The Influence of Social Media Engagement on Positive E-WOM and Customer Loyalty in Agritourism Green Hotels

Author(s)

Faroq Ahmed , Abdulalem Mohammed , Rasheed Abdulwase ,

Download Full PDF Pages: 01-11 | Views: 840 | Downloads: 166 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4576950

Volume 10 - February 2021 (02)

Abstract

The importance of social media has indeed grown over the last decade in several industries, including hospitality context. A lot of research establishes the role of social media in hotel industry, however, little is known about how social media engagement might relate to electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and customer loyalty in the agritourism green hotels. Therefore, the aim of this study is empirically examines the influence of social media engagement on customer loyalty in the green hotels at Huaihai Economic Zone. It also investigates the mediating impact of positive E-WOM on the relationship between social media and customer loyalty. A survey with 303 respondents was carried out. Convergent and discriminant validities of latent variables were confirmed. The relationships among them were tested using Partial least square Modeling(PLS). The findings reveal that social media engagement and positive eWOM have significant influence on customer loyalty. it also shows that positive eWOM mediates the relationship between social media engagement and customer loyalty. This study advances our understanding of the between social media engagement, eWOM and customer loyalty the agritourism green hotels. Hoteliers can gain benefits by understanding how social media engagement can enhance customers’ eWOM, and thus leads to customer loyalty.

Keywords

Agritourism- Customer loyalty - Green hotel- Huaihai Economic Zone - Positive E-WOM- Social media engagement.

References

                     i.            Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411.

      ii.            Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., & Hollebeek, L. (2013). Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 105–114.

    iii.            Cai, W., Richter, S., & McKenna, B. (2019). Progress on technology use in tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.

     iv.            Chan, T. K., Zheng, X., Cheung, C. M., Lee, M. K., & Lee, Z. W. (2014). Antecedents and consequences of customer engagement in online brand communities. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 2(2), 81–97.

       v.            Cheung, C., Lee, M., & Jin, X. (2011). Customer engagement in an online social platform: A conceptual model and scale development.

     vi.            Cheung, C. M., Chiu, P.-Y., & Lee, M. K. (2011). Online social networks: Why do students use facebook? Computers in Human Behavior, 27(4), 1337–1343.

   vii.            Chin, W. W. (2010). How to write up and report PLS analyses. In Handbook of partial least squares (pp. 655–690). Springer.

 viii.            Chu, S.-C., Lien, C.-H., & Cao, Y. (2019). Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on WeChat: Examining the influence of sense of belonging, need for self-enhancement, and consumer engagement on Chinese travellers’ eWOM. International Journal of Advertising, 38(1), 26–49.

     ix.            Dholakia, U. M., & Durham, E. (2010). One café chain’s Facebook experiment. Harvard Business Review, 88(3), 26.

       x.            Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., & Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, 58–67.

     xi.            Esposito Vinzi, V., Chin, W. W., Henseler, J., & Wang, H. (2010). Handbook of partial least squares: Concepts, methods and applications. Heidelberg, Dordrecht, London, New York: Springer.

   xii.            FERNANDES, V. (2012). (Re) discovering the PLS approach in management science. M@ N@ Gement, 15(1)..

 xiii.            Fornell, C. & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.

 xiv.            Ge, H., Chen, S., & Chen, Y. (2018). International alliance of green hotels to reach sustainable competitive advantages. Sustainability, 10(2), 573.

   xv.            Gnanapala, A. C. (2014). Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction Related to the Tourist Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 2(7), 265–278.

 xvi.            Gvili, Y., Levy, S., & Zwilling, M. (2018). The sweet smell of advertising: The essence of matching scents with other ad cues. International Journal of Advertising, 37(4), 568–590.

xvii.            Habibi, M. R., Laroche, M., & Richard, M.-O. (2014). The roles of brand community and community engagement in building brand trust on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 152–161.

xviii.            Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–152.

 xix.            Harrigan, P., Evers, U., Miles, M., & Daly, T. (2017). Customer engagement with tourism social media brands. Tourism Management, 59, 597–609.

   xx.            Hu, Y., & Kim, H. J. (2018). Positive and negative eWOM motivations and hotel customers’ eWOM behavior: Does personality matter? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.03.004

 xxi.            Husnain, M., & Toor, A. (2017). The impact of social Network marketing on consumer purchase intention in Pakistan: Consumer engagement as a mediator. Asian Journal of Business and Accounting, 10(1), 167–199.

xxii.            Ismagilova, E., Slade, E., & Williams, M. (2016). Persuasiveness of eWOM communications: Literature review and suggestions for future research. Conference on E-Business, e-Services and e-Society, 354–359.

