Current Issues in Tourism

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Determinants of tourists’ intention to share travel

experience on social media: an fsQCA application

Guoquan Wang, Hanqin Qiu & Lianping Ren

To cite this article: Guoquan Wang, Hanqin Qiu & Lianping Ren (2022): Determinants of tourists’
intention to share travel experience on social media: an fsQCA application, Current Issues in
Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2091428

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2091428

Published online: 23 Jun 2022.

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CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2091428

Determinants of tourists’ intention to share travel experience on

social media: an fsQCA application
Guoquan Wanga, Hanqin Qiub and Lianping Ren c

a
College of Tourism and Service Management, Nankai University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; bInternational
School of Cultural Tourism, Zhejiang University City College, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; cMacao
Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Sharing travel experience on social media has gained substantial Received 9 February 2022
popularity in the Internet era. However, existing knowledge about Accepted 14 June 2022
tourists’ determinants for sharing remains inconsistent and scattered.
KEYWORDS
This study seeks to propose an innovative direction to analyze the Social media; user-generated
determinants of tourists’ intention to share travel experience on social content; strong-tie network;
media. Building upon the complexity theory, this study implemented an travel-experience sharing
asymmetrical analysis by applying the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative intention; WeChat; fsQCA
analysis (fsQCA) approach on a sample of 383 valid questionnaires. A
structural equation modeling analysis and cross-tabulation analysis were
also performed. The results revealed five causal configurations of
determinants that lead to Chinese tourists’ high sharing intention on
WeChat. The finding fills the gap in research on determinants to share
travel experiences on strong-tie social media platforms and offers
practical insights and marketing advice about how to encourage
tourists to share their travel experiences on mainstream social media.

1. Introduction
In recent years, people are increasingly sharing their travel experiences on social media platforms
during and after trips (Lee et al., 2014; Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017), and these contents exert an
influence on the information search and decision-making behaviours of potential travelers (Kang
& Schuett, 2013). According to statistics from a study conducted by Stackla (2019), 52% of consumers
said that they made plans to visit a specific destination based on an image or video that they saw on
the social media of friends, family, or peers. Social media differs from traditional media in that it facili-
tates communication and strengthens social interaction through shared content (Munar & Jacobsen,
2014). It has transformed the way that travelers search, access, and utilize tourism information
(Kumar et al., 2021; Oliveira et al., 2020), which has, in turn, influenced the marketing practices of
the tourism destinations and companies (Chen & Lin, 2020). Therefore, it is important to investigate
what motivates tourists to share their travel experiences.
Previous studies have attempted to identify the determinant factors, such as perceived enjoy-
ment, documentation, and personality traits (e.g. Li, 2020; Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017), but most
of the conclusions that they reached were obtained through linear computation, which often
failed to capture a complete picture of the phenomenon. Besides, most of the extant work has inves-
tigated travel-experience sharing behaviour and its determinants on social media platforms from
stand-alone perspectives (e.g. motivations and personality traits). How various factors exert
an integrated effect on tourists’ sharing behaviour on social media remains scarcely investigated.

CONTACT Hanqin Qiu qiuhq@zucc.edu.cn

© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 G. WANG ET AL.

Tie strength is an important antecedent of tourists’ sharing behaviour on social media platforms
(Feng et al., 2021), and according to the strength level, social media can be divided into strong-tie
and weak-tie types (Chen & Lin, 2020). Strong-tie platform features bilateral interaction and
emotional connection, and its users’ relationships are intimate and enduring, such as Facebook
and WeChat (Chen & Lin, 2020; Okazaki et al., 2017). By comparison, weak-tie platform features infor-
mation dissemination with lower-frequency of interactions and higher group heterogeneity, such as
Twitter and Instagram (Narangajavana et al., 2019; Okazaki et al., 2017). Besides, the users’ sharing
motivations on the two types of platforms are also different. Individual-related motivations are
more significant on strong-tie social media, like social interaction and recognition gaining (Munar
& Jacobsen, 2014; Okazaki et al., 2017); Social-relevant motivations are more salient on weak-tie
social media, like preventing others from using undesirable products or helping others (Chen &
Lin, 2020; Okazaki et al., 2017). On the other hand, strong-tie social media is a crucial source of elec-
tronic word-of-mouth and powerful marketing tool for information shared here is perceived to be
more credible and could pose stronger influence on potential consumers (Narangajavana et al.,
2019). However, existing literature has failed to pinpoint tourists’ sharing behaviour on strong-tie
social media.
To fill these research gaps, the present study applies the complexity theory and adopts both linear
(i.e. structural equation modeling) and nonlinear (i.e. contrarian case analysis and fuzzy-set qualitat-
ive comparative analysis) techniques to explore how intrinsic motivations (i.e. perceived enjoyment,
altruism, and documentation), extrinsic motivations (i.e. recognition & status and social interaction),
and personality traits (i.e. extraversion and acquisitive face orientation) form causal configurations
that explain Chinese tourists’ intention to share their travel experiences on WeChat (hereafter
referred to as ‘sharing intention’). The findings broaden our understanding of the driving mechanism
of tourists’ travel-experience sharing intention on strong-tie social media platforms, and the dual
analysis approach provides supplementary and triangulated results in an innovative way. Practically,
this study also offers implications that could help destination marketers adopt effective marketing
strategies.

