Cultural Dimensions and Social Media Empowerment in Digital Era: Travel-Related Continuance Usage Intention

Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan, Dake Wang, Alina Badulescu and Benqian Li
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Farzana Sharmin: School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China
Mohammad Tipu Sultan: School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China
Dake Wang: School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China
Benqian Li: School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 200240, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-21

Abstract: In this digital age, technological advancements have dramatically transformed consumers? travel behavior. Among these, social media has been identified as the most notable and popular digital platform which appeals to consumers from different cultures, mindsets, and demographics. Culture may stimulate individuals’ attitudes and subsequent behavior. Thus, prior research concentrated on technology adoption in the cross-cultural perspectives, rather than the influence of technological empowerment in an individual context. The significance of the cultural dimensions in shaping behavioral patterns of travel consumers has long been recognized, but the topic remains understudied. Moreover, the usage of social media has seen exponential growth in popularity, but little research has incorporated cultural values at an individual level, mostly for travel purposes. Hence, this current study aims to examine cultural values and their impact on social media continuance usage intention from a travel viewpoint. Therefore, an integrated framework is proposed, grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM), and extended by cultural values (i.e., collectivism, long-term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance), and social media self-efficacy. A cross-sectional data survey ( n = 346) was conducted on travel consumers and a structural equation modeling (SEM) was carried out. Results show that collectivism and long-term orientation are significantly linked with the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, which influences the social media continuance usage intention, whereas uncertainty avoidance does not have any relevance. Moreover, social media self-efficacy significantly (though indirectly) affects the continuance usage intention via perceived usefulness. From our findings, travel providers are encouraged to follow the cultural effects and individuals’ continuance usage intention while providing tourism services on social media. The theoretical and practical implications of these results have also been an area of focus of this paper.

Keywords: cultural values; continuance usage intention; quantitative research; social media self-efficacy; technology acceptance model; travel and tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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