Dr Jano Jimenez-Barreto

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping consumer interaction with brands, but little is known about how brands can implement AI tools effectively. Drawing on consumer uniqueness and self-construal theories, the authors examine the implementation of branded AI tools and their influence on consumers' experience, sense of uniqueness, and spending behavior. Across five studies, this research examines consumers' narratives about interacting with a branded AI tool (Study 1); tests the relationships between self-construal, AI-enabled consumer experiences, and avoidance of similarity (Studies 2A and 2B); evaluates in situ experience with a branded AI tool and its implications for spending behavior (Study 3); and delineates consumer preferences about the attributes of branded AI tools (Study 4). The findings reveal that individuals characterized by independent self-construal are prone toward perceiving higher recognition and hedonic values during their experience with branded AI tools, partially enhancing consumer avoidance of similarity and influencing their willingness to pay for products that the AI tool recommends. For practitioners, the findings suggest developing a two-fold value proposition strategy for consumers by generating personal and psychological value together with product and service recommendations.

In service settings, chatbots frequently are associated with substandard care, depersonalization, and linguistic misunderstandings. Drawing on assemblage theory (i.e., the examination of how heterogeneous parts, through their ongoing interaction, create an emergent whole with new capacities that the parts themselves do not have), the authors investigate how chatbots’ language concreteness—the specificity of words used during interactions with consumers—can help improve satisfaction, willingness to use the chatbot, and perceived shopping efficiency. Across three experiments, the findings reveal a psychological mechanism driven by concrete chatbot language that makes chatbots seem competent and reinforces consumer self-competence, in turn boosting satisfaction, willingness to use the chatbot, and perceived shopping efficiency. This pattern of results contributes to consumer behavior by providing evidence of the chatbot language concreteness effect on consumer–chatbot interactions. For practitioners, the authors outline conversational designs that could help optimize implementation of chatbots in customer service.

Purpose.
This study proposed and tested a new conceptual model of memorable volunteer tourism experiences (MVTEs) by examining the effects of novelty, meaningfulness, experience co-creation and experience intensification on MVTEs. It also examined the relationships among MVTEs, psychological resilience (PR) and behavioural intention (BI), including that between novelty and BI.

Design/methodology/approach.
The study modelled the proposed relationships by analysing data from an online survey using Amazon Mechanical Turk. In total, 241 responses were used in the data analysis.

Findings.
This study extended the MVTE construct and included four key antecedents that influence tourists' MVTEs. The study also documented the predictive capability of MVTEs for PR and BI.

Practical implications.
Volunteer tourism organisations should offer new and diverse activities for volunteer tourists, such as nature conservation, wildlife protection and construction.

Originality/value.
This is the first study to examine the antecedents and outcomes of MVTEs using the stimuli–organism–response theory.

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to reframe interactions among tourists, destinations, and service providers in multiple ways. Yet, there is scant empirical evidence on how individuals develop their relationships with IoT devices and how this technology can serve tourists in planning and deciding on particular destinations or services. Drawing on the assemblage theory, we investigated tourists’ interactive experiences when planning trips with and without smart speakers. Methodologically, we employed an interactionist/performative approach that included three qualitative studies to examine tourists’ information production, expressive roles, and information processing styles during interactions with smart speakers in the pre-visit stage. The analysis was driven by grounded theory and utilized computerized psycholinguistic techniques to enrich our research implications for theory, methodology, and tourism management.

Although past research on natural disasters has investigated tourists’ perceptions and behaviours, few studies have explored residents’ attitudes, motivations and mindsets in rebuilding a destination after a natural calamity. Building on consumer behaviour research, we examine the role of the fresh start mindset as a psychological mechanism for residents that must overcome the consequences of natural disasters in tourist destinations. We conducted a quantitative study using a survey with a sample of 460 residents of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) during the volcanic eruption of 2021. The results show that residents’ fresh start mindset influences post-disaster tourism activities and shapes their perception of the positive and negative impacts of the tourism industry.

Although Halal tourism is becoming an important tourism sector and represents one of the largest niche markets in global tourism, the aspects that makes this type of tourism memorable are still unexplored for academics and practitioners. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between hedonism, novelty, local culture, refreshment, meaningfulness, involvement, knowledge and memorable Halal tourism experience. The study also examines the relationship between memorable Halal tourism experience and place attachment. Data were gathered from Muslim tourists who had a halal tourism experience during the 48 months preceding the time of data collection (April 2018–March 2022). The empirical results support all eight hypotheses. The results also extend the memorable tourism experience concept in the context of Halal tourism. A positive relationship between a memorable Halal tourism experience and place attachment was also supported.

