a new ecosystem of digital players in the tourism industry built on the real-time exchange of information among users.
Published in Chapter:
Electronic Word-of-Mouth in the Service Industry: An Empirical Analysis on Sharing Economy Services
Matteo De Angelis (Luiss Guido Carli University, Italy), Roberto Florio (Luiss Guido Carli University, Italy), and Cesare Amatulli (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-8575-6.ch011
Abstract
Word-of-mouth is today considered among the most effective marketing communication tools. Indeed, consumers trust more their friends or other consumers than companies, advertisements, and brands. Moreover, due to the digital revolution, the electronic word-of-mouth plays a central role in consumers' purchasing decisions. In particular, electronic word-of-mouth may be central in the context of services, where the perceived risk of the intangible offering triggers consumers' need to find preliminary support from other consumers. This chapter focuses on comments and reviews regarding tourist products and other services shared by customers on different types of online platforms. The empirical analysis sheds light on the role that key motivational drivers, such as customer satisfaction, altruism, and self-esteem, may have in affecting consumers' decision to share comments about traditional versus sharing economy businesses. Findings demonstrate that the observed motivational drivers significantly and differently affect consumers' decision to engage in electronic word-of-mouth.