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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequences of jobseeker decision-making style on information search behaviour, information evaluation and perceptions of organisational attractiveness (OA). In this study, the authors assess whether, when presented with a realistic job information searching scenario of receiving basic job information from a typical formal short job advertisement, maximisers and satisficers differ on need for further information and evaluation of further information from informal information sources in relation to valence and tie strength.

A scenario-based experiment was conducted on 280 participants from the USA, with work experience in retail, using Amazon Mechanical Turk.

The results show that, compared to satisficers, significantly more maximisers chose to search for further information about the company/vacancy after receiving a typical short advertisement message. Furthermore, the results highlight the moderating effects of decision-making style (maximiser vs satisficer), tie strength (strong-tie vs weak-tie provider) and message valence (positive vs negative) on jobseekers’ perceived OA.

Companies seeking to increase their candidate pool should consider accommodating the different decision-making styles of jobseekers by carefully designing the content of recruitment information and utilising recruitment information sources. Although conducted in just one sector, the ubiquity of the maximiser/satisficer decision-making style implies further research to assess the implications for other sectors.

Research on decision-making style in recruitment is relatively limited. This study demonstrates the differences between maximisers and satisficers in terms of job-related information needs, and the evaluation of the source/content, when searching for a retail trade job.

Even with the evidence that participation in home-sharing is highly ecologically sustainable, the existing consumer communication studies in the hospitality sector have predominantly focussed on the social and economic benefits. This study aims to examine how the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers.

Two scenario-based experiments (Study 1: n = 377 and Study 2: n = 290) examined the effects of consumers’ consumption orientations, and the appeal of environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertising on their home-sharing adoption intentions.

Study 1 demonstrated that when consumers with either a hedonic or utilitarian consumption orientation book travel accommodation, their home-sharing adoption intentions increase depending on whether advertisements are designed as hard- or soft-sell appeal, respectively. Study 2 showed that the influence of an environmental sustainability benefits emphasised advertisement that has considered consumers’ consumption orientation and applied the corresponding advertising appeal design is as effective as a home-sharing service that offers economic benefits and is even better than an advertisement that emphasises social benefits, particularly for utilitarian-oriented consumers.

This study is the first in the lodging sector examining the ways in which the environmental sustainability benefits of home-sharing services can be effectively communicated to consumers. The findings shed light on corporate practices pertaining to information that home-sharing service marketers can control and provide an essential basis for further advertising, consumer differences, environmental sustainability awareness and collaborative consumption studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in characteristics, job outcome experiences and attitudes of maximiser and satisficer decision-making style groups working in the retail trade.

A survey of 140 participants who have accepted a job offer in the retail trade in the past six months in the USA was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The survey examined participants’ opinions and attitudes towards their present job and established which job information source(s) they had used to search for retail trade job-related information.

The results show that compared to satisficers, maximisers exert more effort when searching job information, have higher uncertainty avoidance and need for cognition, and experience more post-decisional regret. In this sample, any significant differences between maximisers and satisficers in relation to job satisfaction, company commitment, and intention to quit their present job are restricted to certain groups. For recruitment information sources, while satisficers rely on their families and friends for information, maximisers are more likely to obtain job-related information from other sources such as online discussion forums.

Even though some studies suggest that maximisers are unhappy with their choices, this research recommends that retail trade companies should not exclude maximisers from their recruitment pools. Retailers should enhance their candidate pools with both maximisers and satisficers by managing different recruitment information sources.

Research of decision-making style in recruitment is relatively limited. This research illustrates the differences of attitudes between maximisers and satisficers towards their present retail job, and also demonstrates the preferences of maximisers and satisficers in recruitment information sources.

Augmented reality (AR) has become a trend, and the effects of Pokémon Go, the most popular online and mobile game, have been explored in many studies. However, few studies have developed questionnaires of fit to investigate the relationship between the fit and the integration of the game's virtual world and reality. The paper intends to integrate the models of stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) and information systems success with cognitive fit theory to explore the fit and reactions of users in the integration of real and virtual worlds.

Following MacKenzie's scale development, two surveys were conducted. The first survey was conducted to perform a scale development of fit. The second survey was collected from 315 Pokémon Go players to validate the fit scale and it was analyzed via structural equation modeling.

The results show that scale development of fit has good reliability and validity. Furthermore, game information quality, game system quality and virtual (Pokémon) characteristics have significantly positive effects on cognitive and emotional fit. Cognitive and emotional fit have significant positive effects on user satisfaction, and user satisfaction has significant positive effects on continued intention to play. The results suggest that maintaining the quality of the game and improving the virtual interface will provide a better fit between the real and virtual worlds, enhancing user satisfaction with the fit as well as their intention for continued use.

Although fit has been widely studied in various contexts, the application of AR has been rarely discussed. This study develops a scale of fit and takes Pokémon Go as the subject to validate the fit measurement and discuss players' cognition and feelings regarding the game. The authors measure user reactions to different stimuli and explore cognitive and emotional fit as well as the integration of virtual worlds and reality. In sum, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies to explore and develop a cognitive and emotional fit scale for future researchers and practitioners.

While the importance of social media will continue to grow, the purpose of this study is to provide a retrospective systematic literature review of the social media research published in major hospitality and tourism journals over a specific time period.

The study conducted a bibliometric analysis to review the literature of 439 social media articles published in 51 hospitality and tourism journals over a 15-year time span (2002-2016).

Ulrike Gretzel authored the highest fractional citations. The results indicated that social media-related research was mostly published in top-tier journals. The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management was amongst the four leading journals in terms of the percentage of published social media articles. While inter-country social media research collaborations were relatively modest, interestingly, inter-country collaborations have been steadily increasing in the past five years. Another finding indicated that social media research in hospitality and tourism journals has been predominantly quantitative. The results revealed six new areas within the consumer behaviour research theme, namely, eWOM, service recovery, customer satisfaction, brand/destination image and service quality. Finally, it is important to note that four new trends in social media research appeared between 2011 and 2016, namely, big data, netnography, Travel 2.0 and Web 2.0.

While this study made significant contributions to the social media literature, some limitations do exist. For example, the current research excluded publications from major conferences, books, book chapters and dissertations. Additionally, it is not within the scope of this paper to take into account issues related to self-citations.

The results obtained from analysis contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social media research progress in hospitality and tourism. For example, evaluating the performance of individual scholars helps educational institutions to compete in the global university ranking system. Additionally, to compete for funding opportunities on the topic of social media, institutions can use citation counts to demonstrate their competitiveness. Furthermore, due to the expected future growth in the number of social media platforms, practitioners need to understand motivating factors and tourists’ needs in different countries, target market segments, age groups and cultures to create highly engaging communities around their brands.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the sample of this study synthesized the largest selection of social media articles published in hospitality and tourism journals. This is the first study to apply the fractional score at the author level, the adjusted appearance score at the university level and the average citation score at the journal and inter-country levels in the analysis. In addition, prevalent research orientations and research trends in social media made significant contributions to existing literature.