Social media promotions and travelers’ value-creating behaviors: the role of perceived support

Abstract

Purpose Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers’ voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms. Design/methodology/approach The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support – how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects. Findings Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support. Research limitations/implications Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers. Practical implications Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth. Originality/value Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers’ voluntary behaviors via perceived support.

Be a part of it: promoting WOM, eWOM, and content creation through customer identification

“…Thus, customers get involved in "helping" behaviors such as eWOM and WOM to maintain the relationship with the firm. This is in line with previous research, as it demonstrates that these "helping behaviors" serve to restore equity in the relationship (Casal o and Romero, 2019) and maintain the long-term relationship between customers and companies (Brown et al, 2005).…”

Big data empowered agility for dynamic, volatile, and time-sensitive service industries: the case of tourism sector

“…Customers are cocreators of value and thus, service organizations need to gather and analyze customer data to gain useful insights (Casal o and Romero, 2019;Sigala, 2018). Researchers have further illustrated the potential value of BD in advancing our knowledge of customers' experiences, feelings, interests, opinions, preferences and behaviors for tourism organizations (Xiang et al, 2015).…”

Online travel agencies: factors influencing tourist purchase decision

“…Besides the emphasis given on the platforms through the possibility of free cancellation or pay later, there are still daily highlights that advertise special offers of the day. Casaló and Romero (2019) suggest that promotions (monetary and non-monetary) are an important influence factor in the decision-making process and induce customers to have, voluntarily, helping behaviours of suggestions and word-of-mouth.…”