Blurring the borders between B2B and B2C: a model of antecedents behind usage of social media for travel planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1468-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanu Nath ◽  
Parmita Saha ◽  
Esmail Salehi-Sangari

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to call for a scrutiny of the dualist approach to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) marketing in industries driven by consumer-generated content. It posits that individual consumer-centric factors are influential for B2B marketing as well in sectors such as the travel industry and investigates the determinants of tourists’ intention to use social media websites for travel planning. Design/methodology/approach Integrating constructs from IS and marketing literature, the paper proposes information quality and perceived enjoyment as antecedents of perceived usefulness, attitude and intention to use. The research model is tested using data from social media users with experience in travel planning. Findings Results show that perceived usefulness and information quality are stronger predictors of attitude and behavioral intention than perceived enjoyment. Enjoyment was not found to be strongly influential. Relevancy and reliability of information and its usefulness concerning travel-planning needs were found more influential. Research limitations/implications Data were collected from social media users, raising possible issues of representativeness. Practical implications The paper offers clarity regarding antecedents of downstream user behavior which can be of significant value. Demarcations in B2B and B2C perspectives blur in the context of social media, enabling more effective integration. Originality/value The paper brings in and validates the roles of information quality and enjoyment as influencers of behavior. Identifying the travel industry as a sector having greater likelihood of B2BC convergence, the paper extends IS adoption research to user-interactive sites in the travel-planning context, which can benefit the consumer as well as the supply side.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
MiRan Kim ◽  
Ronald Cichy

Purpose Private club members belong to an organization where people with common interests, experiences, backgrounds and professions meet for social and recreational purposes. This study aims to examine the relationships among private club members’ perceptions of social media regarding perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, attitude toward social media involvement and behavioral intention toward social media usage. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted among private club members across the USA (n = 571). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The findings of this study center on the perceptions of club members and their beliefs and attitudes associated with their social media usage behavior. This study extends the social media literature by supporting previous studies that suggest a causal flow from perceived ease of use to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment) based on a motivational model. Research limitations/implications This study is meaningful for revealing the perceptions of private club members and their beliefs and attitudes associated with their social media usage behavior. It is untested whether this study’s model applies to other hospitality businesses. Future research could examine other segments and add other variables such as perceived security and trust. Practical implications This study can provide private club managers, and the members of the clubs that they lead, with a better understanding of online social media. Originality/value This study is one of a few empirical online social media studies in the area of the private club industry. This study seeks to provide baselines regarding social media perceptions and usage in the hospitality literature by providing a comprehensive model.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Al-Omairi ◽  
Hosam Al-Samarraie ◽  
Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani ◽  
Nasser Alalwan

PurposeIn any developing country, the critical benefits for ensuring proper utilization of e-government learning services have basically emerged from the integration of underlying processes – not only across different levels of government but also across different functions and agencies. The literature showed a notable lack of research to underline the limited use of e-government learning services in a university setting. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine students' intention to adopt e-government learning services in a developing country. Precisely, the existent to which reputation, social influence, information quality and system quality of e-government learning services would influence students' trust, perceived usefulness and perceived learning values was investigated.Design/methodology/approachThe effect from these variables on students' intention to use e-government learning services was also investigated. A total of 406 questionnaires were collected and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) modeling.FindingsThe results showed varying relationships between the study's variables. It is anticipated that understanding these relationships can predict future learning trends of e-government learning services use among university students, thus helping decision makers plan ahead, prioritize tasks and make better decisions.Originality/valueKnowledge about students' intention to use e-government learning services is even useful for the implementation of other services by higher education institutions. This study also offers some implications for practitioners and researchers concerned about the application of e-government in students' learning development.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratan Kumar ◽  
Vibhava Srivastava

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend and contribute to the evolving phenomenon of social media usage by business-to-business (B2B) salespersons. It draws on the interactional psychology model and extended technology acceptance model to explore the said phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach A survey-based quantitative study was carried out. Responses were gathered through a self-administered and structured questionnaire, from 218 B2B salespersons who were pooled in using purposive and snowball sampling. The final data set was subjected to partial least squares-based structural equation modelling using WarpPLS 7.0. Findings This study found that individual factors, namely, salesperson’s social media competence and sales capabilities; organizational factors, namely, organizational commitment and organizational competence; and social factors, namely, image, result demonstrability and subjective norms, contribute positively and significantly towards social media usage by B2B salespeople. The study also found that the impact of individual factors on intention to use social media was partially mediated by its perceived usefulness, while in the case of organizational and social factors, the impact was fully mediated by its perceived ease of use. Research limitations/implications This study provides a valuable addition to the existing literature on sales and social media; however, the contextualization cannot be ignored. Practical implications This study enables firms to understand various factors affecting salespeople’ perception of social media and to make them appreciate its usage in improving sales performance and customer satisfaction. Originality/value It is the first study that models the factors of salespeople’s usage of social media in their job at three levels, namely, individual, organizational and social, and establishes the link between B2B salespersons’ perceived usefulness of social media, sales capabilities, social media competence and intention to use social media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-263
Author(s):  
Amna Ali Alharthi ◽  
Ghada Talat Alhothali

