Beyond Influencer Credibility: The Power of Content and Parasocial Relationship on Processing Social Media Influencer Destination Marketing Campaigns

The power of social media influencers (SMIs) as effective endorsers for destinations and tourism products have been widely acknowledged. Despite being characterised as content generators by prior research, little has been done to examine how consumers perceive content produced by SMI, a key component of destination marketing campaigns. Moreover, parasocial relationship between SMI and the follower has been proven to enhance the persuasive impact of SMIs. Hence, this study aims to shed light on how consumers would assess the SMI and the content the SMI produced, as well as the effect of parasocial relationship on processing SMI destination marketing campaigns. Findings (N = 501) have highlighted that argument quality of SMI content has a stronger direct impact on campaign attitude, destination image and travel intention, as compared to source credibility. With the application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a framework, this study illuminates consumers’ interaction with the SMI destination marketing campaign and extends prior studies in understanding the importance of SMI content and parasocial relationship as a significant tool for future destination marketing.

Examining Online Health Community Users’ Information Adoption Intention

Due to the doubt on information credibility, users often hesitate to adopt the health information posted on online health communities (OHC). This may undermine the sustainable development of OHC. The purpose of this research is to identify the determinants of OHC users’ information adoption intention. The results indicated that both information factors and social interaction affect the adoption intention. Information factors include argument quality and source credibility, whereas social interaction includes perceived similarity and familiarity. The results imply that OHC need to ensure information quality and support users’ interaction in order to facilitate their information adoption.

Consumers’ Trust in Persuasion: Objective Versus Biased Elaboration Likelihood in China’s E-Commerce Advertising

Based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study examined the role of consumers’ initial trust in the persuasion process in e-commerce advertising in China. The results of two experiments revealed two significant moderators of the central route for processing of information: the disposition to trust (negative moderator) and institution-based trust (IBT; positive moderator). Specifically, low disposition to trust strengthened the influence of argument quality on consumers’ product attitude and purchase intention. The same effect occurred under conditions of high IBT. However, when it came to the peripheral route, the effects of disposition to trust and IBT were not significant.

COVID-19 pandemic: consumers' purchase intention of indoor fitness products during the partial lockdown period in Singapore

PurposeThe study aims to explore how the perception of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects argument quality of advertisement, attitude and purchase intentions of the indoor fitness products based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Moreover, the moderating effect of exercise involvement was examined.Design/methodology/approachA total of 283 consumers in Singapore were recruited during the partial lockdown period. Data analysis was employed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of data analysis showed that perception of COVID-19 affected argument quality of advertisement, attitude and purchase intention of indoor fitness products. Meanwhile, argument quality resulted in a favorable attitude toward indoor fitness products, which, ultimately, led to the purchase intention. In addition, exercise involvement positively moderated the influence of argument quality on attitude.Originality/valueThe findings provide implications for businesses and researchers to understand sport consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Transparency in peer review: Exploring the content and tone of reviewers’ confidential comments to editors

Purpose Recent calls to improve transparency in peer review have prompted examination of many aspects of the peer-review process. Peer-review systems often allow confidential comments to editors that could reduce transparency to authors, yet this option has escaped scrutiny. Our study explores 1) how reviewers use the confidential comments section and 2) alignment between comments to the editor and comments to authors with respect to content and tone. Methods Our dataset included 358 reviews of 168 manuscripts submitted between January 1, 2019 and August 24, 2020 to a health professions education journal with a single blind review process. We first identified reviews containing comments to the editor. Then, for the reviews with comments, we used procedures consistent with conventional and directed qualitative content analysis to develop a coding scheme and code comments for content, tone, and section of the manuscript. For reviews in which the reviewer recommended “reject,” we coded for alignment between reviewers’ comments to the editor and to authors. We report descriptive statistics. Results 49% of reviews contained comments to the editor (n = 176). Most of these comments summarized the reviewers’ impression of the article (85%), which included explicit reference to their recommended decision (44%) and suitability for the journal (10%). The majority of comments addressed argument quality (56%) or research design/methods/data (51%). The tone of comments tended to be critical (40%) or constructive (34%). For the 86 reviews recommending “reject,” the majority of comments to the editor contained content that also appeared in comments to the authors (80%); additional content tended to be irrelevant to the manuscript. Tone frequently aligned (91%). Conclusion Findings indicate variability in how reviewers use the confidential comments to editor section in online peer-review systems, though generally the way they use them suggests integrity and transparency to authors.

