@article{ce780541900342c8bb953e3154b7f2a0,
title = "Bragging and humblebragging in online reviews",
abstract = "Tourists often brag about their exclusive vacations, preferential treatments, and extraordinary adventures on social media. However, the existing digital marketing literature offers little guidance on whether bragging is an effective communication strategy. The current research investigates the joint effect of bragging type (bragging vs. humblebragging) and reviewer expertise (low vs. high) on brand evaluation in the online review setting. The results show that when reviewer expertise is high, humblebragging leads to more favorable brand evaluation compared to bragging. However, the opposite is true when the review is posted by a non-expert. We further reveal that the impact of bragging type on brand evaluation is serially mediated through reviewer likability and benign envy. Implications for managing travel platforms are discussed.",
author = "Feier Chen and Liu, {Stephanie Q.} and Mattila, {Anna S.}",
note = "Funding Information: The authors thank the Marriott Foundation for the funding of this research. Appendix A Sample stimuli 6 6 A 4-star rating (out of 5) is commonly used in consumer behavior experiments to represent a relatively positive rating ( Karmarkar & Tormala, 2010 ; Khare, Labrecque, & Asare, 2011 ; Moore, 2015 ). : Imagine you are going to make a hotel reservation for a special occasion. You think Hotel M could be a good choice. While searching the web, you notice the following review on Hotel M posted by Sam, a level [1 or 5] contributor in an online platform. There are five levels of contribution based on the number of reviews written and the number of helpful votes received from readers. Level 1 is the lowest, while level 5 is the highest. Low-expertise/bragging condition: Unlabelled Image High-expertise/humblebragging condition: Unlabelled Image Feier Chen is a Ph.D. student at the School of Hospitality Management at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests focus on services marketing and consumer behavior. Stephanie Q. Liu is Assistant Professor of Consumer Sciences at The Ohio State University. Her research examines marketing strategies and consumer behavior related to experiential consumption, with special interests in service encounter management, advertising, social media, and technology innovations. Anna S. Mattila is Marriott Professor of Lodging Management at the School of Hospitality Management at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests focus on service encounters. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019",
year = "2020",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1016/j.annals.2019.102849",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "80",
journal = "Annals of Tourism Research",
issn = "0160-7383",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}