2. Literature review
2.1. UGC on social media
User-generated content (UGC) is a type of media content created or produced by the general public
instead of paid professionals and is primarily disseminated on the Internet (Daugherty et al., 2008).
With the advent and growth of Web 2.0, social media is gaining popularity among tourists who want
to share their travel experiences online during and after the trip and receive travel recommendations
from other users who experienced a destination first-hand (Lee et al., 2014; Wang, Kirillova, et al.,
2017). Compared with traditional organizational marketing communications, UGC is regarded to
be more accessible and reliable, for it is created by a network member and thus seems less
biased, more credible, and trustworthy (Kang & Schuett, 2013; Yoo & Gretzel, 2011), which makes
it an important reference for travel planning and travel decision-making. Previous studies suggested
that UGC on social media could positively influence consumers’ purchase intention, electronic word
of mouth (e-WOM), and brand’s attitudes (e.g. Narangajavana et al., 2019). Hence, UGC is also valued
by destination marketers for its ability to stimulate stronger destination awareness.
Not all social media platforms serve the same purpose, however. Okazaki et al. (2017) categorized
social media into public platforms (such as TripAdvisor) and personal platforms (such as Facebook)
according to intimacy and immediacy, and deemed interaction ties, homophily, and shared vision
different on the two types of social media. Narangajavana et al. (2019) considered that tourists
receive information through three sources of UGC in social media: strong-tie sources, weak-tie
sources, and tourism-tie sources. They also found that different social media sources exert
different effects on tourist satisfaction with the destination. Similarly, Chen and Lin (2020) classified
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 3

social media into strong-tie and weak-tie platforms and considered strong-tie platforms built on a
real-name system, bilateral interaction, and emotional connection. In addition, scholars also
noticed the moderating role of tie strength in tourists’ sharing behaviours on social media (e.g.
Feng et al., 2021).

2.2. Travel-experience sharing on social media

Travel-experience sharing on social media is generally defined as ‘behaviours or activities occurring
when an individual disseminates travel-related experiences to other members through social media
during or after the trip’ (Kang & Schuett, 2013, p. 94). On social media, tourists can share their travel-
experience in multiple forms, express feelings in short statements, or post photos or videos. In recent
years, the phenomenon of tourist’s travel-experience sharing on social media has attracted scholars’
attention and become an important reference for tourism marketers. Extant literature not only
revealed the antecedents for tourists’ sharing behaviour (e.g. Lee et al., 2014) but also identified
its positive consequence (e.g. Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017).
Notably, exploring the determinant factors behind tourists’ intention to share travel experiences
on social media has evolved into a research hotspot (e.g. Kang & Schuett, 2013; Kumar et al., 2021;
Munar & Jacobsen, 2014; Okazaki et al., 2017). Existing literature has revealed various determinant
factors of sharing intention on social media, among which motivations and personality traits are
the most salient (e.g. González-Rodríguez et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2016). According to extant
studies, scholars generally categorized the motivations as either intrinsic or extrinsic (e.g. Kang &
Schuett, 2013; Wang et al., 2016). Although prior studies have enormously examined the causal
relationships between different motivations and sharing intention, the results were inconsistent.
To fit the context of this study, i.e. Chinese tourists’ travel-experience sharing intention on strong-
tie social media – WeChat, seven determinant factors incorporating three dimensions of intrinsic
motivations, extrinsic motivations, and personality traits were included for analysis in this study.

2.2.1. Intrinsic motivations

Intrinsic motivation refers to sharing travel experiences for the sharer’s own sake, out of interest, or
for the pleasure derived from the activity itself (Wang et al., 2016). In other words, tourists’ sharing
intention on social media is driven from within. Scholars have found various intrinsic motivations
that encourage tourists to post about their trips on social media. Kang and Schuett (2013) found
that perceived enjoyment exerts a positive impact on the behaviour of sharing travel experiences,
and Hur et al. (2017) proved that entertainment seeking drives Korean travelers’ information
sharing intention. Besides, Oliveira et al. (2020) found that both perceived enjoyment and altruistic
motivations significantly influence tourists’ travel-experience sharing behaviour on social media, and
Munar and Jacobsen (2014) suggested that altruistic and community-related motivations are the
most relevant to a tourist’s decision to share their travel experiences on these platforms. In addition,
some studies have identified personal documentation or self-archiving as other drivers of travel-
experience sharing on social media (e.g. Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017; Vila, Costa, & Ellinger, 2021).
Moreover, Wu and Pearce (2016) explored the motives behind Chinese tourists’ decision to create
travel blogs and identified ‘altruism: being helpful to fellow travelers’, ‘self-documentation and
sharing’, and ‘hedonic enjoyment of blogging’ as the main types of intrinsic motivations that
trigger sharing. Based on the research mentioned above, three intrinsic motivational factors were
incorporated in this study: perceived enjoyment, documentation, and altruism.

2.2.2. Extrinsic motivations

Extrinsic motivation refers to behaviours performed based on benefits that people expect to receive
beyond those inherent in the activity itself (Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017), which might include factors
that are driven by social needs and external benefits. Li (2020) stated that recognition and status
seeking are important motivations for Chinese tourists to share their travel photos because they
4 G. WANG ET AL.

live in a strong mianzi (face-saving) culture. Oliveira et al. (2020) suggested that both personal fulfil-
ment and self-actualization exert a significantly positive effect on tourists’ travel-experience sharing
intention. In China, the popularity of social media has made travel-experience sharing a common
practice. Under this condition, sharing travel-experiences can help individuals develop and maintain
interpersonal relationships and cope with social disconnection (Chen & Lin, 2020). For instance, Wu
and Pearce (2016) revealed that both ‘social status issues’ and ‘personal status and achievement’ can
drive Chinese tourists to share on social media. Based on this body of research, and the social attri-
bute of strong-tie media, two extrinsic motivational factors were included in the present study: rec-
ognition & status and social interaction.

