literature review on marketing communication

Marketing Communication of Media Brands: A Literature Review

Cite this chapter.

• Stefan Weinacht 5  

3513 Accesses

7 Citations

Marketing literature provides a wide range of recommendations on how to do marketing communication. However these cannot be adopted on a one-to-one basis by media brands. This article gives a literature review on what has been written on the communication of media brands. It is focused on communication goals, media messages, media platforms and selected instruments of communication. Because it is in these aspects that media brand communication differs most from any other brand communication.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Managing Brands in an Ever-Changing Media Environment

Marketing Communications and Brand Development: An Introduction

Social Media vs Traditional Marketing

Adams, W. J., & Lubbers, C. A. (2000). Promotion of theatrical movies. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 231–263). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Google Scholar  

Althans, J., & Brüne, G. (2004). Markenführung im Zeitschriftenmarkt [Brand management in the magazine market]. In M. Bruhn (Ed.), Handbuch Markenführung [Handbook on brand management]. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Althans, J., & Brüne, G. (2005). Markenführung und Markentransfer der Zeitschrift GEO [Brand management and brand extension of GEO magazine]. In H. Meffert, C. Burmann, & M. Koers (Eds.), Markenmanagement [Brand management]. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Avery, R. K., & Dickson, M. L. (2006). Promotion in public television and radio. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 247–277). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Baumgarth, C. (Ed.). (2004a). Erfolgreiche Führung von Medienmarken. Strategien für Positionierung, Markentransfer und Branding [Successful media brand management. Strategies for positioning, brand image transfer and branding]. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Baumgarth, C. (2004b). Markenführung im Mediensektor [Brand management in media industries]. In M. Bruhn (Ed.), Handbuch Markenführung [Handbook for brand management] (pp. 2251–2272). Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Bellamy, R. V., & Chabin, J. B. (2006). Global promotion and marketing of television. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 279–301). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Bellamy, R. V., & Traudt, P. J. (2000). Television branding as promotion. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 127–159). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Berekoven, L., Eckert, W., & Ellenrieder, P. (2009). Marktforschung: methodische Grundlagen und praktische Anwendung [Market research. Methodological basics and practice]. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Berkler, S. (2008). Medien als Marken? Wirkungen von Medienmarken aus medienökonomischer Sicht [Media being brands? Effects of media brands from a media economic perspective]. Konstanz: UVK.

Bleicher, J. K. (1994). Das Fernsehen im Fernsehen. Selbstreferentielle Sendungen im Unterhaltungsprogramm [TV in TV. Selfreferential shows in enterainment programme]. In L. Bosshart & W. Hoffmann-Riem (Eds.), Medienlust und Mediennutz. Unterhaltung als öffentliche Kommunikation [Desire in media and usage of media. Entertainment as public communication] (pp. 147–161). München: Ölschläger.

Blömer, N. S. (2005). Die Synergie-AG. Das Zusammenspiel von Medienberichterstattung, Marketing und PR am Beispiel DSDS [Synergy Corp. cooperation of media coverage, marketing and PR in the case of DSDS]. In M. Beuthner & S. A. Weichert (Eds.), Die Selbstbeobachtungsfalle. Grenzen und Grenzgänge des Medienjournalismus [The trap of introspection. Limitations and pushing the limits in media journalism] (pp. 261–276). Wiesbaden: VS.

Bode, P. (2010). Markenmanagement in Medienunternehmen. Ansatzpunkte zur Professionalisierung der strategischen Führung von Medienmarken [Brand management in media industries. Approaches for the professionalisation of strategic brand management]. Wiesbaden: Gabler.

Breyer-Mayländer, T., & Werner, A. (2003). Handbuch der Medienbetriebslehre [Handbook of media business operations]. München: Oldenbourg.

Bruhn, M. (2010). Kommunikationspolitik [Promotion]. München: Vahlen.

Buchman, J. G. (2000). Television newscast promotion and marketing. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 265–296). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M. (2006). Competitive strategy for media firms. Strategic and brand management in changing media markets . Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M. (2011). Media branding in a changing world: Challenges and opportunities 2.0. International Journal on Media Management , 13 (1), Special Issue: Brand Management, 3–19.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Cha, J. (2008). Exploring the antecedents and effects of brand images for television news: An Application of brand personality construct in a multichannel news environment. The International Journal on Media Management, 10 , 32–45.

Article   Google Scholar  

Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Ha, L. S. (2003). Internet business models for broadcasters: How television stations perceive and integrate the Internet. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47 (4), 597–617.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Jung, J. (2001). Strategizing the net business: How the U.S. television networks diversify, brand, and compete in the age of the Internet. The International Journal on Media Management, 3 (4), 213–225.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Kim, Y. (2001). Perceptions of branding among television station managers: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45 (1), 75–91.

Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Park, J. S. (2000). From on-air to online world: Examining the content and structures of broadcast TV stations’ web sites. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77 (2), 321–339.

Eastman, S. T. (2000). Orientation to promotion and research. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 3–18). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Eastman, S. T. (2006). Designing on-air, print, and online promotion. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 127–162). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Eastman, S. T., & Billings, A. C. (2000). Promotion in and about sports programming. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 203–230). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Eastman, S. T., & Bolls, P. D. (2000). Structure and content in promotion research. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 55–100). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Eble, M. (2012). Medienmarken im Social Web. Wettbewerbsstrategien und Leistungsindikatoren von Online-Medien in Zeitungs- und Zeitschriftenverlagen aus medienökonomischer Perspektive [Media brands in social media. Competitive strategy and performance indicators of online media in publishing houses from a media economic perspective]. Bonn: Dissertation an der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn. Online: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2012/2861/2861.pdf ; zuletzt am 02.02.2014.

Engels, K. (2005). Kritik der Praxis: Chancen und Zwänge der Medienkritik [Critique of the praxis: Challenges and constraints of media critique]. In R. Weiß (Ed.), Zur Kritik der Medienkritik. Wie Zeitungen das Fernsehen beobachten [The critique of media critique. How print media monitor television] (pp. 497–524). Berlin: vistas.

Ferguson, D. A. (2000). Online program promotion. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 323–347). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ferguson, D. A. (2006). Network television promotion. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 163–190). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Ferguson, D. A., & Adams, W. J. (2006). Local television promotion: News, syndication, and sales. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 59–98). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Förster, K. (2011a). TV-Markenführung: Besonderheiten, Strategien und Instrumente [TV brand management: Characteristics, strategies and instruments]. In K. Förster (Ed.), Strategien erfolgreicher TV-Marken. Eine internationale Analyse [Strategies of successfull TV brands. An international analysis] (pp. 9–30). Wiesbaden: VS.

Förster, K. (2011b). TV-Markenführungsstrategien: Erfolgsfaktoren und Benchmarks [Strategies in TV brand management. Success factors and benchmarks]. In K. Förster (Ed.), Strategien erfolgreicher TV-Marken. Eine internationale Analyse [Strategies of successfull TV brands. An international analysis] (pp. 216–229). Wiesbaden: VS.

Förster, K. (2015). An audience-centered perspective on media brands: Theoretical considerations, empirical results and ‘White Spaces’. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding . Cham: Springer.

Friedrichsen, M., & Friedrichsen, S. (2004). Fernsehwerbung - quo vadis? Auf dem Weg in die digitale Medienwelt [TV advertising—Quo vadis? On the way to a digital mediapolis]. Wiesbaden: VS.

Gantz, W., & Schwartz, N. C. (2000). Promotion in children’s programming. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 163–201). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Gehrke, G., & Hohlfeld, R. (1996). Wege zur Theorie des Rundfunkwandels. Fernsehorganisationen zwischen publizistischen Zielvorstellungen und systemischem Eigensinn [Ways to a theory of change in broadcasting. TV organizations between media goals and systemic stubbornness]. Opladen: Westdeutscher.

Gerth, M. A., Russi, L., & Siegert, G. (2012). Functional values and brand personality: The perception of consumers and media professionals in six European countries . Zürich: Working Paper of IMPZ—Media economics management division No. 9. Online: http://www.zora.uzh.ch/79873/1/09_-_mag_lr_GS_-_Functional_values_and_brand_personality.pdf ; zuletzt am 03.02.2014.

Hashmi, Y. (2000). The impact of the Internet. World Broadcast Engeneering, 23 (6), 26–28.

Hunt, T., & Grunig, J. (1994). Public relations techniques . Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College.

Klein, R. A. (2006). Cable marketing and promotion. In Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 191–222). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Klimmt, C., Krämer, B. & Weinacht, S. (2012). Medienpersonen als Repräsentanten von Sendern im TV-Markt [Media staff representing stations in the TV market]. In J. Müller-Lietzkow (Ed.), Ökonomie, Qualität und Management von Unterhaltungsmedien [Economy, quality and management of entertainment media] (pp. 179–200). Baden-Baden: nomos.

Knobloch, S. (2003). Werbestrategien der deutschen Medien. Einsatz von Media-Werbung, Eigenwerbung und Cross-Promotion [Advertising strategies of German media. Usage of media advertising, self-advertising and cross promotion]. Medien und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 51 (1), 38–54.

Kornmeier, M. (2007). Wissenschaftstheorie und wissenschaftliches Arbeiten [Philosophy of science and academic research]. Heidelberg: Physica/Springer.

Krebs, I., & Reichel, K. (2014). Halten Medienmarken ihr Qualitätsversprechen [Do media brands keep up with their promises in quality]? In F. Lobigs & G. von Nordheim (Eds.), Journalismus ist kein Geschäftsmodell [Journalism is not a business model]. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Krebs, I., & Siegert, G. (2015). 20 Years of research on media brands and media branding. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding . Cham: Springer.

Lin, C. A., & Jeffers, L. W. (2001). Comparing distinctions and similarities across websites of newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 78 (3), 555–574.

Linke, T., & Pickl, D. (2000). Mit Selbstkritik durch den Mediendschungel - die Strukturen des deutschen Medienjournalismus und das Selbstverständnis der Medienredakteure [Through media jungle by self-criticism. Structures of German media journalism and self concepts of media editors]. Communicatio Socialis, 33 , 18–43.

Malik, M. (2004). Journalismusjournalismus. Funktion, Strukturen und Strategien der journalistischen Selbstthematisierung [Journalism journalism. Functions, structures and strategies of journalistic self-presentation]. Wiesbaden: VS.

Malmelin, N., & Moisander, J. (2014). Brands and branding in media management. Toward a research agenda. The International Journal on Media Management, 16 , 9–25.

Masiclat, S., & Klein, R. A. (2006). New media promotion. In Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 223–245). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Mayring, P. (2003). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken [Qualitative content analysis. Basics and techniques]. Weinheim: Beltz.

McDowell, W. S. (2002). We’re number one: Manipulating perceived market rankings to induce a placebo effect in credibility evaluations of a local newscast. New Jersey Journal of Communication, 10 (2), 228–241.

McDowell, W. S. (2004a). Exploring a free association methodology to capture and differentiate abstract media brand associations: A study of three cable news networks. Journal of Media Economics, 17 (4), 304–320.

McDowell, W. S. (2004b). Selling the niche: A qualitative content analysis of cable network business-to-business advertising. International Journal on Media Management, 6 (3–4), 217–225.

McDowell, W. S. (2006). Issues in marketing and branding. In A. B. Albarran & S. M. Chan-Olmsted (Eds.), Handbook of media management and economics (pp. 229–250). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

McDowell, W. S. (2007). The relation between the customer-based brand equity of media outlets and their media channel credibility: An exploratory study. International Journal on Media Management, 9 (3), 116–125.

McDowell, W. S. (2011). The brand management crisis facing the business of journalism. International Journal on Media Management, 13 (1), 37–51.

McDowell, W. S., & Battan, A. (2005). Branding TV. Principles & practices . Amsterdam: Focal Press.

McGovern, G. (2001). Content builds brands online. The International Journal on Media Management, 3 (4), 198–201.

Merten, K. (2013). Konzeption von Kommunikation. Theorie und Praxis des strategischen Kommunikationsmanagements [Conceptualizing communication. Theory and practical experience of strategic communication management]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Newton, G. D. (2006). Marketing radio. In S. T. Eastman, D. A. Ferguson, & R. A. Klein (Eds.), Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet (pp. 31–57). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Newton, G. D., & Potter, R. F. (2000). Promotion of radio. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 297–321). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Norbäck, M. (2005). Cross-promotion and branding of media product portfolios. In R. G. Picard (Ed.), Media product portfolios: Issues in management of multiple products and services (pp. 139–166). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ots, M. (2008). Media and brands: New ground to explore. In M. Ots (Ed.), Media brands and branding (pp. 1–7). Jönköping: JIBS Research Report Series No. 2008-1. Online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:36522/FULLTEXT01 ; zuletzt am 03.02.2014.

Ots, M., & Wolff, P.-E. (2007). Consumer brand equity of the media: The value perceptions of professional media buyers . New York: The Donald McGannon Communication Research Center Working Paper. Online: http://www.fordham.edu/images/undergraduate/communications/ots%20-%20media%20consumer%20brand%20equity.pdf ; zuletzt am 03.02.2014.

