Search Results (141)

Tourist loyalty is vital for destination success, fostering repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth. This study explores the psychological and safety-related factors driving tourist loyalty to natural attractions in Oman, a rising destination known for its stability and safety. Using Social Cognitive Theory as a foundation, the research incorporates perceived risk and novelty seeking as key moderating variables. Data were collected via an online survey of 165 international tourists and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings show that attachment, satisfaction, and novelty seeking significantly affect both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. While perceived value strongly influences behavioral loyalty, its impact on attitudinal loyalty appears more complex, suggesting possible unobserved mediators. Additionally, risk perception and novelty seeking moderate the link between destination familiarity and loyalty, underscoring the role of tourists’ internal evaluations of safety and desire for new experiences. This study advances the limited literature on tourist loyalty in developing countries by integrating psychological and risk-related dimensions. It offers actionable insights for tourism planners and marketers in Oman: emphasizing the country’s safety reputation, improving satisfaction levels, and crafting experiences that blend familiarity with novelty can enhance tourist loyalty and ensure sustained competitiveness in the global tourism market. Full article

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic brought significant changes to dining practices. Using meal kits, restaurant meal replacements (RMRs), and contactless dining became common, accelerating the trend toward personalized and convenient meals. Nevertheless, many people continue to prefer visiting crowded restaurants, willingly accepting the inconvenience associated with crowdedness. This paradoxical phenomenon suggests deeper social and cultural motivations beyond the basic function of eating. This study explores the social and psychological attributes of perceived crowdedness in restaurants—affiliation motivation, social proof, and human ambience—and examines their effects on customers’ emotions and behavioral intentions. A quantitative survey was conducted to assess customers’ emotional and behavioral responses to crowded dining environments, and the proposed relationships were tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that all three attributes had a positive effect on emotional responses such as pleasure and arousal. However, only pleasure significantly influenced behavioral intentions, including revisit and word-of-mouth intentions, while arousal did not. These findings suggest that emotional pleasure derived from crowded dining environments is a key factor in encouraging continued customer engagement. The study offers theoretical and practical implications for designing emotionally and socially sustainable restaurant environments in the post-pandemic era. Full article

This study aims to bridge the research gap emerging from the relationships between Visual electronic Word-of-Mouth (VeWOM) and brand factors, and their impact on consumers’ behavior by exploring the causal effects of eWOM attributes on hotel brand factor spreading through Brand Awareness (BA) and Brand Perceived Value (BV) and its consequences on Purchase Decisions (PD) in the hospitality context. Attribution Theory was extended to incorporate brand-mediated effects and crisis-specific factors. The study investigates the impact of VeWOM on consumer Purchase Decisions (PD) in terms of hotel room bookings in the British hospitality market, emphasizing the mediating role of brand-related constructs. Drawing on Attribution Theory, the research proposes a structural model to assess both direct and indirect pathways through which VeWOM influences behavioral outcomes. A stratified, non-probability sampling approach yielded 443 valid responses from hotel bookers who engaged with user-generated visual content prior to booking. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that VeWOM significantly influences Brand Value (BV), eWOM Credibility, and Information Quality, which in turn shape consumer purchase behavior. Crucially, Brand Value emerges as a key mediating variable, bridging VeWOM and Purchase Decisions, while VeWOM alone does not directly affect booking behavior. Moreover, Brand Awareness showed no significant mediating effect. The study underscores the indirect attribution process in visual review contexts, demonstrating that the influence of VeWOM is channeled primarily through brand perception mechanisms rather than direct persuasion. These insights extend Attribution Theory by highlighting the distinct cognitive pathways activated by visual content compared to text-based reviews. Practically, the research suggests that hoteliers should focus on enhancing Brand Value via bundled offerings and relationship-based marketing rather than relying solely on visual appeal or awareness to drive bookings. The study contributes to the growing body of VeWOM literature by clarifying its nuanced effects on decision-making in digital hospitality environments. Full article

