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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the following variables: brand fan page dependency; parasocial interaction; attitude towards brand fan pages in enhancing users’ participation in Facebook as a mobile social network (m-WOM).

An empirical study was carried out by means of online interviews with structured questionnaires. To analyse the data, and estimate the hypothesised relationships in the theoretical model, the partial least squares equation modelling was used.

The results of the study indicate that accessing brands’ mobile Facebook fan pages can satisfy the needs of understanding, orientation and play. These needs, in turn, influence users’ attitude, as well as their active and passive participation. Besides, users’ active participation in brands’ fan pages is enhanced by the direct and positive influence of attitude and passive participation.

This research enables brands to know which aspects to highlight in their communication strategies in order to increase the user’s active participation and generate m-WOM. Brands need to post information which is not only relevant, but also entertaining and visually attractive. Furthermore, they should foster the user-brand interaction to achieve users’ engagement with the brand.

The contribution of the present research is threefold. First, it offers a new perspective in explaining eWOM participation in mobile settings based on social networks. Second, it is argued that dependency is a key driver in explaining m-WOM. Lastly, integrating parasocial integration in the authors’ model highlights the communication nature of the word-of-mouth process.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of emotions and social influences on loyalty formation towards online travel communities.

The individual (perceived risk) and social (subjective norm and social presence) antecedents of emotions as well as the impact of emotions on attitude and loyalty towards online travel communities are tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consists of 385 active users of online travel communities in Spain.

Data analysis shows that perceived privacy and security risk elicit negative emotions such as stress, frustration and fear towards the online travel community. Normative influences (subjective norm) and feeling the presence of other community members (social presence) boost positive emotions towards the online travel community. Interpersonal influences have a positive effect on subjective norm but not external influences. Positive and negative emotions affect preferences towards the online travel community (attitudes) as proposed by social impact theory. Subjective norm and attitude have a direct influence on loyalty towards an online travel community, confirming previous research grounded on theory of reasoned action models.

Despite the crucial impact of consumers’ affective states on loyalty formation, research on social media is mainly focused on the technological nature of consumer information exchanges, neglecting other drivers of consumer behaviour beyond the technology employed. This paper develops a model that integrates the relationships between consumer emotions and their individual (perceived risk) and social (social presence and subjective norm) antecedents and outcome variables (attitude and loyalty). The role of social influences is analysed, assessing the conjoint impact of one-way communication (interpersonal influences and mass media) and Web 2.0 communications (social presence) on positive emotions and loyalty formation towards the online travel community.

Today’s society interest in mobile photography drives consumers’ and brands’ growing usage of Instagram. This paper aims to address the consequences of excessive use of Instagram on the negative feeling of losing information when not connected and the emotional fatigue resulting from an overcharge with new information. The mediating role of addiction between Instagram overuse and the two outcomes is also analyzed.

Data from 342 active Instagram users were used to test the proposed model, applying the partial least square equation modeling method (SmartPLS 3).

Addiction partially mediates the impact of overuse on emotional fatigue and instastress. Addiction to Instagram was mainly due to respondents’ lack of control over the time spent on it resulting in incapability to reduce its usage.

Social networking site managers, educators, families and public institutions should promote an adequate use of Instagram, making users (especially the young) aware of the potential threats of its excessive usage. The control on the amount of time devoted to Instagram is a key factor for detaining overuse and addiction, as well as avoiding the negative outcomes analyzed in this research.

The findings contribute to the extant knowledge on the negative side of the digitization of the individual, as little is known about it to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

La presente investigación aborda las consecuencias del uso excesivo de Instagram relacionadas con el sentimiento negativo de pérdida de información, cuando no se está conectado, y la fatiga emocional derivada de la sobrecarga de información. El estudio también analiza el papel mediador de la adicción entre el uso excesivo de Instagram y ambas consecuencias.

Para testar el modelo propuesto se utilizó información de 342 usuarios activos de Instagram, aplicándose el método de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales (SmartPLS 3).

La adicción media parcialmente el impacto que el uso excesivo de Instagram tiene sobre (i) la fatiga emocional y (ii) el Instastress. La adicción a Instagram se deriva principalmente de la falta de control del tiempo invertido en su uso, lo que da como resultado su incapacidad para reducir dicho uso.

Los responsables de los medios sociales, los educadores, las familias y las instituciones públicas deberían promover un uso adecuado de Instagram, haciendo que los usuarios (especialmente los más jóvenes) sean conscientes de las amenazas potenciales de su uso excesivo. El control sobre la cantidad de tiempo dedicado a Instagram es un factor clave para detener el uso excesivo y la adicción, así como para evitar los resultados negativos analizados en esta investigación.