2.2.3 Personality traits

Prior studies have implied that personality traits are significant predictors of certain online beha-
viours (Acar & Polonsky, 2007; Yoo & Gretzel, 2011). For example, Sun et al. (2014) highlighted
that the driving factors that distinguish ‘poster’ and ‘lurker’ groups are related to the influence of
personality traits in each group. Among numerous personality traits, extraversion has been
proven to have a close and positive link with online information sharing behaviour (e.g. González-
Rodríguez et al., 2021). Extroverts are sociable and enjoy being the centre of attention, so sharing
information willingly with others is part of their nature (Hossain et al., 2018). Besides, extroverts
are active users of online social communication and create UGC to fulfil their needs for expression
and social connection (Yoo & Gretzel, 2011). A study by Choi (2020) revealed that the effect of extra-
version on online video advertisements sharing intention was positive and that extraversion had the
most significant impact among all the personality traits. Researchers also found that extroversion is
positively related to self-disclosure, which is a trait that fosters information sharing intention on
social media (Wang & Stefanone, 2013). Hence, extroversion as a personality trait and a salient
factor for tourists’ sharing intention was incorporated in this study.
Scholars have also recognized the effect of individual sociocultural background on social media
sharing behaviour (Ardichvili et al., 2006; Wu & Pearce, 2016). In the Chinese cultural context, studies
have emphasized the role of face culture in online travel-experience sharing behaviour (e.g. Huang
et al., 2008; Kumar et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2016). As a localized personality trait in China (Cheung
et al., 2008), face is the most common psychology and behaviour of Chinese people in social life
(Huang et al., 2008; Wang, Peng, et al., 2017). Scholars indicated that face is a relatively stable and
chronic personality trait that plays a decisive role in individual decision-making (Shi et al., 2018).
There are two kinds of face orientation: protective and acquisitive (Chou, 1996). Protective face orien-
tation (PFO) is similar to the concept of lian. People with high PFO tend to be sensitive to face-losing
cues and pursue behavioural goals with the aim of protecting themselves from losing face. In con-
trast, acquisitive face orientation (AFO) is related to the concept of mianzi. People with high AFO are
sensitive to face-gaining cues, more focused on enhancing their public image, and are interested in
making face (Han, 2011). Prior studies have demonstrated that AFO exerts a significant positive
influence on whether tourists decide to share their travel experiences on social media (e.g. Wang,
Kirillova, et al., 2017). Therefore, to assess Chinese tourists’ sharing intention on strong-tie social
media, AFO as a typical Chinese personality trait was examined in this study.

2.3. Complexity theory and the application of the fsQCA approach in tourism
The theory of complexity stems from the former theory of chaos and focuses on complex systems. It
posits that systems with complex characteristics can be predicted by interactions of multiple com-
ponents (Anderson, 1999). As noted by Hoffmann and Riley (2002, p. 313), ‘Complexity theory is not a
new, or the only way, to do science, rather it is a set of concepts for modeling the world in a non-linear
fashion’. This theory emphasizes that employing traditional linear analysis might not provide true
and generalized results about consumer behaviour, which arises from complex decision-making pro-
cesses complicated by the heterogeneity and asymmetric associations of variables and behaviour
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 5

(Chuah et al., 2021; Olya et al., 2018). Because complexity theory can effectively deal with compli-
cated social phenomena, it has been widely utilized to explicate the heterogeneous, nonlinear,
and dynamic process of consumer behaviour in the tourism field (e.g. Shi et al., 2021).
In the present study context, it is expected that Chinese tourists’ sharing intention on WeChat
stems from complex interactions between various intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations, and
personality traits. Traditional regression analysis can only provide a limited understanding of this
‘black box’. Thus, it is appropriate to adopt complexity theory as the theoretical framework for
this research. Complexity theory builds on the principle of equifinality, suggesting that multiple
complex configurations of the same conditions can explain the same outcome (Woodside, 2014).
Besides, it is also grounded in the causal asymmetry principle, assuming complex causality and asym-
metrical relations (Chuah et al., 2021). Normally, in research that is related to complexity theory, the
term ‘tenet’ is used to refer to testable precepts due to the assumed nonlinear dynamics between
variables within a complex system (Pappas, 2019). This study thus puts forth the following tenets
based on the above discussion. Below, a Venn diagram shows the proposed model of this study, pre-
senting three sets of constructs and their intersections (Figure 1).
T1: An antecedent condition may be necessary but cannot sufficiently predict high sharing intention

T2: Single causal condition may be present or absent within configurations for high sharing intention, depend-
ing on their combination with other causal conditions.

T3: Alternative configurations of intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations, and personality traits could equally
lead to high sharing intention.

3. Methodology
3.1. Study context
This study concentrated on tourists’ travel-experience sharing behaviour on strong-tie social media –
WeChat. WeChat is an application for smart terminals that was launched by a Chinese-based
company called Tencent on January 21, 2011. After ten years of development, WeChat has
become one of the most popular social network sites (SNS) in China and is widely used across the
globe. According to a Tencent financial report, the number of monthly active accounts on

Figure 1. Proposed configurational model.

6 G. WANG ET AL.

WeChat grew to 1.2682 billion at the end of 2021 (Tencent, 2021). Unlike Twitter and Instagram,
which are open to all Internet users, WeChat only connects acquaintances, and the connection is
subject to mutual agreement. Besides, it offers multiple features, including instant messaging,
moments, e-commerce, public accounts, and group chats. Among them, WeChat Moments provides
users with a platform for information sharing, including travel experiences (Li, 2020). WeChat is a
typical strong-tie social media platform for its prominent socialization property. Users can interact
with their friends through likes and comments when scanning the information shared in WeChat
Moments. Nowadays, WeChat is becoming an integral part of daily life for Chinese, and research
suggested that WeChat is one of the main Chinese social media platforms used for travel experience
sharing (Huang & Wei, 2019). The figure below demonstrates how Chinese tourists share their travel
experience in WeChat Moments (Figure 2).

