Social media promotions and travelers’ value-creating behaviors: the role of perceived support

Purpose: Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers’ voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms. Design/methodology/approach: The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support – how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects. Findings: Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support. Research limitations/implications: Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers. Practical implications: Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth. Originality/value: Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers’ voluntary behaviors via perceived support

Perceived value of AI-based recommendations¿ service: the case of voice assistants

The application of artificial intelligence in services is continuously spreading. In particular, one of the most important recent trends is the development of virtual assistants, more particularly; voice assistants, which provide consumers with various services (e.g. information, music) and with product and service recommendations based on their preferences. There is a need to understand how valuable these recommendations are for consumers. This study contributes to the emerging body of research into consumers’ use of the recommendations that voice assistants make in three key ways: (1) by analysing the roles of the benefits (i.e. convenience, compatibility, personalisation) they derive and costs they expend (i.e. cognitive effort, intrusiveness) in the value creation process related to voice assistants’ recommendations; (2) by evaluating the effect of social presence (the key voice assistant feature) on perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, through the benefits and costs associated with voice assistants and (3) by determining how the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations affects consumer engagement. An online survey was used to collect data. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the conceptual model. The core findings of the study are as follows. First, social presence enhances the benefits (especially personalisation) and reduces the costs (except for cognitive effort) associated with voice assistants. Second, personalisation was shown to be the strongest determinant of the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations, but their intrusiveness is a potential inhibitor in the way of increasing their value. Third, a positive relationship was observed between the perceived value of voice assistants’ recommendations and consumer engagement with the assistants

Rebuilding public trust in government administrations through e-government actions

Citizen trust in the public administration has been reduced worldwide due to recent events such as the current economic situation, corruption cases or disclosure of classified information. This work analyzes whether e-government related actions could be strategically employed to increase citizen trust in the public administration. This research confirms that perceived quality of public e-services has a positive effect on trust in the public administration. In turn, public administration communication (i.e., campaigns to promote the benefits and use of e-government) only influence trust in the public administration for citizens with a favorable attitude towards e-government. These results have interesting implications suggesting in which ways public administration should invest their limited resources in order to recover the levels of citizen trust

Frontline robots in tourism and hospitality: service enhancement or cost reduction?

Robots are being implemented in many frontline services, from waiter robots in restaurants to robotic concierges in hotels. A growing number of firms in hospitality and tourism industries introduce service robots to reduce their operational costs and to provide customers with enhanced services (e.g. greater convenience). In turn, customers may consider that such a disruptive innovation is altering the established conditions of the service-provider relationship. Based on attribution theory, this research explores how customers’ attributions about the firm motivations to implement service robots (i.e. cost reduction and service enhancement) are affecting customers’ intentions to use and recommend this innovation. Following previous research on robot’s acceptance, our research framework analyzes how these attributions may be shaped by customers’ perceptions of robot’s human-likeness and their affinity with the robot. Structural equation modelling is used to analyze data collected from 517 customers evaluating service robots in the hospitality industry; results show that attributions mediate the relationships between affinity toward the robot and customer behavioral intentions to use and recommend service robots. Specifically, customer’s affinity toward the service robot positively affects service improvement attribution, which in turn has a positive influence on customer behavioral intentions. In contrast, affinity negatively affects cost reduction attribution, which in turn has a negative effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, human-likeness has a positive influence on affinity. This research provides practitioners with empirical evidence and guidance about the introduction of service robots and its relational implications in hospitality and tourism industries. Theoretical advances and future research avenues are also discussed

Effects of voice assistant recommendations on consumer behavior

The present study compares the influence of text-based recommendations; traditionally known as online consumer reviews, and the influence of voice-based recommendations provided by voice-driven virtual assistants on consumer behaviors. Based on media richness theory, the research model investigates how voice versus text modality influences consumers' perceptions of credibility and usefulness, as well as their behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. In addition, the study analyses if these relationships vary based on the type of product and compares the influence of masculine and feminine voices. Two studies were conducted using between-subjects experimental designs, partial least squares-structural equation modeling, and logistic regression. The core finding is that voice-based recommendations are more effective than online consumer reviews in altering consumer behaviors. In addition, the first study showed that the influence of recommendations on behavioral intentions is mediated by consumers' perceptions of their credibility and usefulness. The second study confirmed, in a realistic setting, that voice-based recommendations affect consumer choices to a greater extent. Recommendations for search products and provided by males are also found to be more effective. These results contribute to the voice assistant and e-WOM literature by highlighting the effectiveness of voice-based recommendations in predicting consumer behaviors, confirming that credibility and usefulness are key factors that determine the influence of recommendations, and showing that recommendations are more effective when they focus on search products

How old is your soul? Differences in the impact of eWOM on Generation X and millennials

