396,531 research outputs found

    Interview study of online travel reviews and their impact on a person’s decision making process

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    In the past people sought for information via libraries, travel magazines or were inspired by marketing the travel agency made in order to attract consumers. Before the Internet era one way communication was the right way to follow. Since Internet was developed two ways communication has evolved and people can talk to each other worldwide. The development of the two ways communication has created a travel website where people can share and spread their opinions. Today people search for the most satisficing travel choice which makes more than one destination alternative selectable. The online reviews may extend or reduce an alternatives lifetime in the decision process. The online reviews are important factors in a person’s decision therefore the aim with this thesis is to investigate and evaluate how and if these online reviews affect a person’s decision-making process. The issue is based on what people think about online reviews, why they use them, how strong impact electronic word of mouth have against word of mouth, to the extent to which online reviews are used in a potential customers decision making. To obtain a result of the study, interviews with a focus group and a number of semistructured interviews have been conducted. The result highlights the dominance online reviews have on a person's choice. The participants in the paper believe that online reviews are good to rely on to get broad information and that they affect one. Participants, however, say that online reviews do not affect the final outcome but can affect the details of the arranged trip

    Risk versus reward: when will travelers go the distance?

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    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how consumers simultaneously process multiple cues for different dining occasions when making a restaurant decision. Design/methodology/approach – This paper investigates the influence of priming (review prototype), effort (distance) and involvement (occasion) on restaurant evaluations, willingness to drive and willingness to pay for a restaurant meal. A 2 (prototype: negative, positive)   2 (distance: close, far)   2 (occasion: casual, special) between-subjects factorial design was used. Findings – The paper finds that each variable influences a different outcome, whereby people rely on a review prototype for restaurant evaluation and choice, a distance cue for willingness to drive and a dining occasion for willingness to pay. Practical implications – This paper suggests that restaurant marketers can highlight exemplary service through online reviews, increase profitability by promoting special occasions and geographically expand their market by attracting people to drive for a special dinner. Originality/value – This paper evaluates the simultaneous interactive effects of multiple cues in service settings. It demonstrates that situational cues moderate the effect of primary cues in online reviews

    Simultaneous effects of multiple cues in restaurant reviews

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    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how consumers simultaneously process multiple cues for different dining occasions when making a restaurant decision. Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates the influence of priming (review prototype), effort (distance) and involvement (occasion) on restaurant evaluations, willingness to drive and willingness to pay for a restaurant meal. A 2 (prototype: negative, positive) Ă— 2 (distance: close, far) Ă— 2 (occasion: casual, special) between-subjects factorial design was used. Findings The paper finds that each variable influences a different outcome, whereby people rely on a review prototype for restaurant evaluation and choice, a distance cue for willingness to drive and a dining occasion for willingness to pay. Practical implications This paper suggests that restaurant marketers can highlight exemplary service through online reviews, increase profitability by promoting special occasions and geographically expand their market by attracting people to drive for a special dinner. Originality/value This paper evaluates the simultaneous interactive effects of multiple cues in service settings. It demonstrates that situational cues moderate the effect of primary cues in online reviews

    I Will Like Your Product, but First Let Me Take a Selfie

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    Through the proliferation of smartphones, social media, photo sharing, and selfies, the way consumers have become used to seeing themselves has changed. This paper aims to examine the influence of image type and consumer selfie taking on image and product evaluation. More specifically, this research seeks to address the question: how does a consumer’s exposure to their own image influence their evaluation of products and self-images? The selfie phenomenon and its effect on how consumers evaluate images likely play a key role. Through three experiments, this research examines the influence of image type and consumer selfie taking on image and product evaluation. This research begins to examine the role of selfie taking and the modern consumers’ exposure to their own pictures when considering product evaluation in images. These findings have implications for marketers and provide opportunities for future research. First, this study establishes the “selfie effect”. This effect suggests that consumers who frequently take selfies are generally more likely to positively evaluate products seen in multiple types of images. The selfie effect also influences consumer preference for image type. Consumers who frequently take selfies more strongly favor their true image in product evaluation. It has long been assumed that due to increased familiarity, and therefor increased processing fluency, that consumers prefer their mirror image. This research takes a step forward by acknowledging that modern media and technology has changed what consumers are most familiar with and consequently are changing their preference for how they see themselves. This is shown to be particularly true for consumers who frequently take selfies. These findings have meaningful consequences for consumer use of marketing and shopping tools. In particular, the findings should prove useful to researchers and marketers concerned with online consumer reviews and virtual try-on technologies. Consumers are increasingly enabled and encouraged to include pictures in the online reviews they write. This research shows that people more positively evaluate a product when it is shown on another consumer than when it is displayed by itself. This could suggest that that online shoppers would benefit from online reviews that include pictures of the reviewer demonstrating the product. This research also has implications for virtual try-on technologies. Virtual mirrors for example are reliant on consumer images for their function and effectiveness. Understanding that consumers may now have a preference for their true image in product evaluation and that this effect is stronger for consumers who frequently take selfies, is an important consideration in the use and design of these tools