3.2. Methods
This study adopted both symmetric (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, PLS-SEM)
and asymmetric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, fsQCA) approaches for exploration.
Different from covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), PLS-SEM is a variance-based approach, offering
greater flexibility in data assumptions. PLS-SEM has the following advantages: (i) it does not
require data to satisfy the assumption of normal distribution; (ii) it could work efficiently with
small sample sizes and complex models; (iii) it is more appropriate for exploratory research and
weak theory situation (Hair et al., 2014; Usakli & Kucukergin, 2018). In recent years, PLS-SEM has

Figure 2. Screen shot of WeChat moments.

 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 7

been widely applied in tourism research (Usakli & Kucukergin, 2018). In this study, PLS-SEM was uti-
lized to test the reliability and validity of the constructs, and the causal relationships between deter-
minant factors and sharing intention.
QCA is a set-theoretic method proposed by Ragin (2000) that could identify the necessary and
sufficient conditions for an outcome. Rather than assuming the discrete effects of single variables,
fsQCA foresees the causal role of a single condition unfolding in combination with other conditions
(Olya & Gavilyan, 2017). Unlike traditional regression analyses that investigate the impact of the inde-
pendent variable on the dependent variable, fsQCA often examines the combination of factors that
leads to the outcome of interest (Rihoux & Ragin, 2009). In fsQCA, a specific combination of causal
variables that predicts a desired outcome is called the ‘configuration’ (Rihoux & Ragin, 2009). In this
study, fsQCA was employed to explore the configurational effect of seven determinant factors on
Chinese tourists’ sharing intention on WeChat.
This study follows a five-step procedure to perform analysis. Firstly, a questionnaire was designed
to measure relevant variables (seven determinant factors and sharing intention) and demographic
information (gender, age, education level, and monthly income). To ensure that the respondents
all came from China, a screening note was posted at the beginning of the questionnaire: ‘This ques-
tionnaire is designed to examine Chinese tourists’ intention of sharing travel experience on WeChat
and its determinants’. Secondly, convenient sampling and snowball sampling methods were
adopted to collect questionnaires. Thirdly, the data collected were initially analysed via Smart-PLS
3.0 software to test the reliability and validity of constructs, followed by a preliminary investigation
of the causal relationships between determinant factors and sharing intention. Fourthly, cross-tabu-
lation analysis was conducted to reveal the existence of contrarian cases utilizing SPSS 25.0 software.
Finally, fsQCA was performed to explore the configurations that predicted high sharing intention.

3.3. Measurement
A four-part questionnaire was developed. The first part dealt with the motivations of sharing travel-
experience on WeChat. To assess perceived enjoyment, three items were adapted from the work of
Kang and Schuett (2013). For altruism, four items were borrowed from a study by Munar and Jacob-
sen (2014). For documentation, three items were adopted from the research of Stoeckl et al. (2007).
For recognition & status, six items were extracted from the research of Munar and Jacobsen (2014).
For social interaction, five items were adopted from the work of Hsu et al. (2007). The second part of
the questionnaire dealt with personality traits. For extraversion, four items were developed from a
study by Yoo and Gretzel (2011), and for acquisitive face orientation, six items were used based
on the work of Wang et al. (2016). The third part dealt with Chinese tourists’ travel-experience
sharing behavioural intention on WeChat. Three items from the work of Lee and Ma (2012) were
adopted for this section. The fourth part dealt with demographic information, including gender,
age, education level, and monthly income. To ensure the external validity of the questionnaire,
the following screening question was designed to exclude the unqualified respondents: ‘Have you
ever shared your travel experience and other related information on WeChat Moments?’ This
research applied a back-to-back translation, whereby the instrument was initially designed in
English, translated into Chinese, and then translated back into English. In this study, two native
Chinese Ph.D. students majoring in tourism management carried out back-to-back translation
work independently. The final instrument was administered in Chinese. A note was posted at the
beginning of the questionnaire: ‘Please fill out this questionnaire if you have been frequently
sharing your travel experience on WeChat Moments’.
The questionnaires were distributed via two approaches through convenience sampling and
snowball sampling. To improve the representativeness and richness of sample resource, two most
widely used online survey platforms were selected. The first batch was distributed through
Credamo (https://www.credamo.com). From 6th to 8th December 2021, a total of 270 questionnaires
were distributed on Credamo, with each respondent receiving 2 Yuan (roughly, 1 USD = 6.4 yuan) as
8 G. WANG ET AL.

a material reward. The second batch was distributed through Wenjuanxing (https://www.wjx.cn).
Researchers posted the questionnaire link on their own WeChat Moments and within their
WeChat groups and invited WeChat friends to fill it in or forward it. 340 questionnaires were distrib-
uted in total from 6th to 14th December 2021. Ultimately, this study collected 610 questionnaires,
among which 99 were invalid because respondents reported that they did not have any previous
experience with sharing their travel experiences on WeChat. According to the simulation, the ques-
tionnaire should take no less than 100 seconds to complete. In the remaining 511 questionnaires,
128 were screened out based on this criterion. Therefore, 383 questionnaires were included for
analysis with the effective rate of 62.79%.
Table 1 presents the respondents’ demographic characteristics. The proportion of men (53.8%)
was slightly higher than women (46.2%). In terms of age, people in the age range of 30–39 and
20–29 accounted for the majority of the respondents at 30.8% and 30.3%, respectively. The
uneven age distribution is mainly because the Internet penetration rate for young people is much
higher than the middle-aged and senior groups in China. With respect to education level, more
than half of respondents held a bachelor’s degree (52.2%), followed by master’s degree or above
(24.5%). In terms of monthly income, 28.2% of the sample fell within the 6001–9000 RMB range.