As a part of sustainable transportation, robotaxis have been rapidly developing around the world because of their advantages in energy saving, improving road safety, and enhancing environmental sustainability, thereby providing consumers with sustainable transportation services. In China, as the number of pilot cities increases, more people are using robotaxi services. This study investigates the factors that affect consumer satisfaction and behavioral intentions after using a robotaxi, aiming to provide data to guide market strategy decisions. To do this, the value-based adoption model was extended and modified by including the technology readiness variable to examine satisfaction, intention to reuse, and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) intentions. Using 425 valid responses, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis were carried out with AMOS 26.0. The results indicate that perceived usefulness, enjoyment, optimism, and innovativeness positively influence service satisfaction, whereas perceived risk and discomfort have negative effects. Consumer satisfaction positively affects both intention to reuse and e-WOM intention. Additionally, uncertainty avoidance shows a moderating effect between satisfaction and intention to reuse. Full article

The growing influence of social media personalities in shaping consumer behavior presents significant opportunities and challenges for marketers. This research integrates Social Identity Theory with the influencer marketing literature to investigate how influencer self-disclosure affects word-of-mouth intentions through consumer identification. Across four experiments (N = 1048), we demonstrate that high influencer self-disclosure consistently increases consumers’ word-of-mouth intentions compared to low self-disclosure. Consumer identification with the influencer mediates this relationship, providing a psychological mechanism through which personal narratives translate into advocacy behaviors. Furthermore, we identify two important boundary conditions: self-concept clarity moderates the relationship between self-disclosure and identification, with stronger effects for consumers experiencing identity uncertainty; and cultural collectivism orientation moderates the identification-to-WOM pathway, with collectivistic mindsets amplifying the translation of identification into advocacy. These findings contribute to both theory and practice by elucidating the psychological processes underlying influencer effectiveness and offer strategic guidance for optimizing influencer communication across diverse consumer segments and cultural contexts. Full article

With the rapid expansion of user-generated content (UGC) platforms, digital empowerment has emerged as a crucial strategy for enhancing platform competitiveness. This study investigates how different digital empowerment models—no digital empowerment, free digital empowerment, and paid digital empowerment—affect platform outcomes. Employing a Salop model with multi-homing content creators, we analyze the impact of empowerment strategies on content quality, consumer engagement, and platform profitability. The findings reveal that digital empowerment functions not only as a technical tool but also as an incentive mechanism and structural supply adjustment strategy. It creates a behavioral feedback loop whereby empowered creators improve content quality, which increases consumer retention and word-of-mouth dissemination, thereby boosting traffic, advertising revenue, and overall platform profit. Among the three models, paid digital empowerment generally yields the highest content quality and platform profitability. The effectiveness of each strategy is moderated by creators’ data utilization capability, market competition intensity, advertising monetization potential, and word-of-mouth effects. These results provide theoretical and managerial insights into the design of differentiated empowerment strategies that align with platform goals and creator characteristics in competitive UGC environments. Full article

Background/Objectives: Misinformation significantly impacts self-care behaviors and treatment outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We investigated the prevalence and content of diabetes-related misinformation among Thai patients with T2DM, examining the influence on cognitive attitudes and intentions to share such information. Methods: We employed a mixed-methods approach, conducting initial qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals and patients with T2DM to identify key misinformation themes. These themes guided the development of a validated questionnaire that was distributed to 107 patients with T2DM. Spearman’s correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between misinformation exposure, attitudes, and sharing intentions. Results: Misinformation was categorized into four domains: medication side effects, alternative treatments, imbalanced lifestyle, and symptom perception. Exposure to misinformation ranged from 19.6% to 94.4%, with word of mouth identified as the primary source (81.18%). Misconceptions regarding symptom perception and alternative treatments were most prevalent. Information source, especially healthcare providers (β = 0.4); personal attitudes towards misinformation (β = 0.24); and exposure level (β = 0.46) significantly influenced the intention to share misinformation. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for targeted educational interventions to address widespread misconceptions in the management of T2DM, particularly those related to symptom perception and alternative treatments. Addressing these misinformation sources may be associated with improved self-management practices and could inform strategies aimed at enhancing patient outcomes. Full article

