Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Dr Julian K. Ayeh received his Ph.D. in Hotel and Tourism Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His principal research interests lie within the fields of innovation and technology management, travel consumer behaviour and marketing communications. His current research focuses on strategic management issues in hospitality and tourism organizations as well as the influence of innovation and emergent technological trends on travel consumer behaviour.

Abstract (150 Words)

The media richness theory has sparked ample research on media selection. However, it has received limited attention in the context of consumer-generated media (CGM) despite being concerned with reducing uncertainty. Yet, individuals’ perceptions of how ‘rich’ a medium is might still influence their choice of the medium for specific tasks. Hence this study investigates the potential role of media richness theory in explaining CGM usage by segmenting travel consumers based on their perceived media richness of TripAdvisor and profiling them to improve our understanding of their conative responses to CGM. The resultant segments differ by respondents’ prior experience with TripAdvisor as well as by their attitudes and willingness to employ TripAdvisor for future travel planning. Among others, the findings advance our understanding of the media richness theory in the context of consumer generated media.

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User Segmentation Based on Perceived Richness of Consumer-Generated Media

The media richness theory has sparked ample research on media selection. However, it has received limited attention in the context of consumer-generated media (CGM) despite being concerned with reducing uncertainty. Yet, individuals’ perceptions of how ‘rich’ a medium is might still influence their choice of the medium for specific tasks. Hence this study investigates the potential role of media richness theory in explaining CGM usage by segmenting travel consumers based on their perceived media richness of TripAdvisor and profiling them to improve our understanding of their conative responses to CGM. The resultant segments differ by respondents’ prior experience with TripAdvisor as well as by their attitudes and willingness to employ TripAdvisor for future travel planning. Among others, the findings advance our understanding of the media richness theory in the context of consumer generated media.