Systemic shifts in consumer preferences and expectations are not new, and can often be accelerated by major environmental events. Early evidence suggests that the events of 2020 to 2021 may have created that acceleration to fundamentally alter future consumer preferences. In this study, we argue that consumer expectations are on the path to being essentially transformed. If so, such transformations will require a renewed focus on consumer preferences in the context of an ecosystem comprised of the macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors impacting these changes. Changing consumer expectations will also need to be articulated and incorporated more comprehensively to include physical, mental, and social wellbeing. In this study, we argue that consumer behavior research will need to incorporate these fundamental shifts in factors impacting consumer preferences. We present a conceptual framework that incorporates the changing landscape of factors influencing this transformation along with suggestions for future research, and theoretical and practical implications.
Classical gardens offer ample cultural and natural landscapes for visitors to appreciate. Taking the tourist gaze as a theoretical lens, this study assumes a netnographic approach and conducts narrative analysis on travel blogs to explore visitors’ experiences at Chinese classical gardens. Findings revealed key domains of the gaze object (i.e., macro-level structural design and micro-level elements) and the way of gaze (i.e., spatial and temporal), which formed the Chinese gaze in the tourism context. Results further showed how gaze contributed to Yijing development, a unique Chinese aesthetic concept. This study enriches the tourism and aesthetics literature by positioning a classical aesthetic concept (Yijing) within a modern tourism practice (gaze). Practical implications for tourism development and destination marketing are provided.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of contactless technologies in hospitality and tourism has grown exponentially, making understanding consumer adoption of these technologies an important research area. A systematic literature review of relevant studies published in hospitality and tourism journals was conducted to identify three main subsets of the antecedents of contactless technologies adoption: system, user, and the environment. An analysis of 44 peer-reviewed articles from top hospitality and tourism journals is presented, along with an identification of 10 main categories of contactless technology. Findings indicate the specific technologies adopted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the common factors studied related to contactless technologies in past research. Theoretical/managerial implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The prevalence of eCCI (electronic customer-to-customer interaction) is rapidly growing as customers increasingly employ online tools to reach fellow customers and voice their opinions, especially after service failures. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, this research examines the impact of eCCI on restaurant customers, considering their need for approval. A total of 201 responses were obtained for the main experiment (Study 1). Results indicated that people with a lower need for approval reported greater social media engagement, customer-customer interaction justice, and empathy quality in the condition of positive eCCI. People with a higher need for approval exhibited similar responses on all dependent variables, regardless of the eCCI condition. The results remained stable across different restaurants’ response strategies (Study 2). This paper examines the novel eCCI phenomenon and adds a new twist to the literature on CCI and customer reviews. It further offers valuable guidelines for managerial involvement in digital customer service encounters.
Given the importance of booth attractiveness at trade expositions, this study sets out to develop a scale measuring booth attractiveness (Study 1) and to examine its effectiveness in motivating attendees’ purchasing behavior (Study 2). Study 1 includes three steps: (1) item generation through a thorough review of the literature, focus group, and comments from experts, (2) item purification with exploratory factor analysis using 122 samples, and (3) reevaluating items with confirmatory factor analysis using 129 samples. A six-dimensional scale of booth attractiveness was developed in Study 1. Based on the theory of mental budgeting, Study 2 was conducted to examine the effects of booth attractiveness on the mechanism of attendees’ purchasing behavior using 323 samples. Results of Study 2 suggest that booth attractiveness could directly motivate impulse buying or indirectly through mental budgeting. Impulse buying, then, results in post-purchase guilt and anticipated satisfaction. Meanwhile, postpurchase guilt reduces anticipated satisfaction.
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