Perse, E. M. (2000). Applying theory to the practice of promotion. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 19–53). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Picard, R. G. (2004). A note on economic losses due to theft, infringement, and piracy of protected works. Journal of Media Economics, 17 , 207–217.

Porlezza, C. (2006). Qualitätssicherung durch Selbstbespiegelung. Funktionen und Potenziale des Medienjournalismus [Quality management by self-adulation. Functions and capabilities of media journalism]. Journalistik Journal, 9 (2), 10.

Przyborski, A., & Wohlrab-Sahr, M. (2010). Qualitative Sozialforschung [Qualitative social research]. München: Oldenbourg.

Reinemann, C., & Huismann, J. (2007). Beziehen sich Medien immer mehr auf Medien? Dimensionen, Belege, Erklärungen [Do media increasingly refer to themselves? Dimensions, evidence, explications]. Publizistik, 52 (4), 465–484.

Rössler, P. (2001). Wer thematisiert wen - und warum? Anmerkungen und ergänzende empirische Befunde zum Projektmodul “Selbstthematisierung der Medien” [Who presents whom—And why? Notes and additional empirical indications on the project module “self-presentation of media”]. Medien-Journal, 25 (1/2), 60–72.

Siegert, G. (2000). Medienmanagement als Marketingmanagement [Media management as marketing management]. In M. Karmasin & C. Winter (Eds.), Grundlagen des Medienmanagements [Basic media management] (pp. 173–195). München: Wilhelm Fink.

Siegert, G. (2001a). Medien Marken Management. Relevanz, Spezifika und Implikationen einer medienökonomischen Profilierungsstrategie [Media brand management. Relevance, specifics and implications of a media economical profiling strategy]. München: R. Fischer.

Siegert, G. (2001b). Mediale Selbstthematisierung. Phänomene und theoretische Erklärungsansätze [Self-presentation of media. Phenomena and approaches of theoretical explanation]. In R. Renger, G. Siegert, & J. Neissl (Eds.), Cash und Content. Populärer Journalismus und mediale Selbstthematisierung als Phänomene eines ökonomisierten Mediensystems. Eine Standortbestimmung am Beispiel ausgewählter österreichischer Medien [Cash and content. Popular journalism and self-presentation of media as phenomena of a commercialised media system. An assessment of the current situation using chosen Austrian media as an example] (pp. 205–254). München: R. Fischer.

Siegert, G. (2001c). Wir über uns. Zur Selbstthematisierung der Medien [Our story. On self-presentation of media]. Medien Journal, 1 (2), 50–59.

Siegert, G. (2008). Self promotion: Pole position in media brand management. In M. Ots (Ed.), Media brands and branding (pp. 11–26). Jönköping: JIBS Research Report Series No. 2008-1. Online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:36522/FULLTEXT01 ; zuletzt am 03.02.2014.

Siegert, G., Gerth, M. A., & Rademacher, P. (2011). Brand identity-driven decision making by journalists and media managers—The MBAC model as a theoretical framework. International Journal on Media Management, 13 , 53–70.

Tarkiainen, A., Ellonen, H.-K., Kuivalainen, O., Horppu, M., & Wolff, P.-E. (2008). Magazine online brand extensions: Do they really affect brand loyalty? In M. Ots (Ed.), Media brands and branding (pp. 53–78). Jönköping: JIBS Research Report Series No. 2008-1. Online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:36522/FULLTEXT01 ; zuletzt am 03.02.2014.

Tropp, J. (2014). Moderne Marketing-Kommunikation [Modern marketing communication]. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Walker, J. R. (2000). Sex and violence in program promotion. In S. T. Eastman (Ed.), Research in media promotion (pp. 101–126). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Walker, J. R., & Eastman, S. T. (2003). On-air promotion effectiveness for programs of different genres, familiarity, and audience demographics. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47 (4), 618–637.

Weber, A. (2012). Medienmarken im Internet. Identifizierung und Beschreibung von Einflussfaktoren am Beispiel österreichischer Tageszeitungen [Media brands on the Internet. Identification and description of impact factors using Austrian daily newspapers as an example]. Wien: Magisterarbeit an der Universität Wien. Online: http://othes.univie.ac.at/18262/1/2011-12-29_0508477.pdf ; zuletzt am 02.02.2014.

Weinacht, S. (2009). Medienmarketing im Redaktionellen [Media marketing in editorial content]. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Weinacht, S., & Hohlfeld, R. (2007). Das Hofnarren-Komplott. Deskriptiv-theoretische Herleitung von Entgrenzung und Selbstthematisierung im Journalismus [The jesters’‚ conspiracy. Descriptive-theoretical derivation of delimitation and self-presentation in journalism]. In A. Scholl, R. Renger, & B. Blöbaum (Eds.), Journalismus und Unterhaltung. Theoretische Ansätze und empirische Befunde [Journalism and entertainment. Theoretical approaches and empirical evidence] (pp. 157–207). Wiesbaden: VS.

Wolff, P.-E. (2006). TV MarkenManagement. Strategische und operative Markenführung. Mit Sender-Fallstudien [TV brand management. Strategical and operative brand management. With case studies of stations]. München: R. Fischer.

Wolter, L.-C. (2014). Medien- und Markenforschung in der Welt grenzenloser Öffentlichkeit. Zentrale Leistungsparameter dyadischer Marken-Fan-Beziehungen [Research on media and brands in a world of unlimited publicity. Core performance parameters of dyadic brand-fan-relationships]. In I. Sjurts (Ed.), Zehn Jahre sind ein Jahr. Kernthemen der medienwirtschaftlichen Forschung der letzten Dekade [Ten years are one year. Core issues of research in media economics during the last decade] (pp. 249–277). Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Wolter, L.-C. (2015). Generating social buzz for media brands: Conceptualizing social network word of mouth. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding . Cham: Springer.

Wolter, L., & Fantapié Altobelli, C. (2012). Potenziale Sozialer Netzwerke für Printmedienmarken. Überblick zu ersten empirischen Erkenntnissen aus der Forschung [Capabilities of social networks for print media brands. Literature review on first empirical findings of research]. MedienWirtschaft, 4 , 24–35.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Westfälische Hochschule, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Stefan Weinacht

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Weinacht .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

IPMZ Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Gabriele Siegert

Institute of Journalism, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Kati Förster

College of Journalism and Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted

Transformation Center MMTC-Media Management, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Weinacht, S. (2015). Marketing Communication of Media Brands: A Literature Review. In: Siegert, G., Förster, K., Chan-Olmsted, S., Ots, M. (eds) Handbook of Media Branding. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18236-0_16

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18236-0_16

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-18235-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-18236-0

eBook Packages : Business and Economics Business and Management (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Integrated Marketing Communication: A Literature Review

Marketing is an integral part of every organization and the term marketing communications was initially seen to be a managerial task. Most marketing communication methodologies are focused on advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and public relations. The new technological innovations provide an opportunity to enhance the visibility products and promotions. Further, they actively engage consumers through various media. Due to the continuous development and innovations in the digital media the original proposal of IMC framework has become partially or fully obsolete. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the theoretical review of IMC during the last decade.

Related Papers

ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

Anda Batraga

Communication & Society Vol. 25 Issue 1 pp. 313-348

Lucia Porcu , Philip Kitchen

Since the mid-1990’s, the concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) has come to the fore and attracted considerable attention in the literature. The main purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to explore IMC by delimitating its conceptual boundaries and identifying its main dimensions and (2) to develop a whole theoretical model of its antecedents and consequences.

Marketing of Scientific and Research Organizations

Mirosława Olearnik

Integrated marketing communication evolves evidently with the development of today's markets, their participants and technology - in the light of contemporary research. The objectives of this article are: firstly, to show the evolution of the models of integrated marketing communication ICM in the light of current research; secondly, to analyse the configuration of various ICM tools (traditional and Internet) which constitute the level of operationalization of ICM models and thirdly, to formulate business and brand implications. The article is based on research-based secondary sources (scientific journals) and empirical (case study). The results of the discussion are: the concept of the strategic dimension of integrated marketing communications in the enterprise and the proposal of its operationalization in the form of a 360 degrees communication model.

Journal of Global Academic Institute Education & Social Sciences (JGAIESS)

Helpris Estaswara

Development of IMC conceptualization in the academic domain has reaped many pros and cons since its inception in the early 1980s. Although the meaning of IMC has become similar among its main thinkers, it is still identified academics who consider IMC as an extended version of advertising and marketing communications disciplines. Responding to these meaning differences on IMC there is a third party which is important to be heard, IMC educators. Given that educators are one of the stakeholders who are not only responsible for education of the next generation of practitioners and academics, but also define the IMC in classroom, the educator is thus at the vanguard of the deployment of IMC disciplines to the next generation. What is taught in the classroom is reflected in the syllabus made. The syllabus itself is a manifestation of teaching and the main guideline in the teaching-learning process. Based on that idea, the syllabi review includesa written record of how lecturers accept, adopt and implement IMC which is an important method of documenting the development of IMC teaching. This study was conductedfirstly, to explain the meaning of IMC that is taught in Magister program in Indonesia which is traced from the syllabus as a lecture material; and secondly, to explore the gap between state of the art of IMC conceptualization and the understanding of IMC subjects taught in mastersprograms in Indonesia. A qualitative approach is used in this study and five syllabuses of mastersprograms in major universities in Jakarta used as a sample in which it is assumed that the universities and its educators in Jakarta, both public and private, are the trend setters of educational models in Indonesia.

Mengling Fang

SOCIETY. INTEGRATION. EDUCATION. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference

Santa Bormane

Integrated marketing communications are developing, with IMC approaches to communication with consumers seeing further enhancements in the scientific literature. However, in order to reach the marketing targets, a variety of IMC tools may be used in combination when implementing marketing activities. Despite each IMC tool in itself being highly distinctive, they all depend on each other in the creation of product consumption value and the enhancement of economic, communicational and social benefits. Purpose of the paper: The goal of the research is to assess the integrated marketing communications used in the marketing strategy of Latvian food retail chains. Methodology/methods: The following scientific research methods are used in the research study: analytical, comparative, graphical, statistical, observatory and interrogative. The research focuses on the Latvian food retail sector, with leading specialists from all Latvian food retail chains polled. The object of the research is ...

Nowadays, in the context of digital marketing and social media development, with the advantages given by technologies and the vast possibilities of communication among consumers, businesses find the implementation of integrated marketing communication influenced by the Internet as a marketing communication environment where businesses are urged into a customer-centric approach by the consumers’ changing habits of receiving information. This results in an increased role of content marketing, relationship orientation, dialogue and network communication, management of multiple stakeholders etc., which envisages consumer involvement with a view to mitigating the consequences caused by the obstacles to marketing communication – loss of control over corporate communication and being adversely affected by invisible communication. Aim of the research was to study and assess integrated marketing communications in the context of digital marketing and its influence upon buyers’ buying decision...

Nauki o Zarządzaniu

Magdalena Daszkiewicz

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Raji Ridwan Adetunji , S. Nordin

Beba Rakic , Mira Rakic

Shishupal Bhadu

Studies in Business and Economics

Oana Duralia

Winyoo Weerananthawet

Procedia Economics and Finance

Yoko Sariputra

Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Sharia Economics (IIJSE)

Gunawan Widjaja

IAEME Publication

International Journal of Marketing Studies

Sweta Kumari

David W Pickton

Edward Malthouse

International Journal of Advertising

Jacob Goodlich

Sandy Bulmer , Philip Kitchen

Estudos em Comunicação, nº 29

David Alameda García , Sonia Carcelén

diaconu mihaela

Ljupka Naumovska

European Journal of Marketing

Lucia Porcu

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Communication Studies *: The Literature Review

• Electronic Books
• Citation Tracking
• Conference Proceedings & White Papers
• Find the Full Text
• Broadcasts/Transcripts/Speeches
• Latino Newspapers
• Current News
• General Statistics
• Public Opinion
• Market Research
• Company Research
• Online videos
• Tests/Measures
• DVD Collection
• More Guides
• Research Tools
• RefWorks 2.0
• RefWorks 2.0 Tutorials
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Databases for Literature Review
• Government Websites

A literature review surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits into the larger field of study.

All contect is from a Literature Review please refer to the sub-tab under The Literature Review created by Dr. Robert Larabee.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simple a summary of key sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant, or
• usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

The purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the research problem being studied,
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration,
• Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in previous research,
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies,
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort,
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research, and
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature.

All contect is from The Literature Review created by Dr. Robert Larabee.

Types of Literature Reviews

As Kennedy (2007) notes*, it is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the original studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally that become part of the lore of field. In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews.

Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are several approaches to how they can be done, depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study. Listed below are definitions of types of literature reviews:

Argumentative Review      This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews.

Integrative Review      Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication.

