Understanding the drivers of tourists explicit recommendations

One of the most challenging decisions of every tourist when arriving at an unknown destination is to choose the places to visit. Recommendation sites such as TripAdvisor or Yelp are crucial to guide tourists on where to find the places that best fit their expectations (Litvin, 2015). One such example is the choice for a restaurant and how to find a place to enjoy a good meal while in a foreign city. While exploring reviews, consumer look for how their peers evaluate a given experience and particularly if they explicitly recommend it to others. Therefore, exploring what drives tourists to write a review with an explicit recommendation may help managers to focus their operational efforts on a better customer satisfaction on such drivers.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Innovative profiles and regional actors in the Algarve and Andalusia: an exploratory approach

Regional Development strategies currently have an important focus on innovation issues. This aspect is illustrated by numerous regional innovations strategies that were conducted in recent years in European Regions. European programs such as the Innovative Actions of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) had an important contribute in defining and consolidating the mechanisms to promote innovation. In the creation of these strategies the concept of Regional Innovation System (RIS) was often used as a reference to structure its components. When a region is trying to consolidate its innovative performance one of the important activities is to benchmark what similar territories have done successfully

Water calcium concentration modifies whole-body calcium uptake in sea bream larvae during short-term adaptation to altered salinities

Whole-body calcium uptake was studied in gilthead sea bream larvae (9–83·mg) in response to changing environmental salinity and [Ca2+]. Calcium uptake increased with increased fish size and salinity. Fish exposed to calcium-enriched, diluted seawater showed increased calcium uptake compared with fish in diluted seawater alone. Calcium uptake was unchanged in Na+- enriched, diluted seawater. Overall, [Ca2+], and not salinity/osmolarity per se, appears to be the main factor contributing to calcium uptake. By contrast, drinking was reduced by a decrease in salinity/osmolarity but was little affected by external [Ca2+]. Calculations of the maximum contribution from drinking-associated calcium uptake showed that it became almost insignificant (less than 10%) through a strong decrease in drinking rate at low salinities (0–8‰). Diluted seawater enriched in calcium to the concentration present in full-strength seawater (i.e. constant calcium, decreasing salinity) restored intestinal calcium uptake to normal. Extra-intestinal calcium uptake also benefited from calcium addition but to a lesser extent

The effects of cultural differences on social media behaviour

This paper studies the relationship between culture and social media marketing using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The data were organically gathered from 6,750 posts from 225 different Facebook brand pages and 15 different countries. The gathered data included the engagement metrics such as the amount of likes, shares and comments and the various versions of likes such as love, wow and funny. Interesting differences were found that could be explained by Hofstede's dimensions. Countries low in individualism and/or high in power distance, share posts more than comments. Also the use of the funny and wow emoticon responses are related to higher scores on individualism. Findings from this paper show that the use of Hofstede's dimensions to group countries into different cultures predicts some online consumer behaviour patterns, particularly on Facebook.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

How green trust, consumer brand engagement and green word-of-mouth mediate purchasing intentions

An increasing interest in environmental problems around the world has significantly expanded the demand for green goods, transforming green marketing into an effective tool for businesses to achieve competitive advantage. Yet, as more firms become aware of this strategic advantage, greenwashing activities can also flourish, and customers grow more cautious about green efforts by firms. The present research examines how greenwashing expectations of customers affect their green buying decisions by studying how green trust, consumer brand engagement and green word-of-mouth mediate this relationship. A total of 302 subjects participated in a survey to study greenwashing effects using a high involvement green ad and a low involvement green ad. Results were analyzed using a PLS-SEM approach. The findings show that the greenwashing expectations of customers have no direct effect on green purchase decisions, but that green trust and green word-of-mouth mediate this relationship. Likewise, greenwashing perception significantly affects customer brand engagement indirectly through green trust and there is a full mediation between greenwashing perception and green purchasing intention through green trust, customer brand engagement and green word of mouth. Therefore, the study shows that having a low perception of greenwashing is not enough to increase purchases. For that to occur, companies need to ensure that WOM communicates such efforts and that consumers trust these green initiatives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are Yelp's tips helpful in building influential consumers?

In the cluttered environment of online reviews, consumers frequently have to choose the most trustworthy reviewers to help them in their purchasing decision. Such reviewers are influential in their community and co-create value among their peers. The current research note studies the antecedents of fandom, particularly if contents of the message written by the reviewers predict the number of fans they might have in the future. 27,097 tips written by 16,334 users of Yelp are structured using text mining and a support vector machine algorithm is used to study the accuracy of such relation. Results show that tips which may help consumers to avoid the service and tips that highlight the positive elements of the service are the most relevant in predicting the number of fans. Findings may help managers to understand which type of messages may increase the reviewer's number of fans, thus increasing their influence in the network.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio