Hospital Marketing and Communications Via Social Media

Social media usage by health care organizations has increased dramatically. Findings from this research show that 95% of the top ranked hospitals use social media. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social media usage varies according to size of hospital and types of services provided. Since social media platforms appeal to different groups of people, this prompts the question of whether certain platforms are more appealing to people who partake in different health services. Findings reveal differences in social media usage depending on the services provided by a hospital.     

Measuring the shopper's attitude toward the point of sale display: Scale development and validation

In Europe alone, marketers invest several hundred million of Euros in marketing activities at the point of sale every year. A prominent role is assigned to display promotions. However, despite their large practical importance, surprisingly, there is no measure to pre-evaluate different displays and their design facets so that the display which reached the best pre-evaluation results may be identified and, if poor rated facets were found, those may be altered before production and rollout of the display in question. Therefore, this paper develops and validates a scale to measure the shopper's attitude toward a point of sale display reflecting all relevant facets of a display from the shopper's point of view. Examination of the scale led to satisfactory results in terms of reliability, validity, and its predictive power for purchase intention. Summarizing, the scale can help to improve display designs prior to rollout, thus, enhancing the efficiency of display promotions.     

Pains and gains of environmental management system certification for the sustainable development of manufacturing companies: Heterogeneous effects of industry peer learning

Environmental sustainability is a growing global concern. Environmental management systems (EMS) could be an effective strategic tool to help firms deal with their sustainable development. However, whether EMS certification pays off financially and how it takes effect can be debated. Thus far, these questions remain largely under‐researched. In particular, the effects of EMS certification on financial performance are inconclusive, and the reasons explaining the effects are underdeveloped. This study aims to enrich the current research by exploring the mediating and moderating roles from the perspective of cost‐efficiency trade‐offs to reveal how EMS certification affects financial performance. Applying a PROCESS procedure analysis and causal mediation analysis to a sample of 1,751 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2016, this study shows that the effect of EMS certification on firms' financial performance is insignificant because their operating costs burden increases while their marketing efficiency and managerial efficiency improve. For the first time, this study demonstrates the moderating role of industry peer learning, as the mediating effects decrease with the growth of industry peer learning.     

The effects of the visual presentation of an Influencer's Extroversion on perceived credibility and purchase intentions—moderated by personality matching with the audience

Influencers are ordinary individuals who have amassed large followings by demonstrating expertise in various niches on social media sites. We aim to propose (1) the visual presentation of an Influencer's extroversion as an antecedent to source credibility and purchase intentions and (2) personality matching in terms of extroversion between an Influencer and their audience as a moderator of such relationships. We chose the source credibility model and the similarity-attraction model as our theoretical frameworks. In our controlled online experiment (n = 165), the profile of a brand ambassador of a fashion brand was curated to create two levels of extroversion (i.e. low vs. high extroversion). Participants' self-reported extroversion levels were counterbalanced in these two conditions to create a personality match with the Influencer, entitled “extroversion congruence.” Our results suggest that the visual presentation of an Influencer's extroversion increases the perceived credibility of the Influencer and subsequent purchase intentions. Additionally, our findings show that these relationships were asymmetrically moderated by extroversion congruence: the positive effects of extroversion increase in the case of high extroversion among both the Influencer and their audience but decrease in the case of low extroversion.     

How to win the consumer’s heart? Exploring appraisal determinants of consumer pre-consumption emotions

