Within-group multimarket contact, service diversity and consumer rating: Evidence from the hotel industry

ABSTRACT

Based on the secondhand data of the hotel industry, this paper conducts an empirical test in order to study the relationship between within-group multimarket contact (WGMMC), service diversity and consumer rating. Besides, this paper also analyzes the moderating role of market reciprocity and travel experience. The empirical results show that WGMMC has a significant negative impact on hotels’ service diversity, and market reciprocity will strengthen the negative correlation between WGMMC and service diversity. Furthermore, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between service diversity and consumer rating, and travel experience will weaken this relationship. By extending the impact of multimarket contact on corporate competitive behavior to the consumer side, this article enriches the empirical research in the field of dynamic competition. At the same time, this research also helps hotels expand their strategic vision, improve their relationship with consumers, and ultimately promote the healthy and orderly development of industry competition.

基于连锁酒店行业的二手数据，本文对组群内多市场接触、服务多样性与消费者评价之间的关系进行了实证检验，并分析了市场互换性与顾客旅行经验在其中发挥的调节作用。实证结果显示，组群内多市场接触对酒店服务多样性具有显著的负向影响，且市场互换性会加强这一负相关关系。此外，服务多样性与消费者评价之间呈倒U型关系，而顾客旅行经验会削弱这一关系。通过将多市场接触对企业竞争行为的影响扩展至消费端，本文丰富了动态竞争领域的实证研究。同时，本文还有助于酒店企业扩展战略视野、改善企业与消费者之间的关系，并最终促进行业竞争的健康有序发展。

KEYWORDS:

• Within-group multimarket contact
• service diversity
• consumer rating
• market reciprocity
• travel experience

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71872132, 72172106].