Historical Review      Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical reviews are focused on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review      A review does not always focus on what someone said [content], but how they said it [method of analysis]. This approach provides a framework of understanding at different levels (i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches and data collection and analysis techniques), enables researchers to draw on a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection and data analysis, and helps highlight many ethical issues which we should be aware of and consider as we go through our study.

Systematic Review      This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?"

Theoretical Review      The purpose of this form is to concretely examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review help establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

* Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following :

• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
• Division of works under review into themes or categories (e.g. works that support of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely),
• An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

• Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence (e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings)?
• Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most/least convincing?
• Value -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  The Development of the Literature Review

Four stages : 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not very specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources should I include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature reviews. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read are also excellent entry points into your own research. Narrow the Topic The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make your job easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the HOMER catalog for books about the topic and review their contents for chapters that focus on more specific issues. You can also review the subject indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is very common in the sciences where research conducted only two years ago could be obsolete. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed because what is important is how perspectives have changed over the years or within a certain time period. Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is consider by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronological of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression of revealed a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematic (“conceptual categories”) Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it will still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The only difference here between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note however that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Interbnet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you but include only what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship framework.

Here are examples of other sections you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

• Current Situation : information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature review.
• History : the chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods : the criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals.
• Standards : the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are okay if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute your own summary and interpretation of the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to their own work. Keep Your Own Voice While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice (the writer's) should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature are that the researcher:

• does not clearly relate the findings of the literature review to the research problem;
• does not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevent sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
• relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including primary research studies or data;
• uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
• does not describe the search procedures that were used in the literature review;
• reports isolated statistical results rather than sythesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
• only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every discipline has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to this part of writing a research paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. How are they structuring their ideas? What methods have they used to study the problem? What sources have they cited to support of their conclusions? How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've adequately reviewed the research literature:

• Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge as new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
• Look at the sources authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been introduced to the research question.
• Search the World of Knowledge Citation database and Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline.
• << Previous: Ratings
• Next: Citation Tracking >>
• Last Updated: Jul 12, 2024 1:43 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/communication

A Comprehensive Literature Review on Marketing Strategies Adopting by Various Industries

9 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2022

Rashini Hansika

Uva Wellassa University, Faculty of Management

Date Written: December 20, 2022

Marketing is the process of promoting and selling products and services, including market research and advertising. Today, marketing is an essential part of any organization's growth strategy. Many firms use marketing methods unknowingly to promote themselves and increase sales of their products and services. Marketing is one of the most crucial elements of organizations nowadays. Any strategy used to assist a group, company, or individual in accomplishing their objectives falls under the very broad category known as marketing. The goals of marketing are to raise brand awareness among the target market, increase market share, introduce the firm to new domestic or international markets, boost ROI, increase business profit, optimize the conversion funnel, acquire new leads, foster customer loyalty, and boost sales. A marketing strategy is a company's overarching plan for connecting with potential customers and persuading them to purchase its products or services. A marketing plan typically includes the value proposition of the company, key brand messages, data on target customer demographics, and other significant elements.

Keywords: Marketing Strategy, Premium pricing

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Rashini Hansika (Contact Author)

Uva wellassa university, faculty of management ( email ), do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on ssrn, paper statistics.

Multi-Conference Proceeding Series E

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

A Systematic Literature Review of Digital Marketing Communication: A Review of Extant Research and Future Directions

Corresponding author(s) : mira maulani utami.

Nusantara Science and Technology Proceedings , Multi-Conference Proceeding Series E Article Published : Dec 23, 2023

• Authors Details

Digital marketing communication, communication through digital or electronic media among businesses or electronic media among businesses and consumers, is quickly rapidly. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of existing study trends in digital marketing communication research. Based on a review of numerous international scientific journals. The study used Publish or Perish with Scopus (Q1-Q4) as a database and conducted a thorough examination. Bibliometric technique using Vosviewer is being implemented on this research.  Then, to categorize and discuss prospective future research, an input-process-output framework was applied. A Total of 111 articles published in journals from 2013 to 2023 were selected.  This study highlights the evolving volume of studies, and keywords. This study provides future directions for research on digital marketing communication. This study reveals  5 findings, first, digital marketing communication research is integrated with digital marketing communication and competitive advantage, second digital marketing communication in the context of tourism should be improved, third research on digital marketing communication in developed countries is more advanced than in developing countries, fifth,  most of the research is in the context of Business to Consumer, on the other hand, that the context of Business to Business is very necessary to be analyzed . Based on literature synthesis, the study provides insights into practical managerial implications and provides the groundwork for future studies. This study will help researchers understand the role and influence of digital marketing. These approaches can offer the insights that managers need to better formulate digital.

Full Article

Download citation, table of contents.

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Comprehensive study on the determinants of green behaviour of slovenian consumers: the role of marketing communication, lifestyle, psychological, and social determinants.

1. Introduction

2. literature review, 2.1. exploring the green attitude–behaviour gap in sustainable consumption, 2.2. psychological determinants, 2.3. marketing communication, 2.4. lifestyle, 2.5. social determinants, 2.6. research framework, 3. materials and methods, 3.1. sample, 3.2. data collection, 3.3. data validation, 3.4. data analysis, 5. discussion, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

