Why do you use Yelp? Analysis of factors influencing customers’ website adoption and dining behavior

The number of review websites has increased within the past years since more people rely on online reviews to help their decision-making process. Previous studies have either focused on the attributes of the content posted on review websites (i.e., reviews) or customers’ behavior concerning their selection of review website on which to post reviews. This study, however, extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate the factors that influence individuals’ restaurant review website adoption behaviors to read reviews and make dining decisions. In addition, this study will look at the differences in individuals’ perceptions of various restaurant review websites (i.e., Yelp vs. others). The findings revealed the role of influential factors on individuals’ review website adoption and dining decisions as well as the differences in proposed structural relationships among various restaurant review websites.     

Evaluating user-generated content in social media: an effective approach to encourage greater pro-environmental behavior in tourism?

Appealing to tourists’ intrinsic interest for high-quality tourism environments, and thus encouraging them to act with a greater sense of personal responsibility toward the environment, could be critical to promoting sustainable tourism. Proliferating media channels makes the choice, style and delivery of pro-environmental messages a key issue for tourism marketers and management. Social media has become a recognized important channel for tourism information, with user-generated content (UGC) being more trusted than official channels, yet there is little knowledge about its potential role in activating pro-environmental norms. This study investigates that issue. Focusing on the conjoining aspects of personal and social norms for the first time, we propose a hypothetical model to explain the direct and indirect effects of pro-environmental UGC in activating tourists’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Working in a Chinese context, where social media plays an increasing role, the research, using a web-based sample (N = 1043), UGC-linked pro-environmental knowledge and awareness, was found to have a strong role in activating pro-environmental norms, creating a pro-environment online community, and increasing tourists’ level of engagement in pro-environmental social media activity. The study highlights the effectiveness of social media channels with UGC providing persuasive communications able to impact sustainable behaviors.     

Who's on the tourists' menu? Exploring the social significance of restaurant experiences for tourists

Taking a Consumer Culture Perspective, this paper explores the co-production of meaning among participants in tourists' restaurant experiences. Responding to criticisms that interpreting consumer behaviour should focus both on the individual and also on the collective context of consumption (Askegaard and Linnet, 2011), our research explores the social significance of these experiences and how they feed into the tourist's identity project. 34 ethnographic interviews are led with a view to exploring how tourists co-produce meaning within their group and also with staff and other patrons in the context of restaurant experience and these are followed up with a further 57 semi-structured interviews. Restaurant experiences are shown to be both rich and complex in social meanings. Thematic analysis leads to the identification and discussion regarding four contexts where social meanings are co-produced, namely sharing experiences, family togetherness and transmission, cultural guidance and customer-to-customer interaction.     

Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) participation the pathway to foster meaningful work and helping behavior for millennials?

This study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) participation affects organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through meaningful work. This work is significant for three reasons: the joint examination of CSR, meaningful work, and OCB is novel; the comparative effects of CSR perception versus CSR participation have not been examined previously; and this is the first examination of such relationships for different generations of employees. Data from 245 employees of four-star hotels were analyzed using a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach and multigroup analysis (MGA). Results reveal that CSR participation has a strong influence over work-related outcomes. The strongest effect of CSR participation on helping behavior is in Generation Y whereas CSR perception has a strong indirect effect on helping behavior through meaningful work in Generation X. These findings offer managerial implications to hotel managers on how best to manage generational differences in predicting helping behavior at workplace.