Los resultados contribuyen a ampliar el conocimiento sobre el lado negativo de la digitalización del individuo, dada la escasa literatura al respecto.

Adicción, Uso excesivo, Instastress, Fatiga emocional, Redes sociales, Instagram

Artículo de investigación

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of perceived value on post-acceptance behaviour for users of advanced mobile messaging services (AMMS). The paper also compares differences in the influence of perceived value on satisfaction and of satisfaction on loyalty to AMMS in Spain and Greece, to test the moderating effect of culture.

Partial least squares path modelling is used to test the model. Perceived value is modelled as a multidimensional reflective construct with four dimensions. Culture is studied at a national level. Differences between countries are tested using the multigroup analysis approach proposed by Henseler et al. (2009).

Perceived value contributes significantly to satisfaction. Satisfaction also has a significant effect on loyalty. Regarding the moderating effect of culture, the influence of perceived value on satisfaction is higher in Greece than in Spain. The authors report similar findings for the effect of satisfaction on loyalty, demonstrating the relevant moderating role of cultures with different degrees of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and collectivism.

This cross-cultural comparison enables mobile phone companies to understand how to provide the greatest value with AMMS in each country in order to increase user satisfaction and loyalty to the service.

This is one of the first studies that develops cross-cultural research to analyse the post-acceptance of mobile services. It analyses the effect of perceived value and satisfaction, making an original comparison of two countries generally considered too similar to be compared.

This paper aims to define and demonstrate the importance of crowdsourcing for the improvement of diverse functions of hotels, the advantages and disadvantages of this technique and, specifically, the relevance of crowdvoting for enhancing hotel sales, and diverse hotel performance dimensions.

A total of 45,103 opinions from Booking.com, a sample of 184 questionnaires addressed to hotel managers and partial least squares (PLS)-path modeling were combined to contrast the hypotheses.

The results empirically show the direct and positive impact of the opinions of the crowd on the amount of hotel sales that do not depend on physical intermediaries, and the impact that this has on the performance dimensions of hotels.

The paper shows the relevance of following strategies addressed at increasing the customers’ recommendations in the main social media or virtual travel agencies, as a mechanism to reduce tourism and hospitality organizations’ traditional weaknesses and increase their long-term performance.

The novelty of crowdsourcing, means that few works (although with an explosive increase and with high impact) have focused on this aspect in the literature, especially in the tourism and hospitality literature. The results of our research open new areas of research and contrast the relevance of crowdsourcing and specifically crowdvoting for the success of hotels. In addition, the methodology employed, by mixing the data from a social media, with a questionnaire addressed to managers, can open new ideas for future works.

To analyse key drivers of television dependency and its impact on teleshopping adoption.

The applicability of the media dependency scale is tested in the Spanish market. The impact of demographics, television exposure and television affinity on television dependency is analysed together with behavioural changes deriving from television dependency (willingness to teleshopping).

Data analysis shows that the media dependency scale needs to be adapted to the Spanish market and Spanish televiewers show intermediate levels of television dependency. Dependent televiewers are mainly mature, feel high‐television affinity and have high levels of exposure as televiewers. Television dependency determines teleshopping adoption, with the most relevant factor being that of searching guides for decision taking and fun.

This research enables companies to know the different objectives which television can help consumers to attain and, therefore, what aspects to highlight in their direct marketing strategies. Television agents should exploit the dimensions television offers to increase individual dependency and message effectiveness. The significant influence that “decision taking and fun” exerts on willingness to teleshopping shows managers that program contents become a key tool to increase future television purchases.

Despite dramatic online differences were discovered between television dependent and non‐dependent consumers, very limited research has been conducted to examine them. There are still no enough studies that analyse the background and effects of television dependency on the non‐purchasing televiewers behaviour. This paper analyses the background of television dependency and its influence on future purchase intentions of non‐buyer Spanish televiewers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of interactivity with television (TV) personalities and audience members as mediating variables between teleshopping genre dependency and teleshopping behavior, and to identify the moderating effects of televiewers' instrumentalist behavior on teleshopping.

The Media Dependency Theory has been used as the conceptual framework of this study to explain teleshopping in terms of the relations of the individual with the teleshopping genre, TV personalities and audience members.

