Psychological Predictors of Intention to Use Fitness Apps: The Role of Subjective Knowledge and Innovativeness

Health and fitness apps have grown exponentially during covid-19 lockdowns. Using a sample of 331 European fitness apps users, this study investigated the psychological drivers of users' intention on fitness apps. This study draws upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and innovation diffusion theory. Its findings reveal that subjective knowledge and personal innovativeness predict perceived Usefulness, health consciousness, and ease of use. The strongest predictor of intention to use an app is perceived Usefulness, which mediates the influence of subjective knowledge and innovativeness on intention to use. Health consciousness predicts ease of use;however, the latter does not predict behavioural intention. This is one of the first studies on European users of fitness apps and investigating the psychological antecedents of TAM, i.e., innovativeness, subjective knowledge, and consciousness.

Pictures of a crisis. Destination marketing organizations' Instagram communication before and during a global health crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic enhanced social media communications at a time individuals were unable to leave their homes due to the lockdown measures. A lack of research has been identified on how destination marketing organizations use social media during global health crises. Addressing this gap, the present research uses a mixed-method approach to examine the use of Instagram by Milan and Paris' Destination Marketing Organizations before and during COVID-19 and user engagement with it. Via a quantitative content analysis, Study 1 reveals communication differences between destinations and a change in promotion focus during the pandemic. Both DMOs focus on posts portraying "Culture, History and Art", which signifies stability and eternity as opposed to uncertain times. Using a thematic analysis, Study 2 reveals that both organizations promoted pro-social behavior also by employing influencers. Overall, research results document tourism organizations' pro-social use of social media during a global health crisis.

A big data analysis of COVID-19 impacts on Airbnbs' bookings behavior applying construal level and signaling theories

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer booking behavior in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector. This study used a dataset composed of 2,041,966 raws containing 69,727 properties located in all 21 Italian regions in the pre- and post-COVID-191. Results show that in the pre-COVID-19 period, consumers preferred P2P accommodations with price premiums and located in rural (versus urban) areas. Although the findings reveal a preference for entire apartments over shared accommodation (i.e., room, apartment), this preference did not change significantly after COVID-19 lockdowns. The contribution of this study lies in combining psychological distance theory and signaling theory to assess P2P performance in the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.

A big data analysis of COVID-19 impacts on Airbnbs' bookings behavior applying construal level and signaling theories.

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer booking behavior in the peer-to-peer accommodation sector. This study used a dataset composed of 2041,966 raws containing 69,727 properties located in all 21 Italian regions in the pre- and post-COVID-19. Results show that in the pre-COVID-19 period, consumers preferred P2P accommodations with price premiums and located in rural (versus urban) areas. Although the findings reveal a preference for entire apartments over shared accommodation (i.e., room, apartment), this preference did not change significantly after COVID-19 lockdowns. The contribution of this study lies in combining psychological distance theory and signaling theory to assess P2P performance in the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.

The effect of utilitarian and hedonic motivations on mobile shopping outcomes. A cross‐cultural analysis

Mobile devices are ubiquitous in the lives of modern consumers, who use them for information‐seeking and purchasing activities, fostering the emergence of m‐commerce. This trend has been exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, which has boosted m‐commerce growth in both developed and developing countries. Hence, there is a need for cross‐cultural research concerning the factors affecting behavioural intentions. Drawing upon the hedonic information systems model, we measure the impact of utilitarian factors on satisfaction, repurchase intention, and eWOM through the mediation of enjoyment across two countries characterized by different stages of m‐commerce readiness and culture: China and Italy. Findings suggest that the impact of utilitarian factors on satisfaction is stronger among Italian users than Chinese users. On the contrary, for Chinese users, who use their mobile phones as a primary device to shop online, the mediation effect of enjoyment on satisfaction and eWOM is stronger. With this study, we contribute to cross‐cultural research in m‐commerce and provide guidelines to mobile retailers operating in diverse international markets.

Enforced remote working: The impact of digital platform-induced stress and remote working experience on technology exhaustion and subjective wellbeing.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced most individuals to work from home. Simultaneously, there has been an uptake of digital platform use for personal purposes. The excessive use of technology for both work and personal activities may cause technostress. Despite the growing interest in technostress, there is a paucity of research on the effects of work and personal technology use in tandem, particularly during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a sample of 306 employees, this paper addresses this research gap. The findings highlight how both work and personal digital platforms induce technostress during the enforced remote work period, which in turn increases psychological strains such as technology exhaustion and decreases subjective wellbeing. Study results also show that employees with previous remote working experience could better negotiate technostress, whereas those with high resilience experience decreased wellbeing in the presence of technostress-induced technology exhaustion in the enforced remote work context.

Eliciting positive emotion through strategic responses to COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from the tourism sector.

While social media are effective means of communicating with adverse customer emotions during a crisis, it remains unclear how tourism organisations can respond to pandemic crisis on social media to prevent negative aftermaths. Using a set-theoretical approach, we investigate how COVID-19 response strategies and linguistic cues of responses are intertwined to evoke positive emotions among consumers. This study entails a qualitative content analysis of tourism organisations' COVID-19 announcements and a social media analytics approach that captures consumers' emotional reactions to these announcements via their Twitter replies. Our results extend some well-established findings in the tourism crisis literature by suggesting that combining innovative response strategy, argument quality, and assertive language can reinforce positive emotions during the COVID-19 crisis. Taking organisational characteristics into consideration, we suggest that young established hotels utilise innovative response strategies, whereas retrenchment response strategies for all types of restaurants should be avoided during the COVID-19 crisis.