How Information Value Affect Travel Intention

How information value affects travel intention: A cross-culture perspective
Introduction
When an individual is seeking available alternatives of a certain product or service, information search process serves as an assistant role for fulfilling a variety of values that he or she desires(Diehl & Zauberman, 2005; Fodness & Murray, 1998; Gursoy & Chen, 2000; Hoffman & Novak, 1996; James & Bergh, 1990; Nishimura, Waryszak, & King, 2007; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998). During the information search process, consumers are more likely to purchase product or service when the given information delivers desired value(Diehl & Zauberman, 2005; Goossens, 2000; James & Bergh, 1990). There is no doubt that information search behavior, serving as an essential antecedent process of travelers’ trip decision making, has became one of the most important areas in tourism marketing research(Chen & Gursoy, 2000; Fodness & Murray, 1997; Gursoy, 2003; Hyde, 2007). However, the majority of prior tourism research on information search behavior were mostly focusing on travelers’ different preference of various information search sources under certain types of variables(e.g. trip purpose, type, parity size, duration, mode, and so on) and not much attention was paid to the effect of information value on travelers’ travel intention.
As Kamakura and Novak(1992) argued, many scholars agree that the value plays as a central role in directing people’s attitudes toward a specific object, situation and subsequent behavior. For tourism marketers, in order to deliver the travel-related information to potential travelers in a more efficient manner through effective information sources, a well understanding of information value in the tourism situation is also necessary. On the other hand, acquainting with what information value travelers need to make their trip decisions is of great importance in promoting a destination and improving familiarity with a destination(MiHea & Jang, 2008a).
While many previous researchers have noted the multidimensional features of value(Baloglu, 2000; Bojanic, 1996; Goossens, 2000; Grewal, Monroe, & Krishnan, 1998; Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000; Park, Jaworski, & Maclnnis, 1986; Petrick, 2002; Richins, 1994; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998), MiHea and Jang(2008) further organized and identified five information value dimensions(utilitarian, risk avoidance, hedonic, sensation seeking, and social) based on an extensive review of prior literature. In our study, utilitarian and hedonic value are two major focused dimension under investigation. On the other hand, culture has been always one of the most frequently used dimensions in most of modern research field. As You et al.(2004) argued, many of prior marketing and social sciences research have generated lots of meaningful and interesting perspectives about the cultural effects at the country level by conducting various conceptual and empirical studies. Also, over the last two decades, a growing body of research findings and evidences has shown that travelers’ behaviors and patterns are culture-orientated(You, Morrison, & Hong, 2000). Therefore, given that people from different culture hold different values and behaviors, this study aims to investigate whether different dimensions information value (Functional value V.S. Hedonic value) have different level of impact on Chinese and U.S. travelers’ (Collectivism V.S. Individualism) travel intention. It is hope that the findings of this paper would offer tourism marketers a new insight that which type of information value they should emphasize more when they are delivering information to travelers from different culture societies.
Literature Review
Information value
Rokeach(1973) has claimed that values are the underlying nature of people’s needs and wants. Cheng et al.(2009) also argued that value has been considered as the predictive role of consumer behavior and functions as an influential factor in persuading people to purchase products or services. Therefore, people will seek their desired value through information search, of which process reflects consumers’ preconsumption experience as well as comparative evaluations among multiple consumption choices (MiHea & Jang, 2008a). In other words, the process of an individual’s information collection and organization is constantly changing from one stage to another, and some of literature(Bieger & Laesser, 2004; Correia, Santos, & Barros, 2007; J. Crompton, 1992) have discussed several stages of consumers’ information gathering that aims at reaching alternative product and service choices. When an individual is about to make real travel decision, he or she often conducts information searching more actively and looks for more abundant information value(Jun, Vogt, & MacKay, 2007; Um & J. L. Crompton, 1990). In this case, prospective travelers are likely to have an preceding experience of the consumption value during the information processing before real purchase(Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982a; Nishimura, Waryszak, & King, 2007; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998). Although the extent to which needed information and criteria of information may vary in terms of travelers’ before and after trip decision, information value usually presented through the combination of disciplines and psychological characteristics in persuasive appeals(Aaker & Williams, 1998; Bieger & Laesser, 2004; Holbrook & Batra, 1987; Williams & Aaker, 2002).
