Detecting fake hospitality reviews through the interplay of emotional cues, cognitive cues and review valence

Purpose This study aims to examine the factors influencing tourists to share their travel experiences on social media (SM). Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was administered to 1,280 American travelers, and the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings The PLS-SEM results indicated that non-participant sharing had a direct and positive effect on tourists’ tendencies to share their travel experiences on SM. Environmental, relational and security concerns had direct and negative effects on actual travel-experience sharing, whereas altruism, personal fulfillment and self-actualization had direct and positive effects on actual travel-experience sharing. Practical implications Travelers were found to attach importance to content shared on SM when they believed the content to be objective and reliable and were more likely to share such content on their own SM accounts. This finding suggests that tourist-created content is crucial. Tourism businesses, therefore, should reduce or eliminate inhibitory factors to increase content sharing. This research provides guidance for tourism businesses’ SM initiatives. Originality/value The study, first, contributes to an understanding of the factors affecting the sharing of travel experiences on SM. Second, this study develops a holistic approach that integrates the factors that might affect tourists’ SM content-sharing behavior into a single model.

Section: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Travel experience sharing on social media: effects of the importance attached to content sharing and what factors inhibit and facilitate it

Arıca

Çobanoğlu

Çakır

et al. 2022

“…User-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms has recently become an important source of customer behavior in hospitality and tourism research, especially in lodging services (Tsai et al , 2020; Wang et al , 2022), restaurant services (Lee et al , 2021; Li et al , 2020; Liu and Hu, 2021; Pezenka and Weismayer, 2020) and tourism destination contexts (Gour et al , 2021; Taecharungroj and Mathayomchan, 2019). Numerous studies on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) have revealed the importance of UGC in customer decision-making (Chakraborty, 2019; Sparks et al , 2013; Tsai et al , 2020; Zhang et al , 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Michelin effect exist? An empirical study on the effects of Michelin stars

Bang

Kyuwan

Kim

2022

Purpose Receiving Michelin stars is considered an effective marketing tool and a prestigious certification in the restaurant industry. However, the direct effects of Michelin stars on restaurant performance remain unclear. To bridge this gap, this study aims to empirically validate the “Michelin effect” on the consumption values of restaurant patrons before and after receiving Michelin stars. Design/methodology/approach The data, collected from OpenTable, consist of over 160,000 reviews written for 218 restaurants, including 109 Michelin-starred (treatment group) and 109 nonstarred restaurants (control group). The authors measure perceived consumption value using the collected user-generated review data. The authors estimate fixed-effect difference-in-differences regressions to validate the Michelin effect. Findings Michelin stars enhance social, hedonic and service quality values, which are nonfunctional values. However, no significant effects on functional consumption values, such as economic, food quality and ambience quality values, are observed, even though Michelin stars are pure awards for kitchen performance. Practical implications Michelin stars can be an effective marketing tool for fine-dining restaurants because customers consider emotional and nonfunctional benefits such as hedonic and social values, which are more important than functional benefits such as food value. Furthermore, Michelin effects are heterogeneous depending on the number of stars awarded, price range and customers’ gastronomic involvement. These offer a strong rationale for monitoring social media, which may help managers better understand their customers and improve their performance. Originality/value This study extends the current literature on the Michelin effect by quantifying consumption values using user-generated review data. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study offers the first empirical evidence that directly validates the Michelin effect.

“…With regard to motivation for online review provision, some studies found that users’ satisfaction, sentiments (Wang et al , 2022) and characteristics, such as the desire for social status, can influence their intention to post online reviews (So et al , 2021). Most findings are consistent with those of studies on users’ motivation for sharing knowledge in online communities, such as Q&A forums and internet encyclopedias.…”

Section: Literature Review and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivation behind review provision in online travel communities: do hometowner contributions matter?

Liang

Zhang

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Purpose Online reviews have become increasingly important and numerous studies have noted the effect of social factors on the review provision of users. The purpose of this study is to investigate how hometowner contributions, which are defined as prior reviews posted by users from the same city, affect the quality of reviews by focal users. Design/methodology/approach Based on the theories of competitive altruism, pure altruism and reciprocity, as well as several social influence theories, a conceptual framework is constructed to explain user contribution behavior. In addition, empirical models are established based on 831,737 reviews of 919 hotels on Tripadvisor. Findings The quality of reviews by hometowners can significantly motivate subsequent users to contribute high-quality reviews. This positive effect is stronger than the effect of previous contributions by non-hometowners. The effect of hometowner contribution is amplified in users with limited review-posting experience and/or in those from countries with a considerable cultural distance from the target destination. Research limitations/implications This study provides the hospitality literature with new insights into the effect of social factors on the review provision of users in the context of online hotel review websites. The results also present numerous practical implications for online travel communities. Originality/value This study is an early attempt to analyze the effect of prior hometowner contributions on the subsequent contribution decisions of focal users. Thus, this study provides a satisfactory starting point for determining whether the review provision of focal users can be affected differently by prior contributions from their peers from different categories.