The article investigates determinants of usage intention (IU) of online travel agencies’ (OTAs) services by consumers and their propensity for word-of-mouth (WOM). The determinants represent two groups of factors: (1) items reflecting the perceived quality of OTAs’ platforms (PQ) and (2) those corresponding to transaction quality (CST). The survey was conducted with the CAWI method on a representative net sample of 591 Polish OTA users. Statistical analysis involved building a covariance-based structural equation model to map out causal relationships between latent variables and test research hypotheses. The findings indicate that both groups of factors (PQ and CST) have a statistically significant positive effect on both IU and WOM. However, the impact of CST was found to be slightly weaker. Interestingly, there were no moderating effects from the respondents’ age, income, and education. The only demographical characteristic of issue was sex, which revealed different regression patterns between men and women.

Research background: Ongoing globalization has led companies to operate on foreign markets and in consequence to recognize very different conditions especially in terms of sociocultural factors. The literature review identifies the behavioral patterns in social media (SM) usage determined by national cultures. Purpose: The article presents the relationship between six dimensions of national culture defined by Hofstede and the use of SM in world markets. Research mmethodology: To determine how national culture influences the frequency of use of SM, a study of secondary data was carried out. The percentage of SM users from the Global Digital Yearbook 2019 was used as a dependent variable. The statistical analysis links cultural dimensions with SM use in 44 countries. Results: The study employed polynomial regression, which revealed a significant correlation between long-term orientation, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and the percentage of SM users. However, the research discovered no influence of masculinity, leniency, and power distance. The estimated models also show the income’s strong moderating effect on the analyzed relationship. Novelty: In this study a deeper analysis of the relationship between the dimensions of national cultures and the use of SM was made than in previous studies. It was also shown that it is necessary to introduce moderating factors, which may significantly affect the relationship between the use of SM and some dimensions of culture.

Jednym z podstawowych dylematów związanych z marketingiem międzynarodowym jest standaryzacja vs lokalizacja działań marketingowych na rynku międzynarodowym. Problem ten dotyczy też stron internetowych przedsiębiorstw i ich marek będących kluczowym instrumentem marketingu internetowego. Wciąż jednak jest niewiele badań na temat czynników warunkujących lokalizację stron internetowych innych niż różnice kultur narodowych.Celem artykułu jest więc identyfikacja czynników społeczno-demograficznych w otoczeniu przedsiębiorstwa na rynkach zagranicznych, które mogą warunkować lokalizację stron WWW adresowanych do zagranicznych użytkowników. W artykule zastosowano metodę integracyjnego przeglądu literatury i zidentyfikowano następujące czynniki społeczno-demograficzne w kontekście lokalizacji stron WWW: wielkość populacji użytkowników Internetu, stopień penetracji Internetu w kraju/regionie, różnice struktury internautów ze względu na wiek/generację, płeć oraz przynależność do grupy społecznej.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main factors for the quality of hotel services and to verify the SERVQUAL measurement scale commonly used in the services sector. In order to achieve this goal, an innovative approach of quantitative and qualitative content analysis of reviews published by users of the reservation portals Hotels.com and Booking.com was used. The study was based on more than 167,000 opinions on 3,4,5-star hotels located in Warsaw. They were ‘scraped’ with an indexing robot. The research outlines a list of the most important topics raised in those comments which correspond to the factors of perceived service quality of hotels. Among these are location, room attributes, cleanliness, breakfast and staff. In addition, the most important criteria used by customers to describe each of the listed elements are also reported. The results made it possible to identify differences between the operationalization of the constructs indicated in the SERVQUAL scale and the descriptions of each factor in the spontaneous comments of internet users. Thus, the need for adjustment to the current operationalizations of the SERVQUAL model to better reflect the sentiments of consumers in the hotel industry, or even developing a completely new tool for measuring service quality, was demonstrated.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the antecedents of young adult tourists’ loyalty intentions. The study is concerned with the overall loyalty tendencies of individuals, comprising the two dimensions of revisit intentions (RVIs) and recommendation intentions (RIs), and thus does not explore their loyalty to a specific destination (as in most previous studies). The research uses an Internet questionnaire with a total sample of 305 university students recruited from two Polish universities. Statistical analysis with the partial least squares structural equation modeling method indicates that destination RI is mainly driven by social bonding, while RVI is influenced positively by risk and uncertainty avoidance and negatively by novelty and variety seeking. In addition, income is found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between risk and uncertainty perception and RIs, such that a transition from very low to very high incomes tends to reverse the focal relationship from positive to negative. In addition, the research demonstrates that there is no significant difference between male and female young tourist’s loyalty intention. Implications for tourism entrepreneurs and destinations are suggested in the concluding section of the article.