Social media applications have revolutionized doing business and attracted the attention of practitioners, scholars, and policymakers. Social media applications offer business owners plenty of benefits as it enables businesses to get exposed, gain competitive advantage, and communicate with customers. However, limited studies have considered measuring the adoption of social media marketing by micro-businesses, such as home-based businesses. This research examines social media adoption by home-based companies in Saudi Arabia using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A self-administered online questionnaire is utilized to collect data. A total of 188 home-based business owners completed the questionnaires. Structural equation modeling using SPSS, Amos is utilized for data analysis. The findings show that perceived usefulness and social influence positively impact the Intention to use social media marketing. Ease of use positively influences perceived usefulness. Further, the Intention to use has a subsequent impact on user behavior. The study has implications for policy, decision-makers, and the General authority of SMEs (Monsha’at) in Saudi Arabia. The research results show that social influence is a significant positive predictor of social media marketing usage. Besides, the Intention to use social media marketing has a statistically positive impact on user behavior. The study validates the TAM model in a rarely studied context due to its invisible nature. The authors also describe a profile of HBBs owners in Saudi Arabia by explaining their demographic and behavioral characteristics regarding owners’ gender, age and education, and prior experience. This paper contributes original empirical evidence on the adoption of social media marketing by the HBBs in Saudi Arabia. Given the lack of previous studies on this micro-business sector in general and Saudi Arabia, these findings are essential. The present study demonstrates several managerial implications. First of all, policymakers should consider this micro-business sector when developing policies and strategies to provide support and support. The government should establish an electronic platform that connects all business owners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 244-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shohana Akter ◽  
Md. Anwarul Islam

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the use of social media (SM) and its influence for increasing students’ participation in the quota reform movement at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach The revised technology acceptance model (TAM) was used to formulate this research’s hypotheses. A survey was administered to obtain data about students’ intention to use SM. The survey consisted of a set of questions based upon the revised TAM model. A total of 498 surveys were distributed and 304 students responded to it; hence, response rate was of 61.04%. A regression and single way ANOVA were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that most of the students use SM for academic purposes and to get connected with friends. Among the social networking tools, Facebook is the most widely used by the respondents. Findings supported that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of SM affect student’s intention to increase participation in the quota reform movement. There were no significant relationships between gender and politics with the use of SM. Research limitations/implications A sample of students from Dhaka University was taken and the sample size was small. As a result, the findings of this study cannot be generalized in other settings. SM has a positive effect in the societies where change happens through collective actions. Originality/value Why and how students use SM has been widely discussed over the available literature, but students’ intention to use for it for social movements has not been studied. This study has made an effort to empirically examine the use of SM in the context of the quota reform movement in Bangladesh.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumit Sangwan ◽  
Supran Kumar Sharma ◽  
Jyoti Sharma

PurposeThe present study intends to shed light on behaviour of customers towards usage of social media for purchasing decisions. The study proposes an extension to technology acceptance model (TAM) to analyse the significance of monetary benefits and information reliability on customers' intention to use social media.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was drawn from social media users of north-western region of India (n = 622). The proposed model was tested using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.FindingsResults indicate that monetary benefits and perceived ease of use have significant influence on customers' intention to use social media, while information reliability and monetary benefits significantly influence only through perceived usefulness.Practical implicationsThe findings are valuable to marketers to acknowledge the potential of social media to reach to masses by providing timely and reliable information. The study also reveals that website/app developers should implement a user-friendly interface and reliable content to influence customers' usage behaviour.Originality/valueThe study is a unique attempt to examine the effect of monetary benefits and information reliability with TAM's key constructs in the context of social media adoption. Studies undertaken aforementioned dimensions are mainly concerned with examining direct contribution of social media and its effect on purchase decisions.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurun Naher Popy ◽  
Tauhid Ahmed Bappy

