An investigation of the persuasive effects of firm-consumer communication dyads using Facebook

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the effective use of Facebook within the hotel industry. It explored which current Facebook practices are effective/persuasive using the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) as the main theoretical foundation. Design/methodology/approach – Using an experimental design, the effects of consumers’ exposure to treatments, involving different levels of elaboration and source credibility, were examined to determine whether consumer’s process information from Facebook communication through a central or peripheral route. Findings – The results of this research showed that consumer attitudes are affected by the source credibility, but not by the level of elaboration. Also, intentions to stay at the hotel and intentions to engage with the hotel brand via social media were not affected by the level of elaboration or source credibility. Research limitations/implications – This study presents an important step forward in understanding how consumer persuasion takes place in an online environment. Also, this paper provides a first-hand account of the manner in which social media adds value to a business organization. In addition, this paper provides insight on how consumers process online information. Originality/value – As this is the first conceptualization of the ELM in a social media context, this study is uniquely able to explain the concept of persuasion in the hotel industry. Such knowledge is invaluable to academics and hotel decision makers, especially because the research provides specific insights on the manner in which attitudes change in consumers.

Consumers’ persuasion in online food delivery systems

“…Most importantly, the thesis postulates that persuasion occurs in an environment characterized by endogenous intent, that is, embedded into the system's design (Fogg, 2003). This thesis has been at the foundation of a variety of studies (Kaptein et al, 2015), including in hospitality and tourism (Atwood and Morosan, 2015) and represents the most appropriate theoretical foundation for this study because OFDS are designed to facilitate purchasing based on a multitude of information about foodservice products in a simple manner, therefore persuading consumers by simplification, OFDS guides consumers through sequential processes of purchasing, which could result guided persuasion and OFDS offer a variety of product customizations, therefore further persuading consumers by increasing the relevance of the end products (Fogg, 2003).…”

Sentiment analysis of social media content in Croatian hotel industry

“…The third purpose of Facebook marketing research is to investigate the marketing effectiveness of messages through experimental design (Atwood and Morosan, 2015;Cervellon and Galipienzo, 2015;Ladhari and Michaud, 2015;Leung, Tanford and Jiang, 2017). The monetary value of a single Facebook "like" to a business in general is found to be considerable (Gruss, Kim and Abrahams, 2020).…”

Cruise tourism: social media content and network structures

“…Substantial research has been devoted to the social media usage of customers and firms (Leung et al, 2013;Varkaris and Neuhofer, 2017;Wang, 2016;Atwood and Morosan, 2015;Amaro et al, 2016;Baird and Parasnis, 2011;Berthon et al, 2012;Buhalis and Foerste, 2015). These researchers have found that firms' strategies and degree of sophistication in terms of adopting social media can vary (Mistilis and Gretzel, 2014), and some have concluded that social media adoption is the final part of three sequential phases: static website, dynamic website and social media (Wang and Kim, 2017).…”