。

The usage of robot waiters in the hospitality industry is growing, thus increasing the number of human–robot interactions in frontline services. Focusing on robot waiters in restaurants, this study aims to propose the social cognition (SC)–psychological ownership (PO)–customer responses (CR) model, while examining the association between SC, PO, robot anthropomorphism and CR.

The hypotheses of this study are tested using a three-step mixed-method approach that includes partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

PLS-SEM demonstrates the mediating role of psychological ownership on the relationship between SC, customer attitudes regarding being attended by a robot and revisiting intentions. Robot anthropomorphism enhances the relationship between SC and psychological ownership. NCA indicates that SC and psychological ownership are necessary conditions for the presence of favorable attitudes and revisiting intentions. FsQCA suggests that different configurations of the antecedent conditions lead to better attitudes and revisiting intentions.

Frontline hospitality robots need to be perceived as warm, competent, responsive and adaptable to customer requests to elicit positive responses. Managers should employ attractive robots displaying anthropomorphic features. Managers need to ensure that customers have some knowledge about robots before interacting with them. Managers should also consider customer heterogeneity and the context in which the robots will be deployed.

Based on the psychological ownership theory, this paper analyzes the relationship between SC, psychological ownership and CR. Anthropomorphism moderates the relationship between SC and psychological ownership.

Online reviews have received research attention in recent years, as they work as precursors of consumer behaviors. Previous studies have suggested that the influence of online reviews may vary across generations. However, the previous literature has not analyzed yet whether millennials and Generation X react differently to online reviews. This study aims to shed light on this by analyzing whether the attitudes and behavioral intentions generated by online reviews are different for these two generational cohorts.

An experimental procedure was designed to manipulate online review valence; data were collected from 351 respondents in two samples, Generation X and millennial participants.

Results suggested that positive online reviews generate more positive customer attitudes and booking intentions than negative online reviews. In addition, Generation X vs millennials moderates the link among online review valence, attitudes and booking intentions. The resultant behaviors from online reviews are more intense among Generation X than for millennials.

Managers should be aware of online review valence and their customers' generational cohort, that is, whether they are millennials or Generation X, as they react differently to online reviews.

This research examines the moderating role of millennials and Generation X in the relationship between online reviews, consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. The aim is to explain how millennial and Generation X consumers react to eWOM, that is, whether generational cohort mitigates or enhances the effects of positive vs negative online reviews on consumer reactions.

COVID-19 is expected to enhance hospitality robotization because frontline robots facilitate social distancing, lowering contagion risk. Investing in frontline robots emerges as a solution to recover customer trust and encourage demand. However, we ignore how customers perceive these initiatives and, therefore, their efficacy. Focusing on robot employment at hotels and on Generation Z customers, this study aims to analyze guests’ perceptions about robots’ COVID-19 prevention efficacy and their impact on booking intentions.

This study tests its hypotheses combining an experimental design methodology with partial least squares. Survey data from 711 Generation Z individuals in Spain were collected in 2 periods of time.

Generation Z customers consider that robots reduce contagion risk at hotels. Robot anthropomorphism increases perceived COVID-19 prevention efficacy, regardless of the context where the robots are used. Robots’ COVID-19 prevention efficacy provokes better attitudes and higher booking intentions.

The sampling method used in this research impedes this study’s results generalization. Further research could replicate this study using random sampling methods to ensure representativeness, even for other generational cohorts.

Employing robots as a COVID-19 prevention measure can enhance demand, especially if robots are human-like. Hoteliers need to communicate that robots can reduce contagion risk, particularly in markets more affected by COVID-19. Robots must be employed in low social presence contexts. Governments could encourage robotization by financially supporting hotels and publicly acknowledging its benefits regarding COVID-19 prevention.

This study combines preventive health, robotics and hospitality literature to study robot implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on Generation Z guests – potential facilitators of robot diffusion.

Efficiency in retailing companies is mandatory for survival. Literature acknowledges external factors impact on efficiency. However, this impact remains understudied, as previous research typically focuses on managerial decisions. The purpose of this paper is to partially fill this gap by exploring the influence of external factors on retailers’ efficiency.