The Role Of Usfulness In Mediation The Effect Of Arqument Quality And Popular Post In Social Media Marketing On Tendency To Give Like Symbol And Share The Content

Easy access to the internet provides opportunities and makes it easier to carry out business functions. The use of social media is one of the important marketing tools, messages in social media can change user attitudes and trigger consumer interaction. This study looks at the effect of argument quality and posts popularity on consumer tendencies to like and share information on social media related to a product or service mediated by usefulness. The responses of 300 respondents were analysed using PLS, the results showed that argument quality and post popularity had an influence on giving like symbols and share intentions on their social media.

Argument Quality and Review Adoption: Interaction Effect of Product and Review Type

Argument quality has become an important variable that promotes consumers’ decision-making based on online reviews. It has two dimensions, perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness. Adopting dual-process theory, this study examines the effect of these two dimensions of argument quality on review adoption. Moreover, it investigates whether the relationships between argument quality and review adoption differ based on product type and review type. According to the multi-group analysis result, for attribute-centric reviews, search products have a better fit than experience products in the relationship of perceived informativeness and perceived persuasiveness, also for the relationship of perceived informativeness on review adoption, while experience products have a better fit than search products for the relationship of perceived persuasiveness on review adoption. For benefitcentric reviews, search products and experience products have no significant difference in any of the relationships. Furthermore, the result reveals that perceived persuasiveness mediates perceived informativeness and review adoption. The findings contribute to the understanding of the information adoption model with different review types and product types and help shopping websites develop better strategies for product recommendation reviews.

The Impact of Electronic Word of Mouth on Tourists Visit Intention to Saudi Arabia: Argument Quality and Source Credibility as Mediators

relationship between e-WOM and tourist visit intentions. As e-WOM in the form of comments, reviews, opinions, suggestions and recommendation are largely available in the online space, it has been found crucial to investigate the quality and credibility of such information. Elaboration Likelihood Model has been used to build the research model or framework. The study findings suggest the mediating role of source credibility and argument quality in the relationship between e-WOM and tourist visit intention. The study reveals that traveler seeks highly credible sources and information quality before deciding on any travel related products and services. The mediating role of source credibility and argument quality from ELM theory has been investigated from domestic tourism perspective.

Electronic word-of-mouth in travel social networking sites and young consumers’ purchase intentions: an extended information adoption model

Purpose Young consumers are increasing using electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in travel social networking sites to make purchase decisions. This paper aims to test the extended Information Adoption Model (IAM) that places perceived usefulness and information adoption as consequences of argument quality, source credibility, information quantity and emotive word comprehension, and as an antecedent of purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected through survey questionnaire from 405 hotel young customers in Malaysia, who had experienced travel social networking sites. The hypothesized relationships were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings The results show that argument quality, source credibility, information quantity and emotive word comprehension have positive effect on the perceived usefulness of eWOM. Perceived usefulness has positive influence on the information adoption of eWOM, which in turn predicts the young consumers’ purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications The present study strengthens and advances the existing literature on tourism, social media and marketing by offering an extension to the IAM. The proposed extended model of IAM is verified and applied effectively in the context of eWOM for travel social networking sites. Practical implications Practitioners and marketers of travel social networking sites can improve the usability and effectiveness of eWOM to attract more young consumers. Originality/value The study contributes to the extension of IAM by adding information quantity and emotive word comprehension. This research validated the significant roles of eWOM argument quality and source credibility in predicting the information usefulness of eWOM.

Word of mouse vs word of influencer? An experimental investigation into the consumers’ preferred source of online information

Purpose This study aims to compare the effects of YouTube information sources (influencer vs word of mouse) on the consumer purchase decision. This paper extends the information adoption model (IAM) to include information language as a central cue and skepticism toward online information as a moderating factor. Design/methodology/approach A between-subjects experiment, 2 (influencer vs word of mouse) × 2 (positive vs negative information), was designed to test hypotheses. A total of 171 consumers participated in the experiment and multigroup structural equations modeling (AMOS 21) was applied. Findings The results indicate that consumers perceive argument quality to be more useful when the information comes from word of mouse (WOMS). While information language was deemed more useful when the information source was a YouTube influencer and the information type was positive. The study also found that skepticism toward online information reduced the overall effects, particularly for influencers and positive information. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the theory by identifying and investigating the existing gaps in knowledge. For practitioners, findings speak to the synergetic power of YouTube influencers and WOMS as an effective marketing strategy. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to compare the effects of YouTube influencers and consumer comments by using the IAM. It also extends IAM with the inclusion of information language as a central cue and skepticism toward online information as a moderating factor.