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Article Name: Do tourists’ personality traits moderate the relationship between

social media content sharing and destination involvement?

Authors: Bekir Bora Dedeoğlu, Fevzi Okumus, Xiaoli Yi & Wenmin Jin

Keywords: Social media sharing; customer-generated content; destination

involvement; personality traits; big-five

Gap: This study investigates how the importance attached to consumer-generated

content on social media affects the destination involvement. This study also
examines the moderating role of personality traits between social media content
and destination involvement.

Literature reviews:

Involvement: Involvement is a prominent construct in the field of marketing

and has gained considerable attention and application in behavioral research,
such as social psychology and the advertising domain (Campos et al., 2017; Chua,
Lee, & Han, 2017; Huang, Chou, & Lin, 2010; Hwang et al., 2005).

-Highly involved individuals generally exhibit different behavioral profiles

compared with less involved people (Hu & Yu, 2007).

-On the other hand, products and services with high involvement of consumers
could yield more for organizations than those with lower involvement (Cummings
& Ostrom, 1982; Herrmann, Huber, Sivakumar, & Wricke, 2004; Lichtenstein,
Bloch, & Black, 1988)

-the destination involvement refers to the degree of interest or importance of

tourists to the destination (Arora, 1982; Day, 1970).

-the study of Taiwan’s national parks by Hwang et al. (2005) found that tourists’
involvement had a positive significant effect on perceived interpretation service
quality and place attachment. In another study, Hu and Yu (2007) showed three
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distinctive groups of craft shopping involvement: enthusiasts, lovers and

indifferent shoppers.
-Finally, Zatori, Smith, and Puczko (2018) investigated how service providers can
enhance memorable and authentic tourist experiences in on-site conditions and
confirmed that interaction is the main factor influencing experience-involvement.

Consumer-generated content and involvement: Social media content is generated

by users, which can be divided into two groups – firms and consumers. Since firm
Generated content (FGC) is generated by firms themselves; it might be perceived
as less sincere and reliable than consumer-generated content (CGC) (Herrero, San
Martín, & Hernández, 2015).

-Moreover, because CGC is seen as more sincere and reliable than FGC, it is
reasonable to expect that its efficiency to affect users’ attitudes and behaviors
towards the brand would be more determinant.

-In addition to this, considering the theories of social influence (e.g. social
comparison and social contagion), individuals may want to adopt similar
experiences when they see the experiences of the actors who have had
experience to achieve their desired outcomes (eg. obtaining status, acceptance in
society, desire to be like etc.).

- social influence is the result of the adaptation of the behavior, attitudes and
beliefs of other individuals (actors) in a social system. According to social
influence theories, individuals can adapt similar beliefs, attitudes and behaviors
through communication (is direct contacts between people and their influencers
and comparison (is triggered if actors are in competition with one another)
(Leenders, 2002).

- The individual can adapt the attitudes and behaviors of the people or groups
(actors) as a role model. At this point, the experiences in the CGC on social media
can be desired by the individuals who see the content.

- the individual can increase the level of involvement for the object to adapt the
same experience.
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-two types of consumer content generation were conceptualized as participant

sharing and non-participant sharing.
- participant sharing refers to the sharing generated in social media through
using the platforms related to the organization or with the purpose of achieving a
specific purpose related to the organization (e.g., providing information, making
an assess) (Dedeoglument 2019).

- On the other hand, the term non participant sharing indicates the sharings
posted by an individual because of his or her own motives (e.g., a desire to be
liked and approved by society, socialization, self expression) related to personal
or others’ social media channels (e.g., blogs and social networks) without
participating in any activity of the organization (e.g., organization’s own website,
forum, Facebook account, or assessment websites) or seeking any goal associated
with (Dedeoglu,
the organization 2019).

- These sharings, furthermore, may be generated by individuals to gain prestige

and status or to be recognized by the society.

-Based on social learning and social identity theories, these sharings could
encourage others who encounter them to behave in the same way.

-Kane, Chiru, and Ciuchete (2012) indicated that social media, e.g., Facebook,
potentially influences attitudes and values that could change travel behaviors in
the longer term (e.g., pro-environmental purchase behaviors in general) rather
than leading to a direct change in travel behaviors.

Personality traits as moderator: Schiffman and Kanuk (2004, p. 120) define

personality as “those inner psychological characteristics that both determine
and reflect how a person responds to his or her environments.”

- Besides providing important information to firms to direct their customers’

behaviors (Orth, Limon, & Rose, 2010), the Five-Factor Model (also called as the
Big Five Model) of personality is one of the most commonly used models in the
typology of personality traits (Goldberg, 1993; Tang & Lam, 2017; Yoo & Gretzel,
2010).
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-In the Big Five Model, personality traits are classifie as extroversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness (McCrae, Costa, &
Busch, 1986).

-Extroversion concerns differences in preference for social interaction and lively

activity, whereas Agreeableness is seen in selfless concern for others and in
trusting and generous sentiments. Conscientiousness can be define as “a
dimension of individual differences in organization and achievement” while
Neuroticism can be indicated as “a dimension of personality on which people vary
only in degree.”

-On the other hand, Openness can be defined “a receptiveness to new ideas,
approaches, and experiences” (McCrae & Costa, 2006, p. 35).

-Considering that the use of the internet and social media by individuals is
affected by their personality traits, it is highly possible for those traits to give
importance to CGC, as well

-As individuals spend time in social media in accordance with their personality
traits they would be likely be exposed to the content generated by others.
Therefore, it can be expected that personality traits would have a moderating
effect in the relationship between the importance attached to the sharing
Content generated by other consumers in social media and destination
involvement.