• Nieuwenhuis, P.; Touboulic, A. Sustainable Consumption, Production and Supply Chain Management: Advancing Sustainable Economic Systems ; Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, 2021. [ Google Scholar ]
• Maheshwari, S.P. Awareness of green marketing and its influence on buying behavior of consumers: Special reference to Madhya Pradesh, India. J. Manag. Res. 2014 , 8 , 0974-497. [ Google Scholar ]
• Harring, N.; Jagers, S.C.; Matti, S. Public Support for Pro-Environmental Policy. Sustainability 2017 , 9 , 679. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Balderjahn, I.; Hüttel, A. Why Consumers Buy Sustainably: The Role of Personal Values. Mark. ZFP 2019 , 41 , 24–38. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cialdini, R.B.; Goldstein, N.J. Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2004 , 55 , 591–621. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dewi, H.P. Determination of Green Marketing Strategies Through Marketing Communication in the Business World in the Society 5.0 Era. In Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Management, Online, 27–28 May 2021; Murhadi, W.R., Anandya, D., Kresna, N.D., Dyah, J.T., Mahadwartha, P.A., Eds.; Atlantis Prese: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2021; pp. 181–187. [ Google Scholar ]
• Fischer, D.; Reinermann, J.L.; Mandujano, G.G.; DesRoches, C.T.; Diddi, S.; Vergrgt, P.J. Sustainable consumption communication: A review of an emerging field of research. J. Clean. Prod. 2021 , 300 , 126880. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Moldovan, M.G.; Dabija, D.C.; Pocol, C.B. Resources Management for a Resilient World: A Literature Review of Eastern European Countries with Focus on Household Behaviour and Trends Related to Food Waste. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 7123. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rac, I.; Juvančič, L.; Erjavec, E. Stimulating collective action to preserve High Nature Value farming in post-transitional settings. A comparative analysis of three Slovenian social-ecological systems. Nat. Conserv. 2020 , 39 , 87–111. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gorzelak, G. Regional Policies in East-Central Europe. In Handbook of Regional Science ; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2021; pp. 1087–1113. [ Google Scholar ]
• Licastro, A.; Sergi, B.S. Drivers and barriers to a green economy: A review of selected Balkan countries. Clean. Eng. Technol. 2021 , 4 , 100228. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kozak, M. Post-Communist Transition and Integration: Slovenia’s Experience. J. East Eur. Manag. Stud. 2017 , 22 , 342–360. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lim, W.M.; Weissmann, M.A. Toward a theory of behavioral control. J. Strateg. Mark. 2023 , 31 , 185–211. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Imani, B.; Allahyari, M.S.; Bondori, A.; Surujlal, J.; Sawicka, B. Determinants of Organic Food Purchases Intention: The Application of an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. Future Food J. Food Agric. Soc. 2021 , 9 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Testa, F.; Pretner, G.; Iovino, R.; Bianchi, G.; Tessitore, S.; Iraldo, F. Drivers to Green Consumption: A Systematic Review. Environ. Dev. Sustain. 2021 , 23 , 4826–4880. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Joshi, Y.; Kabra, G. Demand Side of the Sustainable Supply Chain (Consumers’ Sustainable Practices): A Conceptual Review. Supply Chain Sustain. Model. Innov. Res. Framew. 2020 , 2 , 119. [ Google Scholar ]
• Vermeir, I.; Verbeke, W. Sustainable food consumption among young adults in Belgium: Theory of planned behaviour and the role of confidence and values. Ecol. Econ. 2008 , 64 , 542–553. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Yang, M.; Chen, H.; Long, R. Will the public pay for green products? Based on analysis of the influencing factors for Chinese’s public willingness to pay a price premium for green products. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2021 , 28 , 61408–61422. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Krsnik, S.; Erjavec, K.; Klopčič, M. Impact of Citizens’ Personal Values, Knowledge, Awareness, Informing, Advertising, and Truth of Environmental and Climate Challenges in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 7333. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• European Commission. Attitudes of European Citizens towards the Environment. 2024. Available online: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3173 (accessed on 14 June 2024).
• Gleim, M.; Lawson, S.J. Spanning the gap: An examination of the factors leading to the green gap. J. Consum Market. 2014 , 31 , 503–514. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Park, H.J.; Lin, L.M. Exploring attitude behavior gap in sustainable consumption: Comparison of recycled and upcycled fashion products. J. Bus. Res. 2020 , 117 , 623–627. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Di Fabio, A.; Rosen, M.A. Opening the Black Box of Psychological Processes in the Science of Sustainable Development: A New Frontier. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. Res. 2018 , 2 , 47. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ajzen, I. The theory of planned behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process 1991 , 50 , 179–211. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ajzen, I.; Fishbein, M. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior ; Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, 1980. [ Google Scholar ]
• ElHaffar, G.; Durif, F.; Dubé, L. Towards closing the attitude-intention-behavior gap in green consumption: A narrative review of the literature and an overview of future research directions. J. Clean. Prod. 2020 , 275 , 122556. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sharma, N.; Lal, M.; Goel, P.; Sharma, A.; Rana, N.P. Being socially responsible: How green self-identity and locus of control impact green purchasing intentions? J. Clean. Prod. 2022 , 357 , 131895. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jung, H.J.; Choi, Y.J.; Oh, K.W. Influencing Factors of Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intention to Sustainable Apparel Products: Exploring Consumer “Attitude–Behavioral Intention” Gap. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 1770. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Young, W.; Hwang, K.; McDonald, S.; Oates, C.J. Sustainable consumption: Green consumer behavior when purchasing products. Sustain. Dev. 2009 , 17 , 79–92. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vermeir, I.; Verbeke, W. Sustainable Food Consumption: Exploring the Consumer “Attitude—Behavioral Intention” Gap. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics. 2006 , 19 , 169–194. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Thøgersen, J. A cognitive dissonance interpretation of consistencies and inconsistencies in environmentally responsible behavior. J. Environ. Psychol. 2004 , 24 , 93–103. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hartmann, P.; Apaolaza-Ibáñez, V. Consumer attitude and purchase intention toward green energy brands: The roles of psychological benefits and environmental concern. J. Bus. Res. 2012 , 65 , 1254–1263. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Guan, T.; Meng, K.; Liu, W.; Xue, L. Public attitudes toward sustainable development goals: Evidence from five Chinese cities. Sustainability 2019 , 20 , 5793. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nayaki, A.V.K.S.; Revathy, B. An Empirical analysis of Environment Conscious and Awareness towards Eco-Friendly Products. Int. J. Recent Sci. Res. 2017 , 8 , 18373–18377. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bernyté, S. Sustainability Marketing Communications Based on Consumer Values and Principles. Reg. Form. Dev. Stud. 2018 , 26 , 26–35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chopra, S.; Chaudhary, M. Take a chance at making the world a better place: A paradigm for sustainable development through green marketing. Int. J. Multidiscip. Educ. Res. 2021 , 10 , 56–66. [ Google Scholar ]
• Iacobucci, D.; Gabriel, M.L.; Schneider, M.J.; Hamza, K.M. Marketing Research on Environmental Sustainability. In Continuing to Broaden the Marketing Concept: Making the World A Better Place ; Emerald Publishing Limited: Leeds, UK, 2020; Volume 17, pp. 261–292. [ Google Scholar ]
• Vermeir, I.; Weijters, B.; De Houwer, J.; Geuens, M.; Slabbinck, H.; Spruyt, A.; Verbeke, W. Environmentally Sustainable Food Consumption: A Review and Research Agenda from a Goal-Directed Perspective. Front. Psychol. 2020 , 11 , 1603. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kenny, T.A.; Woodside, J.V.; Perry, I.J.; Harrington, J.M. Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors toward More Sustainable Diets: A Scoping Review. Nutr. Rev. 2023 , 81 , 1665–1679. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Varmus, M.; Kubina, M. Marketing Communications and Its Sustainable Influence on Different Generations. In Proceedings of the Smart City 360°: First EAI International Summit, Smart City 360°, Bratislava, Slovakia; Toronto, ON, Canada, 13–16 October 2015; Revised Selected Papers 1. Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2016; pp. 681–691. [ Google Scholar ]
• Correia, E.; Sousa, S.; Viseu, C.; Larguinho, M. Analysing the influence of green marketing communication in consumers’ green purchase behaviour. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023 , 20 , 1356. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Braga, L.D.; Tardin, M.G.; Perin, M.G.; Boaventura, P. Sustainability Communication in Marketing: A Literature Review. RAUSP Manag. J. 2024; ahead-of-print . [ Google Scholar ]
• Bordian, M.; Gil-Saura, I.; Šerić, M. The Impact of Value Co-Creation in Sustainable Services: Understanding Generational Differences. J. Serv. Mark. 2023 , 37 , 155–167. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ray, S.; Nayak, L. Marketing Sustainable Fashion: Trends and Future Directions. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 6202. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shabbir, M.S.; Sulaiman, M.A.B.A.; Al-Kumanim, N.H.; Mahmood, A.; Abbas, M. Green Marketing Approaches and Their Impact on Consumer Behavior towards the Environment—A Study from the UAE. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 8977. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Witek, L.; Kuźniar, W. Green Purchase Behavior: The Effectiveness of Sociodemographic Variables for Explaining Green Purchases in Emerging Market. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 209. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sörqvist, P. Grand challenges in environmental psychology. Front. Psychol. 2016 , 7 , 583. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Matharu, G.K.; von der Heidt, T.; Sorwar, G.; Sivapalan, A. What Motivates Young Indian Consumers to Buy Organic Food? J. Int. Consum. Mark. 2022 , 34 , 497–516. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lubowiecki-Vikuk, A.; Dąbrowska, A.; Machnik, A. Responsible Consumer and Lifestyle: Sustainability Insights. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2021 , 25 , 91–101. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Stegeman, I.; Godfrey, A.; Romeo-Velilla, M.; Bell, R.; Staatsen, B.; Van der Vliet, N.; Costongs, C. Encouraging and enabling lifestyles and behaviours to simultaneously promote environmental sustainability, health and equity: Key policy messages from inherit. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020 , 17 , 7166. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Glavič, P. Evolution and Current Challenges of Sustainable Consumption and Production. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 9379. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Haider, M.; Shannon, R.; Moschis, G.P. Sustainable Consumption Research and the Role of Marketing: A Review of the Literature (1976–2021). Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 3999. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Quoquab, F.; Mohammad, J. A Review of Sustainable Consumption (2000 to 2020): What We Know and What We Need to Know. J. Glob. Mark. 2020 , 33 , 305–334. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Figueroa-García, E.C.; García-Machado, J.J.; Perez-Bustamante Yabar, D.C. Modeling the Social Factors That Determine Sustainable Consumption Behavior in the Community of Madrid. Sustainability 2018 , 10 , 2811. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ogiemwonyi, O. Determinants of Green Behavior (Revisited): A Comparative Study. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. Adv. 2024 , 22 , 200214. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Asuamah Yeboah, S. Sustaining Change: Unravelling the Socio-Cultural Threads of Sustainable Consumption ; MPRA Paper 117981; UB University of Munich: Munich, Germany, 2023. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bhattarai, H.; Tai, A.P.; Martin, M.V.; Yung, D.H. Responses of Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Air Quality to Future Climate, Land Use, and Emission Changes: Insights from Modeling across Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Sci. Total Environ. 2024 , 948 , 174611. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ghaffar, A.; Islam, T. Factors Leading to Sustainable Consumption Behavior: An Empirical Investigation among Millennial Consumers. Kybernetes 2024 , 53 , 2574–2592. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kwon, J.; Ahn, J. Socio-demographic characteristics and green consumption behavior in developing countries: The case of Malaysia. Soc. Responsib. J. 2021 , 17 , 1213–1231. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Elhoushy, S.; Lanzini, P. Factors Affecting Sustainable Consumer Behavior in the MENA Region: A Systematic Review. J. Int. Consum. Mark. 2021 , 33 , 256–279. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dimitrova, T.; Ilieva, I.; Angelova, M. Exploring Factors Affecting Sustainable Consumption Behaviour. Adm. Sci. 2022 , 12 , 155. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• De Jesus, F.S.; Ramos, J.B.; Cunanan, M.T. Green Marketing: A Descriptive Analysis of its Influence on Consumer Buying Behavior. Int. J. Manag. Soc. Sci. 2021 , 17 , 56–63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pandey, R. Green Marketing Awareness and Its Effect on Consumer Buying Behavior. Int. J. Multidiscip. Innov. Res. 2021 , 1 , 31–37. [ Google Scholar ]
• Piligrimienė, Ž.; Žukauskaitė, A.; Korzilius, H.; Banyte, J. Internal and External Determinants of Consumer Engagement in Sustainable Consumption. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 1349. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anggraeni, R.; Islamy, T.N. Does Green Advertising Matter to Purchase Intention? A Study of Indonesia Green Family Business. Adv. Econ. Bus. Manag. Res. 2021 , 206 , 244–251. [ Google Scholar ]
• Appadurai, K.; Manivannan, R. Impact of green marketing on buying behaviour of consumers of chennai city—An empirical study. J. Posit. Sch. Psychol. 2022 , 6 , 7527–7533. [ Google Scholar ]
• Li, S.-C.S. Fear Appeals and College Students’ Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions toward Global Warming. J. Environ. Educ. 2014 , 45 , 243–257. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kidd, L.R.; Bakessy, S.A.; Garrard, G. Neither Hope nor Fear: Empirical Evidence Should Drive Biodiversity Conservation Strategies. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2019 , 34 , 278–282. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maciejewski, G.; Malinowska, M.; Kucharska, B.; Kucia, M.; Kolny, B. Sustainable Development as a Factor Differentiating Consumer Behavior: The Case of Poland. Eur. Res. Stud. J. 2021 , 24 , 934–948. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Prothero, A.; Dobscha, S.; Freund, J.; Killbourne, W.E. Sustainable consumption: Opportunities for consumer research and public policy. J. Public Policy Mark. 2011 , 30 , 31–38. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Qiao, D.; Xu, S.; Xu, T.; Hao, Q.; Zhong, Z. Gap between Willingness and Behaviors: Understanding the Consistency of Farmers’ Green Production in Hainan, China. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022 , 19 , 11351. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Hasebrook, J.P.; Michalak, L.; Wessels, A.; Koenig, S.; Spierling, S.; Kirmsse, S. Green Behavior: Factors Influencing Behavioral Intention and Actual Environmental Behavior of Employees in the Financial Service Sector. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 10814. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zabkar, V.; Hosta, M. Willingness to Act and Environmentally Conscious Consumer Behaviour: Can Prosocial Status Perceptions Help Overcome the Gap? Int. J. Consum. Stud. 2013 , 37 , 257–264. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Miller, L.B.; Rice, R.E.; Gustafson, A.; Goldberg, M. Relationships among Environmental Attitudes, Environmental Efficacy, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors across and within 11 Countries. Environ. Behav. 2022 , 54 , 1063–1096. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Moser, A.K. Thinking Green, Buying Green? Drivers of Pro-Environmental Purchasing Behavior. J. Consum. Mark. 2015 , 32 , 167–175. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Birkenbach, M.; Egloff, B. Effects of Matching Climate Change Appeals to Personal Values. Sci. Rep. 2024 , 14 , 6128. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Schiffman, L.; Wisenblit, J. Consumer Behavior , 12th ed.; Pearson Education: Essex, UK, 2019. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kim, W.; Cha, S. How Attributes of Green Advertising Affect Purchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Consumer Innovativeness. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 8723. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tran, N.Y.; León, I.A. The Effect of Visual Sources and Time Pressure on Environmental Perception and Attractiveness through the Advertisement. Tour. Hosp. Essent. J. 2019 , 9 , 1–12. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rahim, M.H.A.; Zukni, R.Z.J.A.; Ahmad, F.; Lyndon, N. Green advertising and environmentally responsible consumer behavior: The level of awareness and perception of Malaysian youth. Asian Soc. Sci. 2012 , 8 , 46–54. [ Google Scholar ]
• Majer, J.M.; Henscher, H.A.; Reuber, P.; Fischer-Kreer, D.; Fischer, D. The Effects of Visual Sustainability Labels on Consumer Perception and Behavior: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2022 , 33 , 1–14. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Margariti, K. “White” Space and Organic Claims on Food Packaging: Communicating Sustainability Values and Affecting Young Adults’ Attitudes and Purchase Intentions. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 11101. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vermeir, I.; Roose, G. Visual Design Cues Impacting Food Choice: A Review and Future Research Agenda. Foods 2020 , 9 , 1495. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Shen, W.; Gu, H.; Ball, L.J.; Yuan, Y.; Yu, C.; Shi, R.; Huang, T. The impact of advertising creativity, warning-based appeals and green dispositions on the attentional effectiveness of environmental advertisements. J. Clean. Prod. 2020 , 271 , 122618. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Taufique, K.M.R. Integrating Environmental Values and Emotion in Green Marketing Communications Inducing Sustainable Consumer Behaviour. J. Mark. Commun. 2022 , 28 , 272–290. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nguyen, N.P.; Le, P.B. The Impact of Consumers’ Cynicism towards Advertising on Their Attitude and Purchase Intention: An Investigation in Vietnam. Sustainability 2018 , 10 , 3756. [ Google Scholar ]
• Maslowska, E.; Malthouse, E.C.; Collinger, T. The Customer Engagement Ecosystem. J. Mark. Manag. 2016 , 32 , 469–501. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ng, S.C.; Sweeney, J.C.; Plewa, C. Customer Engagement: A Systematic Review and Future Research Priorities. Australas. Mark. J. 2020 , 28 , 235–252. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kronthal-Sacco, R.; Van Holt, T.; Atz, U.; Whelan, T. Sustainable Purchasing Patterns and Consumer Responsiveness to Sustainability Marketing Messages. J. Sustain. Res. 2020 , 2 , e200016. [ Google Scholar ]
• Suvagiya, D.; Sharma, S. Green Marketing: An Emerging Business Perspective Towards Sustainability. In Emerging Strategies for Sustainable Developlment-Global and Indian Context ; Sucharita, Y., Ed.; Srinivasa Printers: Mallapur, India, 2020; pp. 78–83. [ Google Scholar ]
• Peštek, A.; Činjarević, M. When Consumers are in Doubt, You Better Watch Out! The Moderating Role of Consumer Skepticism and Subjective Knowledge in the Context of Organic Food Consumption. Zagreb Int. Rev. Econ. Bus. 2018 , 21 , 1–14. [ Google Scholar ]
• Zaikauskaite, L.; Chen, X.; Tsivrikos, D. The Effects of Idealism and Relativism on the Moral Judgement of Social vs. Environmental Issues, and Their Relation to Self-Reported Pro-Environmental Behaviours. PLoS ONE 2020 , 15 , e0239707. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Polanska, K.; Znyk, M.; Kaleta, D. Susceptibility to Tobacco Use and Associated Factors among Youth in Five Central and Eastern European Countries. BMC Public Health 2022 , 22 , 72. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cirnu, C.E.; Kuralt, B. The impact of employees’ personal values on their attitudes toward sustainable development: Cases of Slovenia and Romania. Int. J. Contemp. Manag. 2013 , 18 , 1–20. [ Google Scholar ]
• Xu, F.; Fox, D. Modelling attitudes to nature, tourism and sustainable development in national parks: A survey of visitors in China and the UK. Tour. Manag. 2014 , 45 , 142–158. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wi, A.; Chang, C.H. Promoting pro-environmental behavior in a community in Singapore–from raising awareness to behavioral change. Environ. Educ. Res. 2019 , 25 , 1019–1037. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Paço, A.; Lavrador, T. Environmental knowledge and attitudes and behaviours towards energy consumption. J. Environ. Manag. 2017 , 197 , 384–392. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Carmi, N.; Arnon, S.; Orion, N. Transforming Environmental Knowledge Into Behavior: The Mediating Role of Environmental Emotions. J. Environ. Educ. 2015 , 46 , 183–201. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Polajnar Horvat, K. Okolju Prijazno Vedenje ; Založba ZRC: Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2015. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rampedi, I.T.; Ifegbesan, A.P. Understanding the Determinants of Pro-Environmental Behavior among South Africans: Evidence from a Structural Equation Model. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 3218. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ansar, N. Impact of Green Marketing on Consumer Purchase Intention. Mediterr. J. Soc. Sci. 2013 , 4 , 650–655. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Haytko, D.; Matulich, E. Green Advertising and Environmentally Responsible Consumer Behaviors: Linkages Examined. J. Manag. Mark. Res. 2008 , 1 , 2. [ Google Scholar ]
• Do Paço, A.M.F.; Reis, R. Factors affecting skepticism toward green advertising. J. Advert. 2012 , 41 , 147–155. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Stoimenova, B. Knowledge and attitudes about green consumption in Bulgaria. Econ. Themes 2016 , 54 , 499–515. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Petty, R.; Cacioppo, J. The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. Adv. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 1986 , 19 , 123–205. [ Google Scholar ]
• Eastman, A.S. Elaboration and the Logical and Affective Responses to Flood Risk Messages: Elaboration Likelihood Model and Information Processing Perspectives. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA, 2021. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wagner, B.C.; Petty, R.E. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion: Thoughtful and non-thoughtful social influence. In Theories in Social Psychology , 2nd ed.; Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, USA, 2022; pp. 120–142. [ Google Scholar ]
• D‘Souza, C.; Tay, R. Advertising implications and design of messages. Mark. Intell. Plan. 2016 , 34 , 504–522. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Varela-Candamio, L.; Novo-Corti, I.; García-Álvarez, M.T. The importance of environmental education in the determinants of green behavior: A meta-analysis approach. J. Clean. Prod. 2018 , 170 , 1565–1578. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Krsnik, S.; Erjavec, K. Comprehensive Study on the Determinants of Green Behaviour of Slovenian Consumers: The Role of Marketing Communication, Lifestyle, Psychological, and Social Determinants. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7555. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177555