4. Results
4.1. Measurement model
First, the reliability and validity analyses of the measurement model were conducted (Table 2). For
reliability, all indicators’ factor loadings were higher than the cutoff value of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2014),
demonstrating that the measurement scale possesses good reliability. Aside from documentation,
which had a Cronbach’s α coefficient that was slightly lower than 0.7, the Cronbach’s α coefficients
of all the constructs were higher than 0.7, meeting the acceptable level of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). All
constructs’ rho_A values were higher than 0.7, confirming that constructs in the measurement model
all have good internal consistency reliability (Dijkstra & Henseler, 2015). All of the constructs’ AVE and
CR values exceeded the threshold value of 0.5 and 0.7, respectively, indicating good convergent val-
idity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The Fornell–Larcker criterion was also adopted to examine the con-
structs’ discriminant validity. As shown in Table 3, the square roots of constructs’ AVE were higher
than the correlation coefficients between different constructs, reflecting good discriminant validity
(Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 1. Respondents’ demographic characteristics.

Variable Type Number Percentage
Gender Male 206 53.8%
Female 177 46.2%
Age 18–19 7 1.8%
20–29 116 30.3%
30–39 118 30.8%
40–49 80 20.9%
50–59 57 14.9%
60 or above 5 1.3%
Education level Junior high school or below 4 1.0%
Senior high school 24 6.3%
College 61 15.9%
Bachelor’s degree 200 52.2%
Master’s degree or above 94 24.5%
Monthly income (RMB) Below 3000 71 18.5%
3001–6000 54 14.1%
6001–9000 108 28.2%
9001–12000 72 18.8%
12001–15000 39 10.2%
Above 15000 39 10.2%
Table 2. Assessment of the measurement model.
Determinants Items Loading Cronbach’s α rho_A AVE CR
Perceived enjoyment 1. Sharing my travel experiences on social media is enjoyable 0.875
2. Sharing my travel experiences on social media is pleasant 0.787 0.799 0.813 0.882 0.714
3. I have fun sharing my travel experiences on social media 0.869
Altruism 1. I want to provide travel-related help for friends in my WeChat 0.772
2. I share my travel experiences to provide practical information for others (e.g. itinerary strategy) 0.850 0.705 0.715 0.835 0.629
3. I think that good travel service providers should be supported 0.754
Documentation 1. Sharing my travel experiences can better document my life 0.717
2. Sharing my travel experiences can allow me to tell others about myself 0.752 0.678 0.700 0.823 0.609
3. Sharing my travel experiences can archive my experiences and ideas 0.865
Recognition & status 1. I want to be recognized because of my travel experiences 0.789
2. I share travel experiences in WeChat to gain attention 0.771
3. It is important to me that people know I travel 0.859 0.879 0.910 0.910 0.670
4. It helps me to gain status when I share travel experiences on WeChat 0.856
5. Sharing travel experiences on WeChat helps me feel important 0.814
Social interaction 1. I share my travel experiences to stay in touch with family/friends 0.768
2. I want to maintain social connections and friendship 0.739
3. Sharing my travel experiences can entertain others 0.740 0.826 0.835 0.877 0.588
4. I share my travel experiences so that I can talk about my tourism experiences with others 0.777
5. I share my travel experiences to become more sociable 0.809
Extraversion 1. I talk a lot to different people at social occasions (e.g. parties) 0.842
2. I start conversations 0.856
3. I make friends easily 0.833 0.840 0.843 0.893 0.677
4. I don’t mind being the centre of attention 0.756

CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM

Acquisitive face orientation 1. I hope people think that I can do better than most others 0.773
2. I am happy to show my bright side 0.806
3. I hope that I have a better life than most people in the eyes of others 0.817 0.879 0.885 0.908 0.622
4. Praise and admiration are important to me 0.797
5. I like to talk about new topics 0.771
6. I will seize any opportunities to show myself off to gain face 0.765
Sharing intention 1. I would like to share my travel experiences on WeChat Moments 0.864
2. I would like to recommend and encourage my friends to share their travel experiences on WeChat Moments 0.752 0.782 0.791 0.874 0.699
2. I will continue to share my travel experiences on WeChat Moments 0.887

9
10 G. WANG ET AL.

Table 3. Results of the discriminant validity test.

Construct 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. Perceived enjoyment 0.845
2. Altruism 0.429 0.793
3. Documentation 0.581 0.339 0.781
4. Recognition & status 0.336 0.314 0.348 0.819
5. Social interaction 0.336 0.428 0.357 0.659 0.767
6. Extraversion 0.392 0.44 0.272 0.406 0.504 0.823
7. Acquisitive face orientation 0.365 0.327 0.367 0.637 0.569 0.507 0.788
8. Sharing intention 0.653 0.476 0.502 0.411 0.531 0.543 0.48 0.836
Note. The boldface diagonal elements are the square roots of the average variance extracted (AVE).

4.2. Common method variance

Given that the questionnaires were collected at the same time from the same participants, the
common method variance (CMV) could be a major source of measurement error. Therefore,
Harman’s single-factor analysis was performed using SPSS 25.0 software. The results showed that
the first factor accounted for 34.883% of the variance at the unrotated stage, which was below
the cut-off threshold of 50% (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Besides, the highest value of correlation
between constructs (0.845, Table 3) was less than the threshold value of 0.9 (Bagozzi et al., 1991).
Hence, it can be concluded that CMV is not a serious concern.

