Instagram: Balancing Information Asymmetry of the Tourism Industry

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of Instagram by tourism companies. Specifically, it aims to analyze how Instagram empowers individuals over corporations in the digital dialogue, thus balancing the information asymmetry between corporations and stakeholders. Four categories of metrics have been collected to analyze the use of Instagram by companies: presence, impact, conversation, and influence. Additionally, OLS regressions have been performed to identify potential explanatory factors to explain the different behavior of each firm and its corresponding communities. While the use of Instagram by the selected firms is still scarce, significant results are as follows: corporations are using Instagram as an additional channel in their current communication; some explanatory factors account for significant differences in countries, size, and industries; and users are somehow reactive to the stream of pictures and texts disclosed by firms. The presence and impact of companies on Instagram are a highly important source for driving stakeholders’ conversation within the digital arena.

Reducing information asymmetry and increasing health value co‐creation in a rural healthcare context

“…One of our research aims is to examine mechanisms through which consumers may narrow the consumer‐physician information imbalance (Edvardsson et al, 2011), and specifically through digital health information usage. Information asymmetry reduction has been found to occur with increased use of digital communications (Gutiérrez‐Barroso et al, 2021; Manes & Tchetchik, 2018; Peltier et al, 2020). By facilitating consumers' resource integration, physicians may help co‐create positive outcomes on consumer well‐being via motivating consumers to engage in value co‐creation efforts such as information seeking, sharing, and cooperative behaviors (McColl‐Kennedy et al, 2017).…”