Krsnik S, Erjavec K. Comprehensive Study on the Determinants of Green Behaviour of Slovenian Consumers: The Role of Marketing Communication, Lifestyle, Psychological, and Social Determinants. Sustainability . 2024; 16(17):7555. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177555

Krsnik, Sabina, and Karmen Erjavec. 2024. "Comprehensive Study on the Determinants of Green Behaviour of Slovenian Consumers: The Role of Marketing Communication, Lifestyle, Psychological, and Social Determinants" Sustainability 16, no. 17: 7555. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177555

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 31 August 2024

What kind of UGA is effective for heritage tourism marketing? Matching effects of human elements and review types

• Youcheng Chen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9323-7386 1   na1 ,
• Sunbowen Zhang 1   na1 ,
• Wenqi Ruan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8744-4488 2 ,
• Yongqiang Ma 1 ,
• Meiyu Wang 2 , 3 &
• Yan Zhou 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1114 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Business and management

User-generated advertising (UGA) is critical to heritage tourism marketing. However, there is a research gap on the impact mechanism of UGA essential elements. Through three scenario experiments, this study explored the matching effects between human elements and review types in UGA of heritage sites and discussed these effects on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. The findings revealed that (1) graphics with human elements are more effective when paired with subjective experience reviews, while graphics without human elements are better suited for cultural attribute reviews. (2) Matching effects positively influence potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours, and psychological distance and awe play mediating roles in this influencing process. Our work provides significant insights for heritage tourism advertising marketing and contributes to the tourism advertising research framework and the marketing competitiveness of heritage sites.

Similar content being viewed by others

Exploring textual–visual strategies in internet-based light food advertising: a study of Taobao advertisements in China

Impact of internet celebrities’ short videos on audiences’ visit intentions: Is beauty power?

Fado, urban popular song, and intangible heritage: perceptions of authenticity and emotions in TripAdvisor reviews

Introduction.

Heritage tourism plays a crucial role in preserving history, culture, and ancient wisdom (Lee et al. 2016 ). Currently, it has attracted great interest due to its rich cultural connotation and distinctive characteristics (Zhang et al. 2023b ). Heritage tourism revolves around the exploration and appreciation of distinctive historical structures, religious customs, traditional cuisine, and other cultural attributes. By October 2023, a total of 1199 World Heritage sites have been recognised and designated in 168 different countries around the world (UNESCO 2023 ). However, as tourism evolves and advances, heritage tourism is encountering mounting market competition (Wu et al. 2017 ). In particular, heritage tourism is not easily accepted due to its unique cultural attributes and characteristics, and it faces great challenges in tourism advertising and marketing (Zhang et al. 2023c ), which are posing new obstacles to ongoing heritage tourism (Miao et al. 2021 ). Hence, as the internet grows, it is critical to devise effective strategies to encourage tourists to engage in online interactive activities such as sharing and reviewing marketing advertisements (Bigne et al. 2019 ).

Tourism advertising contributes to promoting tourist attractions (Miao et al. 2021 ). In the heritage tourism context, tourists present dual roles as passive recipients of tourism marketing information and actively create and share cultural heritage information (Zhang et al. 2020 ). With tourists’ empowerment to share information online, heritage tourism companies are increasingly leveraging user-generated content (UGC) for marketing purposes. Therefore, tourists create user-generated advertising (UGA), where they share past experiences as the main content, which attracts tourists to engage and enhances the effectiveness of heritage tourism advertising (Wang et al. 2022 ). In particular, UGA combined with images and texts is a critical source for tourists to search for heritage tourism information and is widely respected by tourists in practice (Wang and Chen 2018 ).

Although current research on UGA and heritage tourism has yielded many theoretical findings, there are limitations to it. UGA research examines different advertisement types through internet-based methods and in-depth interviews (Ertimur and Gilly 2012 ), and UGA motivations and their impacts on audiences’ behavioural intentions (Guo and Wu 2023 ; Martinez-Navarro and Bigne 2022 ; Wang et al. 2022 ). However, academia has scarce comprehensive studies on the visual components and their impact on UGA. It is difficult to reveal the theoretical consequences of the correlation between the alignment of graphic text in UGC and its impact on advertising effectiveness. Moreover, existing heritage tourism research has adopted the resident and tourist perspectives (Zhang et al. 2023d ), which involve residents’ cognitive and behavioural intentions towards heritage sites (Liu et al. 2022 ; Yin et al. 2023 ). Simultaneously, scholars have directed their attention towards heritage tourism marketing and delved into tourists’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavioural intentions when visiting various heritage sites (Lee 2024 ; Zou et al. 2023 ). Specific marketing content that is used in heritage tourism advertising is limited (Miao et al. 2021 ). Researchers have conducted some studies on the influence of advertising visual imagery on tourists’ attitudes towards visiting heritage sites. However, these studies have not explored how the presence of human elements and different types of reviews in user-generated advertising can impact potential tourist behaviour.

Mobile social media has changed the way of information transmission in the traditional cultural tourism industry, and the Internet information transmission based on user experience is gradually becoming the main carrier of tourism products and information transmission. As the important information of user-generated advertisements, pictures and text are pointed out by schema theory that there is a significant interaction between them (Xu et al. 2008 ). The fine processing possibility model (ELM) further indicates that potential tourists will choose the degree of information processing according to factors such as UGA information content and their own information processing ability. When the combination of graphic and text information matches, the emotion generation of potential tourists will be promoted and positive behaviours will be formed (Wang and Chen 2018 ). Within advertising marketing realms, marketing organisations recognise the significance of incorporating human elements in visuals as the means to establish a distinct ambiance and narrative (Zhang et al. 2023b ). Similarly, review types that are expressed through written words serve as an effective method for conveying tourists’ evaluations and experiences when visiting historical sites (Yan et al. 2020 ). Among them, human elements in pictures can trigger emotional resonance, while text comments play the role of information transmission and interpretation. The matching effect between them can make advertising content more vivid and close to users’ psychological needs, and improve users’ trust and participation in advertising content (Wang and Chen 2018 ; Shahin et al. 2020 ). For heritage tourism marketers, they often need to use mobile social media organisations to attract tourists’ travel interest through high-quality user-generated graphic advertisements, so as to realise the marketing and promotion of heritage tourism destinations. However, there is less research on the relationships between human elements and review types in UGA. In particular, the impact of the online interaction behaviour of potential tourists has rarely been explored. Thus, this study aims to investigate how UGA influences potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours at heritage sites. We examine the matching of graphic-text UGA from different perspectives to solve the following issues: (1) How do human elements match review types to better inspire potential tourists’ online interactions? (2) Is there a specific intermediary mechanism of the adjustment?

This research objective is to investigate how the alignment of human elements and types of reviews in UGA at heritage sites affects potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours through three scenario experiments. Theoretically, our study enhances the understanding of potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in the heritage tourism context by incorporating UGA into the research framework. Furthermore, this study contributes to developing the theoretical system of heritage tourism research (Zou et al. 2023 ) and offers guidance for tourism advertising marketing. Additionally, it focuses on two specific components: human elements and review types, which also contribute to the existing UGA research by providing further enrichments (Wang et al. 2022 ). In practice, we propose the most effective advertising and marketing strategies based on unique heritage tourism circumstances, which guide heritage tourism sustainability.

Literature review

Elaboration likelihood model (elm).

Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is proposed by Petty and Cacioppo ( 1986 ). This theory is a dual-path model of individual persuasion effectiveness and attitude formation and change. According to the model, the change of individual attitude is mainly affected by two information processing paths: the central path and the edge path. Among them, on the central path, individual motivation is to process information within the scope of their ability to influence their behavioural willingness by considering information arguments and evaluating the attributes of arguments. However, individuals who process information through the edge path pay less attention to the quality of the information itself, and pay more attention to the environmental characteristics of the information in order to judge and evaluate the target (Sanford 2006 ). At the moment, ELM has been widely used in the field of research information technology (Shahin et al. 2020 ), advertising (Deng et al. 2021 ) and social media (Lam et al. 2022 ), and the field of e-commerce (Balakrishnan et al. 2023 ). ELM can explain the influence mechanism of different information clues on users’ attitudes, and help managers better formulate effective strategies (Wei and Lu 2013 ). Therefore, this study believes that ELM can better understand the user-generated graphic advertisements, so as to explore the matching effect of human elements and comment types on the online interaction behaviour of potential tourists.

User-generated advertising (UGA)

Online tourism advertising is a crucial means for tourists to gather information about various tourism destinations and potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. As tourists use online platforms on a daily basis, UGA plays a significant role in effectively promoting tourism destinations and enticing potential tourists. UGA refers to the travel experience evaluation generated and shared by text, pictures, and videos on online platforms, such as online travel recommendations, tourism destination evaluations, and tourist reviews (Wang et al. 2022 ). Different from traditional tourism advertising, UGA is generated by tourists. Its information source is unique and more authentic and credible than traditional advertising types (Wang et al. 2022 ).

Most UGA studies have explored the different types of advertising, production motivations, influencing factors and mechanisms, and overall impacts on audiences. First, UGA can be categorised into three levels, ranging from low to high: consumption, contribution, and creation (Muntinga et al. 2011 ). Meanwhile, consumers can be divided into two categories according to their engagement: consumers motivated by recommendations and rewards and self-driven consumers (Berthon et al. 2008 ). Furthermore, motivation and influencing factors research has pointed out that UGA motivation can be categorised into intrinsic, extrinsic, rational and emotional motivations (Martinez-Navarro and Bigne 2022 ). Inner satisfaction, personal growth, and a desire to challenge existing ideas drive UGA. Users participate in the cocreation process with the brand to enhance their motivations (Shulga et al. 2023 ). Previous studies have indicated that UGA can increase consumer loyalty and trust (Busser and Shulga 2019 ) and enhance potential consumer participation behaviour (Guo and Jiang 2023 ; Lu et al. 2020 ; Wang et al. 2022 ).

In heritage tourism research, UGA can have multiple benefits. First, it can greatly increase potential tourists’ desires to travel (Gursoy et al. 2022 ; Mehmood et al. 2018 ). Additionally, UGA contributes to enhancing tourists’ positive emotions and realises the effective promotion of heritage tourism projects (Vu et al. 2018 ). Based on this, UGA produces many achievements. However, existing research primarily focuses on UGA advantages but lacks exploration of the effects of UGA content elements and structures. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct research on UGA content expression and marketing formats to enhance UGA marketing effectiveness. Additionally, images and texts are considered important pieces of information for UGA, with human elements being a tool to create a specific atmosphere (Herath et al. 2020 ; Wijesinghe et al. 2020 ). The review types can express tourists’ evaluation of heritage sites (Yan et al. 2020 ). However, research analysing the matching effect between human elements and review types in UGA from the perspective of potential tourists is limited. Thus, this study examines the interactive effects of human elements and review types on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in heritage tourism to further address the research gaps from the perspective of graphic-text matching.

Heritage tourism

Cultural heritage is the precious wealth left by human ancestors to future generations, carrying the genes and blood of human civilisation (Lee et al. 2016 ). With the upgrading of global tourism consumption, more and more heritage sites carry out heritage tourism activities, thereby creating more regional tourism experiences (Gardiner and Scott 2018 ). Heritage tourism refers to the tourism form that utilises the unique cultural assets of a destination (e.g., architecture, religion, and cuisine) to transform historical and cultural assets into commodities to attract tourists (Zhang et al. 2023b ). The total number of global tourists will reach 12.673 billion, and the global tourism revenue will reach 5.54 trillion US dollars, and tourism modes such as heritage tourism and rural tourism are becoming an important driving force for global economic growth. Meanwhile, as a significant form of cultural heritage conservation, heritage tourism has gradually become an essential component of the global tourism industry and has received significant attention from scholars (Ji et al. 2023 ). Research has shown that the behaviours and concepts of tourists and residents, as important participants in heritage tourism, are the focus of current research in this field (Ji et al. 2023 ; Liang et al. 2023 ; Luo et al. 2022 ; Zhang et al. 2023b ). With the deepening of research on heritage tourism, its economic, cultural, and social value has received widespread attention, bringing cultural heritage conservation and tourism development research into the mainstream (Ancuta and Jucu 2023 ; Guo and Jiang 2023 ; Zhang et al. 2023b ).

