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The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment and their consequent impacts on consumer behavioral responses in a retail furniture VR store context. Considering the lack of VR empirical research, the indirect effect of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence and the moderating effect of consumer previous experience with VR are also included.

A commercial IKEA VR store was chosen for the study. Head-mounted display (HMD) VR headsets were employed for the VR shopping experience. The study was conducted at a laboratory at a large university in the southeastern United States. A total of 146 college students participated in the study.

Vividness had significant positive effects on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, which in turn influenced attitude towards VR and behavioral intentions. Interactivity did not have positive impacts on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. However, it indirectly affected perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence. The findings also proved the moderating effect of consumer previous VR experience between interactivity and perceived usefulness and between interactivity and perceived enjoyment. The relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions was also positive.

Notwithstanding the benefits of VR in relation to its utilitarian, hedonic, and behavioral values, little is known about consumers' responses towards the usage of VR as a shopping tool. The present study can be considered as a starting point in understanding the usefulness of VR from consumer and managerial perspectives. The findings of VR indicated in the study will help practitioners understand the urgency of adopting VR in a retail setting.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the use of Facebook by Israeli party leaders during an election period by examining four elements: the type of Aristotelian language of persuasion; the level of online engagement measured by three different types of feedback: likes, comments and shares; the use of personalization elements as engagement strategies; and the vividness features used in the post (text, photographs and video).

All of the posts from the Facebook pages of ten Israeli party leaders were collected for 45 days prior to the 2015 general elections. The number of posts, likes, comments and shares in each post were captured and the data were analyzed looking for elements of Aristotelian persuasion and of online engagement with the users.

The dominance of pathos was a salient element in the data demonstrating the politicians’ need to create an affective alliance with the public and it was the element that resulted in a higher number of likes, shares and comments. Only a few relationships were found and these do not point to a clear relationship between multimedia use and social media engagement. The interactive, open and free nature of social networking sites contributes to their development as a new type of political podia that allow politicians to produce a different kind of political communication. Instead of using these sites as platforms to disseminate their ideas, plans and strategies, politicians focus their interactions with the audience on the creation and maintenance of affective alliances.

The study contributes to the existing literature on the subject by examining four characteristics of the politicians’ personal profiles on social networks simultaneously while most of the past studies have focused on only one or two of these characteristics.

Virtual reality (VR), as a new type of media technology, significantly improves the audience experience with product presentation in the marketing communication field. The apartment rental market, particularly in China, has no exception in adopting VR technology in its communication strategy. VR usage has been boosted since the outbreak of COVID-19 and has become a widespread application in the global apartment rental market. Although extant studies have analyzed how real estate companies use VR technology to enhance customer experience, few studies have been made to explore the power of VR in apartment rental advertising, particularly in targeting the youth in China market. To fill this research gap, this study aims to figure out how young consumers perceive VR advertising and characteristics of VR used in apartment rental advertisements, and how VR advertising affects young consumers’ intentions to rent an apartment.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2021 with 301 Chinese university students aged 18 to 23. All respondents were invited offline and guided to watch one selected rental advertisement with VR technology featuring an apartment of about 50 square meters and then complete a questionnaire.

VR’s media richness in the apartment rental advertising increases its sense of presence perceived by the survey respondents. Both VR’s media richness and sense of presence positively influence respondents’ attitudes toward the advertised apartment. If respondents evaluate the advertised apartment positively, they are more willing to rent the advertised apartment.

The sample size is not large enough to represent all Generation Z consumers in China. The use of the nonprobability sampling method also limits the generalizability of the study results.

To counter the challenges created by COVID-19, apartment rental service providers and apartment owners/landlords are suggested to enhance the application of VR technology to the apartment rental advertisements to grow young consumers’ interest in the advertised apartments and even their renting intention.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study to assess young consumers’ responses to VR apartment rental advertising in China.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of web-surfers’ conative reactions to websites’ dominant hue by taking into account mental imagery’s role.

A conceptual model considering mental imagery as a mediator of web-surfers conative reactions to websites’ dominant hue was tested. It also supposes that mental imagery promoted by websites’ dominant hue is moderated by web-surfers’ involvement towards the product sold. To validate this model, an online experiment was conducted with a sample of 400 web-surfers.

