What about “U”? The influence of positive online consumer reviews on the individual's perception of consumption benefits

Determining multidimensional influences of network heterogeneity on university students' psychological and academic well-being: The mediating role of social network exhaustion

Mobile social media has become indispensable to university students' communication with various socio-demographic populations, exposing them to diverse social networks and augmenting their network heterogeneity. Although the psychological ramifications of network heterogeneity have been extensively examined, its correlated academic outcomes remain inconclusive. The current study formulated an integrated theoretical research model based on the stressor-stress-outcome framework to investigate the influence of factors associated with network heterogeneity (specifically, privacy invasion, social comparison, self-presentation, and excessive WeChat use) on social media exhaustion, psychological well-being, and academic well-being among university students. Furthermore, the research examined the mediating effect of social network exhaustion among network heterogeneity, psychological well-being, and academic well-being. A cross-sectional survey of 1128 WeChat users revealed that social comparison and excessive WeChat use had positive associations with social network exhaustion, while privacy invasion and self-presentation were negatively correlated with social network exhaustion. Additionally, social network exhaustion was negatively correlated with psychological well-being and academic well-being. Furthermore, social network exhaustion mediated the influences of network heterogeneity on psychological well-being and academic well-being. These obtained results could contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the underlying causes of social network exhaustion and the multifaceted effects of network heterogeneity. These insights may prove valuable for practitioners to enhance university students' psychological states and academic performance in the contemporary mobile media-saturated environment.

A new theoretical model for online customer review intention

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the insights on how international customer behavior is impacted toward online customer review (OCR) by the mediating effects of social and personal norms in the varied cultural context. The study also investigates how support of peer influence could moderate the effect of OCR.

Design/methodology/approach

This study has used socialization theory, congruity theory and theory of planned behavior along with studies of different literature to develop a conceptual model. The conceptual model has been validated using PLS-SEM analysis with survey considering 306 usable respondents. The mediating effects and moderating impacts have been analyzed by mediating analysis process (process tool) and multi group analysis, respectively.

Findings

The results of the model, with 62% explanative power, highlight that social norm acts as a strong mediating variable to impact OCR intention while peer influence acts as a vital moderator to impact OCR intention.

Research limitations/implications

The theoretical model provides a solid foundation to future researchers for further study in this field. This study also provides the practitioners a unique opportunity towards understanding customer motivation for OCR intention. Accordingly, practitioners could bring some transformational changes in their organizations for getting better reviews from the customers.

Originality/value

This study develops a unique theoretical model with high explanative power. Very few studies have ventured in this field. This study has added value to the body of literature on consumer behavior as well as individualism. Furthermore, this study has developed some of the novel relationships between different factors such as individualism, peer influence, international consumers, social norm and so on in the context of OCR which is one of the unique contributions of this study.

An Empirical Investigation of the Longitudinal Effect of Online Consumer Reviews on Hotel Accommodation Performance

This study empirically investigates the effects of online consumer reviews on hotel accommodation performance in an e-commerce context. Online consumer reviews include two types: online consumer satisfaction and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). eWOM was also regarded as the proxy of consumer loyalty. Hotel-level online consumer reviews from three well-known online travel agencies (i.e., Agoda.com, Expedia.com, and Trip.com) and financial data from 88 hotels were combined and analyzed using the Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. Based on the service-profit chain (SPC) framework, the two forms of online consumer reviews, satisfaction, and eWOM, were hypothesized to have positive effects on performance. The hypothetic effects were assessed in terms of the concurrent model and three lagged models. The results indicate that satisfaction has a positive effect on eWOM. However, to our great surprise, the two forms of online consumer reviews did not directly affect hotel accommodation performance across the concurrent model and the three lagged models. Additionally, online consumer satisfaction did not influence hotel accommodation performance via eWOM. The results have several important theoretical and practical implications for online consumer relationship management in the hospitality and tourism industry. The results of this study can further clarify the relationships among online consumer satisfaction and eWOM (customer loyalty), and performance.