| Author: | Law, Pui Yan |
| Title: | Influencer marketing : impact of parasocial relationships on customers' information-seeking time and purchase intention in the hospitality and tourism industry from an investment model perspective |
| Advisors: | Au, Norman (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Marketing Influence (Psychology) Internet marketing Tourism -- Marketing Hospitality industry -- Marketing Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | x, 147 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Influencer marketing is increasingly important across multiple industries and firms globally, it grew into a significant $10 billion industry in 2020 (Haenlein et al., 2020). It has become an essential component of social media marketing for most brands and acknowledged as one of the most significant marketing strategies for many companies over the past decade (Gretzel, 2018). A survey of marketing professionals found that 75% of marketing managers included social media influencers as part of their marketing strategies (Odell, 2018). The influencer market has experienced significant expansion, with its worth rising from $16.4 billion in 2022 to an anticipated $24 billion by the end of 2024 which indicates a strong ongoing growth momentum (Geyser, 2024). Influencer marketing has significantly impacted the hotel and tourist sectors by updating the conventional technique of spreading information through personal recommendations. This digital technique greatly improves hotel brand recognition and customer allegiance which is mostly due to the rapid and extensive reach of digital word-of-mouth compared to traditional methods (Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan, 2018). Although influencer platforms have experienced rapid expansion and are widely known to be effective marketing channels, many marketing managers are lack of a deep understanding of those platforms compared with their knowledge of traditional media channels, and often find it hard to make the right decision in this fast-moving environment (Haenlein et al., 2020). There is also a lack of scholarly study on influencer marketing in the hospitality and tourist sectors, specifically when it comes to selecting the appropriate influencers. Identifying the most appropriate influencers for campaigns is one of the major hurdles for marketers (Gupta, 2019). Most of the existing studies mainly focus on examining the effects of influencer marketing on tourists and methods for enhancing its implementation in hotels. However, there has been limited investigation into the influence of commitment in parasocial relationships (PSRs) between social media influencers (SMIs) and followers on customers' information-seeking time and purchase intentions. This study aims to address these unresolved issues by expanding and refining a framework that helps practitioners develop effective marketing strategies. Furthermore, due to technological enhancement, there is often an overwhelming amount of information that exceeds the human processing capacity. Information overload problems influence customer decision-making behaviors (Jiang, 2022). At the same time, tourists are increasingly utilizing social media to acquire information and make decision, often being influenced by trusted social media influencers who promote certain hotel and destinations (Fardous, Du, Hansen, Choo, & Huang, 2021; Pop, Săplăcan, Dabija, & Alt, 2022). Hence, this study intends to minimize this gap by exploring the role and effect of commitment to PSRs on customer’s information seeking behaviors and purchase intentions in the hospitality and tourism industries. This research intends to improve comprehension and make predictions about how commitment in PSRs affects consumer behavior, using a conceptual model based on the investment model of the commitment processes. Using a sample of 412 valid responses, this study investigates the antecedents and the impact of parasocial relationships (PSRs) on customer purchase intentions and information-seeking behavior in the hospitality and tourism industries. The data analysis, which included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM), confirmed the measurement model's dependability and revealed a good fit with the conceptual model. Hypothesis testing revealed significant support for hypotheses H1c, H2, H4, and H5, with partial support for H1a and H3, highlighting the impact of factors such as frequency of updates, physical attractiveness, satisfaction, and perceived quality of alternatives on PSRs between social media influencers (SMIs) and their followers. The findings highlight the importance of these factors in determining purchase intention and the efficiency of information-seeking time. These results provide critical insights into the dynamics of influential marketing in the hospitality and tourism sector, emphasizing the pivotal role of SMIs in shaping consumer behavior. The study contributes by bridging the gap between the literature on consumer behavior and influencer marketing in the hospitality and tourism context, addressing the gaps that already exist, and shedding light on ways to explore the relationship and impact of choosing an appropriate social media influencer on consumer behavior, particularly in terms of information seeking duration and purchase intention. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7926.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.51 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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