A quality measurement proposal for corporate social network sites: the case of hotel Facebook page

ABSTRACT

In the hospitality and tourism industry, service suppliers realise that they may increase their commercial success through the effective use of Corporate Social Network Sites (CSNSs) on Social Media platforms. The current study aims to empirically measure and to examine the quality of the CSNSs (i.e. hotel Facebook page) both from the customer and company perspectives. For the evaluation from the customer perspective, a two-stage methodology was preferred. First, a qualitative approach was followed (a) to identify salient quality dimensions and (b) to develop a measurement scale for assessing the quality of a CSNS. Four quality domains were derived after a literature review and a series of interviews as the Services, Community, Responsiveness, and Informativeness. Secondly, the applicability of the measurement scale was empirically tested by a customer survey. The data were analysed using Importance-Performance Analysis and Asymmetric Impact-Performance Analysis, which revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the hotel’s CSNS. For the assessment from the company perspective, the metrics of post frequency, customer engagement, and range of published content were evaluated. The paper is concluded with the discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate social network site quality
• social media
• Facebook
• importance-performance Analysis
• asymmetric impact-performance analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).