Determinants of Visitors’ Intentions to Consume and Recommend Local Agro-Food Products

Previous research has revealed the relevance of consuming local food products in the visitor experience and in maintaining the sustainable development of tourism destinations. By reviewing the available studies in the field of tourism, attempts have been made to identify those factors influencing the consumption of local food products during a trip. However, few studies have analysed visitors’ behaviour in terms of their intentions to search for and recommend these products after returning to their home countries. The present study addresses this gap by analysing the factors that influence visitors’ intentions. A total of 500 international tourists in Portugal were interviewed and several linear regression models were used. The evaluation shows that the attributes of local agro-food products, food-related personality traits, and the motivations behind consuming these kinds of products emerge as the most important factors that influence visitors’ intentions to consume these products and to recommend them after a trip. However, the results also show differences in the determinants in terms of type of local agro-food product under analysis, as well as differences between the intention to consume and the intention to recommend. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are also presented.     

Heritage site management: from dark tourism to transformative service experience?

This paper investigates the managerial perspectives of dark heritage sites and considers how visitors can benefit from and ideally be transformed by the overall experience. Initially the paper provides a review of dark tourism literature and considers the relevance of the servicescape concept for this context. An in-depth case-based method was used to investigate site managers’ perspectives and key issues related to visitor's experience and engagement. Heritage sites no longer want to be seen as dark places and are striving to become sites of sensitive heritage where the focus is on visitor and social engagement. The contribution of this study to services theory is in its illumination of the integrative role of socially symbolic dimensions for heritage sites. The role of the servicescape is central to the co-creation of individual, personal socially symbolic experiences and to the longer-term societal mission of social change and global citizenships.     

Tourists’ participation and preference-related belief in co-creating value of experience: a nature-based perspective

We draw theoretical support from the concept of customer participation and cognitive dissonance theory to investigate the moderating effects of the preference-related belief of nature-based tourists, that is, the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP), on relationships between tourist experiential components and outcomes. The responses of 500 visitors to the Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan indicate that actively participative experiences (APEs)—that is, education and escapism—are more positively related than passively participative experiences (PPEs)—that is, entertainment and esthetics—to pleasure and memorability. Furthermore, tourists’ NEP appears to reinforce the effects of APEs and to weaken the effects of PPEs. We also found that tourists’ NEP has a stronger reinforcing effect than a weakening effect. Our study contributes further evidence to current insights into the importance of tourists’ participation in co-creating value of tourist experiences.     

Role conflict and changing heritage practice: ancestral tourism in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Developing mutually beneficial outcomes in service encounters can be challenging due to resource asymmetry within co-created experiences. Such encounters can result in role conflict for service providers. Limited attention has been paid to the effect on service providers of highly collaborative exchanges which require specific customisation. An example of this is ancestral tourism, a dimension of heritage consumption, in which visitors actively participate in the co-creation of experience at museums, archives and related heritage sites. These institutions, previously seen as repositories of historical information, now act as conduits for visitors to investigate their ancestral past. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between changing professional discourse in the cultural heritage sector, specifically ancestral tourism, and role conflict amongst staff. Through interviews conducted with professionals, the extent and outcomes of role conflict in complex and collaborative exchanges are explored.     

Influence of tourist sector structure on motivations of heritage tourists

Cultural tourism has traditionally been approached in terms of its appeal to visitors wishing to find out about or get involved in places or to extend their education or to enjoy historical buildings and heritage managed for tourism. This is tourism that has most encouraged activities to preserve the environment and historical/artistic heritage, getting away from mass tourist models, destination impact and seasonality. The aim of this study is to develop a model to identify the elements that help modify the cultural tourist's motivations: the structure of the tourism industry (enterprise infrastructure factors, city infrastructure factors, tourist mobility and tourist resources) and value for money. The use of partial least square method allows us to confirm the proposed correlations and to validate a model.     