Hypothesis:
H1: The importance attached to participant sharing (IPS) in social media
influences destination involvement in a positive and significant way.
H2: The importance attached to non-participant sharing (INPS) in social media
influences destination involvement in a positive and significant way.
H3a: There is a moderating effect of the agreeableness personality trait in the
relationship between IPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H3b: There is a moderating effect of the agreeableness personality trait in the
relationship between INPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H4a: There is a moderating effect of the extraversion personality trait in the
relationship between IPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
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H4b: There is a moderating effect of the extraversion personality trait in the

relationship between INPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H5a: There is a moderating effect of the openness personality trait in the
relationship between IPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement
H5b: There is a moderating effect of the openness personality trait in the
relationship between INPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H6a: There is a moderating effect of the neuroticism personality trait in the
relationship between IPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H6b: There is a moderating effect of the neuroticism personality trait in the
relationship between INPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H7a: There is a moderating effect of the conscientiousness personality trait in the
relationship between IPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.
H7b: There is a moderating effect of the conscientiousness personality trait in the
relationship between INPS and the levels of tourists’ involvement.

Research methodology:
-The study used a questionnaire to collect data.
-they were prepared in German, Russian, English and Turkish considering the
nationalities of the tourists visiting the destination (see Alanya Economic Report,
2016)
-The present research was carried out in Alanya, a tourist destination in Turkey.
-the questionnaires were conducted with face to face interview and drop-collect
methods.
-A total of 586 questionnaires were collected from 800 questionnaires.

Discussion and conclusions: In the present study, both types of customer-

generated content (participant-sharing (IPS) and non-participant sharing (INPS))
affected involvement level in a positive way. One important observation was that
INPS especially was amore effective factor on tourists’ involvement levels.

- One interpretation of the results of the study is that non-participant content

generated by other consumers in the context of tourism creates bandwagon or
snob effect on tourists. More specifically, at first, tourists could consider other
tourists as a reference group and give importance to their sharings generated in
their own or their friends’ pages in social media platforms (bandwagon effect), or,
secondly, tourists could attribute importance to a sharing by taking into
consideration that the tourists having generated the content took an action
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different and unique compared with those taken by people around them (snob
effect).

- personality traits play a moderating role in the relationship between the

importance attached to social media sharing’s and involvement level.

- tourists with high agreeableness because those tourists are supportive and
helpful (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Costa & McCrae, 1992). the effect of IPS on
involvement is more determinative for think that something is expected from
them, it is highly
possible that they would share information in order to contribute to the
community (Matzler, Renzl, Mooradian, von Krogh, & Mueller, 2011).

- The study found that the importance attached to both sharing types affected
destination involvement in a positive way.

- One implication of this finding is that destination management and marketing

organizations should take actions to prompt tourists to generate both participant
and non-participant sharings.

-The findings related to the moderating role of personality between the

importance attached to social media sharings and involvement indicate that
practitioners should focus on tourists high in extraversion, conscientiousness,
agreeableness and openness if they want to increase the determinative role of IPS
on involvement.

-On the other hand, if they want to increase the determinative role of INPS on
involvement, they should focus on tourists high in neuroticism.

Limitations and future research: personality traits were examined within the
framework of the Big Five Model. However, in addition to the Big Five Model,
psychobiological personality theory is very important in terms of consumer
behavior (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982; Hoyer & Ridgway, 1984). Therefore, it
would be beneficial to examine different personality traits defined by personality
theories, which are also very important in terms of consumer behavior, within the
framework of the model developed in the present study.
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- the differences that might be caused by such demographic variables as age or

gender were ignored in the present study. Nevertheless, both age and gender are
important in terms of determining tourists’ attitudes towards social media (Correa
et al., 2010).

Information that I can use:

 Social media has permeated many areas of social life (Zeng & Gerritsen,
2014).

 One area where social media is playing an increasingly important role is the
tourism industry by changing information search and decision making
(Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan, 2018).

 The Big-Five model contains five factors representing personality traits as:
extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experiences, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness (John & Srivastava, 1999).

 Investigation of the intersection of users’ personality and social media by

Correa et al. (2010) found that while extraversion and openness to
experiences were positively related to social media use, emotional stability
was a negative predictor.

 The huge volume of user-generated reviews has had a significant impact on

online sales in tourism (Ayeh, Au, & Law, 2013; Ye, Law, Gu, & Chen, 2011).

 Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that personality traits have a

moderating effect in the relationship between customer-generated content
and destination involvement

 social media functions as an important advertisement tool because it is

more cost-effective than conventional advertisement tools (Zimmerman &
Sahlin, 2010), it reaches larger audiences in a very short time (Barnes,
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2010), it enables consumers more interactive communication (Mangold &

Faulds, 2009), and because it has a remarkably democratic structure (Drury,
2008).

 Furthermore, Barrick, Mount, and Judge (2001) indicate that the Five-
Factor Model provides the most useful classification for the research on
personality. Hence, the Big Five Model of personality was preferred in the
present study.

 If individuals use social media more, they may have more interaction with
other people’s content (Tussyadiah,2012).

 As individuals spend more time on the Internet and social media, they are
more likely to increase their interest in content when they attached
importance to content.

 For translation of the questionnaires, the back-to-translation method was

used (Brislin, 1976). In order to avoid any possible mistakes in the
questionnaires finalized according to the back-to-translation method, pre-
tests were carried out on pilot groups composed of 10 persons chosen for
each questionnaire in four languages.