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This study aims to explore antecedents of supporting local food branded by a sustainable state-operated agricultural marketing program (SOAMP). Cultural values and pro-environmental attitudes were examined as well as their effect on purchase and word-of-mouth intent.

The values, attitudes and behavior model served as the framework for testing the measurement and structural models and mediation effects. A total of 259 individuals participated in the online survey.

Structural model was a good fit to the data. The values of collectivism and long-term orientation were the strongest predictors of intent to purchase and spread word of mouth about SOAMP branded products. Green consumption attitudes mediate the relationship from collectivism value to intent to support products branded by a sustainability marketing program.

This study is original in that it challenges the notion that local food consumption is primarily driven by pro-green attitudes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first of its kind to approach local food and pro-green consumption from a cultural perspective by using Hofstede’s cultural values scale to explore how individuals’ values affect their support of products branded by a sustainability marketing program.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between consumers’ attitudes toward hotel Twitter accounts and attitudes toward hotel brands, booking intentions and electronic word-of-mouth. The study focuses on Saudi Arabia owing to the widespread use of Twitter in that market.

Modifying a previously developed theoretical model on marketing effectiveness of social media, this study empirically tests consumers’ attitudes toward hotel Twitter accounts. Data have been collected via a structured online survey. A confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model fit have been used to test the model.

When consumers have positive attitudes toward hotel tweets, they have positive attitudes toward the hotel’s Twitter account, which, in turn, improves their attitudes toward the hotel’s brand and results in intent to book and spread electronic word of mouth.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge about social media marketing effectiveness in the hospitality industry.

本研究旨在于探索酒店消费者对于酒店Twitter营销的态度以及酒店Twitter营销对打造酒店品牌、消费者预订酒店行为、和电子口碑营销的影响。由于Twitter在沙特阿拉伯地区的广泛流行，本研究将沙特阿拉伯为案例进行调研。

本研究在前人建立的社交媒体营销有效性模型的基础上，进行改进创新，并且实地调研了消费者对于酒店Twitter营销账户的态度。本研究采用网上问卷采样的方式，样本经过验证性因子分析法和结构方程模型的分析，来进行模型的测试。

本研究表明，当消费者对于酒店Tweets持有积极态度的时候，他们对于酒店Twitter账户也同样保持积极态度，同时这种积极态度也会增进他们对于酒店品牌的认知，消费者更加愿意预订酒店房间，以及为酒店电子口碑营销。

本研究结果对于酒店行业中社交媒体的营销有效性的探索有着积极贡献。

In hotels, room attendants are often invisible to hotel guests. This study aims to understand how customers would increase their voluntary tips when there was less or no personal interaction and communication between customers and service providers. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether providing different greeting cards in hotel rooms would affect hotel guest tipping behavior.

A field study was conducted in an upscale independent hotel. Four types of greeting cards through two personalized factors, perceived effort and personalization, were placed in the hotel rooms. The tipping amount for each room-night was recorded during the data collection.

There were 3,285 room-nights tip records collected in this study. The results indicated that non-personalized housekeeping greeting cards did not increase the likelihood of guests to tip, but they may increase the average tipping amount; the personalization of greeting cards from room attendants had positive effects on guest tipping behavior; the hand-written greeting card and name-introduction greeting card were predictors that can significantly increase the likelihood of hotel guests to tip.

The empirical research results support social presence theory. With more consistent tipping in hotel rooms, attendants may be able to predict tips through their job performance; thus, creating a win-win in the lodging industry.

This study contributes to understanding guest-tipping behavior in the hotel rooms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the levels of perceived information influence consumers’ purchase evaluations and intentions when making hotel reservations on an opaque-selling travel website. Because of the uniqueness of the opaque-selling model, consumers must book a hotel room without knowing the hotel’s identity. Thus, consumers’ decision-making process is intricate and substantially influenced by the limited information provided by the websites.

This study used an experimental design approach that used promotional and preventative messages to manipulate the information levels. In total, 402 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed by using quantitative research method.

The results indicated that perceived risks and perceived benefits lead toward different paths in regard to purchase intentions and information inquiries. To make a final booking decision, consumers have to go through a “debating” process, which involves assessing the overall value of the hotel deal claimed on the website.

To reduce consumers’ perceived risks and increase the likelihood of purchasing, opaque-selling websites should cautiously choose what information is displayed on their websites and also improve communications and interactions with the consumers.

This study contributes to the limited literature on information levels and its role in consumer’s evaluative process in the context of opaque-selling travel websites. In addition, this study has presented insights into opaque-buying behavior so that hotel manager may develop more appropriate pricing strategies for their target customer group.

The purpose of this paper is to examine guests’ experiences at green hotels and the impact of green experience on customer satisfaction.

A total of 727 green reviews (reviews on green experiences) of the top ten green hotels in the USA were downloaded from TripAdvisor for content analysis. Descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regressions were then used.