Results reflect the importance of “vividness/clarity” and “valence” dimensions of mental imagery. In fact, hues congruent with the website’s content seem to be more able to generate vivid and positive mental images which affect positively web-surfers’ conative reactions. However, this relationship is reversed when web-surfers are strongly involved with the product sold.

Although this study focused on a particular product category, the obtained results can help the research community to understand better conative reactions of web-surfers to websites’ dominant hue through the consideration of mental imagery’s role.

Findings can help managers to better the performance of their commercial websites through the choice of the adequate background hue.

This study highlights the importance of mental imagery prompted by dominant website’s hue taking into account its congruence degree with the website’s content. It provides empirical evidence about its mediating role.

Along with traditional marketing channels, social media outlets are integrated as a part of the marketing mix. Social media has changed the dynamics of interaction between companies and consumers that foster this relationship. Managing brand fan pages on social networking sites is a specific way the companies are using. Customers can become brand fans on these pages and indicate that they like the brand posts, share on their wall or simply comment. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of cultural differences on the effectiveness of social media metrics and scientifically tested brand engagement in terms of commitment, loyalty and brand recommendations.

The authors analysed 1,922 brand posts from five different brands of a single product category in three different countries. Ordinary least square and hierarchical moderation regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results show that all determinants are not equally suitable for enhancement of number of likes, comments and shares. More specifically, vivid and interactive brand post determinants enhance the number of likes. Furthermore, interactive brand posts enhance the number of comments while vivid brand posts enhance number of shares. Moreover, impact and intensity vary across different cultures.

Brand fan page moderators can obtain guidance from the research in formulating their social media marketing strategies in order to decide which post determinants to place on the fan page.

In view of the influences of online videos on the cultural tourism industry, this study aims to explore the mechanisms triggered by watching online video behaviors of fans. This study examines how fans who have watched celebrities’ online videos become tourists who attend concerts held at destinations based on celebrity and destination endorsements.

This study builds for celebrity and destination endorsements on online videos by combining media richness and source model theory. This research adopts partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the mechanism triggered by online media.

Watching online media influences celebrity and destination endorsements, which, in turn, affects the concert experience and intention to return to the destination. Results reveal less intertwined relationships between celebrity and destination endorsements and the complex mechanisms between the two endorsements.

With the rise in popularity of online media, online content has become a major source of information in the tourism industry and a means of enjoying travel seamlessly. This study highlights not only the role of “watching online videos” as one of the richest media but also the role of live concerts in cultural tourism for understanding complex cultural tourism.

为了探讨在线视频对文化旅游业的影响, 本研究探讨了观看在线视频所触发旅游行为的机制。本研究考察了在名人和景区的宣传下, 观看名人在线视频的粉丝如何成为参加目的地举办的演唱会的旅游者。

基于媒体丰富度和来源模型理论, 本研究调查了名人与景区的宣传视频。本研究采用partial least squares（PLS）结构方程建模来分析在线媒体所引发的机制。

观看在线媒体影响了名人和目的地宣传效应, 进而影响了演唱会的体验和到访目的地的意愿。研究结果揭示了名人和目的地宣传之间的关系并不紧密, 这两种宣传之间存在着复杂的机制。

随着在线媒体的普及, 在线内容已成为旅游业中信息的主要来源和享受旅游的手段。本研究不仅突出了“观看在线视频”作为最丰富的媒体之一的作用, 也突出了演唱会在文化旅游中的功能, 以更全面地理解复杂的文化旅游。

In this global digital era, health-care companies are increasing their presence on the internet through branded content that serves as a connecting link between customers and brands. However, there is a limited understanding of branded content’s impact on customers. Thus, this paper aims to empirically analyse customer engagement for branded content in the health-care sector.

The factors impacting customer engagement for branded content were identified and analysed using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach to get their significance and the cause and effect relationship.

It emerged that co-creation is the most significant factor, having a substantial relationship with all other factors. It is substantiated that health-care companies can increase the intensity of customer engagement by delivering more authentic and relevant content and having an appealing look in a time-bound manner. This will increase the usefulness and entertaining value of the content.

The research findings contribute to the customer engagement dimension in the health-care sector and help the companies construct effective branded content leading towards higher customer engagement.

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of two types of hotel commercials [virtual reality (VR) versus traditional commercials] by proposing and testing a presence-mediated model along with gender effects.