Maximizing positive benefits and minimizing negative results is a basic way to assessing information value, of which purpose ensures a better decision(Peter, Olson, & Grunert, 1996). Punj and Staelin(1983) also claimed that instant tangible benefits are consumers’ ultimate goal they desire to accomplish through information search process. Utility-oriented dimensions of information such as monetary value, product functions and safety issues not only help consumer in reducing uncertain conditions at the destination but also improve purchase decision(Babin, Darden, & Griffin, 1994; Money & Crotts, 2003; Olney, Holbrook, & Batra, 1991). Put it in another way, utilitarian information plays as a role for dealing with people’s risk-avoiding nature and satisfying their desire of utilitarian benefits(MiHea & Jang, 2008a). On the other hand, imaginative consumption can occur through the information browsing before real purchase, and this fictitious consumption can lead to experiential pleasures(Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgway, 1986; Hirschman, 1980). That is, information can also provide people with experiential benefits such as sensation or pleasure feelings during the information search process(MiHea & Jang, 2008a). Therefore, given the nature of tourism travel that involves traveling, sightseeing, relaxing, and many other leisure activities, information on tourism products and services may not only include functional(utilitarian) value, but also hedonic one.
Utilitarian value According to Katz(1960), utilitarian value functions as “to reach the desired goal(i.e., task completion) or avoid the undesirable one(i.e., problem solving)”, of which implication applies to consumers’ information search behavior indicating that people are expecting information search to bring a better decision outcome and benefit(Richard, 1986). On the other hand, Holbrook defined utilitarian value of information as “ factual, logical, objectively verifiable descriptions and evaluation of tangible product features and utility”, which concurs with McGuire’s(1974) explanation that utilitarian information satisfies people’s need to seek useful and practical information in dealing with complex and uncertainty situations. Therefore, utilitarian information can be viewed as a appropriate solution to particular problems for specific goals. Taking information on tourism website for example, Han and Mills categorized functional value of online knowledge into three informative features: uniqueness of destinations(e.g. Great Wall in China, wine tourism in France), monetary value of travel products(e.g. price ranges of product, price deals, promotions), and culture resources(e.g. language, food, history, weather). Moreover, Chin and Swatman(2007) argued that this online information provides users with a virtual experience which develops a vivid scenario of being in a specific place. Having such virtual experiences, consumers will become more easily to identify products features, more efficiently to receive marketing messages, and more quickly to obtain a broad range of information(H. Li, Daugherty, & Biocca, 2001). As a result, utilitarian information value not only saves travelers a great deal of time, money and effort, but also attenuates uncertainty and complexity of travel-related products or services during the decision-making process(Kah, Lee, & Chung, 2010). Generally, people ask help from utilitarian information to solve certain unknown problems and to achieve expected results(MiHea & Jang, 2008b). Thus, in the literature, utilitarian value refers to the useful and practical with any relevant context(Babin, Darden, & Griffin, 1994; Batra & Ahtola, 1991; Nishimura, Waryszak, & King, 2007; Olney, Holbrook, & Batra, 1991; Sherry Jr, 1990).
Hedonic value Consumer behaviorists have studied hedonic value and viewed it as the mixed production of multi-emotional experiences, illusive imagination, and sensory responses; When it comes to consumption, hedonic value can be considered more focusing on the entertainment value of products(Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982b; Holbrook & Huber, 1979; Nishimura, Waryszak, & King, 2007). As Hirschman and Holbrook(1982) argued, hedonic value makes a multi-emotional imagination possible without real experiences by bringing people fantasy fulfillment or sensory arousal. More specifically, it is our multiple sensory organs that evoke multi-emotional imagination through external stimulation(Hirschman & Solomon, 1984). In Gursoy’s(2006) study, for example, the hedonic attributes of a festival is the refection of its entertainment and emotional value, and this perspective was based on some of previous studies’(Crompton Stacey & John, 1997; Nicholson & Pearce, 2001; Uysal, Gahan, & Martin, 1993) suggestion that people go to festivals for entertainment, escape, diversity, novelty and socialization purpose. This perspective explicitly suggested that people perceive the festival delivers entertainment opportunities, emotional arousal, fantasy fulfillment, and escapism. Similarly, Zuckerman(1979, p.213) stated that vacation travel is “an escape from the monotony and sameness of everyday surroundings and the chance to feed the senses on new sights, sounds, and experiences”, of which argument also consistent with Hirschman’s (1983) claim that the occurrence of hedonic value is partly due to people’s desire of escaping from the usual and unpleasant.
