Sung-Byung Yang

Exploring the comparative importance of online hotel reviews’ heuristic attributes in review helpfulness: a conjoint analysis approach

ABSTRACT Online travel reviews have become increasingly important as a result of the intangible and heterogeneous characteristics of the tourism industry as well as the recent diffusion of social media. This exploratory case study intends to examine the comparative importance of the six heuristic attributes (reviewer location, reviewer level, reviewer helpful vote, review rating, review length, and review photo) with respect to review helpfulness in the online hotel review context. Moreover, the salience of the individual levels within each review attribute and the importance of the attributes in positive and negative review-rating groups are compared. In total, 1,158 reviews of a hotel on TripAdvisor were collected and analyzed through conjoint analyses. This study found that the review rating and reviewer helpful vote attributes are the two most important factors. Finally, three major propositions are suggested based on findings of the study, and several theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Effects of tourism information quality in social media on destination image formation: The case of Sina Weibo

Abstract This study investigates the role of content and noncontent cues of tourism information quality in forming users’ destination image in social media. Empirical analysis based on data collected from Sina Weibo users suggests that several content cues and web page design as a noncontent cue are positively related with cognitive and affective images, which lead to a conative image. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of tourism information quality in social media by providing empirical evidence on destination image formation. It also helps tourism managers build their marketing strategies to attract more tourists through social media.

Exploring the comparative salience of restaurant attributes

The comparative salience of restaurant attributes is explored by employing a conjoint analysis.The importance of each restaurant attribute varies in diverse contexts of restaurant types and customers origin.Four major and fourteen minor propositions are suggested for future empirical research.This study helps restaurant managers better prepare for customers needs and expectations. This study explores how travelers select a restaurant for dining out, given that restaurant customers consider diverse attributes in making a selection. By applying a conjoint analysis, an exploratory multiple-case study is conducted for three restaurants in New York City. Findings from Study 1 (an overall travelers group) and Study 2 (two different country-of-residence groups: foreign and domestic travelers) show that food, value, atmosphere, and service are considered as substantially important criteria in selecting restaurants, in that order. However, results from Study 3 examining different restaurant types (low-priced food stand, low-priced indoor, and high-priced indoor) reveal that the food attribute is the most important factor, regardless of restaurant types, whereas the other attributes rankings vary. Results from Study 4 dividing the sample by both traveler origin and restaurant type demonstrate a total disparity in the importance ranking for all attributes. This study suggests that a conjoint analysis is an appropriate method for restaurant sector research in predicting the most important determinants consumers perceive among restaurant attributes. The findings may help restaurant managers develop specific strategies that fit the needs and expectations of different customer groups in terms of their type of restaurant.

Conceptual foundations of a landmark personality scale based on a destination personality scale: Text mining of online reviews

Landmarks play an important role in representing tourist destinations because they symbolize a destination’s image and personality. Despite the significance of landmarks to the perception of a destination’s image and personality, a personality scale based on landmarks has not been developed. To this end, the purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual foundation of a landscape personality scale based on a destination personality scale using online travel reviews, which are regarded as more valid sources for understanding actual tourist perceptions than simple answers to survey questionnaires. The results of this study imply that the words that describe specific landmarks may differ from those that portray the entire destination and suggest that the words tourists actually use in real situations to characterize tourism resources can be distinguished from hypothetical words of a destination personality scale. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the research and directions for future studies are discussed.

Examining the influencing factors of intention to share accommodations in online hospitality exchange networks

ABSTRACT CouchSurfing is a free social-network-based online hospitality exchange network, aptly representing a new sharing economy phenomenon. Based on social capital theory and previous literature, this study attempts to answer why hosts help strangers without any expected economic benefit within online hospitality exchange networks. An empirical study based on a Web survey conducted with CouchSurfing hosts reveals that the most identified antecedents (enjoy helping, shared narratives, desire to make friends, and reciprocity) are significantly related to hosts’ intention to share accommodations. Interestingly, the overshadowing effect of trust in CouchSurfing on the intention to share accommodations is also found.