4.3. Results of exploratory path analysis

Exploratory path analysis revealed preliminary evidence about how seven determinant factors within
three dimensions explain Chinese tourists’ sharing intention. As shown in Table 4, all of the determi-
nant factors exert a significant influence (p < 0.10) on travel-experience sharing intention on WeChat,
with the exception of the path ‘Recognition & status → Sharing intention’ (p > 0.10).

4.4. Results of cross-tabulation analysis

Considering the results of the path analysis depicted above, contrarian case analysis was needed to
reveal the existence of contrarian cases in the relationship between recognition & status and sharing
intention. Negative contrarian cases indicating ∼A (low recognition & status) → O (high sharing
intention) and positive contrarian cases indicating A (high recognition & status) → ∼O (low
sharing intention) are outlined in Table 5. Following the procedure suggested by Woodside
(2014), this study transformed the construct ‘recognition & status’ and ‘sharing intention’ into quin-
tiles. Table 5 presents the results of cross-tabulation between recognition & status and sharing inten-
tion utilizing SPSS 25.0. It was found that 90.3% of cases correspond to the symmetric relationship
between the two, while 32 are negative contrarian cases (8.4%), and 5 are positive contrarian cases
(1.3%). Consequently, fsQCA was needed to further analyze the data and incorporate the views of

Table 4. Exploratory path analysis.

Influencing path Effect T statistics p value Test results
Perceived enjoyment → Sharing intention 0.396*** 8.117 0.000 Significant
Altruism → Sharing intention 0.079† 1.664 0.096 Marginally significant
Documentation → Sharing intention 0.103* 2.271 0.023 Significant
Recognition & status → Sharing intention −0.060 1.051 0.294 Non-significant
Social interaction → Sharing intention 0.223*** 4.200 0.000 Significant
Extraversion → Sharing intention 0.192*** 4.166 0.000 Significant
Acquisitive face orientation → Sharing intention 0.084† 1.696 0.090 Marginally significant
Note. ***p < 0.001; *p < 0.05; †p < 0.10.
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 11

Table 5. Results of cross-tabulation between recognition & status and sharing intention.

positive contrarian cases, negative contrarian cases, and the main effect that predicted high scores
for Chinese tourists’ intention of sharing travel experiences on WeChat.

4.5. Calibration
Calibration was performed to transform interval-scale data values into fuzzy-set scores ranging from
0 to 1. Following the suggestion of Ragin et al. (2016), three thresholds were set in this study: full
membership (fuzzy score = 0.95), non-full membership (fuzzy score = 0.05), and the cross-over
point (fuzzy score = 0.5). Calibration was conducted on seven antecedent variables and one depen-
dent variable to transform the 7-point Likert scale into fuzzy-set scores in fsQCA 3.0.

4.6. Analysis of necessary conditions

Necessary condition analysis was adopted to verify whether any of seven determinant factors were
necessary conditions for high sharing intention. According to Ragin (2009), to be identified as a
necessary condition, the consistency value should be greater than 0.9; to be deemed as almost
always necessary, the consistency value should exceed 0.8. As shown in Table 6, no conditions
appeared to be necessary (consistency value < 0.9), which suggested that all seven determinant
factors were not necessary conditions for high sharing intention. Nevertheless, ‘perceived enjoy-
ment’ presented the highest consistency and exceeded 0.8 at 0.835, confirming that perceived
enjoyment was an ‘almost always necessary’ condition for high sharing intention. The consistency
value of ‘altruism’ almost reached the threshold of ‘almost always necessary’ at 0.796, which also
revealed the important role that this factor plays in producing the outcome of interest. In
summary, the NCA results indicated the complex essence of the phenomenon of sharing travel-
experience on strong-tie social media. It also illustrated that perceived enjoyment is almost
always accompanied by high sharing intention.
12 G. WANG ET AL.

Table 6. The necessary conditions.

Antecedent variables Consistency Coverage
Perceived enjoyment 0.835 0.812
∼Perceived enjoyment 0.484 0.578
Altruism 0.796 0.810
∼Altruism 0.555 0.628
Documentation 0.780 0.796
∼Documentation 0.540 0.609
Recognition & status 0.746 0.794
∼Recognition & status 0.573 0.618
Social interaction 0.761 0.825
∼Social interaction 0.567 0.601
Extraversion 0.782 0.813
∼Extraversion 0.538 0.595
Acquisitive face orientation 0.770 0.797
∼Acquisitive face orientation 0.546 0.607
Note: ‘∼’ represents the ‘negation’ of logical operation.

4.7. Analysis of sufficient conditions

Sufficient condition analysis was performed to identify sufficient conditions along with different
configurations that generated high sharing intention. Ragin (2009) proposed that if a condition is
deemed sufficient, its consistency and coverage should be higher than 0.75 and 0.2, respectively.
By running the Quine-McCluskey Algorithm, the fsQCA software automatically provides the user
with complex, parsimonious, and intermediate solutions (Ragin, 2009). Based on the results of par-
simonious and intermediate solutions, this study identified and presented the core and peripheral
conditions in each configuration to aid the interpretation of results. The core and peripheral con-
dition represented a stronger or weaker causal relationship with a given outcome (Shi et al.,
2021). As shown in Table 7, the overall solution consistency reached 0.955, which indicates that
the causal combination guarantees the desirable outcome. Moreover, the overall solution coverage
was 0.579, suggesting that 57.9% of the cases with a high sharing intention were accompanied by
these five combinations of causal conditions. The result of NCA and SCA strongly predicted T1-T3.
To be more specific, five configuration paths were returned in fsQCA that lead to high sharing
intention. Configuration 1 and 4 show that Chinese tourists who perceive sharing travel experiences
on WeChat as enjoyable and altruistic and possess the personality traits of extraversion and AFO
could generate high sharing intention, regardless of the performance of documentation, recognition
& status, and social interaction. Configuration 2 indicates that tourists who are extraverted and view
sharing travel experiences as a way to seek out enjoyment as well as recognition and status had high

Table 7. The configuration analysis.