Guests have both positive and negative experiences at green hotels. “Energy”, “purchasing” and “education and innovation” are the most frequently discussed green practices. Some guests’ green experiences, such as “guest training”, “energy”, “water”, “purchasing” and “education and innovation”, significantly influence their overall satisfaction with hotels. Compared with basic green practices, advanced green practices tend to have greater impacts on customer satisfaction.

This study provides insight into guests’ green experiences at hotels and their impact on customer satisfaction. More importantly, this study examines the contribution of different types of green practices to customer satisfaction. As the green hotels examined in this study were not randomly selected, the results should be interpreted with caution.

Different practices impact customer satisfaction in different ways, so hoteliers should refine their green strategies when they implement these green practices.

Very few studies have examined the relationship between green practices and customer satisfaction. A gap still exists in specifically what types of green practices affect customer satisfaction and whether different levels of green practices have different impacts on customer satisfaction. This study investigates guests’ actual experiences and fills the above research gap.

The purposes of this study are to identify how hotel guests perceive green practices and to explore how hotels effectively inform customers of their green practices through social media such as TripAdvisor.

To examine hotel guests’ awareness of green practices through social media, this research investigated guests’ comments about green practices and management responses on TripAdvisor using content analysis.

The results indicated that most guests respond positively toward green practices when they can recognize them, e.g. reducing energy usage or water saving. However, lack of awareness about hotels’ green practices can cause guests to feel inconvenienced during their stays. Moreover, the study found that only a few hotel managements provide feedback on guests’ negative comments on TripAdvisor to inform them about the hotels’ green practices.

This research is limited to analyzing only the top ten green hotels in the USA ranked by TripAdvisor. A study of more hotel cases with green practice standards, which could be adjusted to involve the use of different service levels such as luxury, upscale or economy hotels, may provide more insights into this discussion.

This research presents an exploratory intent to probe guests’ comments and management responses about green practices in the US lodging industry. The results provide empirical evidence of hotel guests’ perceptions of green practices as posted on social media. Moreover, management can use social media feedback as an educational tool and as effective advertisement, which in turn may reduce the negative perception of hotel green programs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the strategies that fast fashion retailers use to position sustainability by applying the stimulus-organism-response model. Specifically, this study investigated how sustainability positioning strategies influenced perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort, price value and brand equity.

A between-subject Web experiment was used to test the research model. Four versions of the questionnaire were developed on a commercial online survey Web site, in which the surveys were randomly distributed to participants and data were collected.

The findings of this study suggest that sustainability positioning strategies can lead to the positive perceived CSR effort, thus giving support to the effectiveness of sustainability marketing for fast fashion retailers. Furthermore, purchase intentions are significantly influenced by perceived CSR effort, price value and brand equity.

This study provides important input for practitioners by suggesting that they focus their managerial attention to sustainability and should also promote it through their positioning strategies carefully.

The purposes of this paper is to segment spectators of collegiate football game using a cluster analysis and to determine differences between spectator clusters based on motivations, satisfaction, and demographic characteristics.

A survey instrument was utilized, and a total of 407 usable data were gathered through a convenience sampling method at a main campus in the Southern USA. A discriminant analysis was employed to create cluster profiles including demographic variables not previously included in the clustering procedure. Cluster analysis is a procedure used to determine best group segmentation.

Through a factor-cluster analysis, two distinct groups are identified as attendees of collegiate football games: far-away fans and seasoned sideliners. Knowing the different spectators in event attendance allows marketers of collegiate sport events to effectively target segments and attract larger numbers of visitors to each event. Although the results indicated lower satisfaction with the far-away fans cluster, they are nonetheless spending their money at these events. A concerted effort to better welcome tourists that are supporting the visiting team may help boost their image of the local community and thus increase their spending level.

The current study adds to the literature on sport event research, while providing great insight for researchers and practitioners how to segment their target market. Therefore, it is believed that the results of the present study will help future researchers and industry practitioners make use of the implications and findings to broaden their knowledge about sport marketing.

To comprehend tablet catalog marketing, the purpose of this paper is to obtain an integrated descriptive analysis of tablet catalogs and to compare the value propositions between retailers’ and aggregators’ applications (apps).

A total of 28 tablet catalog apps were content analyzed in terms of interface attributes. Next, based on the results, a χ2 analysis was applied to compare the value proposition between retailers and aggregators.

The result showed that the value propositions of retailers and aggregators were significantly different in the Context, Customization, and Communication dimensions. In addition, the incongruence of emphasized dimensions among retailers is larger than that among aggregators.

Because mobile commerce exhibits fast-changing dynamics, the results from collected data may vary in different periods. However, the present results may provide a baseline of longitudinal study. The 8Cs framework expanded from the 7Cs framework may be applied to other studies.

Retailers who attempt to engage in tablet catalog marketing may use the information and findings to facilitate their decision making. The list of the attributes can be a benchmark for a retailer to evaluate its current tablet catalog app or be a reference for those retailers who are planning to develop one.

This study identified and demonstrated a need of adding a new “C,” Control, in the previous framework and introduced the expanded framework. In addition, this study provided a set of findings for further research in the area.