Consumer Responses to Scarcity Appeals in Online Booking

Huiling Huang, Stephanie Q. Liu, Jay Kandampully and Milos Bujisic

Annals of Tourism Research, 2020, vol. 80, issue C

Abstract: Scarcity appeals, highlighting a product or a service is scarce due to “high demand” or “limited supply,” are ubiquitous in the travel industry. However, all scarcity appeals are not equally effective in persuading consumers. The current research investigates the joint effects of scarcity appeal type (demand-framed vs. supply-framed) and consumers’ sense of power on purchase intention in the online booking context. The results show that the demand-framed (vs. supply-framed) scarcity appeal leads to higher purchase intention among consumers with a high sense of power, whereas such a difference is attenuated among consumers with a low sense of power. Furthermore, mediation analysis reveals that perceived risk is the psychological mechanism underlying these effects. Managerial implications for online booking platforms are discussed.

Keywords: Scarcity appeal; power; perceived risk; online booking; consumer behavior; experimental design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:80:y:2020:i:c:s0160738319301574

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2019.102800

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