Social media platforms have become essential tools for businesses aiming to engage audiences through innovative communication, particularly in the food and beverage industry. This study explores the impact of three core digital marketing strategies, namely, social media advertisements, electronic word of mouth, and digital influencers, on customer responsiveness in the Lebanese food and beverage sector. Based on a cross-sectional survey of 400 participants, the findings reveal that social media advertisements significantly and positively influence customer responsiveness (β = 0.227, p < 0.001). Likewise, electronic word of mouth strongly predicts customer responsiveness (β = 0.453, p < 0.001), affirming the power of customer-generated content in shaping brand perceptions. Furthermore, the presence of digital influencers emerged as a significant predictor of consumer reaction (β = 0.236, p < 0.001), suggesting that consumers regard influencers as credible sources when making food-related decisions. Among all predictors, electronic word of mouth demonstrated the strongest effect. Control variables such as gender, age, and social media usage intensity showed no significant effect on customer responsiveness. These findings underscore the strategic value of rich media content and peer influence in shaping consumer behavior in the food and beverage industry. The study offers practical insights for marketers seeking to enhance customer engagement and brand responsiveness in digital spaces. Full article

Global biodiversity losses continue despite intensive conservation efforts. Many mammal species are understudied due to their specialized ecological niches. One such species is the Philippine colugo (Cynocephalus volans), a nocturnal endemic species in the Philippines. In this study, we utilized Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) to obtain baseline information on species knowledge, attitudes, population status, and threats. Between June and September 2023, we interviewed 471 residents across all villages in Anda, Bohol. The majority of local people recognized the species and had witnessed it in Anda, occasionally near households. Residents have limited knowledge of colugo diet and distribution, which they get primarily through word-of-mouth and personal experience. The species is perceived as neutral, but the willingness to conserve it is high. Although the Philippine colugo population seems to be present in several villages in Anda, one-fourth of the respondents believe it is declining. We identified hunting for consumption as the main threat to the colugo population in Anda, which, together with other threats, may corroborate this result. We recommend actively involving male farmers in colugo population monitoring and behavioral observations, as well as investigating the drivers and importance of colugo meat consumption among residents to design a proper conservation strategy. Full article

Tourist behavior is evolving rapidly, and local restaurants must develop strategies to capture the attention of these changing tourists. This study, conducted in Thailand, investigates the relationships between perceived authenticity, consumer self-expansion, tourists’ preference for local restaurants, positive word-of-mouth (WOM), and intention to visit local eateries. It also examines whether self-expansion mediates the relationship between perceived authenticity and restaurant preference. Data were collected from 497 tourists through self-administered questionnaires distributed on-site and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that perceived authenticity has a significant positive effect on consumer self-expansion (β = 0.902), which, in turn, strongly predicts preference for local restaurants (β = 0.870). Preference also significantly influences both positive WOM (β = 0.976) and visit intention (β = 0.949). Notably, perceived authenticity does not directly affect restaurant preference, indicating a partial mediation effect through self-expansion. These findings highlight the critical role of self-expansion in enhancing the influence of perceived authenticity on tourist behavior, offering practical insights for hospitality marketers aiming to promote local dining experiences. Full article

For the last decade, social networking services (SNS), such as X, Facebook, and Instagram, have become mainstream media for advertising and marketing. In SNS marketing, word-of-mouth among users can spread posted advertising information, which is known as viral marketing. In this study, we first analyzed the time series of user reactions to Instagram posts to clarify the characteristics of user behavior. Second, we modeled these variations using statistical distributions to predict the information diffusion of future posts and to provide some insights into the factors that affect users’ reactions on Instagram using the estimated parameters of the modeling. Our results demonstrate that user reactions have a peak value immediately after posting and decrease drastically and exponentially as time elapses. In addition, modeling with the Weibull distribution is the most suitable for user reactions, and the estimated parameters help identify key factors that influence user reactions. Full article

This study aims to explore the factors influencing word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions among cultural tourists in Thailand’s southern border provinces. This study develops a comprehensive framework predicting WOM intentions by combining the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) model, the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and the cognitive–affective–conative (CAC) model, given the critical role of WOM in tourism marketing. Data were collected from 386 cultural tourists through purposive sampling using a self-administered questionnaire. The study employs structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate relationships between trust, attitude, satisfaction, and WOM intentions. The findings reveal that trust, satisfaction, and attitude significantly impact WOM intentions. Social influence strongly predicts trust, while the perceived quality of behavior influences attitude. Satisfaction is driven by perceived value, the quality of the experience, the quality of the physical environment, and tourist engagement. This study contributes to cultural tourism literature by integrating different behavioral theories to provide a robust WOM model. This study’s theoretical contributions and practical implications for scholars, policymakers, tourism marketers, and cultural site operators will be further discussed. Full article

Tourism has become one of the most important industries in the business world, significantly impacting various economies. In order to have a better understanding of tourist behavior, this study aims to examine the image of the destination and the value of the brand as predictors of the behavior of tourists, assuming happiness as a mediating link. From a quantitative, non-experimental and cross-sectional methodological perspective, the information of a sample of 425 tourists was analyzed. The results support that tourist happiness predicts their intention to revisit a tourist destination (Path Coefficient 0.921). Also, tourist happiness and the intention to revisit predict the intention to recommend a tourist place. These results suggest that tourist happiness plays a fundamental role in aspects such as loyalty and the promotion of a destination, so it is important for tourism companies to promote tourist happiness as a marketing strategy that drives them to word-of-mouth recommendations and the intention to revisit a tourist destination. Full article

The extensive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) data generated by consumers encapsulates authentic product experience information. By leveraging advanced data analysis technologies, enterprises can extract sustainable consumer behavior preference knowledge, thereby supporting the optimization of their marketing and management strategies. However, existing data-driven product ranking processes predominantly focus on single-source eWOM data and rarely mine product insights from a multi-source perspective. Moreover, the quality of eWOM data cannot be overlooked. Consequently, this study uses automobile products as a case example and integrates rating eWOM data, complaint eWOM data, and safety test data to construct a multi-source data-driven personalized product ranking recommendation algorithm. Specifically, an evaluation index system is established for each of the three data types. To model information quality, these data are transformed into basic uncertain information (BUI), which incorporates scoring information and credibility metrics. The XLNet model is employed to convert complaint text data into scoring data, and three targeted credibility evaluation models are developed to assess the reliability of the three data types. Subsequently, BUI is aggregated using the BUI ordered weighted average (BUIOWA) aggregation operator. Based on this, a personalized product ranking method aligned with user preferences is proposed, offering consumers recommendation results that match their preferences. Finally, using automobile products as an illustrative example, this study elucidates the multi-source data-driven personalized product recommendation process and provides managerial implications for enterprises. Full article

Considering social media’s expansion worldwide, marketing academics and marketers emphasize the need to consider electronic word of mouth (eWOM) for strategic marketing decisions. However, there is limited research regarding the ways in which male and female consumers engage in eWOM behaviors. This research aims to explore the gender-specific dynamics of eWOM drivers in social media marketing, by validating a proposed model of key predictors for two samples (of female and male respondents). Data were gathered from two samples of social media users. For this empirical research, we integrated structural equation modeling and an artificial neural network (PLS-SEM-ANN) for a comprehensive approach intended to generate practical and theoretical insights for eWOM. Hypothesis testing reflected contrasting results—for female respondents, the key eWOM drivers were customer participation, involvement, loyalty, and customer satisfaction; whereas, for male respondents, the key predictors were brand familiarity, loyalty, and satisfaction. The significant variables supported by SEM were included in ANN models as input neurons, showcasing nonlinear relationships among constructs for both samples. Thus, this research provides theoretical contributions regarding eWOM, gender assessments, and the social media marketing literature. From a practical perspective, this study advances targeted social media marketing strategies to enhance consumer–brand interactions. Full article