As service brands need to find new methods to overcome consumers' distrust of physical spaces in the post-COVID-19 era, we explore how niche and mass service brands can recover their experiential value through perceptions of coolness. In three studies, we evaluate service brand coolness and its consequences for communal–brand connection and loyalty. In Studies 1 and 2, we examine consumers’ thoughts on coolness and communal connection when describing their encounters with service brands. In Study 3, we test the relations among service brand coolness, communal–brand connection, and loyalty. Our findings show that for both niche and mass firms, service brand coolness similarly enhances communal–brand connection and loyalty.

Purpose.
Drawing on the self-determination theory, the assemblage theory and customer experience literature, this paper aims to develop a framework to understand motivational customer experiences with chatbots.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a multimethod approach to examine the interaction between individuals and airlines’ chatbots. Three components of self-determined interaction with the chatbot (competence, autonomy and relatedness) and five components of the customer–chatbot experience (sensory, intellectual, affective, behavioral and social) are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Findings.
The findings confirm the direct influence of self-determined interaction on customer experience and the direct effects of these two constructs on participants’ attitudes toward and satisfaction with the chatbot. The model also supports the mediating roles of customer experience and attitude toward the chatbot.

Practical implications.
This paper offers managers a broad understanding of individuals’ interactions with chatbots through three elements: motivation to use chatbots, experiential responses and individuals’ valuation of whether the interactions have amplified (or limited) the outcomes obtained from the experience.

Originality/value.
This paper contributes to the hospitality and tourism literature with a hybrid approach that reflects on current theoretical developments regarding human- and interaction-centric interpretations of customer experience with chatbots.

After hotels in many countries were forced to close in government-imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an inherent need to communicate how they deal with the coronavirus to motivate guests to visit. However, lack of knowledge about how to persuasively communicate about hotels’ cleaning programs for COVID-19 can challenge the industry’s survival. We investigated how hotels that position their brand as a particular personality (sincere vs. exciting) could benefit from different communication styles (inclusion of numerical vs. verbal quantifiers) when presenting their COVID-19 cleaning procedures. Study 1 explored tourists’ central attitudinal responses toward hotels’ cleaning programs. Study 2 demonstrated that sincere hotel brands would benefit from using numerical and verbal quantifiers to communicate their cleaning policies, whereas exciting hotel brands would benefit only from numerical quantifiers. Our results invite hotel managers to use their brand personality positioning to influence tourists’ attitudes and intentions in a pandemic context.

The present study examines spillover from being at home versus away in terms of activities undertaken during on-site Airbnb experiences. This study also integrates the positive psychology concept of savouring by examining the positive emotions savoured by guests based on broaden-and-build theory as well as the savouring processes used when recalling their recent Airbnb experiences. The findings show that informants undertook similar activities while staying at an Airbnb and while at home. The most common positive emotion savoured by guests when remembering their Airbnb experiences was joy, with a homey feeling eliciting this emotion. Location, togetherness and a homey feeling were identified as the dominant factors that intensified informants’ savouring of their Airbnb experiences.

Purpose.
This paper aims to explore the components of a negative memorable Airbnb experience.

Design/methodology/approach.
Two studies of North American and British nationals were conducted online using an open-ended survey questionnaire with photo-elicitation via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The grounded theory was used to analyse the collected data.

Findings.
The findings of the current study are destination-specific and generalisation is limited. In addition, this study gathered data using an open-ended survey questionnaire with visual images (photo-elicitation technique) in MTurk. Moreover, the study participants were mainly Westerners.

Research limitations/implications.
Airbnb could provide hosts with a service quality checklist to warrant quality assurance across listings. Hosts must be informed, guided and monitored so that service quality standards are fulfilled. In addition, hosts should be incentivised to write an honest and accurate description of their listing.

Practical implications.
Airbnb can provide hosts with a service quality checklist to ensure standardisation and quality assurance across listings. Hosts must be informed, guided and monitored so that service quality standards are fulfilled. In addition, hosts might benefit from training or workshops on the role of hosting and service quality management.

Originality/value.
This is one of the first studies to explore the components of a negative memorable experience in the context of Airbnb.