xxiii.            Jalonen, H., & Jussila, J. (2016). Developing a conceptual model for the relationship between social media behavior, negative consumer emotions and brand disloyalty. Conference on E-Business, e-Services and e-Society, 134–145.

xxiv.            King, R. A., Racherla, P., & Bush, V. D. (2014). What we know and don’t know about online word-of-mouth: A review and synthesis of the literature. Journal of Interactive Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2014.02.001

xxv.            Kotler, P., Keller, K. L., Ancarani, F., & Costabile, M. (2014). Marketing management 14/e. Pearson.

xxvi.            Leung, X. Y., & Bai, B. (2013). How motivation, opportunity, and ability impact travelers’ social media involvement and revisit intention. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1–2), 58–77.

xxvii.            Litvin, S. W., Goldsmith, R. E., & Pan, B. (2008). Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management, 29(3), 458–468.

xxviii.            Lovelock, C. H., & Wirtz, J. (2004). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy. Pearson Prentice Hall.

xxix.            Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357–365.

xxx.            Mohammed, A., & Al-Swidi, A. (2019). The influence of CSR on perceived value, social media and loyalty in the hotel industry. Spanish Journal of Marketing-ESIC.

xxxi.            Ngai, E. W. T., Tao, S. S. C., & Moon, K. K. L. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 33–44.

xxxii.            Ogbuji, B., & Papazafeiropoulou, A. (2016). Social Media Strategies for Companies: A Comprehensive Framework. Conference on E-Business, e-Services and e-Society, 3–14.

xxxiii.            Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.

xxxiv.            Radojevic, T., Stanisic, N., & Stanic, N. (2015). Ensuring positive feedback: Factors that influence customer satisfaction in the contemporary hospitality industry. Tourism Management, 51, 13–21.

xxxv.            Ringle, C. M., Wende, S., & Becker, J.-M. (2015). SmartPLS 3. Boenningstedt: SmartPLS GmbH.

xxxvi.            Shu, M., & Scott, N. (2014). Influence of social media on Chinese students’ choice of an overseas study destination: An information adoption model perspective. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 31(2), 286–302.

xxxvii.            Tsao, W.-C., & Hsieh, M.-T. (2012). Exploring how relationship quality influences positive eWOM: the importance of customer commitment. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(7–8), 821–835.

xxxviii.            van Asperen, M., de Rooij, P., & Dijkmans, C. (2018a). Engagement-based loyalty: The effects of social media engagement on customer loyalty in the travel industry. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 19(1), 78–94.

xxxix.            van Asperen, M., de Rooij, P., & Dijkmans, C. (2018b). Engagement-based loyalty: The effects of social media engagement on customer loyalty in the travel industry. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 19(1), 78–94.

     xl.            Venkatesan, R. (2017). Executing on a customer engagement strategy.

   xli.            Viglia, G., Furlan, R., & Ladron-de-Guevara, A. (2014). Please, talk about it! When hotel popularity boosts preferences. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 42, 155–164.

 xlii.            Vinzenz, F. (2019). The added value of rating pictograms for sustainable hotels in classified ads. Tourism Management Perspectives, 29, 56–65.

xliii.            Xie, H. J., Miao, L., Kuo, P.-J., & Lee, B.-Y. (2011). Consumers’ responses to ambivalent online hotel reviews: The role of perceived source credibility and pre-decisional disposition. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(1), 178–183.

xliv.            Yan, Q., Wu, S., Zhou, Y., & Zhang, L. (2018). How differences in eWOM platforms impact consumers’ perceptions and decision-making. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 28(4), 315–333.

 xlv.            Yang, Y., Mueller, N. J., & Croes, R. R. (2016). Market accessibility and hotel prices in the Caribbean: The moderating effect of quality-signaling factors. Tourism Management, 56, 40–51.

xlvi.            Ye, Q., Law, R., & Gu, B. (2009). The impact of online user reviews on hotel room sales. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(1), 180–182.

xlvii.            Zhao, X., Lynch Jr, J. G., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(2), 197–206.

           xlviii.            Zhao, Y., Liu, Y., Lai, I., Zhang, H., & Zhang, Y. (2016). The impacts of attitudes and engagement on Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) of mobile sensor computing applications. Sensors, 16(3), 391.

Cite this Article:

Faroq Ahmed, The Influence of Social Media Engagement on Positive E-WOM and Customer Loyalty in Agritourism Green Hotels, American Based Research Journal 02(2021):01-11 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4576950