Search Results (151)

Customers’ repurchase intention is a key driver of sustained profitability for companies. However, the influencing factors of customers’ repurchase intention and their direct mechanisms of action are not yet clear. This study empirically examines the relationships among intrinsic quality, perceptual quality, brand equity, customer satisfaction, online word-of-mouth, and customers’ repurchase intention using a structural equation model. A customer repurchase intention model is constructed with customer satisfaction as the mediating variable and online word-of-mouth as the moderating variable. The empirical results show that intrinsic quality, perceptual quality, and brand equity have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Notably, intrinsic quality exerts an indirect effect on customers’ repurchase intention primarily through customer satisfaction, with no significant direct impact, while perceptual quality and brand equity have significant direct effects on repurchase intention. Customer satisfaction plays a partial mediating role between intrinsic quality, perceptual quality, brand equity, and repurchase intention. Online word-of-mouth has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customers’ repurchase intention. These findings provide actionable insights for smartphone enterprises to optimize product development, brand management, and online reputation strategies, thereby enhancing customer loyalty and market competitiveness. Full article

In Australasian countries such as New Zealand, algae consumption is gaining in popularity within consumer markets. Beverages containing macro-algae, like kelp, and those containing micro-algae, such as spirulina, are considered novel products. While consumer preferences for algae-based products are well explored, less attention has been given to beverages, despite their importance for consumers, specifically those interested in health and well-being. The present study is dedicated to this research gap and investigates the key factors driving and hindering New Zealand consumers’ willingness to drink, pay a price premium, and spread word of mouth about micro-algae-based beverages, such as tea, smoothies, and cuppa soups. Theoretically, the present study is grounded in a seminal Australasian driver and barrier model of seaweed consumption. The current research design both confirms and extends the consumer behaviours previously examined. An online consumer study was distributed and collected via an opt-in panel provider, resulting in 437 responses. Consumers mirroring the NZ population in age, gender, and household income were the target sample, and descriptive statistics and a quantitative analysis via a partial least squares structural analysis served as the methodological foundation for the study. Food neophilia and involvement with algae were significant drivers for all three behavioural intentions investigated. Food neophobia was a significant inhibitor to the willingness to drink but not significantly related to the willingness to pay a price premium or spread word of mouth. Consumer perceptions of product attributes were a significant driver of New Zealand consumers’ willingness to spread word of mouth. The study provides best practice recommendations for marketers in Australasian beverage industries. In terms of its theoretical merit, two aspects stand out. Micro-algae beverages are an emerging beverage product category in Australasian markets, requiring wider exploration and complementary consumer research dedicated to algae-based food items. The focus on food neophobia and neophilia is original, as it helps to understand the barriers and drivers essential to beverages. In contrast to food items, beverages cannot hide novel ingredients such as micro-algae, making them simultaneously more appealing to food neophilic consumers and extremely challenging to food neophobic consumers. Full article

The importance of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep behaviour in adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been explored in isolation. However, adolescents experience health benefits when these behaviours are balanced appropriately throughout the day, and are considered to be interconnected rather than isolated. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of adolescents living with T1D towards these behaviours collectively. The participants were 15 adolescents (aged 11–18 years) with T1D, recruited using online methods and word of mouth. Online semi-structured interviews were transcribed using intelligent verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. We identified the following four central themes and five subthemes: (1) sleep and physical activity are understood and valued above sedentary behaviour; (2) recognition of movement behaviours’ interconnection; (3) movement behaviours’ interaction with health outcomes (mood, glycaemic control, and glycaemic control as a barrier to movement behaviours); and (4) movement behaviours within the environmental context of the adolescent (school and caregivers). Adolescents with T1D are aware of the interconnectedness of each movement behaviour and the positive influence a balanced approach can have on mood and T1D management. The findings provide important information for future holistic interventions promoting healthy behaviours that target the adolescent, their school environment, and their caregivers. Full article