Intention of sharing travel experiences on WeChat
Antecedent conditions S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Perceived enjoyment ● ● ● ● ●
Altruism ● ⊗ ● ● ●

Documentation ● ● ;
● ⊗
Recognition & status ⊗ ● ● ● ⊗
Social interaction ● ● ●
Extraversion ● ● ● ● ●
Acquisitive face orientation ● ● ● ⊗
Consistency 0.971 0.966 0.965 0.965 0.978
Raw coverage 0.287 0.306 0.437 0.454 0.228
Unique coverage 0.030 0.038 0.012 0.024 0.019
Solution consistency 0.955
Solution coverage 0.579
Note: ● indicates the existence of core conditions; ● indicates the existence of edge conditions; ⊗ indicates the absence of edge
conditions; the space indicates that the condition can either appear or be absent, which is irrelevant.
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 13

sharing intention, with documentation and AFO playing minor roles. Configurations 3 and 5 suggest
that when extraverted tourists share their travel experiences on WeChat out of a strong motivation
linked to perceived enjoyment and social interaction with altruism serving as peripheral condition,
their sharing intention is high, irrespective of the performance of documentation, recognition and
status, or AFO.

5. Discussion and conclusions

5.1. Conclusions
Drawing on previous literature and complexity theory, by performing fsQCA, this study attempted to
reveal how the combination of intrinsic motivations (i.e. perceived enjoyment, altruism, and docu-
mentation), extrinsic motivations (i.e. recognition & status and social interaction), and personality
traits (i.e. extraversion and AFO) explains conditions that lead to high intention in Chinese tourists
to share travel experiences on strong-tie social media platform – WeChat.
Necessary condition analysis demonstrated the complexity of travel-experience sharing behav-
iour on WeChat in the Chinese social context, in view of none of antecedents were necessary con-
ditions for high-level sharing intention. Notably, perceived enjoyment was an ‘almost always
necessary’ condition, which implies that perceived enjoyment is closely linked to strong sharing
intention. This aligns with Kang and Schuett’s (2013) finding that perceived enjoyment has a vital
impact on tourists’ travel-experience sharing behaviour. It also corresponds to the SEM analysis
result which indicated that perceived enjoyment exerted the strongest impact on sharing intention.
Besides, the result of NCA revealed the important role of altruism that leads to the outcome of inter-
est, which resonates with Yoo and Gretzel’s (2011) finding that tourist-generated content is primarily
motivated by altruistic and hedonic benefits. In the same vein, Oliveira et al. (2020) found that per-
ceived enjoyment and altruistic motivations were the two strongest motives that drove travelers to
share travel experiences on social media.
Sufficient condition analysis identified five different configurations of seven determinant factors
that could generate high sharing intention. Although differences exist among the five configur-
ations, motivations and personality traits coexist in all causal recipes. This indicates that Chinese
tourists’ sharing willingness on WeChat can be triggered only when this group possesses certain
motivations and personality traits simultaneously. The result aligns with the findings of Parra-
López et al. (2011), which report that tourists’ usage of social media during a trip is linked to
benefits (social, functional and psychological, and hedonic) and a series of conditioning factors.
Specifically, two determinant factors (perceived enjoyment and extroversion) were present in all
five causal recipes, which demonstrates the fundamental role that they play in producing the
desired result. This also supports Yoo and Gretzel’s (2011) findings in that extroverts are active
players who use CGM to fulfil their need for expression and social connection. Our study thus
further revealed the complexity of this social phenomenon and provided a deep and systematic
understanding of travel-experience sharing behaviour on strong-tie social media.
Configuration 1 and 4 suggested that a combination of intrinsic motivations (perceived enjoy-
ment and altruism) and personality traits (extraversion and AFO) could lead to a high sharing inten-
tion, with other three factors playing minor roles. Especially for Configuration 1, the extrinsic
motivation of recognition & status is absent and social interaction is irrelevant. This demonstrated
that for some tourists, inherent motivations and personality traits can determine whether a desirable
outcome will occur. The result thus emphasizes that personality traits are drivers of sharing intention,
which is consistent with the findings of prior studies (e.g. Choi, 2020; Wang, Kirillova, et al., 2017; Yoo
& Gretzel, 2011).
Configuration 2, 3 and 5 indicated that tourists who are extraverted and treat travel-experience
sharing as an enjoyable activity, and score highly on either one of extrinsic motivations, i.e. social
interaction or recognition & status, could generate high sharing intention. These causal recipes
14 G. WANG ET AL.

