Abstract

PEREZ-ARANDA, Javier; VALLESPIN, María  and  MOLINILLO, Sebastian. A proposal for measuring hotels’ managerial responses to User-Generated-Content Reviews. TMStudies [online]. 2018, vol.14, n.Especial, pp.7-16. ISSN 2182-8458.  https://doi.org/10.18089/tms.2018.14SI101.

Despite the fact that User-Generated-Content (UGC) has emerged as a widely implemented practice in many disciplines and industries, including tourism and hospitality, academic research lacks a measurement method for hotels’ managerial responses to UGC- Reviews (UGC-R). Based on data from a survey of 335 hotels, this article validates a 32-item UGC-Review scale that, through a battery of exploratory factorial analysis tests, comprises 6 constructs: identification of the reputation landscape; assessment of changes in the company´s ratings and rankings over time; determination of the publication reach; comparison with industry competitors; review and comparison of ranking methodologies and increased reputational scores. The results show that the proposal scale demonstrates reliability and dimensionality. The proposed UGC-R scale is a strategic tool for business managers aiming to improve their marketing strategies and to gain insights into the competitive advantage of reputation management.

Keywords : eWOM; User-generated-content; review sites; ranking; hotel.

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