The eWOM adoption model in the hospitality industry: the moderating effect of the vlogger’s review

Abstract

Purpose Vloggers (video bloggers) have emerged as a new phenomenon in social media marketing, especially in the hotel industry, where user-generated reviews can strongly influence purchase decisions. Therefore, this paper aims to build an electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) adoption model (EAM) that incorporates source evaluation attributes (information quality, major influence and source credibility), trust in eWOM and eWOM intention (EWOMI) and booking intention and investigate the moderation of negative reviews from vloggers on relationships in the EAM. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducted two studies (ns1 = 446, ns2 = 374). The data were collected through an online and face-to-face survey with an experimental design. This paper conducted covariance-based structural equation model to examine main effects and applied a multiple-group analysis to test the moderating effect of vlogger reviews. Findings Three attributes of source evaluation are important predictors of trust in eWOM, which positively impact eWOM and booking intention. EWOMI also positively affects booking intention. Moreover, the negative review of vloggers can lower the effects of information quality on trust and of trust on EWOMI in Study 1 and on hotel booking intention in Study 2. Originality/value This study builds the EAM model for the hospitality context and provides novel insights into the moderating effects of vloggers’ negative reviews on the relationships in the EAM.