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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012 pp 25–35Cite as

An Assessment of Contagion on Social Networking Sites

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Abstract

Social network influence has been recognized as an important determinant for consumer behaviour. Through a web-based survey using restaurant consumption as a research context, this study explores social influence resulting from two distinct social reference processes: communication and comparison. The relationship between social interactions and social influence is moderated by opinion leadership and attitude towards status consumption, which are conceptualized to represent consumers’ competitiveness. Consumers’ status consumption contributes negatively to recommendation-based consumption, but positively to competitionbased consumption. In other words, the more competitive the consumers are, the less they tend to follow others’ recommendation, the more they consume products and services to establish or maintain their status in the social network. Several managerial implications are provided.

Keywords

  • territoriality
  • mobility
  • location-based media
  • mobile technology

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Tourism & Hospitality Management, Temple University, USA

    Iis P. Tussyadiah

Authors
  1. Iis P. Tussyadiah
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Human Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden

    Prof. Matthias Fuchs

  2. Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

    Prof. Francesco Ricci

  3. Faculty of Communication Sciences, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag/Wien

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Tussyadiah, I.P. (2012). An Assessment of Contagion on Social Networking Sites. In: Fuchs, M., Ricci, F., Cantoni, L. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1142-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1142-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-1141-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-1142-0