Online gamers have increased exponentially in the last few years in all types of online games, including mind-sport games. These games, like Bridge or Chess, have been traditionally played face-to-face. Nowadays more and more players prefer to use online platforms to play mind-sport games. Previous studies have investigated different aspects of online games and even a few on mind-sport games. However, the frameworks WOM (Word-of-Mouth) and SCT (Social Cognitive Theory) have been sparsely used in this context. In this manner, the present article proposes two objectives: (1) using the SCT in order to analyse the impact of the sociological factor on user engagement in mind-sport online games and (2) analysing how the WOM affects user engagement in mind-sport online games. Specifically, the proposed PLS-SEM model is defined by combining five constructs from these frameworks: (1) health consciousness, (2) WOM and emotional behaviour, (3) self-efficacy, (4) cognitive engagement, and (5) behavioural intention. The findings reveal that health consciousness affects WOM and emotional behaviour in a positive way as players desire well-being. Also, WOM and emotional behaviour affect cognitive engagement, as positive comments encourage high-skill gamers in mind sports. Finally, this study shows how the environmental factor of SCT is represented by WOM and emotional behaviour in an indirect way and the personal factor represented by self-efficacy in a direct way to positively influence behaviour intention. Full article

Internet platforms and self-media have become vital online communities for promoting positive reputations for hotels. Previous studies have primarily focused on enhancing positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) through improvements in hotel infrastructure and staff services. As hotels deepen their digital transformation, the application of various artificial intelligence technologies in hotel service encounters significantly impacts the service experience. This study explores the effects of voice assistant (VA) attributes on the online reputation of hotels. Specifically, it examines how the attributes of VAs (anytime connectivity, information association, and interactivity) influence positive customer evaluations in hotels. Utilizing a questionnaire survey method, we collected 529 valid questionnaires offline and employed structural equation modeling along with the PROCESS plugin in SPSS to conduct path analysis, as well as mediation and moderation effect analyses. The results indicate that perceived value and the existence of human–AI rapport mediate the impact of VA attributes on positive eWOM, although the direct effect of some attributes (information association) was not supported. Furthermore, anytime connectivity enhances the influence on human–AI rapport through social presence, while privacy concerns negatively affect the relationship between perceived value and intentions to engage in eWOM. These insights are critical for hotels seeking to maximize the benefits of digital transformation. Full article

This study explores how the green marketing mix affects customer green brand trust, customer green buying behavior, and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). A total of 990 fast-food customers participated in this study. Structural equation modelling (SEM) and mediation analysis were applied to validate the research hypotheses. As customer demand for environmentally sustainable products grows, green marketing mix has a positive and significant effect on customer green brand trust. Furthermore, customer green brand trust also significantly influences customer green buying behavior and eWOM as a predictor and mediator. It means that customer green brand trust is a fundamental effect of eWOM, with trust fostering positive online reviews, recommendations, and advocacy from customers. Businesses can also make the most of eWOM by developing feedback-friendly channels, such as product review pages and social media campaigns, and rewarding consumers who post about their satisfying online experiences. The companies should not only concentrate on increasing sales through environmentally sustainable product purchasing practices, but also on giving clients a feeling of community and integrating them into a larger sustainability movement. It will offer useful advice for marketers looking to improve their green marketing tactics and promote sustainable consumption by successfully gaining the trust of their target audience and using eWOM as a tactical instrument for brand advocacy. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector encountered multiple challenges. Numerous governments chose to lock down their cities and countries. Despite this, many companies found their online businesses making the greatest leaps in their portfolios, and social media platforms became one of the most valuable sources of information for purchase decisions. There have been numerous studies on the effects of social media reviews—a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)—on consumer behavior. Few were found to be related to their impact on group package tours (GPTs) while considering mixed eWOM, that is, both the positive and negative forms present in word-of-mouth communication. As the tourism sector gradually revives, the need to further explore how tourism and hospitality service providers can adapt to changes in post-pandemic consumer behavior has become imperative. The influence of social media reviews on consumers’ value perceptions of a GPT to Japan, allowing for the influence of the marketing mix element of advertised price, was examined through online experiments in this study. Positive, negative, and mixed eWOM were examined. It was found that eWOM was more influential on consumers’ value perceptions than the advertised price for all price acceptability levels. Mixed eWOM was found to negatively affect consumers’ final price perceptions which override the impact of quality perceptions in value formations. The value perceptions of the GPT became less acceptable when eWOM was mixed compared to when eWOM was absent or was positive. Mixed eWOM had a negative effect on value perceptions but not as great as when negative eWOM was present, and this was consistently found to apply for all price acceptability levels of the GPT. This study’s contribution to eWOM research and implications for the post-pandemic recovery of tourism and hospitality service providers are made, together with suggested strategies using innovative technologies and communications to enhance their adaptive resilience in the new normal. Full article