An experimental design is used to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were collected in China, and the Shangri-La hotel brand was chosen. University students were randomly assigned to watch either a hotel VR commercial or a hotel traditional video commercial. One HTC Vive VR headset was provided to those participants in the hotel VR commercial group.

The study revealed that VR commercials generate a higher level of vividness and interactivity among customers, which positively influence attitudes toward the ad, brand attitude and booking intention. Moreover, the findings showed that in the virtual environment, women, as compared to men, are influenced more by VR.

This research is the first to bring the presence model and gender effects together to better understand the effectiveness of VR in hospitality advertising research.

本论文检验两种酒店广告类型的有效性（VR对比传统广告）, 通过构建和检验存在-中介模型和性别影响。

本论文使用实验设计方式来验证提供的模型。研究样本数据来自中国, 以香格里拉酒店品牌为例。本论文随机抽样大学学生, 一组看酒店VR广告, 另一组观看酒店传统视频广告。实验参与者使用HTC Vive VR头盔观看VR广告。

研究结果表明, VR广告引发酒店客人的生动和互动性, 对广告、品牌态度、和预定房间意图有着积极影响。此外, 研究结果还表明女性相对男性在虚拟环境中受到VR更多影响。

本论文是首个将存在模型和性别影响相结合, 更好地理解VR在酒店广告研究中的作用。

关键词 虚拟现实、酒店广告、广告有效性、存在、生动、互动性、性别影响

As online travel marketing is evermore gaining importance, in particular regarding the pre-purchase presentation of travel destinations, it is imperative to examine how various media can engage consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify how three prominent virtual representation media in tourism marketing differ regarding their potential in engaging customers. In particular, the authors examine whether they differ in the levels of interactivity, vividness and telepresence they elicit; and the impact of these dimensions on flow, enjoyment and online purchase intentions. The authors hereby focus specifically on millennials, who represent an important target market for the travel industry and are hard to reach via traditional media.

This study presents a between-subjects experimental design comparing three virtual representation media portraying New York City, namely, photographs, 360° video and virtual reality (VR). The findings are analysed with ANCOVA analysis and PLS path modelling.

The findings reveal that various media indeed generate different levels of customer engagement. In particular, VR scores the highest on all dimensions, with interactivity having the largest effect on consumers’ perception of telepresence. Such higher levels of telepresence in turn positively affect purchase intentions via mediation through flow and enjoyment.

Future research should examine whether these findings are impacted by moderators, like consumer characteristics (e.g. socio-demographics, personality traits) and destination types.

This study provides guidelines for tourism providers seeking to promote their sites in innovative and effective ways, in the anticipatory stage of the customer journey.

This study identifies interactivity as the most important driver for consumers’ perception of telepresence in the context of pre-travel tourism information. Moreover, the findings also reveal the mechanisms behind enhanced customer engagement via various media.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process by which the level of immersion in virtual reality-based behavioral simulation (VR-BS) impacts on the non-cognitive and cognitive outcomes. The cognitive outcome is measured using the increase in the level of Sharia financial literacy, while the noncognitive outcome is measured using the behavioral intention to use VR-BS.

The method consists of two parts: First, the development of VR-BS, in the context of sharia financial literacy, using the waterfall model. Second, testing the effectiveness of VR-BS using the theory of interactive media effects framework. The participants were 142 students from three secondary schools (two Islamic religious schools and one public school) in Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for testing the hypotheses.

VR-BS creates a perceived coolness and vividness, which in turn has an impact on increasing the participants’ engagement. Also, the use of VR has an impact on natural mapping, which increases a user’s engagement through its perceived ease of use. As predicted, the user’s engagement affects VR’s behavior, mediated by the user’s attitude toward VR media. VR’s interactivity, however, does not impact on the cognitive aspect.

The participants were not randomly selected, as the data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the majority of the participants had never tried VR before this study. The participants, however, were digital natives.

It is implied from the findings that Islamic financial business actors and the relevant government agencies (e.g. the Indonesian Financial Services Authority [OJK], the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology and the Ministry of Religious Affairs) should collaborate to best prepare the future generation of ummah by using VR-BS in their joint promotion and education programs. The results of the current study reveal that the use of VR-BS may attract people to engage in Islamic financial activities. By engaging in such activities, or at least engaging in real-life simulations/classes/workshops, people may gradually acquire more knowledge about Islamic finance.

As predicted, the user’s engagement has an impact on behavior toward VR-BS, which is mediated by attitude toward VR-BS.