Effect of dimensions of place attachment on residents’ word-of-mouth behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the effect of residents’ different dimensions of place attachment on their word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior in two cities: Sydney, Australia and Shanghai, China. A six-dimensional construct of place attachment is proposed based upon a detailed literature review: four attitudinal dimensions (place identity, place dependence, affective attachment, social bonding) and two interactional dimensions (place memory, place expectation) are proposed to reflect different aspects of a resident's attachment to a place. To test the dimensionality of place attachment and relationships between constructs, a survey was completed by 691 residents in the two targeted cities (361 from Sydney and 330 from Shanghai), and a structural equation modeling instrument was applied to analyze the data. The findings of the empirical study statistically support the dimensionality of place attachment proposed, and reveal that, in general, interactional dimensions of place attachment have an effect on WOM behavior. The results suggest that WOM behavior of residents of the two cities is influenced by different attitudinal dimensions of place attachment: Shanghai resident's place identity and social bonding predict one-to-one WOM, while Sydney residents’ affective attachment to Sydney influences their one-to-one WOM behavior. This analysis provides insights into residents’ psychology and behavior in different tourism destinations, as well as important inputs for the sustainable development of destination branding and C2C tourism communication in these two cities

Resident attitudes, place attachment and destination branding: a research framework

“…The latter showed that individuals form a match between their self-image and destination image (or image of a typical visitor of a destination), which influences their behaviour (intention to visit, intention to recommend, loyalty etc.). Placing a focus on destination visitors, the literature does not inform on the self-congruity effect among local residents, who also play a very important role in shaping destination image through place promotion (Chen, Dwyer and Firth, 2014b). In this sense, residents are considered to be tourists, who regularly use destination resources and also portray tourists' behaviour in their place of residence.…”

“…Previous research has found effects of these dimensions on specific behaviours related to the place such as retention and word-of-mouth intention (Chen, Dwyer and Firth 2014b;Chen, Dwyer and Firth 2015).…”

“…However, as to a destination level, customer loyalty is not a sufficient construct as place attachment, since residents/tourists' experience in the target destination does not involve only the tourism product purchase, but also the interaction and generated bonding between residents/tourists and the place. Similarly indicated as customer loyalty which can lead to customers brand building behaviours, dimensions of place attachment are proposed and found to affect different customer brand building behaviours in the tourism destination context (Chen, Dwyer and Firth 2014b;. The following relationships come from the model (Fig.…”

Are we there yet? Sense of place and the student experience on roadside and situated geology field trips

“…Our perceptions of places are built upon past experiences and evolve through new interactions, which are sometimes shared with others (e.g., Tuan, 1977;Gustafson, 2001;Massey, 2005;Chen et al, 2014). Imagined through a geological lens and coupled with a cultural lens, each landscape carries with it a heritage of past occupation and environmental change, and it is through the interplay between each individual and each landscape that a new sense of place is formed.…”

“…Place attachment is composed of largely, but not exclusively, of the degree of dependence on and identity with a locality (e.g., Williams and Vaske, 2003;Kyle et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2014).…”