Kevin Kam Fung So

Purdue University | Purdue

Airbnb is widely recognized as a disruptive innovation in the tourism industry. While separate studies have examined various factors affecting consumers’ adoption of Airbnb, the literature has largely focused on a handful of factors in isolation. Adopting a sequential mixed-methods approach, this study proposes a comprehensive conceptual model inte...

Customer engagement has gained noteworthy attention among academics and practitioners over the last decade. Two studies employ latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered approach, to uncover discrete customer subgroups with similar profiles based on multiple customer engagement dimensions and relate these LPA groups to brand loyalty. Study 1...

Although customer engagement’s (CE) effects on marketing-related outcomes are well documented, its broader impacts on life domain constructs (e.g., subjective well-being [SWB]) have received less attention. We propose CE as a viable mechanism for prolonging travel’s positive effects on SWB. Specifically, this study adopts a three-wave design to inv...

Purpose – Although humanoid robots are increasingly adopted in many business settings, the dynamic effects of anthropomorphism and the functional perceptions of service robots on consumers’ responses remain unclear. This research examines the impacts of robot anthropomorphism on consumers’ trust, receptivity, and the downstream effect on satisfacti...

In light of current industry imperatives and growing scholarly attention, this study was conducted to provide a thoroughly updated bibliometric overview of how service innovation research has evolved. A total of 133 papers across 42 hospitality and tourism journals over 18 years (2003–2020) were extracted and analyzed. We first examined the publica...

With recent advances in artificial intelligence, the hospitality industry has introduced the concept of unmanned smart hotels staffed by service robots instead of human employees. Research is needed to understand consumers’ receptivity to such an innovation. This paper examines factors associated with consumers’ potential resistance to using automa...

Due to limitations in mainstream symmetric methodologies, the linkages between cultural dimensions and tourism demand have yet to be fully understood. Drawing on Hofstede's theory of national culture and adopting the asymmetric and case-oriented fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method, this investigation explored configuration models of c...

Despite extensive research on loyalty formation, findings regarding interrelationships between loyalty and its key drivers, such as perceived service quality, perceived value, and customer satisfaction, are inconclusive and often contradictory. To provide more definitive statements about these relationships, we synthesized and analyzed findings fro...

ESG has become a critical focus in the global hospitality industry. This study addresses a research gap by examining ESG dimensions' financial effects. Employing a two-way fixed effect model with firm-level fundamental data and ESG data, we identify the effect of the ESG performance of hotel firms in the United States on their cost of debt. Our nov...

Purpose This study aims to cross-validate the technology experience (TE) scale and examine the potential differences in consumer TE across three different sectors. Design/methodology/approach Across three separate studies, the TE scale and its psychometric properties and consequences were examined across three distinctive hospitality and tourism (...

Although customer engagement has been deemed critical for optimizing social media marketing performance, prior research has mainly examined customer engagement through cross‐sectional designs, thus limiting insight into its evolving dynamics over time. To address this gap, we adopt uses‐and‐gratifications theory to explore the associations among cu...

Given that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, it is crucial to examine how AI will change the future of the hospitality and tourism industry. By integrating multiple data sources (i.e., practitioner literature, research literature, and expert opinions), we suggest three trends constituting opportunities and challenges (AI appl...

Despite the academic importance and industry imperatives of psychological ownership (PO), surprisingly little research has comprehensively addressed its structure and thematic evolution through organizational and customer lenses in the business domain. We examined 541 articles from the Web of Science database to depict the landscape of PO business...

Given the experience-based nature of tourism and hospitality services, providing a superior customer experience (CX) is vital to gaining a competitive edge in today's fast-evolving marketplace. Yet little attention has been paid to the conceptualization and measurement of an integrated bundle of critical perceptions termed customer touchpoints (CTs...

Access-based consumption has received close attention from academics and industry practitioners in recent years. However, the nature of this type of consumption and the corresponding concept of psychological ownership are yet to be fully understood in hospitality services. This study referred to self-determination theory and psychological ownership...

Focusing on the application of artificial intelligence, this study investigates the impact of emotional display on user engagement with computer-generated imagery influencers through the lens of the computers are social actors (CASA) framework. It breaks down emotions into individual muscle movements (i.e., facial action units). By using facial rec...