This research simultaneously measures retail efficiency and evaluates the impact of six potential drivers by applying bootstrap techniques in a sample of 25 European Union countries during the period 2006–2015.

The efficiency of the retail system in the countries under analysis evolves at different paces during the observation period. This evolution can be explained by country population density, average store size within countries, foreign trade ratio, concentration, economic freedom and percentage of urban population.

This research does not account for supply and demand restrictions that might affect retailers’ efficiency, as well as other variables that influence their production process.

This paper might help retail managers to comprehend and manage their companies’ efficiency. Furthermore, it provides clues to evaluate market attractiveness in retailers’ international expansion strategies.

Policy makers can facilitate retailers’ efficiency through regulations on external variables that influence retailers’ performance, namely economic freedom and foreign trade ratio.

For the first time, this study analyses the impact of external factors on retail services efficiency across countries.

This study aims to identify distinct online media user segments on the basis of three media theories, namely media displacement theory, media complementarity theory and media richness theory.

A large‐scale, mobile‐based web survey was conducted in Japan to assess behavioural variables (media time allocation, media richness perceptions, and media access motives) and demographics.

The latent class model reveals four distinct media user segments: dual media users (i.e. users of the internet on both the mobile and the PC); mobile internet users; PC internet users; and passive online users. Dual media users are likely to: spend more time on information searching; perceive greater levels of media richness in online media; and share common motives for accessing internet media via both mobile and PC. The findings are consistent with our theoretical expectations.

Any exploratory clustering of consumers is by definition a snapshot that depends on time and place. Consequently the findings would very likely have been different if the underlying data had been sampled at another time or in different locations. Despite this limitation the findings corroborate some of the basic tenets of theories of media competition and complementarity.

The fact that almost a third of online media users access internet content via both mobile and PC suggests the increasing importance of cross‐media strategies.

This is a pioneering study that examines media competition and complementarity between the mobile internet and the PC internet.

Purpose – This chapter examines the expectation that because the developmental trajectories of cultural frontiers are often seen as being tied to that of their more complexly developed neighbors, increases in interregional interaction provide frontier communities with previously unavailable political-economic opportunities that promote social change.

Design/methodology/approach – This expectation is examined using data from archaeological excavations at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador. Models based on external conditions like interregional interaction are considered alongside those based on internal conditions like environmental perturbations.

Findings – The results suggest that increased interregional interaction promoted the emergence of a regional prestige economy that symbolically legitimated (and perhaps made possible) the co-option of traditional risk buffering strategies during a time when the availability of subsistence resources had changed due to local conditions.

Practical implications – This chapter supports the notion that the emergence of institutionalized inequality requires control over both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, it suggests that examining models based on both internal and external conditions of change may help to explain the timing and pace of that change.

Originality/value – Much of the archaeological literature is dichotomized between models based on internal conditions and those based on external conditions. Few archaeologists would take exception to the notion that both conditions matter, but equally few archaeologists are looking at both kinds of conditions in the same case study.

This paper aims to analyze the interrelationship that exists between expectancy-value and achievement goals as factors that are decisive for participants’ higher engagement in 12 massive open online courses (MOOCs) on energy sustainability and to determine the profile of participants achieving higher success rates.

A qualitative–quantitative study of correlational and descriptive scope is carried out on two instruments based on pre- and post-tests of 6,029 participants, which is followed by a qualitative data analysis distributed by code families to identify participants’ main motivations to take MOOCs.

The results showed a positive moderate-high correlation between expectancy-value and achievement goals, which means in a practical sense that the participants’ subjective estimates of the possibility of reaching their goals prior to the beginning of the course were fulfilled, as the intentionality of the subjects-participants was positive with respect to the contents imparted.

The profiles of participants with a higher tendency to successfully finish the course and with high rates of engagement share the following characteristics: having previously and successfully finished more than one MOOC; taking the MOOC for work purposes (promotion, seeking better job opportunities, etc.); and having intrinsic motivation, that is, not depending on external factors such as obligations and certifications.

This research suggests that there are pre-educational factors that define the trend of successful completion of MOOCs, based on expectancy-value (e.g. previous experiences with other MOOCs) and achievement goals (e.g. job improvement), with external motivational issues such as completion certificates being less prevalent in the learning intention.