Heritage tourism as an important form of tourism, its marketing strategy is different from that of traditional tourism, which needs to pay more attention to culture, history and regional characteristics. Therefore, accurate advertising marketing is an important way to promote the sustainable development of heritage tourism (Miao et al. 2021 ). The existing research on heritage tourism marketing can be divided into the following three aspects. (1) Intelligent technology and experiential marketing. The development of intelligent technology has brought new opportunities for the experiential marketing of heritage tourism. Exploring the mechanism of AR technology on tourists’ immersive experience is an important part of current research on heritage tourism marketing (Cranmer et al. 2023 ). (2) Sustainable development and brand building. In the marketing of heritage tourism, tourism destinations often need to pay attention to the protection and management of cultural heritage, and enhance their image and reputation in the eyes of tourists through brand building. Therefore, research on heritage tourism brand building is helpful to improve tourists’ experience and increase the popularity and attractiveness of destinations (Qiu and Zuo 2023 ). (3) Social media and digital marketing. Tourism agencies and destination managers use social media platforms to showcase historical sites, cultural attractions and local activities to attract more visitors’ attention and participation (Lin and Rasoolimanesh 2023 ). At present, more and more heritage sites encourage visitors to share tourism information on various mobile social media such as Facebook, Little Red Book, Dianping and Hornet’s Nest, which is gradually becoming a must-read travel material for many potential tourists to choose tourist destinations (Gursoy et al. 2022 ). However, from the perspective of theoretical research, the relevant researches on social media and digital marketing are not deep enough, especially the researches on the graphic elements and matching effects of existing user-generated advertisements are still few, which is difficult to meet the realistic demand of revealing the influence of graphic matching on the marketing effect of heritage tourism advertising from the theoretical level. Therefore, user-generated advertising marketing can open new ways to explore potential visitors’ perceptions of heritage tourism experiences (Basaraba 2022 ; Gursoy et al. 2022 ), and further highlight the unique features of heritage sites through the graphic features of advertisements.

The impact of human elements and review types on online interactive behaviours

In the realm of UGA heritage tourism, online interactive behaviours, as a special kind of participation behaviour, refer to user-generated graphic-text advertising and other types of information released by enterprises through social media. Potential tourists can interact with tourism companies through reviews, reposts and likes (Basaraba 2022 ; Gursoy et al. 2022 ). Meanwhile, some scholars have found that the more informative online advertising is and the more accurate it is in describing and displaying products or brands, the more users can establish a positive attitude and obtain users’ likes and comments (Labrecque 2014 ). As a new online media marketing method, different types of graphic-text UGA trigger different imagination and behavioural intentions of potential tourists (Wang and Chen 2018 ). As important visual content in pictures, human elements are considered to be an important tool marketing organisations use to create specific atmospheres and myths. Human elements include 2 categories: with and without human elements (Zhang et al. 2023b ). The text review types effectively reflect tourists’ evaluation and experience sharing of the heritage site (Yan et al. 2020 ). This is because user reviews are tourists’ evaluation of heritage tourism culture and their sharing of heritage tourism experience. Therefore, this study divides the review types into cultural attributes and subjective experiences (Huang et al. 2013 ; Luan et al. 2016 ).

Schema theory believes that there is a significant interaction between images and text (Xu et al. 2008 ). The visual properties of graphics and related text processing can interfere with or promote each other (Stroop 1992 ). Meanwhile, according to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the user information processing modes include central routes and peripheral routes (Petty and Cacioppo 1986 ). In the central route, users can mobilise their rational thinking and be convinced by the specific attribute information the product provides. In the peripheral route, users are more affected by factors other than specific attribute information, such as the style and format of the message and recipient mood (Zhou et al. 2023 ). When potential tourists come into contact with UGA, they choose the degree of information processing based on factors such as their information content and their own information processing ability. When the text combination and text information match, it elevates potential tourists’ emotions and then forms positive behaviours (Wang and Chen 2018 ).

For graphics with human elements, potential tourists show stronger online interaction behaviour for subjective experience text review types than for cultural attribute text review types. Graphics of human elements contain richer experiential information (Alamäki et al. 2022 ; Joe et al. 2021 ). Subjective experience reviews refer to tourists’ subjective or emotional evaluation of heritage tourism and other experience information, which reflects tourists’ overall evaluation of heritage tourism (Huang et al. 2013 ). Based on the ELM, edge routes are heuristic cues that are obvious to individuals (Shiau et al. 2022 ). Therefore, graphics with human elements and subjective experience text reviews convey the description of experience information about heritage tourism sites. The peripheral route can stimulate the audience to think about the information content and stimulate potential tourists’ interests (Yan et al. 2024 ), thereby improving user assessment and actively promoting their behaviours.

For graphics without human elements, potential tourists showed stronger interactive behaviours with cultural attribute text reviews than with subjective experience text reviews. Graphics without human elements can better convey the specific attributes of heritage tourism sites (Alamäki et al. 2022 ; Joe et al. 2021 ). The cultural attribute text review introduces tourists to the cultural connotation and other attribute information of heritage tourism, which reflects tourists’ cultural heritage evaluation. Based on the fine processing possibility model, the central path is a parameter and cue that requires the user’s careful consideration and requires that the information receiver invest more cognitive energy (Shiau et al. 2022 ). Therefore, the matching of graphics without human elements and cultural attribute text reviews can enable users to think about graphic information through the central route. It is conducive to stimulating the rational thinking of the audience, thus strengthening the processing fluency of the audience and improving user evaluation (Song and Schwarz 2009 ). The following hypotheses are proposed:

H1: Matching human elements and review types in user-generated graphic-text advertising prompts tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours.

H1a: For UGA with human elements in the graphics, subjective experience (vs. cultural attribute) text reviews lead to higher online interactive behaviours.

H1b: For UGA graphics without human elements, cultural attribute text reviews (vs. subjective experience text reviews) lead to higher online interactive behaviours.

The mediating roles of psychological distance and awe

UGA can trigger emotional and cognitive responses from the audience (Wang et al. 2022 ), while scholars consider psychological distance and awe to be important emotional factors that affect tourists’ behaviour in heritage tourism (Massara and Severino 2013 ; Su et al. 2020a ). Therefore, from cognitive and emotive perspectives, this study speculates that psychological distance and awe can mediate graphic-text UGA between external stimuli and online interactive behaviours.

Psychological distance is based on individual psychology and can be used to judge the subjective feeling of distance between things and oneself (Massara and Severino 2013 ; Trope et al. 2007 ). When human elements and subjective experience text reviews appear in user-generated advertising, they can present the specific subjective experience process of heritage tourism to the audience. By taking the peripheral route, it is helpful for potential tourists to comprehend graphical information content. This strengthens the processing fluency of the audience, effectively reducing the user’s reaction time (Yan et al. 2024 ). Ultimately, the psychological distance from the destination is narrowed (Kim and Song 2019 ). It is conducive to improving users’ sharing behaviour by narrowing the psychological distance between potential tourists and heritage sites, thus affecting advertising effects (Tan and Hsu 2023 ). Therefore, this study finds that the review type of pictures with human elements is compared with that of cultural attribute text reviews. The review type of potential tourists’ subjective experience text reviews can affect their online interactive behaviours through psychological distance. The following hypotheses are proposed:

H2: For UGA with human elements in the graphic, the effect of subjective experience text reviews on online interactive behaviours is positively mediated by psychological distance.

Moreover, awe is the sense of surprise one experiences in the face of something broad, grand, and beyond the scope of current understanding. Cultural heritage fully embodies the infinite wisdom of ancient people and often looks majestic to tourists. When tourists appreciate ancient cultural heritage, people feel humble, small and in awe (Tan and Hsu 2023 ). Therefore, when UGA graphics without human elements are matched with cultural attribute text reviews, historical information about cultural heritage is conveyed. This fully shows the core cultural features of heritage tourism. External cultural heritage can stimulate tourists, make them realise the insignificance of human beings and give them a sense of awe (Gursoy et al. 2022 ), and promote the generation of user behaviour (Su et al. 2020a ). Existing studies have proven that when users feel the awe brought about by heritage tourism, they can improve the positive behavioural intentions of potential tourists (Lu et al. 2015 ). It may stimulate their behaviour involving forwarding, reviewing or liking heritage tourism attribute information. Therefore, we find that for pictures without human elements, compared with the subjective experience text review type, the review type of cultural attribute text reviews of potential tourists influences their online interactive behaviours through the mediating role of awe. Thus, this study proposes the following hypotheses.

H3: For UGA without human elements in the graphic, the effect of cultural attribute text reviews on online interactive behaviours is positively mediated by awe.

This study selected 3 Chinese World Heritage sites in Quanzhou, Fujian: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China and the Kaiyuan Temple, Qingjing Mosque, and Chengqi Earth Building in Fujian Tulou as the research scenarios. We used three scenario experiments to test the hypotheses. Studies 1 and 2 tested the matching effect of human elements and review types in UGA and its impacts on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. We conducted two experiments to strengthen the experiments’ external validity. Study 3 aims to examine the mediating effects of psychological distance and awe. Its research objects were recruited from the Credamo platform ( https://www.credamo.com/ ). Figure 1 presents the theoretical model of this study.

Theoretical model of this study.

Experimental design and stimulus selection

Study 1 verified the matching effect of UGA human elements and review types on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in the heritage tourism context (H1a and H1b).

Case selection

Kaiyuan Temple embodies the representative heritage elements of the diverse community of the World Maritime Trade Center. The economic and multicultural relics of the Kaiyuan Temple reflect the economic prosperity and cultural coexistence brought to Quanzhou by maritime trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In recent years, Kaiyuan Temple, with the rise of tourism, has become a must-visit spot for tourists in Quanzhou. Therefore, given that Kaiyuan Temple has important historical and cultural attributes, we used it as the sample location of Study 1.

Experimental control materials

In the experiment, the UGA manipulative materials include 2 parts. In the design of human elements, we refer to the relevant suggestions of scholars such as Magnini and Kim ( 2016 ) on human elements and make corresponding improvements. Specifically, there were 2–5 tourists in the picture materials of the subjects with human elements, while there were no tourists in the picture materials of the subjects without human elements. Meanwhile, the back and sides of the head and face of humans were selected in this experiment to avoid the influence of microexpressions and human body images (Zhang et al. 2023a ). Moreover, review types mention the methods of scholars such as Huang et al. ( 2017 ) to check the rationality of review type operations and make corresponding improvements. Specifically, cultural attribute text reviews describe Kaiyuan Temple from an objective perspective based on the cultural characteristics of Kaiyuan Temple, the world heritage, with emphasis on the cultural heritage and customs of Kaiyuan Temple. Subjective experience text reviews describe the subjective experience text reviews from the tourists’ perspective, highlighting the tourists’ psychological feelings of awe towards the Kaiyuan Temple during the experience.

Simulation of the experimental situation

The subjects read the experimental instructions. ‘Suppose you plan a trip to a heritage destination in the near future; when browsing the information on the official microblog of a tourism platform, we found the high-quality graphic reviews of tourists on heritage tourism destinations published by the tourism platform.’ Afterwards, participants were randomly assigned to 4 different types of UGA conditions (Appendix 1 ). Additionally, the title and other presentation elements were kept consistent, which gave respondents a clear picture of the experiment.

Variable measurement

The participants’ online interactive behaviours with different types of user-generated graphic-text advertising were measured. The measurement of human elements was checked by referring to the methods suggested by scholars such as Magnini and Kim ( 2016 ). The measurement of review type was evaluated by referring to the methods proposed by Huang et al. ( 2017 ). For the measurement of online interactive behaviours, refer to Su et al. ( 2020b ) and Liu and Chen ( 2023 ). In addition, this study measures the readability (Klare 1974 ), fluency (Lee and Aaker 2004 ), and review valence (Cheung et al. 2009 ) of UGA. Finally, the subjects completed the measurement of demographic variables.

Data processing and experimental results

Preliminary experiment.

The preexperiment used the Credamo platform for data recovery. After examination, this study recovered 135 valid questionnaires (40% male; 60% female). When the respondents answered the questionnaires, among the stimulus materials, the judgement accuracy of human elements reached 100%, indicating that the design of stimulus materials about human elements met the requirements. Second, an independent samples T test was used to test data validity. In cultural attribute reviews, the perceived attribute component was stronger than the perceived experience component, with M perceived attribute component  = 6.26 vs. M perceived experience component  = 2.44, t (66) = −17.645, p  < 0.001. In the subjective experience of the evaluation of the question and answer, M perception attribute component  = 3.42 vs. M perception experience component  = 5.97. The subjective experience reviews are stronger than the cultural attribute reviews, t (69) = −9.817, p  < 0.001. Thus, this operation is successful for review types.