Given the hospitality and tourism industry’s vulnerability to service failure, extensive research has been conducted to examine the impacts of service failures and effective recovery initiatives. This study provides an integrative review of the evolution of the service failure and recovery (SFR) literature based on 263 articles published across 28...

Abstract Purpose – Guided by memory-dominant logic, this study aims to examine how Airbnb experiences (i.e. home benefits, social interaction, and authenticity) lead to memorability, which subsequently results in platform attachment and loyalty. The mediating role of memorability and the moderating role of arousal in forming platform loyalty were a...

As new and emerging technologies continue to transform hospitality and tourism operations and consumer environments, understanding consumers’ experience with hospitality and tourism technologies has become an urgent issue. This study aimed to develop a theoretically sound conceptualization of consumers’ experience with hospitality and tourism techn...

While prior research indicates that establishing interpersonal interaction with customers is mostly beneficial, this work reveals that the impact of social ties depends on relationship norms (communal vs. exchange). In three studies, including a real-world field dataset (N = 87,615 customers), the current investigation demonstrates the conditions u...

Despite service robots’ importance in the tourism industry, few studies have investigated human–robot interaction from a reciprocal exchange perspective. This paper applies social exchange theory to the context of human–robot interaction along with relational and psychological states based on two empirical studies with two service robots (i.e., Pep...

Purpose This study aims to present a novel examination of actor value formation (AVF) in the sharing economy by uncovering its key dimensions (i.e. information seeking, personal interaction and feedback) at each stage of Airbnb consumption. Using multi-source data, how the key dimensions of AVF affect consumers’ evaluative judgment capturing the ke...

Although the tourism industry, including hotels, has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, few empirical studies have systematically examined the typology and effectiveness of their responses. To capture common response strategies within the hotel industry and assess their effectiveness, two studies were conducted. Study 1 adopted a hybrid approac...

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed how hospitality businesses operate and how customers perceive and approach other customers in a shared physical space. Using strangership in commercial contexts as a theoretical framework, this research investigated how the pandemic’s dynamic trajectory and relatively stable cultural interpersonal dista...

Drawing upon attribution theory, this study investigates the nuances of service failure and service recovery by examining the triadic, multi-directional relationships between platform providers (e.g., Airbnb), service providers (e.g., hosts), and customers (e.g., visitors) in the peer-to-peer accommodation ecosystem. Across two pretests and two exp...

This article presents a state-of-the-art systematic review of the evolution and structure of empirical research on customer experience in hospitality and/or tourism settings based on 1,248 articles published in 13 leading hospitality and tourism journals between January 1998 and May 2021. Using Web of Science database and the PRISMA technique, rese...

The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodations has revolutionized the hospitality industry. Yet, research on peer-to-peer service failures and consumer forgiveness remains scant. This paper shows that relationship type—whether communal ("Airbnb host") or exchange ("hotel")—influences consumer forgiveness in a post-recovery context. Across five studie...

Social exchange theory, the key theoretical framework in examining resident support, has often been criticized as ambiguous and difficult to measure. Extensive research has investigated the nature of resident support for tourism events, yet the role of a key construct, tolerance, has been underexplored. Building on the extant literature, this study...

Purpose – This study aims to serve as an important resource for customer engagement researchers by presenting a comprehensive, up-to-date, and objective assessment of the status and evolution of the CE literature. This purpose is achieved through simultaneous consideration and separate analyses of both the marketing/service and hospitality/tourism...

Drawing upon the stimuli-organism-response framework, we investigate the effects of the possible actions and self-location of virtual reality experiences on perceived enjoyment, affecting millennials’ attitude changes and visit intentions. The results show a significant influence of possible actions on perceived enjoyment, leading to attitude chang...

Drawing upon the literature on ecosystem ecology and socio-cultural evolution, the current study proposes an evolutionary framework for understanding the dynamics of service platform ecosystems. This evolutionary framework identifies three key components of the service platform ecosystem: (a) the diverse types of species, (b) the presence of both c...