The study aims to explore the impact mechanism of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, introducing the mediating variable—flow experience—and the moderating variable—consumer–brand relationship norms. The study uses the approach of the experimental research. In Experiment 1, with the watch as the experimental product and the advertisement as the online scene, 62 subjects in the pre-experiment and 132 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the main effect of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication. In Experiment 2, with the tea bag as the experimental product and the online press conference as the online scene, 73 subjects in the pre-experiment and 185 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the mediating role of flow experience in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication. In Experiment 3, with the scented candle as the experimental product and the promotional video of the e-commerce store as the online scene, 81 subjects in the pre-experiment and 269 subjects in the formal experiment are recruited to verify the moderating role of consumer–brand relationship norms in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication/flow experience. The results show that brand ritual is more effective in promoting online word-of-mouth communication than random action, flow experience plays a completely mediating role in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, and consumer–brand relationship norms play a moderating role in the impact of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication/flow experience. The study not only reveals the impact mechanism of brand ritual on online word-of-mouth communication, but also provides strong guidance for companies to utilize brand ritual, flow experience, and consumer–brand relationship norms to promote online word-of-mouth communication. Full article

The evidence on e-commerce rapidly adopting and expanding has led to a high degree of changes in consumer behavior, with food delivery platforms playing a pivotal role in the digital economy. The current study highlights the interplay between consumer perception, consumer acceptance, and electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) assessed in the context of the food delivery chain. By integrating latent variables, such as trust, consumer purchase intentions, perceived usefulness, and psychological distance, the current study explores the role of e-WOM in influencing consumer perception and acceptance within the food delivery services. Data collection and analysis implied a qualitative approach by issuing an online survey and gathering 835 valid responses, further quantitatively assessed through structural equation modelling. The data reveal the validity of the two general hypotheses, according to which consumer acceptance is positively connected to consumer perception, to which the influence of electronic word of mouth was added. The current study stresses the importance for food delivery chains to gain insight and implement strategies based on its electronic peers’ online suggestions and recommendations. The current research actively contributes to the theoretical discourse on food delivery chain management related to the electronic consumers’ experience, in order to competitively position it on electronic markets as well as the food delivery global industry. Full article

The rapid growth of the internet and social media has made electronic word of mouth (eWOM) a key element of modern marketing. In the hospitality industry, nowadays, effective eWOM management is essential for developing impactful strategies and fostering customer satisfaction. This paper introduces an enhanced approach to strategic customer base management based on online reviews by extending the Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM) model with three novel dimensions, the Helpfulness, Promoter Score, and Stability of the customer, thereby forming the RFHPS model. It also includes the 2-tuple linguistic model, one of the most popular computing with words models, to improve precision in the RFHPS score’s computation and the findings’ interpretability. Using K-means clustering, customers are segmented across these five dimensions. The data on luxury hotels in Spain gathered from TripAdvisor demonstrate the model’s applicability. By integrating this framework into customer relationship management systems, managers can tailor marketing strategies for distinct segments, facilitating deeper customer understanding and bolstering eWOM generation. Full article

