Asia pacific journal of information systems

The Korea Society of Management Information Systems (한국경영정보학회)
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A Test of the Psychological Distance Effect for Online Travel Reviews Based on Construal-Level Theory

  • Seunghun Shin (Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech University) ;
  • Namho Chung (Department of Hotel Management, College of Hotel & Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Doyong Kang (Package Tour & MICE Division, Redcap Tour) ;
  • Chulmo Koo (Department of Convention Management, College of Hotel & Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University)
  • Received : 2017.07.14
  • Accepted : 2017.11.18
  • Published : 2017.12.31
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Abstract

This study's objective is to use the construal-level theory (CLT) to explore the effect of the utility of online travel reviews on tourists' perception. To accomplish this goal, online travel reviews are divided into two different categories based on concreteness, and the usefulness of each review is compared with the temporal dimension of psychological distance. The results show that close future tourists are more influenced by concrete reviews than abstract reviews; however, the far future tourists are more influenced by abstract reviews than concrete reviews. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A3A2925146).

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