Based on above theoretical argument, hedonic value of travel-related information also can be considered as the abstract, sensational and unique experience along with hedonic information stimulation such as an appreciation of certain indescribable beauty(Hirschman, 1983b). Therefore, those people who hold strong hedonic desire will find ways and media which can satisfy their needs and also generate pleasure and excitement when they search and process information(Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgway, 1986; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998; Yeung & Wyer Jr, 2004).
Culture difference(Chinese V.S. U.S.A) Prior consumer behavior research perceive culture value as a strong power affecting consumers’ motivations, life-styles, and product choices(D. K. Tse, R. W. Belk, et al., 1989). Cross-cultural psychology theorists also claimed that it is national cultural values and features form and affect people’s thinking and behavior(Berry, Poortinga, & Pandey, 1997). Given that people’s behavior would vary in terms of culture values, cross-culture comparison and analysis has been one of the most frequently used and important approach in most fields of study.
In Chinese culture, Confucianism is the dominant ideology deeply embedded in the minds of all Chinese people(J. X. Zhou, Arnold, Pereira, & Yu, 2010). One of the major dimensions of Confucian ideology that draws much interest and is highly related to consumer behavior is Confucian dynamism, sometimes also termed as long-term orientation(Ralston, Kai-Cheng, X. Wang, Terpstra, & Wei, 1996). Hofstede (2005) articulated that central idea of long-term orientation is the development of virtues oriented toward future rewards, especially perseverance and thrift. Zhou, Arnold, Pereira, and Yu (2010) argued that long-term orientation is highly relevant to utilitarian shopping styles. They claimed that if an individual is long-term oriented, he or she is more likely to be quality sensitive, for that usually good quality products or services delivers more long-term benefits and values. One the other hand, long-term oriented people are also more likely to be price and value conscious, for that they care about the balance between the money they spend and the value they receive. Many previous researchers(e.g. Burstein & De Keijzer, 1998; Gittings, 1997; C. Li, 1998; Schell, 1994; Terrill, 1992; Wee, 1997) have also demonstrated that Chinese people are more cautious in their spending behavior and more function-oriented in their purchase decisions compared with those from more economically developed countries. Furthermore, in tradition, China’s ruling party has been advocating the morality of thriftiness and discoursing a hedonic lifestyle(Z. Wang & Rao, 1995). This social desire to save money and to be a cautious spender has been examined in some empirical studies. For example, in Li et al.’s(2004) comparative study of Chinese and America mall shopping behaviors, the findings indicated that Chinese consumers are more concerned about utilitarian needs than US counterparts when they are shopping.
On the other hand, America culture has been known and positioned as individualism, which suggests that people view every individual as separated entity and has distance social relationships from each other. For individualism, people not only place personal goals ahead of group needs (Watkins & Liu, 1996), but also emphasize the value of independence (G\ürhan-Canli & Maheswaran, 2000) and pleasure (Triandis, McCusker, & Hui, 1990). Given these features, people from individualism society might be more attentive to hedonic benefits since hedonic value delivers more intrinsic value to individuals and provides a chance for self-expression (Kwok & Uncles, 2005). Similarly, an empirical study focusing on exploring how the practice of luxury consumption differs in Eastern and Western culture, Wong and Ahuvia's (1998) claimed that hedonic value mainly satisfies the internal, private self, so hedonic experience should be the motivation of luxury consumption for those people with an independent self-concept who stress the importance of the internal self. This argument indirectly explains and concurs with the findings of Cheng and Schweitzer’s(1996) study that compared with TV commercials in China, American TV advertisements emphasized much more enjoyment in content. Also, Tse, Belk, and Zhou(1989) found that commercials in Hong Kong, the country with greatest immersion in Western culture, contained more hedonic-oriented themes than both Taiwan and China. Given these theoretical arguments and empirical findings that people from America society are more likely to oriented to hedonic value while people from Chinese society are more likely to be utilitarian-oriented, it is interesting to investigate whether utilitarian- and hedonic-oriented travel information also have different levels of impact on trip intention of Chinese and America travelers . As a result, the following two hypotheses are proposed:
H1: Utilitarian-oriented information will have a stronger impact on travel intention among Chinese tourists than among America tourists.
