Table 10. (Continued) Table 10. (Continued) Table 10

ii
Social media and
Digital marketing
in the hospitality
industry:

iii
Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................
v
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................
vii
ABSTACT .............................................................................................................................
viii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1
Background .......................................................................................................................
1
Problem Statement ............................................................................................................
6
Study Objectives ...............................................................................................................
9
Definitions of Terms .........................................................................................................
9
CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE .........................................................................
11
Social Media and Online Community Marketing ...........................................................
11
Online Communities .......................................................................................................
13
Definition of an online community .........................................................................
13
Characteristics of an online community .................................................................
15
Theories to Explain Participation in an Online Community ..........................................
18
Economic theory .....................................................................................................
19
Social theories .........................................................................................................
20

iv
Online Community Participation ....................................................................................
21
Participation Benefits ......................................................................................................
25
Functional benefits ..................................................................................................
29
Social benefits .........................................................................................................
31
Psychological benefits ............................................................................................
32
Hedonic benefits .....................................................................................................
34
Monetary benefits ...................................................................................................
35
Outcomes of Online Community Participation ..............................................................
36
Brand commitment of online community members ...............................................
36
Brand Trust among Online Community Members .................................................
38
Moderating Role of Demographic Characteristics .........................................................
40
Moderating roles of age ..........................................................................................
41
Moderating roles of biological gender ....................................................................
42
Research Model ..............................................................................................................
44
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN ...........................................
47
Selection of Online Communities in Facebook ..............................................................
47
Sample ............................................................................................................................
48
Survey Instrument ...........................................................................................................
48
Data Collection ...............................................................................................................
53

v
Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................
54
Measurement model ................................................................................................
54
Structural model ......................................................................................................
55
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ........................................................................................................
56
Demographic Characteristics ..........................................................................................
56
Brand Profile and Manipulation Check ..........................................................................
60
Descriptive Statistics for Measures.................................................................................
62
Measurement Model .......................................................................................................
66
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the hotel study .........................................
66
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the restaurant study .................................
72
Structural Model .............................................................................................................
78
Testing the structural model for the hotel study .....................................................
78
Testing the fully recursive model for the hotel study .............................................
81
Testing for moderating effects of age and biological gender for the hotel study ...
85
Testing the structural model for the restaurant study .............................................
90
Testing the fully recursive model for the restaurant study .....................................
93
Testing for mediating effects ..................................................................................
98
Testing the moderating effects of age and biological gender
for the restaurant study ...........................................................................................
99 Summary ...............................................................................................................
102

vi
CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS .........................................................
107
Discussion of Findings ................................................................................................. 107
Relationships between participation benefits and community participation ........
107 Relationships between community participation, brand trust, and brand
commitment ..........................................................................................................
110
Moderating effects of age and biological gender ..................................................
113 Additional paths between participation benefits, brand trust, and brand
commitment ..........................................................................................................
115
Conclusions and Implications ....................................................................................... 118
Managerial implications for the hotel study .........................................................
119
Managerial implications for the restaurant study .................................................
123
Summary ...............................................................................................................
126
Limitations and Future Study ....................................................................................... 128
APPENDIX A: A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE HOTEL SEMENT ................................
131
APPENDIX B: A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE RESTAURANT SEMENT ...................
135
APPENDIX C: APPROVAL OF THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS ..............................
140
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................
141
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Concepts of the virtual community ................................................................. 18
Figure 2. Proposed conceptual model for development of an effective online
community ....................................................................................................... 44
Figure 3. Moderating effects of age ................................................................................
45
Figure 4. Moderating effects of gender .......................................................................... 46

vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Definitions of online communities in the 21st Century ................................... 14
Table 2. Categories of community participants ............................................................. 23
Table 3. Reasons for participating in online communities ............................................ 27
Table 4. Community benefits from participation .......................................................... 29
Table 5. Constructs and items of the survey .................................................................. 52
Table 6. Demographic characteristics of the hotel sample ............................................ 58
Table 7. Demographic characteristics of the restaurant sample .................................... 59
Table 8. Brand profile of the sample ............................................................................. 61
Table 9. Perceived success of Facebook pages.............................................................. 61
Table 10. Descriptive statistics for all items used to measure model constructs ............. 63
Table 11. Correlation coefficients of constructs: initial measurement model
for the hotel study ............................................................................................ 68
Table 12. Correlation coefficients of constructs: final measurement model
for the hotel study ............................................................................................ 69
Table 13. Item measurement properties for the hotel study ............................................ 70
Table 14. Correlation coefficients of constructs: initial measurement model for the
restaurant study ................................................................................................
74
Table 15. Correlation coefficients of constructs: final measurement model for the
restaurant study ................................................................................................
75
Table 16. Item measurement properties for the restaurant study .....................................
76
Table 17. Summary of support for hypotheses based on the results of SEM in the
conceptual model (hotel study) ....................................................................... 81
Table 18. Chi-square test of model comparison for the hotel study ................................ 82
Table 19. Unstrandardized path coefficients and t-Values for structural model
(hotel study) ..................................................................................................... 83
Table 20. Moderating effects of age on the relationship between participation benefits
and participation in hotels‘ Facebook pages ...................................... 88
Table 21. Moderating effects of biological gender on the relationship between
participation benefits and participation in hotels‘ Facebook pages .................

viii
90
Table 22. Summary of support for hypotheses based on the results of SEM in the
conceptual model (restaurant study) ................................................................ 93
Table 23. Chi-square test of model comparison for the restaurant study ........................ 94
Table 24. Unstandardized path coefficients and t-Value for structural model
(restaurant study) ............................................................................................. 97
Table 25. Mediating effects of brand trust in restaurants‘ Facebook pages .................... 99
Table 26. Moderating effects of age on the relationship between participation benefits
and participation in restaurants‘ Facebook pages ............................ 100
Table 27. Moderating effects of biological gender on the relationship between
participation benefits and participation in restaurants‘ Facebook pages ....... 101
Table 28. Result of hypotheses tests for the hotel study ................................................
103
Table 29. Result of hypotheses tests for the restaurant study ........................................ 105

x
ABSTACT
Online community is an effective tool for building the relationship with consumers.
Many hospitality firms (i.e., hotels and restaurants) have utilized online communities a new
marketing channel to reach their consumers. Previous studies have identified four
participation benefits (functional, social, psychological, and hedonic) in the member
participation of community activities. In addition to these four factors, this study also added
monetary benefit as a predictor of member participation. Demographic factors (i.e., age and
biological gender) were proposed to influence the relationships between benefits and
community participation. As results of member participation in online communities, trust and
commitment toward hotel or restaurant brands have been considered as important factors that
enhance consumer relationships with hospitality brands. The purpose of this study was to
investigate benefit factors of member participation and the relationships between community
participation, brand trust, and brand commitment in hotel and restaurant online communities.
The present study investigated the conceptual model in two contexts, including hotel
and restaurant Facebook fan pages. After conducting confirmatory factor analysis, the
present study identified four benefit factors (functional, hedonic, monetary, and