Emotions are key drivers of consumption in the tourism and hospitality sector. Therefore, advancing our understanding of the determinants of consumer emotions is critical for tourism and hospitality marketers to effectively influence consumer affect-driven consumption behavior. However, research on the determinants of pre-consumption emotions remains under-explored. This study aims to fill the research gap and proposes a theoretical framework to explain affect-driven behavior. Grounded on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, we hypothesize that marketing stimuli are personally appraised based on several dimensions such as novelty and goal relevance. These appraisal dimensions determine the elicitation of positive emotions, leading to behavioral intentions. A total of 655 participants were recruited for an empirical study to test this framework in the context of a tourism event experience. We use an experimental research design to examine consumer appraisals, emotions and behavioral intentions in four conditions: two marketing visual formats (poster vs. video) over two delivery channels (advertising vs. e-word-of-mouth). Research outcomes support the theoretical framework of consumer affect-driven behavior, suggesting that the elicitation of positive emotions beneficially guides consumer behavior in goal striving and novelty seeking. Based on this, emotion-focused marketing implications are recommended, including goal-based segmentation, goal-relevant content development and the use of eWOM as an emotion-enhancing message delivery channel.     

Travel deterrents to regional destinations

Travel motivation is prevalent in the tourism literature. Very few studies however have examined travel deterrents to visiting popular destinations. This study approaches from travel motivation understand why tourists do not visit regional destinations and from tourists’ background to identify who do not visit these destinations with a focus on well-known regional destinations in Australia. The results show that convenience to the destinations, timing, motivation and tourist attractions are the major deterrents, and the level of these deterrents is dependent upon some of the demographic background of tourists. The findings and implications conclude this paper.     

Coloring the destination: The role of color psychology on Instagram

Color psychology plays important roles in product packaging, the retail environment, and online marketing. This study analyzed current practices related to color composition in tourism-related photographs on Instagram. Data mining and pictorial content analysis were adopted to investigate how lightness, chroma, and hue may influence Instagram posts' popularity. Generally, individuals appeared more likely to respond to brighter and more saturated destination pictures. Orange, yellow, blue, and violet contributed significantly to post popularity based on different photographic typologies. Overall, color is a complex construct that functions within diverse dimensions and can enrich tourists’ destination-related perceptions. Based on brand post popularity and color theories, the study findings provide valuable implications for effective and efficient destination promotion via Instagram. Relevant limitations and future directions are also discussed.     

Deals inside: examining restaurant operators’ motives when choosing whether to offer a flash-sale

As restaurants are the primary hospitality business represented on flash-sale sites, this study examined motivations of restaurant managers when choosing whether to utilize the promotional mediums of flash-sales. Interviews were administered as a measurement instrument. Results demonstrated restaurants which have employed flash-sales are weary of the likelihood of success and believe the flash-sales brought in established customers. Non-users indicated hesitation towards adoption of flash-sales related to low profit margins per item in their operation and the percentage split of the sale price between the firm and flash-sale provider. Findings provide keen foundational insight into the flashsale phenomenon.     

Turning corporate environmental ethics into firm performance: The role of green marketing programs

In this study, we develop a better understanding of the mechanisms by which corporate environmental ethics influences performance through the adoption of substantive actions. The empirical results of a moderated mediating analysis show that firms with higher environmental ethics are more likely to implement green marketing programs, consisting of the green production, pricing, distribution, and promotion programs and then improve firm performance. It is also observed that closure mechanism negatively moderates the mediation effect of green marketing programs because it leads to low trust and unwillingness to internal cooperation. These findings indicate that the value of corporate environmental ethics could not be determined in a vacuum, both strategy and people do matter when pursuing environmentally driven performance.     

Free-play impact by customer segment

Little is known about the effectiveness of casino free-play campaigns, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in annual redemptions. These costly play incentives are awarded to individual players, based largely on management’s evaluation of their historical play. Extant campaign-level research suggests these incentives may not be effective in driving spend per visit, but there has been no attempt to examine efficacy across player tiers (e.g., light, medium, and heavy users). Analysis of 365 days of performance data from a Las Vegas Strip casino produced varied results across tiers, but all tier-level findings indicated a failure to recover the face value of the free-play incentives. While no support was garnered for the house money effect, the results were consistent with the notion of loss aversion. The methodological approach outlined herein provides the means to critically evaluate free-play offers at the tier level, fast-tracking campaign optimization via more targeted revisions.