In recent years, the growing number of Online Travel Review (OTR) platforms and advances in social media and search engine technologies have led to a new way of accessing information for tourists, placing projected Tourist Destination Image (TDI) and electronic Word of Mouth (eWoM) at the heart of travel decision-making. This research introduces a big data-driven approach to analyzing and measuring the perceived and conveyed TDI in OTRs concerning the reflected perceptive, spatial, and affective dimensions of search results. To test this approach, a massive metadata analysis of search engine was conducted on approximately 2700 reviews from TripAdvisor users for the category “Attractions” of the city of Kastoria, Greece. Using artificial intelligence, an analysis of the photos accompanying user comments on TripAdvisor was performed. Based on the results, we created five themes for the image narratives, depending on the focus of interest (monument, activity, self, other person, and unknown) in which the content was categorized. The results obtained allow us to extract information that can be used in business intelligence applications. Full article

Chatbots are widely used in customer services contexts today. People using chatbots have their pragmatic reasons, like checking delivery status and refund policies. The purpose of the paper is to investigate what are those factors that affect user experience and a chatbot’s service quality which influence user satisfaction and electronic word-of-mouth. A survey was conducted in July 2024 to collect responses in Hong Kong about users’ perceptions of chatbots. Contrary to previous literature, entertainment and warmth perception were not associated with user experience and service quality. Social presence was associated with user experience, but not service quality. Competence was relevant to user experience and service quality, which reveals important implications for digital marketers and brands of adopting chatbots to enhance their service quality. Full article

This study examines the influence of K-pop consumers’ (online/offline) fandom activities on their happiness and their contemporary Christian music (CCM) listening intention and does so considering two base theories: activity theory and the content theory of motivation. In this context, we also examine the influence of happiness and CCM listening intention on CCM loyalty (word of mouth/purchase). We focus on global consumers of K-pop (people with experience in online/offline K-pop fandom activities) from two countries: the US and the UK. For our investigation, we surveyed these consumers between 1 April and 30 September 2022 through two global research agencies, namely Entrust Survey and META G DATA lnc. We received valid responses from 331 participants. We then used structural equation modeling to analyze the data and found the following: First, although K-pop consumers’ online fandom activities did not have a statistically significant effect on their happiness, their offline fandom activities did. Second, their fandom activities had a statistically significant positive effect on their CCM listening intention, although their offline fandom activities did not. Third, their happiness also had a statistically significant positive effect on their CCM listening intention. Ultimately, their happiness and CCM listening intention had a statistically significant positive effect on their loyalty (CCM word of mouth/purchase). We identified a new trend and applied it in the context of K-pop culture and CCM, thereby contributing to consumer psychology studies through creative/innovative empirical research. Full article

This paper investigates using blockchain technology to fight deceptive counterfeits in an electronic commerce environment. Thereby, a two-period pricing model is built under two competitive platforms: a blockchain-based platform which ensures product authentication and provides a higher value to customers but increases customers’ privacy concerns, and its rival (i.e., the traditional platform) in the absence of blockchain implementation which is perceived as having a lower value due to the existence of deceptive counterfeits and thus faces more government enforcement. Customers on both platforms are influenced by the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) effect, and customers value a platform more if the platform has more online sales. The two platforms either adopt the fixed pricing scheme or the modifiable pricing scheme and so four possible cases may occur. By deriving the equilibrium of each possible case, we analytically find that the attenuation of consumer privacy concerns, increases in government enforcement efforts, and eWOM can benefit the platform’s adoption of blockchain technology to combat counterfeits, and a strong eWOM effect is conducive to consumers but deteriorates price competition and thus harms both platforms. Whether the pricing schemes enhance the competitiveness of the blockchain-based platform over its rivals depends on the eWOM effect and the advantage gained from adopting blockchain technology. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic not only accelerated the spread of contactless robot services but also revitalized the golf industry. These changes have expedited the adoption of robot caddies, making it necessary to conduct research on golfers’ acceptance of robot caddies. This study, thus, intended to investigate the importance of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in the framework of robotic golf caddies and examined health consciousness as a moderator. An online survey was conducted with South Korean golfers, and a total of 391 responses were analyzed. The data analysis results indicated that all five dimensions of the extended UTAUT have a positive impact on attitude. Also, attitude is a significant predictor of both intentions to use and word-of-mouth intentions. Lastly, this study discovered that the moderating effect of health consciousness on the correlation between performance expectancy and attitude was significant. Full article