Data analysis performed using a sample of 432 Spanish teleshoppers shows that genre dependency has an indirect influence on teleshopping exposure, which in turn has a direct and positive effect on teleshopping behavior. The individual‐media relationships proposed are, in all cases, greater for high instrumentalist televiewers.

This research provides managers suggestions to increase teleshopping behavior. Managers responsible for TV content design should encourage specific viewing and purchase objectives so that they will attract an audience with instrumentalist motivations. They should also design attractive sales programs to retain the audience's attention and promote relationships with program hosts to increase relationships with TV personalities.

Previous research focused on individual media dependency has analyzed the antecedents and consequences of individual media‐genre dependency, but despite dramatic differences between instrumentalist and ritualist televiewers, very limited research has been conducted to examine them. This paper explains teleshopping in terms of the relations of the individual with the teleshopping genre, TV personalities and audience members, focusing on the moderating influence of televiewer's instrumentalist behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse key drivers of teleshopping adoption.

The impact of demographics, televiewing behaviour, non‐store shopping previous experience and attitude to teleshopping in present and future teleshopping decisions is analysed in the paper.

Data analysis shows that attitude towards teleshopping and teleshopping genre exposure are the main predictors of teleshopping behaviour, while consumer attitude towards teleshopping and previous experience as user of non‐store shopping channels (catalogue and television) are the most relevant factors influencing future teleshopping intention.

This research enables companies to know the key drivers influencing teleshopping adoption and, therefore, what aspects to highlight in their marketing strategies. Companies that use television as a shopping channel must increase their presence on the television market and improve televiewers' opinion of the teleshopping system as it would allow televiewers to maintain a relation with the teleshopping genre and to increase their probability of purchase. The significant influence that non‐store previous experience exerts on willingness to teleshop shows managers that the complementary use of other non‐store shopping systems becomes a key tool to increase teleshopping in the future.

Despite dramatic differences being discovered between non‐store shoppers, very limited research has been conducted to examine them. There are still not enough studies that examine the demographic, behavioural and attitudinal differences among televiewers and teleshoppers. This paper analyses the background of teleshopping and key drivers of future teleshopping decisions among Spanish consumers.

The paper's purpose is to analyse the influence of online shopping information dependency and innovativeness on the acceptance of internet shopping.

The impact of online shopping information dependency, domain‐specific innovativeness and technology acceptance model (TAM) variables on future shopping intention has been tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 465 Spanish consumers who had never purchased online.

Data analysis shows that consumer innovativeness and online shopping information dependency have a direct and positive influence on future online shopping intention and that the basic TAM hypotheses are fulfilled. Online shopping information dependency can be increased with interfaces that are easier to use, but only if perceived usefulness remains high. Consumer innovativeness positively influences internet exposure and the ease‐of‐use perception of the shopping medium, referred to throughout this paper as “shopping channel”.

This research enables companies to know which aspects of their communication strategies to highlight in order to get non‐purchasing web users to participate in e‐shopping. Perceived ease of use and online shopping information dependency has a significant influence on shoppers' willingness to purchase online. This shows that web content and design are key tools in the increase of future online purchasing. It is also recommended that managers target some of their advertising campaigns to the more innovative users.

There are still too few studies that analyse the effects of innovativeness and online shopping information dependency on non‐purchasing web users' behaviour. This work aims to combine the influence of online shopping information dependency, innovativeness and the traditional TAM in order to construct an improved model for internet shopping acceptance. It will use an integrated model to do so.

With the rapid expansion of social networking sites, researchers and practitioners are challenged to understand drivers of customer loyalty in fan pages. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main drivers of Facebook fan page loyalty in order to promote the creation of affective links and long-term relationships with users.

The impact of trust, fan page content dependency, attitude and consumer beliefs on loyalty to fan pages was tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 691 Spanish Facebook users.

Data analysis shows that attitude appears as a key variable in increasing loyalty to fan pages. The empirical study also found a significant positive influence of perceived usefulness, attitude, trust and dependency on loyalty in fan pages, and an indirect influence of perceived ease of use mediated by perceived usefulness and attitude.

This research enables managers to know what aspects to highlight in their communication strategies to increase fan page use and positive word-of-mouth. Research findings show managers that Facebook fan page content should provide valuable information, be fun and foster user interactions in order to improve user attitude and loyalty. Practical recommendations to reinforce consumer trust on Facebook fan pages are also provided.

There are still too few studies that analyse the effects of trust and fan page dependency on fan page users’ loyalty. This work aims to combine the influence of dependency on fan pages, trust, attitude and Technology Acceptance Model beliefs in order to construct an improved model for fan page loyalty formation.