Purpose – This paper investigates the roles of different types of customer value in influencing in customer evaluations of Airbnb. In particular, this study empirically tests the roles of four value dimensions in shaping existing Airbnb users’ attitudes and future behavioral intentions along with the effects of tripographic characteristics on users...

Building on previous research that claims tourists’ perceived authenticity is an antecedent to place attachment, this study explored the relationship between the two theoretical constructs. Specifically, the mechanism between perceived authenticity, place attachment, and loyalty was empirically tested. The data were collected at Kaiping Diaolou and...

The emergence of the sharing economy has had a tremendous impact on the tourism industry; however, few quality management mechanisms exist for shared tourism services. Based on unique data of 52,248 transactions collected from BlaBlaCar, the world's leading ridesharing platform, this study examines the independent and combined effects of quality cu...

Social exchange theory, the main tool in examining resident support, has often been criticized as ambiguous and difficult to measure. Extensive research has investigated the nature of resident support for tourism events, yet the role of a key construct, tolerance, has been underexplored. Building on extant literature, this study conceptualizes and...

Taking stimuli-organism-response theory as a conceptual framework, this study advances theoretical understanding of the honeymoon tourism experience (HTE) by examining its empirical linkages with key constructs underlying the wider nomological network within which it is situated, including perceived destination attributes (PDAs), memorable tourism...

While customer values associated with experience have been studied extensively in the hospitality literature, research comparing Airbnb and hotel experiences remains sparse. By identifying two distinct pathways, an acquisition-transaction utility pathway and a hedonic consumption pathway, this study investigates the effects of hedonic value and uti...

Due to easy travel information access, tourists nowadays are susceptible to invidious post-purchase comparisons (e.g. realizing a better deal after purchase), which may compromise their satisfaction and further hurt the business. To understand this less- tapped issue, particularly in a context closer to reality where people spend limited discreti...

Purpose This article examines the new phenomenon of the convergence of platform and pipeline business models. It examines the potential synergies and challenges for platforms to add pipeline components and vice versa for pipeline businesses. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a conceptual approach that synthesizes and integrates the liter...

Honeymoons have attracted growing attention in recent tourism research. Although this tourist segment is fast-expanding and lucrative, the literature lacks a conceptually valid and psychometrically sound measurement scale to capture honeymooners' motivation. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap by developing and validating such a scale. Fol...

Increased pressure to remain competitively viable necessitates that hospitality organizations are responsive to the market. Through a theory of cooperation and competition lens, this study examines how hospitality organizations can enhance their market responsiveness via the mechanism of employee voice. Using multi-level data from 75 U.S. chain res...

Most value cocreation measurement scales have focused on physical cocreation behavior rather than the cocreation experience. This study aims to conceptualize the construct of cocreation experience and develop a corresponding measurement scale in peer-to-peer accommodations using a sequential mixed-methods approach. The multistage scale development...

While scholarly inquiry into Airbnb has experienced an exponential growth in the tourism literature, the role of the environmental stimuli of Airbnb experiences in creating consumer enjoyment is underexplored. Adopting the Mehrabian-Russell model, this study proposes a conceptual framework to investigate the linkages between three well-documented e...

Over the past decade, customer engagement has attracted significant interest from academics and practitioners. This article reviews and synthesizes customer engagement research published in seven leading hospitality and tourism journals between 2009 and 2019. It systematically analyzes publication outlets and trajectories, study sectors, methodolog...

The overall purpose of the current study is to determine whether local microbreweries can build brand attachment and loyalty through their relationships with consumers via the microbrewery taproom experience. The study utilized a modified experiential value scale (EVS) and a two-step data collection procedure with a survey instrument to assess cons...

This study examined the impact of lodging tax increases on eight different destinations of the United States. Data were collected via in-depth stakeholder interviews and monthly statistics provided by Smith Travel Research including average daily rate, occupancy, and revenue per available room. Time series analysis was employed to estimate the impa...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine peer-to-peer sharing platform business models, their sources of competitive advantage, and the roles, motivations and behaviors of key actors in their ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, tourism and hospitality, and strategy lit...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the multi-dimensional structure of the Airbnb customer experience and to examine the influences of this experience on behavioral outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A multi-phase methodology was adopted using a survey questionnaire to explore the dimensions. Data were collected from a sample of...

