PurposeGrounded in stewardship theory, this study explores the motives, actions and meanings of multiple stakeholders involved in an inter-family hospitality family firm succession.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal, ethnographic case study approach collects data from 15 in-depth interviews, one year of observation and a one-month on-site internship.FindingsResults show that a well-defined succession plan and the active involvement of the successor/s in the succession process would foster a strong stewardship commitment to the family business. Moreover, a clear and open communication strategy is required to strategically manage rivalry and competition among potential successors during an inter-family succession.Originality/valueThe succession process of family firms remains an intensely discussed phenomenon, and despite its importance to the tourism and hospitality industry, the intersection between tourism and hospitality and family business literature is sparse. Notably, the tourism and hospitality literature lacks a multiple stakeholder perspective to holistically capture the motives, actions and meanings of numerous stakeholders involved in an inter-family succession.
WeChat, a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media, and mobile payment app, is an emerging social media platform that has been integrated into the daily lives of Chinese people, including travel. However, despite the growing proliferation of WeChat, surprisingly, little attention has been paid to the gratifications obtained by Chinese travelers when using WeChat in travel-related decision-making. Adopting (utilizing) the well ground concept of Uses and Gratifications theory (UGT), this exploratory work aims to address this void in prior literature and identify why and how Chinese young travelers use WeChat to make hotel choice decisions.Findings stemmed from the semi-structured interviews using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling approaches with eighteen WeChat users reveal that hotel choice decisions through WeChat are influenced by a combination of social, process, and content gratifications. As indicated in our findings, hotels in China should be aware of gratifications obtained by travelers in stimulating them to utilize WeChat in the hotel selection process. Further, our work contributes to extant UGT literature by emphasizing that it has specific relevance and should be given more prominence within tourism and hospitality, and social media literature.
Purpose
Despite the increasing popularity of influencer marketing, there exists a lack of understanding of how content created by social media influencers stimulates the pre-purchase behaviour of followers. Based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this paper aims to address this lacuna by examining how influencer-created content affects the willingness of followers to search for more information related to the posted product.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional research design uses a web-based questionnaire among Instagram users in Sri Lanka. Structural equation modelling with analysis of moment structures 27 and SPSS PROCESS macro are used for hypothesis testing.
Findings
Findings indicate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content reduces follower trustworthiness towards them and the perceived credibility of the content. Mediation results demonstrate that the commercial orientation of influencer-created content negatively affects follower willingness to search for more information related to the posted product through trustworthiness and perceived credibility.
Practical implications
When adopting influencer marketing to stimulate information search behaviour, marketing practitioners should carefully examine the commercial orientation of the content of the messages posted by social media influencers to maintain high levels of follower trustworthiness towards the influencer and positive follower credibility perceptions of the message.
Originality/value
This paper adds to influencer marketing literature by demonstrating the underlying process through which the commercial orientation of influencer-created content impacts follower willingness to search for product-related information.
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