ABSTRACT
Digital influencers have evolved the thinking and buying patterns of consumers on the social media platforms. The unorthodox approach of attracting the masses has considerably increased online purchase intentions. Especially during the global pandemic COVID-19, consumer’s high inclination towards online buying has been regarded as a natural phenomenon. Therefore, it remains eminent to determine that what factors boost buying intentions of the consumers during pandemic. In this regard, sequential mediation role of brand engagement, brand attitude and brand expected value were taken into consideration for precise examination of consumer online buying journey. Conceptually knitted associations were determined using positivist doctrine. The data was collected from 287 online apparel shoppers. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was executed for determining cause and effect relationships among the constructs. The study provides new evidences about digital influencers’ role and their impact on consumers’ online buying behaviours during pandemic. The results affirmed strong causal relationships among the hypothesised paths. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel) and branding destinations for COVID-19 safety have emerged as the cornerstones to fully rebound global tourism. Numerous destination brands are now stimulating tourism demand through realigned travel incentives specifically for fully vaccinated travelers. However, there is growing fear and incidents of travel shaming across destinations, especially due to the recent outbreaks of the highly contagious COVID-19 'delta and omicron' variants. Addressing this critical research gap, the present study makes pioneering efforts to empirically examine the effects of COVID-19 branded destination safety (CBDS) on vaxication intentions, under the moderating influence of travel shaming and travel incentives. Drawing on study data from 560 fully-vaccinated residents from Hawaii, United States and structural equation modeling (SEM) with Mplus, the evidence suggests that the positive impact of CBDS on vaxication intention can be further strengthened by travel incentives, or weakened when travel shaming picks up more momentum. Besides the validation of newly developed scales, the study offers strategic insights based on dominant theories (e.g., theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory) to interpret the changing tourism demand, and to transform the emerging challenges into opportunities through and beyond the pandemic.