highlight the significance of extrinsic motivations in stimulating sharing willingness, which confirms
the findings of Chen and Lin (2020) in that Chinese people who share travel experiences on strong-
tie social media platforms highlight emotional connection and interpersonal interaction. This also
resonates the conclusion of Li (2020), who deemed that some Chinese tourists view the act of
sharing travel experiences on WeChat as an activity that enhances prestige. Since WeChat has
become a dominant social media platform in China, users are interlinked with one another on
this platform and form a self-centered network of acquaintances that stimulates them present them-
selves in front of others. Under these circumstances, people can receive emotional support and
maintain social connections by posting travel experiences and gain social status and recognition
through likes and comments.
The above results generated from fsQCA corroborate the results from SEM analysis on factors of
intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations and personality traits. Both approaches suggested that
perceived enjoyment, altruism, social interaction, extraversion and AFO are important determinants
of high sharing intention; on the other hand, fsQCA generated supplementary results on the factor of
recognition & status. While the SEM result suggested that recognition & status did not have a signifi-
cant influence on sharing intention, fsQCA result indicated that this factor could play an important
role when it was combined with perceived enjoyment and extroversion. This interesting finding
demonstrates the difference between SEM and fsQCA methods. SEM analysis highlights the linear
relationship between constructs, while fsQCA analysis emphasizes the collaborative effect of antece-
dent factors leading to the desirable outcome. Thus, the findings generated from the two methods in
this study not only supported each other but also provided complementary view in understanding
Chinese tourists’ travel-experience sharing behaviour on strong-tie social media. Notably, the SEM
result indicated that recognition & status did not influence sharing intention, which is inconsistent
with findings of prior studies (e.g. Oliveira et al., 2020; Wu & Pearce, 2016). A possible reason is that,
sharing individual tourism experience on social media has now become a common practice for
Chinese people, hence, some people did not deem it as a way of seeking recognition and status.

5.2. Theoretical implications

The theoretical contribution of this research is threefold. Firstly, although travel-experience sharing
on social media has generated fruitful research findings about determinants, the methodologies
employed in the past, such as structural equation modeling and regression analysis, mainly
focused on the linear and symmetric relationship and neglected the interdependencies and inter-
connected causal structures between the variables (Woodside, 2014). This approach made it
difficult to reveal the full complexity of this social phenomenon. Building on complexity theory,
this study explored how seven determinant factors combine to form causal configurations that
lead to the outcome of interest, which provides an innovative methodological perspective to the
extant study.
Secondly, previous studies do not pay attention to the heterogeneity of tourists’ sharing intention
and its determinants in different types of social media platforms, and most existing research is biased
toward weak-tie social media platforms (e.g. Twitter and Instagram). In view of the divergence
between the two types of social media, extant studies could not entirely reveal the determinants
and influencing mechanism on travel-experience sharing intention on strong-tie social media plat-
forms. Thus, the current study fills this research gap by exploring the interactions among the deter-
minants and their influence on tourists’ sharing intention on WeChat, a representative strong-tie
social media platform in China, which could generate nuanced understanding towards tourists’
sharing behaviour on strong-tie social media.
Thirdly, although multiple studies have examined the determinants that lead tourists to share
their travel experiences on social media, most of them investigated the phenomenon from an iso-
lated perspective and were thus limited (Oliveira et al., 2020). This study effectively makes up for
this deficiency by holistically attesting to the collaborative relationship between constructs from
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 15

three dimensions: intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations, and personality traits. The joining of
these three sets of dimensions helps expand the scope and depth of our understanding of why
Chinese tourists share their travel experiences on social media.

5.3. Practical implications

This study offers several practical implications for tourism marketers. Firstly, considering that
perceived enjoyment was an ‘almost always necessary’ condition linked to tourists’ high
sharing intention, it is imperative to stimulate the users’ interest and passion for sharing
travel experiences. To enhance the enjoyment and entertainment, social media operators
should simplify the operation interface to make sharing process smoother. For example, detailed
process guidance and procedure instructions could be created for the middle-aged and elderly
with less experience using electronics. In addition, social media operators should consider incor-
porating fun and popular elements to make the act of sharing more entertaining. Destination
managers could also organize a series of travel-experience sharing activities or events on
social media to attract tourists’ attention. In light of the fact that altruism is an important moti-
vator for tourists posting their travel experiences, destination marketers could collaborate with
social media operators to launch travel strategy or itinerary sharing competitions that
encourages tourists to share travel information actively.
Secondly, sufficient condition analysis revealed that a combination of intrinsic motivations and
personality traits could directly lead to high sharing intention. Given that extraverted people are
more sociable and have more friends on social media platforms, it is important for social media
to promote their social attributes. Destination marketers could learn to identify extraverted or
AFO groups because their target consumers mainly possess high extroversion or AFO traits,
especially in the case of providers that offer tourism activities related to hedonism or entertainment.
They can benefit from the effect of e-WOM marketing by encouraging this particular group of tour-
ists to share travel experiences on social media. Besides, launching conspicuous, iconic, and fashion-
able travel activities could also satisfy the need of the groups with high AFO that share travel
experiences to earn face (mianzi).
Thirdly, configuration analysis indicated that tourists’ extrinsic motivations exert a certain
effect on high sharing intention. Therefore, to meet tourists’ need to seek recognition &
status, destination managers and marketers should determine their market positioning and
develop high quality tourism products targeted at this type. Given that traveling outside the
home has become a precious activity for most Chinese due to COVID-19 prevention and
control measures, destination marketers should take advantage of this psychology of consumers
by actively creating scenes and activities that can be photographed or recorded to inspire
potential tourists’ sharing intention.

5.4. Limitations and future research

This study has several limitations. Firstly, although seven determinant factors were identified and
employed in this study, that number is still relatively small. In the future, more variables, such as
social media usage, could be incorporated to systematically explore their configurations. Secondly,
although this study revealed the determinants of Chinese tourists’ sharing intention on WeChat,
whether these conclusions apply to other strong-tie social media platforms in China is still
unknown. Therefore, more research is needed to validate the applicability of the proposed frame-
work. Thirdly, considering that a growing number of western WeChat users are emerging in
China, investigating the triggering mechanism for this particular group is also a worthwhile
pursuit. In the future, a comparison study between Chinese and western social media users could
be conducted to identify important differences.
16 G. WANG ET AL.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Lianping Ren http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2095-9998

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