Formal experiment

Participants and procedure.

In order to ensure that the data volume meets the requirements, the sample size of the experimental data was calculated by G*Power 3.1, and the relevant parameter values were set according to the values suggested by Trevor and Hanna ( 2017 ). The calculation results show that, a total sample size of 128 is considered acceptable ( n 1 = 32, n 2 = 32, n 3 = 32, n 4 = 32). In the end, a total of 300 adult subjects were recruited through the Credamo platform, 29 invalid samples (failed attention test, abnormal response time) were eliminated, and 271 valid subjects were retained for hypothesis testing (37.6% male, 62.4% female).

Manipulation check

The independent samples t- test results show that in the condition of cultural attribute reviews, the subjects were more likely to judge the review type as cultural attribute reviews ( M perceived attribute component  = 5.81 vs. M perceived experience component  = 3.85, t (133) = −9.962, p  < 0.001). In contrast, in the subjective experience reviews context, the results were in line with expectations ( M perceived attribute component  = 4.38 vs. M perceived experience component  = 5.48, t (138) = −5.086, p  < 0.001). Thus, the manipulation of review types and human elements was successful. In addition, in the review type control variable test, the review valence of cultural attribute reviews and subjective experience reviews ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 6.32 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 6.13, F (1,269) = 3.808, p  > 0.05), readability ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.89 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 6.07, F (1,269) = 2.784, p  > 0.05), and fluency ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.86 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 5.99, F (1,269) = 1.883, p  > 0.05) passed the inspection. This study eliminated the interference of review valence, readability and fluency variables.

Dependent measures

To examine the matching effects of human elements and review types, formal experiments were conducted using one-way ANOVA with a 2 (human element: with vs. without) × 2 (review type: cultural attribute reviews vs. subjective experience reviews) experimental design for analysis. The results are shown in Fig. 2 . The interaction effects of human elements and review types on tourists’ online interactive behaviours were significant ( F (3,267) = 30.736, p  < 0.001). Further simple effect analysis showed that in the context of cultural attribute text reviews, graphics (with vs. without) of human elements promote higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 5.05 vs. M without human elements  = 5.85, F (1,131) = 29.827, p  < 0.001). For subjective experience text reviews, compared with graphics without human elements, graphics with human elements can promote tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 6.09 vs. M without human elements  = 5.79, F (1,136) = 4.959, p  < 0.05). Overall, H1a and H1b are verified.

Matching effect of human elements and review types (Study 1).

Study 1 proved the matching effects of human elements and review types. With subjective experience text reviews, potential tourists are more willing to interact with UGA with human elements in the pictures. In the context of cultural attribute text reviews, potential tourists tend to interact with UGA without human elements in the pictures. Although the survey of Kaiyuan Temple-related UGA is conducive to improving the conclusion’s external validity, the singularity of the heritage site restricts the conclusion’s internal validity. Accordingly, Study 2 selected the Qingjing Mosque for experiments to further test the matching effects of human elements and review types.

Study 2 aims to verify the matching effect of human elements and review types in UGA on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in the context of heritage tourism to strengthen the reliability of the conclusion.

Case selection and experimental manipulation

Qingjing Mosque embodies the representative heritage elements of the diverse community of the World Maritime Trade Center and is one of the oldest surviving Islamic monasteries in China. In addition, Qingjing Mosque is also one of the attractions that domestic and foreign tourists will definitely visit when they come to Quanzhou. Therefore, considering the important historical and cultural attributes and experience, we selected Qingjing Mosque as the context of Study 2. Moreover, in this experiment, both human elements and review types were manipulated as in Study 1.

Simulated experimental situation and variable measurement

The experimental situation design was the same as in Study 1. Participants were then randomly assigned to 4 different types of UGA conditions (Appendix 2 ). In addition, the variable measurement methods were the same as those in Study 1.

To ensure that human elements and review types were effectively manipulated, in the preexperiment, data were recovered by the Credamo platform. After review, a total of 163 valid questionnaires were recovered (39.9% male; 60.1% female). When the participants watched the stimulus material, they correctly judged the human element 100% of the time. Second, among the 163 valid samples obtained, 78 are cultural attribute reviews and 85 are subjective experience text reviews. T test results showed that in the question and answer of cultural attribute text reviews, M perception attribute component  = 5.74 vs. M perception experience component  = 3.37. In cultural attribute text reviews, the perceived attribute component was stronger than the experiential component, t (78) = −9.982, p  < 0.001. In the subjective experience text reviews, M perception attribute component  = 3.86 vs. M perception experience component  = 5.79. The subjective experience text reviews are stronger than the subjective experience text reviews, t (85) = 9.436, p  < 0.001. Based on this, the operation is successful for this review type.

In order to ensure that the data volume meets the requirements, the sample size of the experimental data was calculated by G*Power 3.1, and the relevant parameter values were set according to the values suggested by Trevor and Hanna ( 2017 ). The calculation results show that, a total sample size of 128 is considered acceptable ( n 1 = 32, n 2 = 32, n 3 = 32, n 4 = 32). In the end, A total of 480 questionnaires were distributed through the Credamo platform. After eliminating 52 invalid samples (failed attention test, abnormal response time), a total of 429 valid subjects (44.4% male; 55.6% female) were randomly assigned to one of the conditions.

Independent samples t- test results show that in the context of cultural attribute reviews, subjects were more inclined to judge review types as cultural attribute reviews ( M perceived attribute component  = 5.87 vs. M perceived experience component  = 3.55, t (213) = 16.496, p  < 0.001). In contrast, in the subjective experience review context, subjects were more inclined to judge review types as subjective experience reviews ( M perception attribute component  = 3.25 vs. M perception experience component  = 5.30, t (216) = −14.971, p  < 0.01). In summary, the manipulation of review types is successful. At the same time, the manipulation of human elements was also successful. In addition, in the control variable test of review types, review valence of cultural attribute reviews and subjective experience reviews ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 6.08 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 6.09, F (1,427) = 0.002, p  > 0.05), readability ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.85 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 5.94, F (1,427) = 1.039, p  > 0.05), and fluency ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.82 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 5.78, F (1,427) = 0.252, p  > 0.05) passed the inspection. Our study eliminated the interference of review valence, readability and fluency variables.

The matching effects of human elements and review types are shown in Fig. 3 . The interaction effect of human elements and review types on tourists’ online interactive behaviours was significant ( F (3,425) = 148.775, p  < 0.001). Further analysis shows that in the context of cultural attribute text reviews, compared with graphics with human elements, graphics without human elements can promote tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 4.91 vs. M without human elements  = 5.65, F (1,211) = 38.888, p  < 0.001). Thus, H1a is verified. For subjective experience text review situations, compared with graphics without human elements, graphics with human elements can promote tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 5.83 vs. M without human elements  = 4.18, F (1,214) = 112.617, p  < 0.001). Then, H1b is verified.

Matching effect of human elements and review types (Study 2).

Study 2 again proved the matching effect of human elements and review types. The conclusion internal validity can be improved through the multiple heritage sites experiment.

Study 3 aims to verify the mediating role of psychological distance and awe, that is, to test Hypotheses H2 and H3.

Chengqi Earth Building is one of the representative heritage sites in Fujian Tulou. Currently, it is also known as ‘a king of Tulou’, as one of the most unique residential buildings in the world, and contains the cultural legend of the Hakka family. Today, the simple and magnificent Chengqi Earth Building attracts tourists in an endless stream. Therefore, due to the important historical attributes and experience of the Chengqi Earth Building, we chose it as the background of Study 3. In addition, Study 1 manipulation was used for both human elements and review types in this experiment.

Simulated experimental situation

The experimental scenario design of Study 3 is the same as that of Experiment 1. Participants were randomly assigned to four different types of UGA conditions (Appendix 3 ).

In addition, the measurement of psychological distance in Study 3 refers to Mi et al. ( 2020 ). Other research processes and variable measurement methods are basically the same as in Experiment 1.

We ensured that human elements and review types were effectively manipulated. In the preexperiment, data were recovered by the Credamo platform. After the audit, this study recovered 165 valid questionnaires (38.2% male; 61.8% female). Similar to Study 1, Study 3 created short descriptions for each scenario, and then the respondents answered the human elements and review type-related items. Of the 165 valid data points obtained, 78 are cultural attribute reviews and 87 are subjective experience reviews.

Independent sample t- test results show that in the questions and answers of cultural attribute reviews, M perception attribute component  = 5.29 vs. M perception experience component  = 3.37. In cultural attribute reviews, the perceived attribute component was stronger than the experiential component, t (78) = −6.003, p  < 0.05. In the subjective experience reviews, M perception attribute component  = 3.59 vs. M perception experience component  = 5.71. The subjective experience reviews are stronger than the subjective experience reviews, t (87) = −8.090, p  < 0.001. Accordingly, the operation of review types is successful.

In order to ensure that the data volume meets the requirements, the sample size of the experimental data was calculated by G*Power 3.1, and the relevant parameter values were set according to the values suggested by Trevor and Hanna ( 2017 ). The calculation results show that, a total sample size of 128 is considered acceptable ( n 1 = 32, n 2 = 32, n 3 = 32, n 4 = 32). In the end, a total of 520 questionnaires were distributed through the Credamo platform. After excluding 78 invalid samples (failed attention test and abnormal response time), a total of 442 valid subjects (45.2% male; 54.8% female) were randomly assigned to one of 4 conditions.

Independent samples t- test results show that in the context of cultural attribute reviews, subjects are more inclined to judge the review type as a cultural attribute type ( M perceived attribute component  = 6.16 vs. M perceived experience component  = 3.11, t (223) = 22.002, p  < 0.001). In contrast, in the subjective experience review context, subjects are more inclined to judge reviews as subjective experience reviews ( M perception attribute component  = 3.63 vs. M perception experience component  = 6.17, t (219) = −16.579, p  < 0.001). Overall, the manipulation of review types is successful. Meanwhile, the manipulation of human elements was also successful. The results show that the responses were consistent with the situation set by the stimulus material, indicating that the experimental results had high external validity. In addition, in the control variable test of review types, review of cultural attribute reviews and subjective experience review valence ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 6.07 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 6.00, F (1,440) = 0.547, p  > 0.05), readability ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.98 vs. M subjective experience reviews  = 6.07, F (1,440) = 1.068, p  > 0.05), and fluency ( M cultural attribute reviews  = 5.97, M subjective experience reviews  = 6.05, F (1,440) = 1.580, p  > 0.05) passed the inspection. We eliminated the interference of review valence, reading ability and fluency variables.

We tested the matching effect of human elements and review types. The results are shown in Fig. 4 . The interaction effect of human elements and review types on tourists’ online interactive behaviours was significant ( F (3,438) = 9.840, p  < 0.01). Further analysis showed that for cultural text attribute reviews, compared with pictures with human elements, pictures without human elements can promote tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 5.82, M without human elements  = 6.07; F (1,221) = 5.589, p  < 0.05). For subjective experience text review situations, compared with pictures without human elements, pictures with human elements can promote tourists to have higher online interactive behaviours ( M with human elements  = 5.98, M without human elements  = 5.75; F (1,217) = 4.316, p  < 0.05). Thus, H3 is verified.

Matching effect of human elements and review types (Study 3).

Mediation effect

First, the interaction effect of human elements and review types on psychological distance was tested. The ANOVA results show that the above interactions are significant ( F psychological distance (3,438) = 5.192, p  < 0.05). In the subjective experience of text comments, compared with the graphics without human factors, the graphics with human factors are more likely to cause a higher psychological distance ( M with human elements  = 6.06 vs. M without human elements  = 5.91, F (1,217) = 5.068, p  < 0.05). When making cultural attribute text reviews, there was no significant difference in psychological distance between graphics with and without human elements ( M with human elements  = 6.02 vs. M without human elements  = 6.10; F (1,221) = 1.129, p  > 0.05). Second, the interaction effect of human elements and review types on awe was significant ( F awe (3,438) = 7.073, p  < 0.01). When placed in cultural attribute text reviews, the graphics without (vs. with) human elements were more likely to arouse the subjects’ higher awe ( M with human elements  = 6.06 vs. M without human elements  = 6.20, F (1,221) = 4.968, p  < 0.05). When giving the subjective experience text reviews, there was no significant difference in awe when using pictures with and without human elements ( M with human elements  = 6.06 vs. M without human elements  = 5.89, F (1,217) = 2.881, p  > 0.05).

Third, bootstrapping was used to test the mediating roles of psychological distance and awe (PROCESS, Model 8, 5000 samples) (Hayes 2013 ). For psychological distance, mediation was significant in the context of subjective experience reviews ( β  = −0.1307, 95% confidence interval LLCI = −0.2460, ULCI = −0.0159). However, the mediating effect was not significant in the context of cultural attribute reviews ( β  = 0.0706, 95% confidence interval LLCI = −0.0553, ULCI = 0.2023). Mediation was not significant in the context of subjective experience reviews ( β  = −0.0324, 95% CI: LLCI = −0.0935, ULCI = 0.0039). However, its mediating effect was significant in the context of cultural attribute reviews ( β  = 0.0285, 95% confidence interval LLCI = 0.0034, ULCI = 0.0779). Above all, we assume that the data of H2 and H3 are valid in Fig. 5 .