Corporate crisis advertising: A framework examining the use and effects of corporate advertising before and after crises

While corporate advertising has been widely studied as a promotional tool, few studies have examined how it can be used in a corporate crisis situation. In 2013, Kim proposed a conceptual framework for examining stakeholders’ evaluation of pre-crisis corporate advertising, using the inoculation and reactance theory. The framework, published in Journal of Marketing Communications, suggested that pre-crisis advertising can increase audience resistance towards negative news of an organization and decrease audience resistance towards future corporate advertisements from the organization. The present study expands on Kim’s work to develop the corporate crisis advertising (CCA) framework. In addition to the inoculation and reactance effects discussed in Kim’s model, CCA aims to discuss the effects of corporate advertising on improving organization’s prior reputation based on halo effect, and how post-crisis advertising messages can be evaluated based on crisis theories. Our proposed framework provides a comprehensive view of the use of corporate advertising both before and after a crisis and is useful for organizations to understand the impact of corporate advertising on stakeholders’ evaluation of the organization in a crisis situation. Potential applications of CCA are discussed and directions for future research suggested.     

The moderating effect of culture on overall perceived value in the online purchasing process

This study analyzes differences in the formation of overall perceived value of a tourism service purchased online, taking tourists’ national culture as a moderating variable. The intention is to understand the influence of cultural dimensions on the antecedents and consequences of overall perceived value amongst consumers of different cultures. The sample is made up of 300 tourists (150 British and 150 Spanish) who have purchased a tourism service via the Internet. The two cultures to which the tourists belong differ in terms of the cultural dimensions of uncertainty-avoidance and individualism–collectivism. The findings reveal that in the formation of overall perceived value—which embraces both the online purchase phase and also consumption of the tourism service—moderating effects are generated principally by the cultural dimensions of uncertainty-avoidance and individualism/collectivism. The key practical implications of the study are to understand the variations on overall perceived value when making an online purchase, and to understand the role played by cultural dimensions in interactions with web-based businesses.     

融合网络推动我国在线旅游业的发展

互联网与旅游业相融合可以使旅游产品的宣传更加广泛、直观,游客的选择更加丰富、便利,更可以有效减少旅游业中的信息不对称现象。同时我国也具备了发展在线旅游业的雄厚基础。因此应通过完善网站功能、提高科技含量、提升网站时效性、差异性、互动性等方式,融合网络推动我国在线旅游业的发展。     

Customer behavioural intentions towards mobile money services adoption in Ghana

This study examined the determinants of mobile money service usage intentions and assessed the effect of social influence (SI) on mobile money services adoption and behavioural intentions (BIs). The sample of the study comprised 300 mobile money service users in Ghana. Guided by the conceptual framework and two theories identified to have an effect on technology adoption and consumer behaviour, eight hypotheses were developed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling Techniques. It is discovered that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived trust and perceived cost of use have a strong influence on mobile money service usage. The study found SI to have a significant effect on the adoption and BI. Providers ensure that their mobile application services are simple to operate, fulfil specific consumers’ needs, protect consumers’ accounts to ensure trust and are affordable, hence positively influencing consumers’ adoption of services.     

The Effect of Consumer Participation on Price Sensitivity

This study examined the noneconomic factors affecting consumers’ participation in purchase decisions, focusing in particular on the social aspect of the buyer‐seller interaction. In addition, we attempted to clarify the association between consumer participation and price sensitivity. Of the four social dimensions of consumer participation—preparation, relationship building, information exchange, and intervention—our results indicated that the first three dimensions are negatively associated with price sensitivity but the intervention dimension is not. Additionally, we also found that, given the same level of preparation, industries typically characterized by higher participation, such as hair salons, are associated with lower consumer price sensitivity as compared to those typically characterized by lower participation, such as fast food restaurants. Similarly, given the same level of relationship building, information exchange, and intervention, industries typically characterized by higher participation have lower consumer price sensitivity than those typically characterized by lower participation.     

