Ulterior Motives In Supplementary Reviews And Consumers’ Perceived Deception

Despite emphasis,the extant literature has overlooked the significance of supplementary online hotel reviews and their effects on consumers’ behaviour.Supplementary online reviews(vs.primary or initial reviews)reflect successive,secondary,additional or supplementary recommendations by peers and experts,and projected by marketers to engage potential consumers.However,ulterior motives(i.e.hidden interests)in supplementary online reviews have received less attention in general,and in hospitality research in particular vis-à-vis consumers’ perceived deception.Moreover,the contemporary research concentrates and skewed towards the marketer side perspective of deception in comparison to consumer side perspective,thereby limiting its understanding in online context.In response to fill this void,this study identifies and bifurcates ulterior motives in supplementary reviews based on the prior literature as follow:(1)ulterior motives in peer supplementary reviews and(2)ulterior motives in expert supplementary reviews.Relying on the extant literature and the paradigm of expectancy disconfirmation theory(EDT)of Oliver(1977),the study aims to examine the effects of(1)ulterior motives in peer and expert supplementary online hotel reviews on consumers’ perceived deception;(2)consumers’ perceived deception on consumers’ dissatisfaction;(3)the downstream effects on consumers’ behaviours 3/4 altruistic response and repeat purchase intentions;and(4)the serial mediation effects of consumers’ perceived deception and consumers’ dissatisfaction between the study’s predictors(i.e.ulterior motives in peer and expert supplementary reviews)and consequents(i.e.altruistic response and repeat purchase intentions).Besides,the framework also determines the boundary conditions of the relationships between(1)ulterior motives in peer and expert supplementary reviews and consumers’ perceived deception;and(2)consumers’ perceived deception and consumers’ dissatisfaction.In this pursuit,the research examines how hotel attributes performance moderates(i.e.first-stage moderation)consumer perceived deception through antecedents(i.e.ulterior motives in peer and expert supplementary online reviews).Secondly,by identifying the significant of consumers’ fate submissiveness(i.e.consumers interpretation regarding ill-fated experiences and lucky moments)in the hospitality sector,the current study incorporates its moderating(i.e.second-stage moderation)role between consumers’ perceived deception and consumers’ dissatisfaction.To answer the research questions and achieve the objectives of the study,the current study employed convenient non-probability sampling and collected data from 448 inbound tourists in China,who pervasively used supplementary online hotel reviews for choosing and experiencing hotel services.The study employed partial least square structural equation modelling(PLS-SEM)technique through Smart PLS 3.0 due to its power to predict,handling complex models,theory testing and confirmation,accommodating data abnormality and sample size variations.Recently,in hospitality and tourism,this technique earned eminence due to its in-sample and out-of-sample prediction power as compared to traditional covariance based structural equation modelling(CBSEM).Accordingly,the current study assesses the prediction power of the model using PLSpredict function in Smart PLS 3.0 and reported prediction orientation of the model.Moreover,the hypotheses results were analysed using bootstrap approach in structural equational modelling(SEM)in Smart PLS 3.0.Results and findings revealed that ulterior motives in peer supplementary reviews and expert supplementary reviews significantly engender consumer’ perceived deception which lead to consumers’ dissatisfaction and subsequent engagement to altruistic behaviour.In comparison,ulterior motives in expert(vs.peer)supplementary reviews causes more consumers’ perceived deception.Noticeably,the consumers’ dissatisfaction is significantly positively associated with repeat purchase intentions as opposed to the negatively proposed hypothesis.In pertinent to serial mediation effects,the results showed significant effects of consumers’ perceived deception and consumers ‘dissatisfaction between the predictors and altruistic behaviour of the inbound tourists.In contrast,the findings showed insignificant serial mediation of consumers’ perceived deception and consumers’ dissatisfaction between the antecedents and tourists repeat purchase intentions.Finally,related to moderating effects,the interaction of hotel attributes performance with the antecedents confirmed significant effects on consumers’ perceived deception when it was low(vs.high).Finally,interestingly,results pertaining to the second stage moderator(i.e.interaction of fate submissiveness with consumers’ perceived deception)unveiled that consumer with high fate submissiveness(vs.low)have less dissatisfaction regarding negative experiences.By incorporating the supplementary online reviews,the study examines the key issue in online reviews,particularly focussing on ulterior motives in supplementary online reviews in the hospitality context,using expectancy disconfirmation theory.Moreover,by identifying hotel attributes performance,fate submissiveness,and consumers’ altruistic behaviour(i.e.helping others rather than complaining to company,negative words of mouth,or taking legal recourse),the current study enriched the literature on supplementary reviews,service management,ethics,psychology,and consumer behaviour literature.In addition,the research findings serve befitting implications for hoteliers,and hotel and travel websites in the study context.Lastly,it concludes by identifying limitations and future scholars’ avenues to expand the research.