This paper examines the relationship between tourism and retirement migration – a neglected area of academic research – and discusses how destination marketers can attract the growing segment of migrating retirees. The focus of the empirical study is the state of South Carolina in the United States, with surveys administered to three separate uniqu...

Purpose This study focuses on peer-to-peer accommodation of the sharing economy. Adopting construal level theory as the theoretical foundation, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of social and spatial distances on guest loyalty toward peer-to-peer accommodation. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a secondary sourc...

Studies have examined tourism shopping in various aspects, but scarce research has specifically focused on impulsive shopping behavior of tourists, which is of particular relevance in the tourism settings. This study addresses this paucity by examining factors influencing impulsive tourist shopping urge and purchase from the aspects of tourist inte...

Employee voice has been regarded as an important organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Within the hospitality industry, employee - customer interactions present opportunities to identify issues and propose change-oriented suggestions (i.e., voice) that can improve performance. Because of the risky nature of voice and potential loss for the voi...

Memorable experiences in restaurant settings are not well understood, and little is known about what they represent and how they should be measured. This study filled this knowledge gap by developing a formative index to assess and measure memorable dining experiences (MDE). Drawing upon strategic experiential modules, MDE was conceptualized as a s...

African-American tourists are one of the fast-growing segments of the travel sector, but very little is known about this consumer group. What we do know from previous research is that African-American travellers are different to travellers in general, and their travel decisions are closely related with their feelings of welcome and racial acceptanc...

The sharing economy literature has largely concentrated on the examination of peer-to-peer accommodation platforms such as Airbnb, with little attention paid on other innovations in collaborative consumption. This study investigates consumer adoption of the Uber mobile application through lenses of two theoretical models – Diffusion of Innovation T...

Purpose There is a growing trend that hospitality brands are allowing employees to personalize their workplace display. Following this trend in practice, this paper aims to examine the influence of employees’ conspicuous consumption cues (ECCCs) on consumer responses toward service failures in luxury dining. Design/methodology/approach Two exper...

Perceived risk, identification, and perceived value play a critical role in consumer behavior. Although previous researchers have examined identification and perceived value, examination of mediated sport consumption is lacking. Additionally, risk has received limited attention within this context. The purpose of the current study was to examine th...

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between experiential value-relationship quality, and relationship quality-behavioral intentions within the context of the growing pop-up restaurant industry (pop-ups). The current study also assessed the moderating roles of generation, variety seeking behavior and involvement regarding dinin...

Although the impacts of reviews provided by reviewers with expertise are well documented, the literature lacks empirical research on how such reviews are longitudinally linked to performance indicators and whether management responses to such reviews lead to differential impacts on these indicators. This study investigates the effects of reviewer e...

Abstract Purpose– This paper aims to explore what motivates consumers to adopt one of the emerging mobile applications of the sharing economy, ridesharing application. Using social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework, this study develops a value adoption model to illustrate important factors that influence adoption of ridesharing applicat...

A number of tourism researchers have suggested that despite the proliferation of research in the field, the exchange of knowledge from academic research to practical application in the industry is poor. The argument made is that academic research seldom influences the real world of practice, and that for knowledge transfer to assist destinations a...

The substantial development of the tourism industry in Asia has resulted in growing international demand for tourism and hospitality higher education in Australia. Using a pre-and-post study design, the results indicate that after a semester of teaching and learning, the improvement in self-efficacy was only evidenced among high performing students...

Despite consumers’ increasing use of social media channels to make their travel experiences more visible to people around them, brand management research in the tourism literature lacks a clear understanding of how social visibility of consumption affects consumer perceptions of their relationships with the brand. Drawing upon social identity theor...

Hotels are increasingly shifting their online review strategy from passive listening to proactive engagement through management responses. This study investigates the joint effects of management responses and online reviews on hotel financial performance. Based on a large unique dataset of 22,483 management responses to 76,649 online consumer revie...

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of sport video game difficulty and brand congruity on gamers’ brand recall, brand recognition, and attitudes toward the brand using a controlled experimental design. A total of 116 participants were recruited to play an interactive sport video game and randomly assigned to one of two game diffi...