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负面的难忘体验：北美及英国Airbnb住客视角分析

目的
在本文中, 我们探讨负面难忘的Airbnb体验的组成部分。

设计/方法/方法
两项研究针对北美和英国居民的展开, 并使用亚马逊土耳其机器人（Amazon Mechanical Turk）来通过匿名调查问卷的方式在线进行照片提取。 采用扎根理论对收集到的数据进行了分析。

调查结果
这项研究确定了负面令人难忘的Airbnb体验的三个最常见的组成部分：肮脏和恶劣的房间条件；恶劣的, 欺骗性的和粗鲁的主人行为；以及糟糕的客户服务。调查结果支持研究表明Airbnb的服务质量是不可预测的。

研究局限性/含义
目前研究的结果是基于特定目的地的, 并且其概括性是有限的。 此外, 这项研究收集数据使用匿名调查问卷的MTurk视觉图像（照片提取技术）。 此外, 研究参与者主要是西方人。

实际影响
爱彼迎可以为业主提供服务质量清单, 以保证整个列表款项的质量。 房主必须得到通知、指导和监测, 以便满足服务质量标准。 此外, 应该鼓励房主写一个诚实和准确的房源描述。

独创性/价值
此研究在探索在Airbnb的背景下负面难忘体验的组成部分中处于领先地位。

关键词
爱彼迎, 记忆, 负面的难忘体验, 服务质量, 共享经济

文章类型
研究论文

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Propósito.
En este documento, exploramos los componentes de una experiencia negativa y memorable de las aerobombas.

Diseño/metodología/enfoque.
Se realizaron dos estudios de ciudadanos norteamericanos y británicos en línea utilizando un cuestionario de encuesta abierto con foto-elicitación a través de Amazon Mechanical Turk. Se utilizó la teoría fundamentada para analizar los datos recogidos.

Hallazgos.
Este estudio identificó los tres componentes más comunes de las experiencias memorables negativas de las Airbnb: condiciones sucias y pobres de la habitación; comportamiento malo, engañoso y grosero del anfitrión; y un pobre servicio al cliente. Los resultados apoyan los estudios que indican que la calidad del servicio de Airbnb es impredecible.

Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigación.
Los hallazgos del estudio actual son específicos para cada destino y la generalización es limitada. Además, este estudio recopiló datos mediante un cuestionario de encuesta abierto con imágenes visuales (técnica de fotoelicitación) en MTurk. Además, los participantes del estudio eran principalmente occidentales.

Implicaciones practices.
Airbnb podría proporcionar a los anfitriones una lista de control de calidad del servicio para garantizar la calidad de los listados. Los anfitriones deben ser informados, guiados y monitoreados para que se cumplan los estándares de calidad del servicio. Además, se debería incentivar a los anfitriones para que escriban una descripción honesta y precisa de su listado.

Originalidad/valor.
Este es uno de los primeros estudios que explora los componentes de una experiencia negativa y memorable en el contexto de Airbnb.

Consumers of luxury brands have been described as seekers of products that can offer a signaling value to present to others but also a value for their self-concepts in an existentialist spirit potentially linked to being “cool or not.” Prior studies have conceptualized brand coolness and evaluated its impact on consumer responses to brands. However, few studies have contextualized the construct of brand coolness concerning luxury brand realism. We assessed the semiotic tension that luxury brand consumers feel between self-concept and self-presentation to others via a theoretical consideration of four antecedents of brand coolness: individual, social, financial, and functional luxury values; and one intentional outcome such as consumers' passionate desire to use luxury fashion brands. Our findings indicated that luxury values positively influence brand coolness, and brand coolness positively influences passionate desire. We further confirmed that brand coolness plays a complementary mediating role between luxury values and passionate desire. A final contribution is to invite brand managers to consider how luxury values and brand coolness might be used proactively to drive consumers' passionate desires in the relationships with luxury fashion brands.

Even though concepts such as brand experience and online brand credibility are critical in destination marketing strategies, there have been no previous studies that have analyzed their relationships and influence on tourists' behavioral intentions. This paper develops a multimethod approach using a projective technique, an online experiment, and a multigroup analysis with five official destination platforms (the website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube). The results confirm positive direct and indirect relationships among online destination brand experience (BE), perceived online destination brand credibility (PODBC), and users’ behavioral intentions toward the destination (intentions to visit/recommend). The multigroup analysis that was conducted revealed that users who had not visited the destination shaped their behavioral intentions by assigning a greater importance to the online destination BE than did those who had physically visited the destination. Conversely, users who had visited the destination showed a higher intensity in the path between PODBC and behavioral intentions.

