The role of social influence model in social media marketing / Saiful Bahri Mohd Kamal... [et al.]

Over the past few years, hotel businesses have acknowledged the huge role of social media in facilitating and assisting business growth due to its ease-of-use and speed of reach in nature, which essentially allow businesses to perform a role in social media marketing, where businesses can personally engage in advertising and promotion-related activities towards online customers. Nevertheless, hotel businesses are unable to effectively exploit social media marketing as they have a restricted knowledge on how to get potential customers to actively engage and become proactive as well as influence customers towards booking intention. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to propose a study that brings out an exploratory research which intends to analyze and determine the factors that lead to active participation and engagement among consumers within social media, paying attention towards three different processes of social influence: compliance, identification, and internalization that can foster individuals’ attitude and behavioral changes. The improvement of social media marketing will enhance positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and consequently lead to intention to purchase, in addition to development of a robust, attractive image and product within online communities. Information within this study is regarded as valuable resource that could be used by online hotel marketers as well as related social media manager, as they can acknowledge and understand the actions and practices needed in social media to direct them towards business growth and positive online marketing practice

Syariah compliant hotel: The concept and practices / Nur’Hidayah Che Ahmat ... [et al.]

The current tourism trends boost up the demand for and supply of Islamic hospitality services. It is believe that the successful stories of Islamic financing is one of the driving factors of Syariah Compli-ant hotels besides the increasing number of Arab and Muslim trav-ellers and their high purchasing power. Howbeit, detailed guide-lines need to be introduced in constructing this concept since there are diverse opinions and contradiction in understanding the concept and practices among the hotel operators and Syariah scholars. Re-cent studies confirmed that currently there is no comprehensive standardization being introduced yet and hotel operators came out with their own interpretation of compliant strategies. Some are overly exposed their Syariah Compliant concept through marketing strategy and concentrating too much on to be the pioneer without knowing the part and parcel of the true Syariah Compliant. With that, this study will be discussing on the awareness and acceptance level of the customers on Syariah Compliant hotel concept and practices

Making it green : the food packaging perceptions and practices of young consumers / Norsyamira Shahrin ... [et al.]

Food handler still fails to play their part even when the government imposes “No Plastic Bag” campaign and a ban on polystyrene foam to pack foods. This research focuses on eco-friendly food packaging based on the perception and practice of young consumers, especially the undergraduates of Mara University of Technology Penang Campus (UiTMPP). Questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 315 respondents. The collected data were analyzed with simple descriptive statistic of frequency, mean and standard deviation. Most of the respondents are aware on eco-friendlyfood packaging. They agreed that the university should propose some alternative to control and reduce non-biodegradable foods packaging

Eco-friendly food packaging : young consumers’ perceptions & practices / Norsyamira Shahrin ... [et al.]

Despite efforts done by the government which imposes “No Plastic Bag” campaign and a ban on polystyrene foam to pack food, small food businesses, food hawkers and campus cafeteria still fail to play their part fully in this exertion. They continue to sell their foods and drinks using non-biodegradable packaging and likewise, consumer still willingly buys them even though they pose hazard to health and environment. Being a young consumer, university student belongs to a huge group that often buys and consumes takeout food. This research focuses on eco-friendly food packaging based on the perception and the practice of young consumers, in this case the undergraduates of Mara University of Technology (Pulau Pinang) Permatang Pauh Campus. A set of questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 315 respondents using convenient sampling. The collected data were analyzed with simple descriptive statistic of frequency, mean and standard deviation. The result of this study demonstrates that most of the respondents are aware on the subject of ecofriendly food packaging and they are influenced by the factors of advertisement, family and peers. Majority of them also agree that the university should propose some alternative to control and reduce non-biodegradable foods and drinks packaging with the intention to encourage undergraduates to practice the use of eco-friendly food packaging. Despite agreeing that eco-friendly food packaging is important, it is found that the respondents do not actually use or fully practice using ecofriendly food packaging. Majority of them rely on the food sellers to provide the packaging for the food they bought in which most of the sellers apply the conventional food packaging method. Looking into this issue, this situation can be considered disconcertin

A conceptual model of online hotel booking: the role of online review and online trust towards online booking intention / Fadhlina Mahat... [ et al.]

A growing reliance on the Internet as an information source when making choices about hotel booking raises the need for more research into this issue. Within online hotel booking context, this study aims to investigate the influence of online review and online trust towards online booking intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of online trust will also have been examined. Based on review of past literature, six dimensions of online review construct are proposed namely, usefulness, reviewer expertise, timeliness, volume, valence and comprehension as predictors. The proposed model is supported by Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model developed by Mehrabian and Rusell (1974). In the present study, online review is conceptualized as a second order construct. It is predicted that online review has positive effect on both online trust and online booking intention. Besides, online trust is predicted to has a positive effect on online booking intention. Finally, it is expected that the online trust mediates the relationship between online review and online booking intention. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by examining the role of online trust as mediator

The effects of brand image, perceived trust and perceived risk on online booking intention: a conceptual model / Khairil Anuar Bahari... [et al.]

Over time, the use of the internet and technology has grown rapidly. Most businesses today use the internet as a means of communicating with their customers. This is because the internet has various interactive features and is always available for use. However, when there are too many interactive features to use, it can make the site more complex, less useful, and users find it difficult to use. Referring to an overview of past literature, the article generally proposes a conceptual framework with six propositions to understand the role of brand image, perceived trust and perceived risk of online buying intentions among hotel website users. As a basic theory, Stimulus Organizational Stimulation (SOR) has been used to support the proposed framework in this study. As a result, the researcher argues that brand image has an impact on the perceived risk and perceived trust of the hotel website. Consequently, hotel websites with higher perceived risk and perceived trust are more likely to influence online booking intentions