Western Financial Agents and Islamic Ethics

This paper investigates Western professional bankers’ perceptions of Islamic finance. Exploiting data from an original survey, we carry out a principal component analysis (PCA) to characterize the main dimensions on which financial agents diverge. The PCA extracts five dimensions—accounting for 61 % of the variance in the agents’ answers—that we interpret with the help of a pilot field survey. In addition to confirm the increased association of Islamic financial values with ethical practices in the West, our results allow us to understand how the observed growth of the industry has been conceptualized by conventional agents. The five dimensions identified shed light on the multitude of constructs that have informed the diffusion of Islamic financial ideas to international markets. This supports the fact that Islamic finance cannot be seen as a single movement but is characterized by opposing and concurrent logics in global markets.     

Leaders’ Personal Wisdom and Leader–Member Exchange Quality: The Role of Individualized Consideration

Business scholars have recently proposed that the virtue of personal wisdom may predict leadership behaviors and the quality of leader–follower relationships. This study investigated relationships among leaders’ personal wisdom—defined as the integration of advanced cognitive, reflective, and affective personality characteristics (Ardelt, Hum Dev 47:257–285, 2004)—transformational leadership behaviors, and leader–member exchange (LMX) quality. It was hypothesized that leaders’ personal wisdom positively predicts LMX quality and that intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, two dimensions of transformational leadership, mediate this relationship. Data came from 75 religious leaders and 1–3 employees of each leader (N = 158). Results showed that leaders’ personal wisdom had a positive indirect effect on follower ratings of LMX quality through individualized consideration, even after controlling for Big Five personality traits, emotional intelligence, and narcissism. In contrast, intellectual stimulation and the other two dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence and inspirational motivation) did not mediate the positive relationship between leaders’ personal wisdom and LMX quality. Implications for future research on personal wisdom and leadership are discussed, and some tentative suggestions for leadership development are outlined.     

Who is the Athlete Endorser? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Advertising Practitioners’ Views

ABSTRACT

This study, via the use of focus groups, explores the common meanings that advertising practitioners in 10 countries associate with athlete endorsers. The study's macro perspective brings a unique understanding of practitioners’ universal thinking and practices in relation to athlete endorsement. It reveals that practitioners across the world correlate athlete endorsers with a wide range of positive and useful psychological, social, physical, skillfulness, and sport meanings. In particular, authenticity, objective performance, and the athletes’ belonging to the realm of sport—considered by practitioners as a carrier of positive meanings and as a “meeting place” between audiences and endorsers—were identified as greatly contributing to athletes’ positive endorsement value. The article places the various universal dimensions of athletes raised by practitioners in a holistic conceptual profile, in order to help visualize and organize thoughts when selecting athlete endorsers for marketing campaigns.     

Country reputation as a moderator of tourism advertising effectiveness

This study examines the role that country reputation plays in moderating the effects of tourism advertising for that country as well as attitude toward its government and citizens. A pre/post online study conducted in Australia used the current Brand USA's ‘Land of Dreams’ television commercial as the experimental stimulus. The country reputation scale was factor analyzed to reveal three underlying dimensions – Leadership, Investment, and Culture. Results indicated that Leadership moderated the effectiveness of the tourism ad for interest in travel to the USA as well as for attitude toward the US government.     

Determinants of brand equity in cultural organizations: the case of an art exhibition

The purpose of this research is two-fold. First, to explore the factors that help to create brand equity in cultural organizations from the visitor viewpoint and second, to examine the impact of cultural brand equity on visitor satisfaction as well as on future intentions. A model of the relationships is developed and empirically tested using data collected from visitors attending The Ages of Mankind cultural exhibition in Castilla and León, Spain. In the present study, evidence is found to support the propositions that brand equity is closely linked to the particular image it conveys, to the event's recognition, the quality of the exhibitions and the cultural values it transmits. Brand equity also impacts visitor perception of the most recent exhibition, as well as future intentions to attend or even pay an admission fee.     