    Reputation Agent: Prompting Fair Reviews in Gig Markets

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    Our study presents a new tool, Reputation Agent, to promote fairer reviews from requesters (employers or customers) on gig markets. Unfair reviews, created when requesters consider factors outside of a worker's control, are known to plague gig workers and can result in lost job opportunities and even termination from the marketplace. Our tool leverages machine learning to implement an intelligent interface that: (1) uses deep learning to automatically detect when an individual has included unfair factors into her review (factors outside the worker's control per the policies of the market); and (2) prompts the individual to reconsider her review if she has incorporated unfair factors. To study the effectiveness of Reputation Agent, we conducted a controlled experiment over different gig markets. Our experiment illustrates that across markets, Reputation Agent, in contrast with traditional approaches, motivates requesters to review gig workers' performance more fairly. We discuss how tools that bring more transparency to employers about the policies of a gig market can help build empathy thus resulting in reasoned discussions around potential injustices towards workers generated by these interfaces. Our vision is that with tools that promote truth and transparency we can bring fairer treatment to gig workers.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, The Web Conference 2020, ACM WWW 202

    Are HIV smartphone apps and online interventions fit for purpose?

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    Sexual health is an under-explored area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), particularly sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Due to the stigma associated with these infections, people are often motivated to seek information online. With the rise of smartphone and web apps, there is enormous potential for technology to provide easily accessible information and resources. However, using online information raises important concerns about the trustworthiness of these resources and whether they are fit for purpose. We conducted a review of smartphone and web apps to investigate the landscape of currently available online apps and whether they meet the diverse needs of people seeking information on HIV online. Our functionality review revealed that existing technology interventions have a one-size-fits-all approach and do not support the breadth and complexity of HIV-related support needs. We argue that technology-based interventions need to signpost their offering and provide tailored support for different stages of HIV, including prevention, testing, diagnosis and management

    Please, talk about it! When hotel popularity boosts preferences

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    Many consumers post on-line reviews, affecting the average evaluation of products and services. Yet, little is known about the importance of the number of reviews for consumer decision making. We conducted an on-line experiment (n= 168) to assess the joint impact of the average evaluation, a measure of quality, and the number of reviews, a measure of popularity, on hotel preference. The results show that consumers' preference increases with the number of reviews, independently of the average evaluation being high or low. This is not what one would expect from an informational point of view, and review websites fail to take this pattern into account. This novel result is mediated by demographics: young people, and in particular young males, are less affected by popularity, relying more on quality. We suggest the adoption of appropriate ranking mechanisms to fit consumer preferences. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

    Protocol for an HTA report: Does therapeutic writing help people with long-term conditions? Systematic review, realist synthesis and economic modelling

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    This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Introduction: Long-term medical conditions (LTCs) cause reduced health-related quality of life and considerable health service expenditure. Writing therapy has potential to improve physical and mental health in people with LTCs, but its effectiveness is not established. This project aims to establish the clinical and cost-effectiveness of therapeutic writing in LTCs by systematic review and economic evaluation, and to evaluate context and mechanisms by which it might work, through realist synthesis. Methods: Included are any comparative study of therapeutic writing compared with no writing, waiting list, attention control or placebo writing in patients with any diagnosed LTCs that report at least one of the following: relevant clinical outcomes; quality of life; health service use; psychological, behavioural or social functioning; adherence or adverse events. Searches will be conducted in the main medical databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, The Cochrane Library and Science Citation Index. For the realist review, further purposive and iterative searches through snowballing techniques will be undertaken. Inclusions, data extraction and quality assessment will be in duplicate with disagreements resolved through discussion. Quality assessment will include using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria. Data synthesis will be narrative and tabular with meta-analysis where appropriate. De novo economic modelling will be attempted in one clinical area if sufficient evidence is available and performed according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reference case.National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Programm
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