H2: Hedonic-oriented information will have a stronger impact on travel intention among America tourists than among Chinese tourists.
Research method
Instrumentation and measurement First of all, three different types of advertisement for introducing a certain destination (Utilitarian-oriented ads, Hedonic-oriented ads, Control ads) will be designed in order to examine the existence of utilitarian and hedonic value in the information. A pretest will be held by randomly assigning 40 college students to read one of these three commercials. Three different advertisements will be created by using the same scenario with the statement as follows “one destination marketing organization just develops a commercial to introduce a destination, of which purpose is to attract more international travelers and improve the local economic growth. Before launching the ads, the company wants to have a pretest and consult some customers’ opinion to see if there is a need to improve the commercial. So please read the commercial with attention and answer the following three questions. Your responses and opinion are very appreciated and important for us”. What makes these three ads different is that in utilitarian-oriented ads, the overall context will cover the following three aspects as much as possible: (1) provides relevant details about destination. (2) beneficial in making choices(e.g., dining, accommodation, activities, etc.) about the destination. (3) useful in helping people plan their vacation. On the other hand, hedonic-oriented ads would include the following three aspects as much as possible: (4) enhances excitement about traveling. (5) provides facts about the beauty of the surroundings at the destination. (6) contributes to fantasies about vacation travel. All these 6 items are derived from the questionnaire developed by Mihea and Jang(2008), whose study was trying to measure five dimensions( Utilitarian, Hedonic, Risk avoidance, Sensational seeking, and Social) of information value. While the first three items were utilized to measure utilitarian value of information, the latter three ones were used to measure hedonic value of information. For control ads, the contexts and images would avoid too much introduction and detailed information about destination as well as any cue that may evoke excited or pleasure emotion.
Manipulation check
As for the procedure of manipulation check, those students who are assigned to utilitarian ads will be asked the extent to which they feel this ads (1) provides relevant details about destination. (2) beneficial in making choices(e.g., dining, accommodation, activities, etc.) about the destination. (3) useful in helping people plan their vacation, on a 7-point scales anchored by 1= not at all, 2= low, 3= slightly, 4= neutral, 5= moderate, 6= much, 7= very much. Likewise, those who participate in reviewing hedonic ads will be asked the extent to which they feel this ads (4) enhances excitement about traveling. (5) provides facts about the beauty of the surroundings at the destination. (6) contributes to fantasies about vacation travel. For students who are assigned to control ads, they will be asked by the above either first three statements or the latter three ones for the purpose of comparing the mean scores with that of utilitarian- and hedonic-oriented ads, respectively. One way ANOVA will be used to analyze whether the mean score of utilitarian and hedonic ads are significantly higher than that of control ads. In this stage, the reliability(internal consistency) of the items will be tested again.
Main study
After confirming utilitarian and hedonic value are both salient in our two ads, two types of online survey questionnaire for main study will be created, with one type embedding utilitarian-oriented ads and the other inserting hedonic-oriented ads. The survey will consist of two sections. First section deals with demographic profile of the respondents and second section will be either utilitarian-oriented ads or hedonic-oriented ads developed in our pretest. Our sample size will be 400 travelers in total comprising 200 Chinese and 200 Americans who have not traveled to the promoted destination before and their travel frequency needs to be over two times within each of past five years, for that we can make sure our sample subjects are those who can afford and are willing to have an international travel and avoid any possibility of visitors’ previous experience and knowledge about the promoted destination. Also, subjects will only contain those who have habit searching information before their trip and those tourists who usually travel without information search will be excluded. The sample will be selected from a consumer panel that derived from an international travel marketing organization. Our two types of online self-administered questionnaire will be evenly mailed to 200 Chinese and 200 America travelers by random assignment. The initial mailing of 400 survey will include a cover letter, a questionnaire, and an incentive card to participate in a drawing worth $100 in gifts. One week after the initial mailing, a postcard will be mailed to the whole sample for the purpose of reminding non-respondents and thanking respondents. Two weeks after the postcard, a second round of questionnaire will be mailed to those subjects who have not replied. As mentioned earlier, those who do not search information related to their travel will not included in this study. One way ANOVA will be employed to analyze whether travel intention among collectivists will be significantly higher than among individualists in utilitarian-oriented ads and whether travel intention among individualists will be significantly higher than among collectivists in hedonic-oriented ads.

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