Exploring Foreign Tourists’ Image of Tanzania: A Factorial Analysis Approach

Abstract

In the last decade, the economy of African continent and Tanzania in particular has witnessed a business boom of the tourism sector. While the sector has continued to grow and become a dependable source of direct and indirect employment to youths in urban and rural areas, the sector has been awash with challenges. These challenges include terrorism attacks, energy crises and poor infrastructure. However, the impact of these challenges on the image of Tanzania as a tourist destination has not received the deserved attention. This study explores the perception of visitors towards Tanzania as a tourist destination after they have completed their tourist visit. This study employs factor analysis technique to explore country destination image. Questionnaires were administered to visitors at some of the tourists’ hotels and Julius Kamabarage Nyerere International Airport (as a major exit point) in the country. Frontline employees, various tourist sites and access to services emerged to be strong tourist destination image factors. This implies that the efforts of marketing tourism destination should focus on promoting all the sites the country has.     

A comparative study of production efficiency in coastal region and non-coastal region in Mainland China: An application of metafrontier model

This paper examines production efficiency of coastal region and non-coastal region in Mainland China between 2000 and 2010 using one-step stochastic frontier analysis and two-step metafrontier model. Unlike previous studies, this study not only discusses production efficiencies but also considers differences in production patterns. The empirical results indicate that coastal region has better production performance in metafrontier technology efficiency (MTE) and technology gap ratio (TGR). In addition, this study finds that the gap of MTE and TGR between coastal region and non-coastal region is increasing for the past years.     

购物网站交互性对消费者体验价值和满意度的影响

在有关消费者体验价值影响因素的研究中,很少有学者关注购物网站交互性对消费者体验价值的影响.文章在文献回顾的基础上提炼出了网站交互性的两个重要维度:双向性和控制性,并以手段——目的链理论为基础构建网站交互性与体验价值之间关系的概念模型,最后运用结构方程模型检验了网站交互性、消费者体验价值和满意度之间的关系.研究结果表明,网站交互性的双向沟通性维度是提升消费体验价值和满意度的关键.     

Cultural consumption,interactive sociality,and the museum

Abstract

Within marketing and consumer behaviour research, museums have been generally conceptualised as public consumption spaces where visitors benefit from a variety of affective, recreational, and cognitive experiences. As such, the social context has been largely subordinated to enhancing visitors’ cultural consumption experience in the physical environment of the museum. Our study takes a reverse path by highlighting how the cultural consumption experience in the museum nourishes ‘interactive sociality’ both inside and outside the museum. The analysis of our qualitative data (interpretive individual and group interviews and non-participatory observations) on Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, UK, imply that by leveraging interactive sociality, managers can enhance the museum’s value proposition and societal worth in contemporary society.

The paper critiques museum studies’ over-reliance on (social) psychology theories and demonstrates the value of adopting alternative (sociocultural) approaches to the advancement of theory in the field. It provides evidence for the fact that cultural consumers’ interaction with(in) the organisation is not confined to the physical boundaries of a given context. People extend their varying experiences and sensibilities to other domains beyond the museum walls.     

The traditional marketplace: serious leisure and recommending authentic travel

ABSTRACT

Services reliant on revenue generated from tourism are often beholden to how authentic visitors perceive their offering to be. From a managerial perspective, this is exacerbated when they serve a dual-purpose, as both actively ingrained in local culture and showcased international tourist attractions. As such, this study contributes to Kolar and ?abkar’s (2010) consumer-based model of authenticity by assessing the relationships between serious leisure, object-based and existential authenticity, and visitor word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations in Iranian cultural tourism. Utilising partial least-squares structural equation modelling, and drawing upon responses from 615 visitors to the Tabriz Grand Bazaar, it thus extends the model’s applicability to the developing Middle Eastern context. The results extend extant research by emphasising the importance of object-based authenticity, as opposed to existential authenticity, in stimulating positive visitor WOM recommendations. Consequently, this study advances the prevailing understanding of the role of authenticity in stimulating positive behavioural intentions by highlighting how destinations can stimulate visitor recommendations.