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Bragging and humblebragging in online reviews

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  • Chen, Feier
  • Liu, Stephanie Q.
  • Mattila, Anna S.

Abstract

Tourists often brag about their exclusive vacations, preferential treatments, and extraordinary adventures on social media. However, the existing digital marketing literature offers little guidance on whether bragging is an effective communication strategy. The current research investigates the joint effect of bragging type (bragging vs. humblebragging) and reviewer expertise (low vs. high) on brand evaluation in the online review setting. The results show that when reviewer expertise is high, humblebragging leads to more favorable brand evaluation compared to bragging. However, the opposite is true when the review is posted by a non-expert. We further reveal that the impact of bragging type on brand evaluation is serially mediated through reviewer likability and benign envy. Implications for managing travel platforms are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Feier & Liu, Stephanie Q. & Mattila, Anna S., 2020. "Bragging and humblebragging in online reviews," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:80:y:2020:i:c:s0160738319302063
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2019.102849
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    Cited by:

    1. Su, Lujun & Tang, Binli & Nawijn, Jeroen, 2021. "How tourism activity shapes travel experience sharing: Tourist well-being and social context," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Raoofpanah, Iman & Zamudio, César & Groening, Christopher, 2023. "Review reader segmentation based on the heterogeneous impacts of review and reviewer attributes on review helpfulness: A study involving ZIP code data," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Feng, Wenting & Yang, Morgan X. & Yu, Irina Y., 2023. "From devil to angel: How being envied for luxury brand social media word of mouth discourages counterfeit purchases," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).

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