Winning the crowd in online fundraising platforms: The roles of founder and project features

Abstract Crowdfunding is regarded as a novel way of collecting money for innovators to introduce products or services they ultimately wish to launch. The question arises, however, of what makes funding projects on these online platforms, with their different features of project evaluation and risk management, more successful than traditional fundraising approaches. We examine this question in the context of a pre-ordering model, which is also known as the reward-based crowdfunding model. A large-sample data analysis based on 116,956 crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter showed that most founder (i.e., identity disclosure and prior experience) and project (i.e., comments, updates, description elaborateness, and campaign duration) features have a positive effect on successful crowd fundraising. We also found a negative relationship between the funding goal amount and successful fundraising. Our findings may contribute not only to knowledge accumulation in crowdfunding research, but also to founders by offering evidence-based guidelines on the design of successful crowdfunding projects in an online fundraising platform.

How do uncertainty reduction strategies influence social networking site fan page visiting? Examining the role of uncertainty reduction strategies, loyalty and satisfaction in continuous visiting behavior

Uncertainty reduction strategies affect SNS fan page followers various perceptions.The level of uncertainty influences perceived usefulness and visiting behavior.SNS loyalty and satisfaction serve as significant moderators. Nowadays, it is common for people to find product or service information from various information sources on social networking sites (SNS). Among many embedded communication tools in SNS, our study focuses on fan pages and page followers, highlighting their continuous visiting behavior to company fan pages in the context of Facebook. Based on uncertainty reduction theory, our study proposes a research model examining the relationship between uncertainty reduction strategies and continuous visiting behavior, mediated by the low level of uncertainty. In addition, we employ the perceived usefulness of postings on fan pages as a mediator between uncertainty and visiting behavior. Lastly, we adopt two moderating factors: SNS satisfaction and SNS loyalty. To test hypotheses, we analyzed survey data from 189 Facebook users who have subscribed to at least one fan page on Facebook using a partial least squares (PLS) method. We found that uncertainty reduction strategies are positively associated with a low level of uncertainty about information regarding products or services on fan pages. In addition, perceived usefulness of postings is significantly accounted for by the low level of uncertainty. Both the low level of uncertainty and usefulness of postings explain continuous visiting behavior jointly. Our research findings also revealed that SNS satisfaction and SNS loyalty have significant moderating effects on the relationships between the low level of uncertainty/perceived usefulness and continuous visiting behavior. Based on research findings, implications and limitations are discussed.

Can You Identify Fake or Authentic Reviews? An fsQCA Approach

This research identifies two types of review patterns, authentic and fake, based on configurations among reviewers and review content elements. We also explain what fake review is with IMT as theoretic background. The results, which are based on the fsQCA method, identify the combinations of configurations for authentic and fake reviews. Each pattern has unique characteristics. Authentic reviews’ patterns are explained by personality theory (i.e., five factor model). Authentic reviews represent personalities that are different, similar to individuals, while fake reviews are composed of three kinds of promotional reviews and are characterized by a reviewer’s low credibility. The fake review pattern is explained by HSM and ELM. This research confirms that different patterns seem to exist for authentic and fake reviews, although authentic reviews may be cited in reverse fake reviews via algorithms. Another finding is that the review business has expanded to the business of social networking.

The application of Aristotle’s rhetorical theory to the sharing economy: an empirical study of Airbnb

ABSTRACT Sharing economy businesses require extensive trust-based communication between users and service providers to facilitate users’ positive persuasion processes. Based on Aristotle’s rhetorical theory, this study identifies three key persuasive cues (credibility, emotional bonding, and accommodation characteristics) and validates their roles in establishing users’ trust in an Airbnb setting. The moderating role of interactivity is further analyzed. Research findings from a survey sample of 171 Airbnb users indicate that persuasive cues are positively associated with trust in Airbnb hosts, which significantly leads to Airbnb brand trust. Interestingly, the moderating role of interactivity is only found in the relationship between emotional bonding and trust in Airbnb hosts. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that affect users’ trust building in the sharing economy context, and it offers guidance for platform providers to better operate their businesses by highlighting the important roles of persuasive cues and interactivity in users’ trust-building processes.

Successful crowdfunding: the effects of founder and project factors

Crowdfunding has been regarded as a novel way of collecting money for innovators to launch products and services by opening their ideas in online. This funding approach is differentiated from a traditional fundraising alternative in terms of project evaluation and risk management. In this paper, we question the reason why some crowdfunding projects are more successful in the context of a pre-ordering model, also known as a reward-based crowdfunding. Data analysis results based on 704 Kickstarter projects showed that founders prior experiences would influence successful fundraising. User comments and update efforts have positive effects on the increase of success rate. In addition, we examined that the amount of funding goal had negative association with fundraising success.