PurposeWhile the usage of social media reviews has become increasingly popular in recent years, few studies in this context of Bangladesh have investigated its impact on restaurant visit intention. Therefore, this study aims to explain the role of attitude toward social media reviews in customers' restaurant visit intention from the perspective of Bangladesh. In doing so, predictors of attitude toward social media reviews were also ascertained and their indirect effects on restaurant visit intention were investigated.Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire was administered to 300 university students. A six-factor based measurement model was proposed, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in testing the hypotheses represented by the model. Furthermore, a focus group discussion with 12 respondents was also held to assess how negative reviews on social media affect the customers' restaurant visit intention.FindingsThis study reveals that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trustworthiness and information quality of social media reviews are positively related to attitude toward using positive social media reviews for choosing a restaurant. Furthermore, attitude toward positive social media reviews directly contributes to the intention to visit restaurants. Besides, attitude toward social media reviews fully mediates the relationship of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trustworthiness with restaurant visit intention, whereas it partially mediates the relationship between information quality and restaurant visit intention. Besides, results from focus group discussion revealed that customers typically trust negative reviews which reduce their intent to visit restaurants.Research limitations/implicationsThe samples chosen for this study belong only to a particular stratum of the population (students from a specific institution/university). Hence, the outcomes should be generalized with caution.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical guidelines for the restaurant marketers to formulate improved strategic decisions by tracking the restaurant customers' attitudes, behavioral intentions, sentiments and share of voice on social media platforms. The results of this study will encourage the restaurant marketers to build sustainable relationships with influential food bloggers to spawn positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM).Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies in Bangladesh that have covered up a timely and untouched research area, providing empirical evidence regarding the effects of attitude toward social media reviews on restaurant visit intent in the context of a South Asian country like Bangladesh.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 966-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Loiacono ◽  
Scott McCoy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the negative impact the invasive nature of social media technologies (SMTs) can have on a user’s continued intention to use it. Design/methodology/approach In order to understand the impact technology invasiveness (TI) has on people’s continued SMT behavior, a research model and corresponding survey were developed based on a comprehensive literature review and data collected from actual SMT users. Findings The authors found perceived usefulness has a large impact on user’s attitudes. Additionally, social networking (SN) has a significant and direct impact on both attitude toward the use of the SMT and its continued use. Another interesting finding is how strongly SN increases a user’s TI. The negative impact technology has on users’ lives comes from the need users feel to continue to update and manage their online persona. Practical implications Social media tools are becoming part of the workplace environment. If not careful, companies may introduce increased pressures on their workers to constantly be “connected” to SMTs. In order to obtain the advantages of SMT usage, companies would be wise to set expectation standards that alleviate some of this pressure. Social implications This growth in social media would lead one to assume that all is well with SMTs and their usage is similar to other web-based technologies. However, there are some negative effects of SMT that warrant society and companies pausing to rethink the focus on these technologies. Originality/value Previous research has looked at IT from system success and acceptance. In this paper, we investigate the negative impact the invasive nature of SMTs can have on a user’s continued intention to use it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1044-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Ling Jin ◽  
Zhongyun Zhou ◽  
Xiaoyu Yu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate why users are willing to diffuse healthcare knowledge in social media by drawing on the communicative ecology theory (CET) and prior research on interpersonal communication. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducts a large-scale scenario-based online survey in WeChat (the most popular social media platform in China) to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. The final data set consists of 1,039 useful responses from WeChat users. Findings The results indicate that interestingness, emotionality and institution-based trust are the strongest antecedents in predicting healthcare knowledge-diffusing likelihood, followed by usefulness, source credibility and positivity. Further, the relationship between institution-based trust and healthcare knowledge-diffusing likelihood is partially mediated by source credibility. Practical implications Healthcare practitioners who seek to motivate individuals to disseminate healthcare knowledge need to phrase or frame healthcare knowledge in a way that draws greater interest, evokes stronger emotion, increases perceived usefulness or reflects positively on themselves. Healthcare organizations should also pay attention to strengthening users’ trust in the platform and source-related information that can indicate source authority. Originality/value This study is one of the first to investigate the dissemination of healthcare knowledge in the context of social media (WeChat in particular). Compared with other types of information, healthcare knowledge is more scientific and professional to the extent that most laypersons do not have relevant expertise to directly evaluate whether the content is credible and of high quality. Rather, their sharing likelihood is dependent more on other factors than perceived information quality and credibility; those factors include platform-related factors that may play an important role but has been overlooked in prior literature on interpersonal communication. By combining CET with interpersonal communication-related research and including institution-based trust as an important determinant of healthcare knowledge dissemination, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of healthcare knowledge diffusion process.


Author(s):  
Jeanifer Gunawan

Along with the widespread use of Enterprise Social Media (ESM) by various large companies in Indonesia, this research is conducted to discover what the factors that drive employees’ intention to use ESM as knowledge sharing media are, and what factor is the most dominant in driving employees’ intention. This research is quantitative research, which uses Innovation Diffusion Technology (IDT) and Extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the research model. Data collection in this study is conducted by the survey method. The questionnaires are distributed to 374 respondents. Based on the data collected, data processing and hypothesis testing are carried out using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The result of this study indicates that relative advantage, compatibility, and perceived ease of use have a significant influence on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. Meanwhile, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment have a significant influence on employees’ intention to use ESM. Furthermore, it is also found that the most dominant factor among those two variables is perceived enjoyment.


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