Dae-Young Kim

Modeling Tourism Advertising Effectiveness

This study builds on previous research on the impact of tourism advertising and argues that there are a number of likely routes through which tourism advertising influences destination choice. Data were obtained from a survey that examined the impact of Illinois travel advertising and was conducted during the fall of 2001. The results confirm that there are strong linkages among top-of-mind awareness, ad awareness, requesting travel information, and the likelihood of visiting a destination, and therefore, these constitute important routes to influencing destination choice. Differences in the effects of advertising by media channel also appear to be substantial.

Does Cultural Difference Affect Customer’s rEsponse in a Crowded Restaurant Environment? a Comparison of American Versus Chinese Customers

This study focused on demonstrating cultural differences between American and Chinese people in terms of a customer’s perception of congestion and attribution in a crowded restaurant environment setting. It has been noted that culture has a substantial impact on a customer’s affection and judgment. Congestion in service environments is a critical antecedent of a customer’s evaluation of service quality. Considering the two main themes, this study examined how cultural differences play a role in explaining a customer’s attribution within the context of a crowded restaurant. Through the study of customers from two different cultures, participants’ responses regarding a similarly crowded environment in a restaurant were compared. This research reveals that cultural differences exist between the individuals from the two countries in terms of perceived congestion and customer attribution.

The influence of consumer value-based factors on attitude-behavioral intention in social commerce: the differences between high- and low-technology experience groups.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine the consumer values (i.e., hedonic, social, and utilitarian value) in choosing restaurants and how these values affect consumers attitude toward and behavior intentions in the context of social commerce. This study is to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework that empirically examines and explains the salient factors that influence restaurant guests behavior intentions regarding social commerce. A sample of 232 undergraduate students at a university in the Midwest United States was employed for this study using structural equation modeling. This research provides preliminary evidence that certain value dimensions (i.e., hedonic and social value) affect behavior intentions to use social commerce. In particular, utilitarian value has an influence on attitude toward social commerce, which in turn has a positive influence on consumers behavior intentions. In addition, the results of this study revealed that there are significant differences between high- and low-technology experience group in the proposed model. Further discussion and implications are provided in the text.

The Motivations Of College Students’ Use Of Social Networking Sites In Travel Information Search Behavior: The Mediating Effect Of Interacting With Other Users

ABSTRACT Social networking sites (SNSs) have proliferated rapidly in the last few years and continue to grow in popularity. This study argues that social networking sites play a pivotal role in college students’ trip information search behavior. The primary objective is to identify motivations that influence college students’ propensity to use SNSs to search for travel information, leading to the development of a model. This study also examines the mediating effect of interacting with other users on the relationship between motivations and information search behavior using SNSs. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses and a mediating effect. The results indicate that all four motivations (i.e., self-expression, commenting, participating in a community forum, and information seeking) affect college students’ use of SNSs when they seek travel-related information. It is also observed that interacting with others on SNSs has a mediating role in both motivations and information search behavior. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Are people aware of their attitudes toward destination? Understanding the implicit association test in tourism research.

This study tests the hypothesis that explicit and implicit measures of attitudes would differentially identify tourist attitudes in the domain of destination study. A total of 89 college students were recruited to complete a self-report survey and implicit association test (IAT). The results reveal that participants attitudes toward China and England vary depending on the two different types of attitude measures. Specifically, it appears that attitudes toward the two countries are not significantly different by explicit measures but differences of attitudes are salient by IAT. The implications of the IAT results for tourism destination study and its relations to explicit measures of attitudes are discussed.

A Pictorial Analysis of Destination Images on Pinterest: The Case of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, Japan

ABSTRACT Based on the recent trend that social network sites (SNSs) have been replacing traditional sources of information, this study seeks to examine the representative characteristics of pictorial information in both destination marketing organizations’ (DMOs) websites and SNSs (i.e. Pinterest.com), focusing on three major cities in Japan. Analyzing photos in terms of 13 categories, this study revealed that differences exist between two channels indicating an inconsistency between travelers’ interests and marketers’ projections. Based on the results, the study suggests possible DMOs’ marketing strategies utilizing SNSs to facilitate and reinforce favorable destination images.

The effects of offering menu information on perceived waiting time.

This study employs an experimental design in a real restaurant setting to measure the effect of offering menu information on perceived waiting time. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of menu information as a method of distracting customers and reducing perceived waiting time. The test was conducted for 3 weeks under three manipulated conditions (i.e., music, no distraction, and offering menu information). The results of this study show that there are significant mean differences in three conditions in terms of the gap score between perceived and actual waiting time. The research findings are expected to provide restaurant managers with meaningful operational marketing strategies.

Brand personality of Airbnb: application of user involvement and gender differences

ABSTRACT In this study we utilized the concept of brand personality to determine how travelers perceived Airbnb as a lodging brand and investigated the effect of involvement level (low versus high) on view of brand personality. As a viable segmentation variable, this study also utilized the interaction effect to examine how gender affects consumers’ involvement level. Significant differences were observed between travelers with high and low involvement in terms of the dimensions of sincerity, excitement, competence, and ruggedness. In addition, we found the interaction effect to be significant, indicating that level of involvement is higher in female travelers than in male travelers. This research will provide meaningful marketing insights for target marketing and positioning based on consumer involvement and gender within the context of Airbnb.

The influence of corporate social responsibility, ability, reputation, and transparency on hotel customer loyalty in the U.S.: a gender-based approach

This research explored a conceptual framework incorporating interrelationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate ability (CA), corporate reputation (CR), and CSR-related transparency on customer loyalty within the hotel context. In this study, we also analyzed consumers’ propensity to support CSR initiatives through the socio-demographic indicator of gender. We used independent sample t test and multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses based on 487 responses from American participants. Four antecedents (i.e., CSR, CA, CR, and transparency) exhibited favorable effects on customer loyalty. Among these four factors, the positively perceived CSR initiatives had a greater impact on customer loyalty. In addition, according to our findings, female participants were more likely to have a positive perception of the four antecedents than males.

A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Attitude Measures: An Application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to Fast Food Restaurant Brands

The study attempted to assess peoples attitudes toward fast food restaurant brands by comparing the results of explicit and implicit attitude measures. A total of 60 college students (33 Americans and 27 Koreans) were recruited to complete both a self-report survey and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Two known fast food restaurant brands were selected and the results of this study show that Korean respondents have inconsistent response patterns in explicit/implicit measures toward the two brands, while consistent patterns are found among Americans in the same context. In terms of the correlation results, it was observed that both explicit and implicit attitude measures are significantly correlated with the frequency of fast food restaurant visits (FFRV) among Koreans, whereas explicit liking was not correlated with FFRV in the significant correlations between other variables (GEA and IA) among Americans. The researchers elaborations on the literature and the experimental study reveal several conclusions, recommendations, and implications.