Microcelebrity: The Impact of Information Source, Hotel Type, and Misleading Photos on Consumers’ Responses

Abstract

In this research, the effects of microcelebrity endorsements on customers’ attitude and booking intentions toward hotels are examined. Specifically, Study 1 manipulated the effect of information source (hotel official website vs. microcelebrity) and hotel type (chain vs. independent). Results indicated that microcelebrity endorsements yielded more positive attitude toward independent hotels. This effect was investigated further in Study 2 where the moderating effect of misleading photos on the relationship between information source and consumers’ trust and repurchase intentions was examined. Results demonstrated that when participants were shown misleading photos, there was a higher level of trust toward the hotel when the information source was microcelebrity. When the photos were nonmisleading, the level of trust toward the hotel was unaffected by the source of the information. Taken together, these data contribute to the growing social media literature as well as the influence of microcelebrities on consumers’ responses. Hospitality managers might also consider the potential benefits of including microcelebrities into their strategic planning.

Seeing destinations through vlogs: implications for leveraging customer engagement behavior to increase travel intention

“…While some studies have investigated how online shared travel videos affect touristic experiences (Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier, 2009) and how online celebrities impact customers' purchase intention (e.g. hotel booking intention) (Zhang et al, 2019), the present study, adopting the theory of resonance (Giorgi, 2017;McDonnell et al, 2017;Snow et al, 1986), emphasizes how cognitive and emotional factors influence CEB with travel vlogs and travel intentions, providing a more holistic and explicit framework as a foundation for future research of online videos.…”

“…Travel vlogs, as the most popular type of travel videos watched on YouTube (Henderson, 2018), was found to render audiences a more entertaining viewing experience and produce more business opportunities for influencers or microcelebrities. Previous studies have examined the effects of microcelebrity endorsement on customers' hotel booking intentions (Zhang et al, 2019). Gretzel (2018) also pointed out the possibilities that firms or institutions can cooperate with influencers to promote hotel brands and destinations.…”

Family-supportive supervisor behaviors and employee turnover intention in the foodservice industry: does gender matter?

“…The sample for this study was drawn from a Qualtrics Business Panel. Qualtrics panel members are pre-screened, employed individuals who have agreed to be contacted with invitations to participate in survey research (Zhang et al , 2019). Qualtrics panels are fairly representative of the broader US population and response panels provide the opportunity to access geographically diverse respondents that would otherwise be difficult to survey as part of a single research project (Buhrmester et al , 2011).…”

Social Listening to Create Bespoke Customer Experiences: Best Practices for Hospitality Operators

“…Five of those articles involved retrospective analysis of actual online posts where we learned about biases in posting (Han & Anderson, 2020); differences in organic versus solicited posts (Litvin & Sobel, 2019); how managers have responded to customer posts (Xie et al, 2017); factors leading to positive TripAdvisor scores (Radojevic et al, 2017) and textual elements common in online reviews (Duan et al, 2016). There has also been a stream of research involving the creation of fictitious online reviews or situations evaluated by students or online panels that have investigated issues such as expectations regarding online review posts (Zhang et al, 2020); reactions to customer online complaints (Kim & Baker, 2020); the role of micro-celebrity or influencer (Zhang et al, 2019); how different elements in online reviewers affect consumers (Olson & Ro, 2020); how valence and uniqueness in reviews influence consumers (Chark et al, 2019); determining whether managers ought to react to negative reviews (Rose & Blodgett, 2016); how social media embedded in channels influences behavior (Aluri et al, 2016); and in a survey-type design, how social word-of-mouth influences loyalty (Raab et al, 2016).…”

“…Influencers are individuals with no affiliation to specific publications but operating as free agents and serving the readers who followed them. While some hospitality operators openly shunned influencers (Thompson, 2018), researchers believe that the rise of micro-celebrity and influencer can be particularly important for small independent hotels (Zhang et al, 2019). These researchers report that about 84% of millennials and 73% of nonmillennials are likely or very likely to plan a trip based on someone else's social media updates.…”