Abstract
Using the Use and Gratifications Theory (UGT), this paper explores how the social impact of Digital Content Marketing (DCM) in food tourism leads to electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) communication. Specifically, this paper investigates how DCM can generate social impact, and in turn, it explores how this social impact can lead to e-WOM. A sample of 707 Chinese tourists completed an online survey. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling. Positive associations were found between content entertainment (CE) and Informational Social Impact (ISI) and between self-expression (SE) and Normative Social Impact (NSI). Content information (CI) and social interaction (SI) had a positive relationship with both NSI and ISI. NSI and ISI positively influenced e-WOM. Social impact played a mediating role between DCM and e-WOM. This study provides a theoretical basis for further investigation of DCM in food tourism, adds to the literature on Social Impact Theory, and will likely drive further research into e-WOM in food tourism.
1. Introduction
Food tourism has increased with the growing popularity of the leisure lifestyle (Okumus et al., 2018). Food tourism has been described as culinary tourism, gastronomy tourism, and gourmet tourism (Ellis et al., 2018). Unlike general tourism, food tourism posits that tourists can obtain unforgettable, unique and cultural experiences through food tourism resources or food experiences (Chen and Huang, 2018). The majority of research on food tourism has focused on food attraction, festival food experiences, and the promotion of local food, while other research has investigated the decision-making processes of food tourists (Chen and Huang, 2018).
8. Limitations and future research
There are several limitations of this study. First, this study only employed a quantitative research method. A mixed-methods sequential exploratory strategy would yield richer data, particularly considering the exploratory nature of this research area. Second, the proposed model does not consider moderation effects. Future research should consider some factors as potential moderating variables. As the study was conducted in only China, the generalisability of these findings is limited; therefore, future research in other countries seems warranted. Finally, future research could help to elucidate why the CE of DCM does not create NSI in food tourism contexts, and whether it could result in social impact with moderating factors.