Online reviews have received research attention in recent years, as they work as precursors of consumer behaviors. Previous studies have suggested that the influence of online reviews may vary across generations. However, the previous literature has not analyzed yet whether millennials and Generation X react differently to online reviews. This study aims to shed light on this by analyzing whether the attitudes and behavioral intentions generated by online reviews are different for these two generational cohorts. Design/methodology/approach An experimental procedure was designed to manipulate online review valence; data were collected from 351 respondents in two samples, Generation X and millennial participants. Findings Results suggested that positive online reviews generate more positive customer attitudes and booking intentions than negative online reviews. In addition, Generation X vs millennials moderates the link among online review valence, attitudes and booking intentions. The resultant behaviors from online reviews are more intense among Generation X than for millennials. Practical implications Managers should be aware of online review valence and their customers'' generational cohort, that is, whether they are millennials or Generation X, as they react differently to online reviews. Originality/value This research examines the moderating role of millennials and Generation X in the relationship between online reviews, consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. The aim is to explain how millennial and Generation X consumers react to eWOM, that is, whether generational cohort mitigates or enhances the effects of positive vs negative online reviews on consumer reactions

Be creative, my friend! Engaging users on Instagram by promoting positive emotions

Instagram is emerging as the most influential social network; this phenomenon is especially apparent in the fashion industry. Fashion brands are launching creative campaigns on Instagram to engage their followers. The present study aims to increase the understanding of followers’ engagement by analyzing the consequences of brand publications on Instagram. Taking as a basis the S-O-R framework, brand publications (stimulus) may generate perceptions of creativity and positive emotions in their followers (organism) which, in turn, may influence their affective commitment and interaction intentions (response). Our results, based on data collected from 808 followers of an Instagram fashion brand account, analyzed using structural equation modeling, confirmed that perceived creativity is a crucial aspect of Instagram. In addition, positive emotions and affective commitment act as partial mediators in the relationship between perceived creativity and interaction intentions. These results have interesting implications for both the fashion industry and content generation on Instagram

Influencers and brands successful collaborations: A mutual reinforcement to promote products and services on social media

Brands and influencers are increasingly collaborating in the development of marketing campaigns. This work analyses to what extent the collaboration of influencers with renowned brands affects the effectiveness of the message and the influencer’s own reputation. The results of an experiment with more than four hundred Spanish consumers indicated that renowned brand-influencer collaborations, in comparison to non-renowned brand-influencer collaborations, enhanced consumers’ attitude towards the message, their purchase intentions and the perceived credibility of the influencer. Furthermore, positive attitude towards the message and intention to search for information are greater for services offered by renowned brands than for their products. This study contributes by bridging a gap in the literature and raises interesting implications for brand managers and their decisions to collaborate with influencers on social media

Robots or frontline employees? Exploring customers’ attributions of responsibility and stability after service failure or success

Purpose: Service robots are taking over the organizational frontline. Despite a recent surge in studies on this topic, extant works are predominantly conceptual in nature. The purpose of this paper is to provide valuable empirical insights by building on the attribution theory. Design/methodology/approach: Two vignette-based experimental studies were employed. Data were collected from US respondents who were randomly assigned to scenarios focusing on a hotel’s reception service and restaurant’s waiter service. Findings: Results indicate that respondents make stronger attributions of responsibility for the service performance toward humans than toward robots, especially when a service failure occurs. Customers thus attribute responsibility to the firm rather than the frontline robot. Interestingly, the perceived stability of the performance is greater when the service is conducted by a robot than by an employee. This implies that customers expect employees to shape up after a poor service encounter but expect little improvement in robots’ performance over time. Practical implications: Robots are perceived to be more representative of a firm than employees. To avoid harmful customer attributions, service providers should clearly communicate to customers that frontline robots pack sophisticated analytical, rather than simple mechanical, artificial intelligence technology that explicitly learns from service failures. Originality/value: Customer responses to frontline robots have remained largely unexplored. This paper is the first to explore the attributions that customers make when they experience robots in the frontline

Analyzing differences between different types of pro-environmental behaviors: Do attitude intensity and type of knowledge matter?

This study explores whether the associations between general environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors are heterogeneous and whether these associations depend on attitude intensity and the specific pro-environmental behavior. The study also examines the association between objective and subjective knowledge and behavior and the relationship with socioeconomic and personal characteristics. Mixed effects logistic regressions were performed using data from a representative nationwide survey of Spanish citizens aged 18 to 90 years (N = 2495). The results revealed interesting patterns of heterogeneity. First, only curtailment behaviors (separating trash and using street trash cans) were significantly associated with general environmental attitudes. This result was observed only for the highest level of environmental attitudes. Second, whereas subjective knowledge was associated with all pro-environmental behaviors, objective knowledge was only associated with efficiency behavior (using energy-efficient light bulbs). Finally, men showed lower levels of reported behavior than women for all pro-environmental activities. The policy implications of these findings are discussed