Tourists' intensive use of information and communication technologies when planning travel has forced destination marketing organizations to design online simulacra of destinations in multiple formats. We focus our study on official online destination platforms to analyze preliminary experiences with destination brands and the online perception of authenticity. Previous consumption studies have theorized that consumers' encounters with products/services are antecedents of their perceptions of authenticity. In the tourism literature, however, the link between online destination experiences and online destination authenticity constitutes a research gap. To fill that gap, we used a multimethod approach to develop a causal-predictive model by which we observed that the online destination brand experience directly affects destination brand authenticity. The findings also show that both of these constructs directly and indirectly influence users' behavioral intentions toward the destination. We examine the moderating role of various official online destination platforms to enrich the theoretical and managerial implications discussed.

As the use of online platforms to search for information about tourist destinations grows, so does the need for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to offer positive online destination brand (ODB) experiences. Two studies were conducted online to explore the central elements of a positive ODB experience with four official destination platforms (the website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter). Based on a photo-elicitation technique, the grounded theory approach, and data triangulation, this study identified six dimensions of a positive ODB experience: sensory, affective, behavioral, intellectual, interactive, and social. Thus, it extends the four-dimensional brand experience scale created by Brakus, Schmitt, and Zarantonello (2009) and proposes two other dimensions that deepen the understanding of an ODB experience: interactive and social. The results indicate that, rather than disseminating content, DMOs should focus on generating sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences as well as fostering person-to-person connection and enabling users to create content on destination platforms.

Online experiences preceding actual visits to tourist destinations have emerged as a relevant source of travel motivation. This study analyzes the online destination brand experiences resulting from user interactions with official websites on two competing destinations. The results support the expected mediator role for the online destination brand experiences between perceived website quality, user attitudes, and intention to visit and recommend the destination, as well as the directionality of the sensorial-to-cognitive experience. Significant differences are observed depending on the users' prior experience with the destination and their generational cohort (millennials vs. nonmillennials). Important implications for destination management are also discussed.

This study explores the antecedents of value co-destruction in the context of a new form of accommodation, Airbnb. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews from people who had stayed in Airbnb accommodations during the previous 12 months. A total of 21 interviews were conducted, of people representing five nationalities. Using the grounded theory approach, the findings indicate that poor communication between the guest and host was one of the main reasons contributing to value co-destruction during the Airbnb accommodation experience. From the guest perspective, value co-destruction due to poor communication resulted in unexpected resource losses, including time and money. One interviewee also regretted the lost experience. Although the majority of the interviewees did not have negative Airbnb accommodation experiences, some did not experience a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship.

Airbnb is one of the major players in the tourism sharing economy. This study employs a grounded theory approach to explore the central elements of a memorable Airbnb hospitality experience. An analysis of transcripts from interviews with twenty participants indicate that respondents generally report their Airbnb experience as positive. Memorable Airbnb experiences were related to the social interactions with the host, the attitude of the host and the location of the accommodation. The managerial implications include that hosts should actively interact with the guests and treat their guests in a friendly manner throughout their stay. In addition, hosts should provide information about the location of the accommodation and its proximity to the tourist attractions in their profile. On the contrary, those hosts who welcome guests to empty homes with no time to interact during their stay and are poor communicators should not host on Airbnb.

Purpose.
An official destination website (ODW) is a key component for tourist’s decision-making processes. ODW acts as a direct channel where users may share experiences and opinions about previous or future travels. At the same time, it drives user participation in destination branding activities. In this context, it is crucial to identify how the destination website, using Web 2.0 technologies, could motivate user’s participation with the brand. The purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate a model that posits the destination website quality as a determinant factor to predict users’ attitudes toward the website and their willingness to participate in co-creation experiences.

Design/methodology/approach.
Using a combined qualitative and quantitative method, this paper provides an exploratory research that examines the role of destination website quality on attitudes toward the website and the willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences.

Findings.
Findings confirm that there is a direct and significant relationship between website quality, attitudes toward the website and willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences. Moreover, attitudes toward the website partially mediate relationships between destination website quality and willingness to participate in online co-creation experiences.

Originality/value.
The literature of value co-creation is trying to identify which factors drive consumer’s participation with brands across different consumption contexts. This study provides evidence that confirms, from a tourism destination website point of view, that website quality is one of these key factors that motives user’s co-creation with a destination.