Brand experience and brand attachment as drivers of WOM in hospitality

Purpose– Thepurposeofthispaperistodevelopa model tomeasure theimpactofbrandexperience in the hotel industry, on word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations while accounting for the possible mediating role of people’s emotional attachment with thebrand. Design/methodology/approach– Datawerecollectedthrough a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gómez Suárez, Mónica, Veloso Huertas, Mónica
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/739740
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10486/739740
https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/SJME-12-2019-0106
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Hotel
WOM
Brand experience
Brand attachment
Economía
Descripción
Sumario:Purpose– Thepurposeofthispaperistodevelopa model tomeasure theimpactofbrandexperience in the hotel industry, on word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations while accounting for the possible mediating role of people’s emotional attachment with thebrand. Design/methodology/approach– Datawerecollectedthrough anonline survey of 416 hotel customers. Theproposedmodelwastestedwithstructuralequationsmodelling (SEM). Findings– The results suggest that brand experience in the hotel sector is a consequence of four dimensions: location, ambience, staff and Web, in that order of influence. In addition, the study confirms the mediating role of emotional attachment in the relationship between experience and WOM recommendations. However,theexperience itself has a greater direct impact than theattachment. Practical implications– By knowing the dimensions that comprise the hotel brand experience, managers can design more impactful experiences that create strong links with guests, thereby increasing WOMrecommendations. Originality/value– This paper enriches the existing literature on brand experience in the hospitality sector and provides evidence of the mediating role of emotional bonding. Previous research has proven that linking is a consequence ofexperience, but not yet examined itsmediating role