* p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; and *** p  < 0.001; ns means p  > 0.05.

In Study 3, the matching effect of human elements and review types (H1) was again verified for Chengqi Earth Building, China. It further reveals that psychological distance and awe play mediating roles in the matching effect of human elements and review types on online interactive behaviours (H2 and H3).

Conclusions and discussion

Conclusions.

Through three scenario experiments, this study analysed the matching effect of human elements and review types in the UGA of heritage sites. It further reveals the influence mechanism of user-generated graphic-text advertising on the online interactive behaviour of potential tourists against the background of heritage tourism.

The human elements and review types of UGA have matching effects, which can impact potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours

Specifically, graphics with human elements in user-generated graphic-text advertising are more consistent with subjective experience text reviews. Graphics without human elements are more compatible with cultural attribute text reviews, both of which can improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. Hypotheses H1a and H1b were verified.

There are dual mediating mechanisms in the interaction effects of human elements and review types of user-generated graphic-text advertising on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours

For UGA with a human element in the graphics, subjective experience comments (as opposed to cultural attribute reviews) can also improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours through psychological distance. For UGA with no human elements in the picture, cultural attribute reviews (as opposed to subjective experience reviews) can also improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours through awe.

Theoretical implications

Our research extends the research of uga to the field of heritage tourism and broadens the application of advertising marketing theory in the field of heritage tourism.

UGA and heritage tourism research has produced rich theoretical results (Guo and Jiang 2023 ; Martinez-Navarro and Bigne 2022 ; Liu et al. 2022 ; Yin et al. 2023 ). However, at present, there is still a lack of comprehensive research on the advertising content of heritage tourism, and few scholars have discussed the influence of advertising graphics on tourists’ behaviour in the context of heritage tourism (Miao et al. 2021 ). The research on heritage tourism marketing from graphic and text content composition of UGA has been ignored. In addition, heritage tourism is a form of tourism with strong cultural attributes and characteristics. Therefore, more heritage tourism destinations use UGA for marketing publicity to attract tourists to participate in the interaction and improve the advertising effect (Wang et al. 2022 ). In particular, UGA is a source for tourists to search for heritage tourism information (Wang et al. 2022 ). In conclusion, by focusing on the interactive influence of user-generated graphic-text advertising on potential tourists of heritage tourism, our study realises the theoretical echo and continuation of advertising marketing research. It also further reveals the formation process of potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in the heritage tourism marketing context and provides theoretical explanations for heritage tourism advertising marketing.

Our study reveals the matching effect and internal mechanism of human elements and review types in UGA, which strengthens the understanding and application of schema theory

Previous studies have explored the influence of UGA graphic elements, mainly focusing on the comparison of the influence of graphic elements on user attraction (Pickering et al. 2020 ). However, as important graphic information in UGA, the matching effect of human elements and review types of UGA from the perspective of potential tourists has not been analysed. Therefore, this study reveals that graphics with human elements in user-generated advertising are more compatible with subjective experience text reviews. Graphics without cultural elements are more in line with cultural attributes, and text comments can improve the online interaction behaviour of potential tourists. Then, our findings reveal the mechanism of graphic matching in the UGA marketing of heritage tourism from the matching perspective. In addition, schema theory points out the interaction between images and texts (Xu et al. 2008 ), and relevant studies focus on the matching of images and texts (Wang and Chen 2018 ). Based on the existing research, by exploring the matching effect between human elements in pictures and types of text comments in specific UGA situations, we can further understand the applicability of schema theory in different environments or situations, and its performance in predicting different outcomes. This will help concretise the application of schema theory and provide feasible guidance for future schema theory research and graphic marketing practice.

Our study confirms that the matching effect of human elements and review type in user-generated advertising can be conducted through psychological distance and awe. The study systematically reveals the process black box of the influence of heritage tourism UGA on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours

Previous studies have emphasised the roles of psychological distance and awe in UGA and tourist behaviour areas, important links that influence heritage tourist behaviour (Gursoy et al. 2022 ; Phillips et al. 2020 ; Wu and Lai 2023 ). However, the roles of psychological distance and awe in the relationship between UGA graphic content and users’ online interactive behaviours are rarely discussed. Therefore, our study introduced psychological distance and awe as mediating variables, which deepens people’s understanding of the mechanism of user-generated graphic-text advertising in heritage tourism and expands the theoretical applications of psychological distance and awe.

Managerial implications

Heritage tourism marketers should pay attention to uga image matching strategies to improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours in heritage tourism.

The results showed that the matching of human elements and review types of user-generated graphic-text advertising can improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. Therefore, in the advertising and marketing of heritage tourism, tourists’ subjective experience text reviews matching pictures with human elements can be selected for advertising and marketing, which helps improve potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. For pictures without human elements, matching cultural attribute text reviews should be selected for marketing promotion.

Moreover, heritage tourism marketers should pay attention to tourists’ psychological reactions and implement accurate marketing strategies

The results reveal that psychological distance and awe are critical factors for potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. When conducting UGA marketing, our research can enrich the experiential expression of characters and words in pictures. UGA with more experience and presence is designed to narrow the psychological distance of potential tourists and promote their online interactive behaviours, thereby improving the advertising and marketing effect when religions, mausoleums and sites have their own solemn and awe-inspiring heritage tourism places (Yan et al. 2024 ). UGA design should reduce the appearance of character images and use more solemn sentences to enrich the advertising content (Jiang et al. 2022 ). The sense of seriousness and awe of cultural heritage sites can be established and help to improve the psychological cognition of tourists in this way, and potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours can be promoted to achieve better advertising and marketing.

Research limitations and future research directions

This study discusses the interactive effects of human elements and review type in UGA on potential tourists’ online interactive behaviours. However, we overlook the possible effects on variables such as experience intention and participation behaviour. Additionally, the study discusses the matching effect of human elements and review types and subdivides graphic elements according to graphic types such as human elements and review types. Some studies also subdivide according to variables such as brightness and colour. In the future, our studies can incorporate dynamic forms such as video and animation to broaden the extensibility of research conclusions. Finally, our study adopts the scenario experiment method to explore the internal causality. In the future, the conclusion can obtain cross-veridiction by analysing and tracking the reaction and behaviour data of internet platform users to heritage tourism destinations (Zhang et al. 2023b ).

Data availability

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material (Data Sets), further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Alamäki A, Rhee C, Suomala J, Kaski T, Kauttonen J (2022) Creating effective visuals for destination marketing videos: scenery vs people. J Vacat Mark 29(1):141–157

Article   Google Scholar  

Ancuta C, Jucu IS (2023) Sustainable rural development through local cultural heritage capitalization-analyzing the cultural tourism potential in rural Romanian areas: a case study of Harman Commune of Brasov Region in Romania. Land 12(7):1297

Basaraba N (2022) A bottom-up method for remixing narratives for virtual heritage experiences. Convergence Int J Res N Media Technol 28(6):1531–1554

Balakrishnan J, Dwivedi YK, Malik FT, Baabdullah AM (2023) Role of smart tourism technology in heritage tourism development. J Sustain Tour 31(11):2506–2525

Berthon P, Pitt L, Campbell C (2008) Ad lib: when customers create the ad. Calif Manag Rev 50(4):6–30

Bigne E, Ruiz C, Curras-Perez R (2019) Destination appeal through digitalized comments. J Bus Res 101:447–453

Busser JA, Shulga LV (2019) Involvement in consumer-generated advertising: effects of organizational transparency and brand authenticity on loyalty and trust. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 31(4):1763–1784

Cheung MY, Luo C, Sia CL, Chen H (2009) Credibility of electronic word-of-mouth: informational and normative determinants of on-line consumer recommendations. Int J Electron Commer 13(4):9–38

Cranmer EE, Jung TMY, Dieck MCT (2023) The role of augmented reality for sustainable development: evidence from cultural heritage tourism. Tour Manag Perspect 49:101196

Google Scholar  

Deng FY, Huang HS, Cheng H (2021) Consumers’ trust in persuasion: objective versus biased elaboration likelihood in China’s E-commerce advertising. J Mass Commun Q 99(4):1126–1147

Ertimur B, Gilly MC (2012) So Whaddya think? Consumers create ads and other consumers xritique them. J Interact Mark 26(3):115–130

Gardiner S, Scott N (2018) Destination innovation matrix: a framework for new tourism experience and market development. J Destin Mark Manag 10(4):122–131

Guo B, Jiang ZB (2023) Influence of personalised advertising copy on consumer engagement: a field experiment approach. Electron Commer Res 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-023-09721-5

Guo Q, Wu KY (2023) Study on the mechanism of benefit distribution among government, enterprises and indigenous people in natural heritage reserves. J Clean Prod 415:137828

Gursoy D, Akova O, Atsiz O (2022) Understanding the heritage experience: a content analysis of online reviews of World Heritage Sites in Istanbul. J Tour Cult Change 20(3):311–334

Hayes AF (2013) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. J Educ Meas 51(3):335–337

Herath H, Hemmington N, Poulston J (2020) “Dirty pictures”—responsible photographic representation of tourism destinations. J Travel Tour Mark 37(6):663–678

Huang J, Boh WF, Goh KH (2017) A temporal study of the effects of online opinions: information sources matter. J Manag Inf Syst 34(4):1169–1202

Huang L, Tan C, Ke W, Wei K (2013) Comprehension and assessment of product reviews: a review-product congruity proposition. J Manag Inf Syst 30(3):311–343

Ji F, Wang F, Wu B (2023) How does virtual tourism involvement impact the social education effect of cultural heritage? J Destin Mark Manag 28:100779

Jiang J, Gao BW, Su X (2022) Antecedents of tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior: the perspective of awe. Front Psychol 13:619815

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Joe S, Choi C, Busser J (2021) The impact of virtual presence on willingness to book: the moderating role of self-construal and gender. Int J Hosp Manag 98:103021

Kim DH, Song D (2019) Can brand experience shorten consumers’ psychological distance toward the brand? The effect of brand experience on consumers’ construal level. J Brand Manag 26(3):255–267

Klare GR (1974) Assessing readability. Read Res Q 10(1):62–102

Labrecque LI (2014) Fostering consumer–brand relationships in social media environments: the role of parasocial interaction. J Interact Mark 28(2):134–148

Lam C, Huang Z, Shen L (2022) Infographics and the elaboration likelihood model (elm): differences between visual and textual health messages. J Health Commun 27(10):737–745

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Lee AY, Aaker JL (2004) Bringing the frame into focus: the influence of regulatory fit on processing fluency and persuasion. J Personal Soc Psychol 86(2):205–218

Lee S, Phau I, Hughes M, Li YF, Quintal V (2016) Heritage tourism in Singapore Chinatown: a perceived value approach to authenticity and satisfaction. J Travel Tour Mark 33(7):981–998

Lee YJ (2024) Destination fascination, well-being, and the reasonable person model of behavioural intention in heritage tourism. Curr Issues Tour 27(2):288–304

Article   MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Liang BY, Zhang ZS, Zhang NJ, Feng QH (2023) Heterogeneity of residents’ heritage responsibilities in the process of cultural communication: the case of the Genglubu heritage site in Tanmen, China. Int J Herit Stud 29(9):881–907

Lin ZQ, Rasoolimanesh SM (2023) Influencing factors on the intention of sharing heritage tourism experience in social media. J Hosp Tour Technol 14(4):675–700

Liu JM, Li X, Zhang L, Lu Q, Su XW (2023) Authenticity, psychological ownership and tourist commitment in heritage tourism: the moderating effect of cultural intelligence. Curr Issues Tour 26(24):3955–3972

Liu M, Chen C (2023) Research on users’ misinformation perception and interaction based on cue utility theory: toward deepfake information. J Intell 10:96–104

Liu YL, Wang Y, Dupre K, McIlwaine C (2022) The impacts of world cultural heritage site designation and heritage tourism on community livelihoods: a Chinese case study. Tour Manag Perspect 43:100994

Lu L, Chi CG, Liu Y (2015) Authenticity, involvement, and image: evaluating tourist experiences at historic districts. Tour Manag 50:85–96

Lu X, He S, Lian S, Ba S, Wu J (2020) Is user-generated content always helpful? The effects of online forum browsing on consumers’ travel purchase decisions. Decis Support Syst 137:113368

Luan J, Yao Z, Zhao F, Liu H (2016) Search product and experience product online reviews: an eye-tracking study on consumers’ review search behavior. Comput Hum Behav 65:420–430

Luo WB, Timothy DJ, Zhong C, Zhang XL (2022) Influential factors in agrarian households' engagement in rural tourism development Tour Manag Perspect 44:101009

Magnini VP, Kim S (2016) The influences of restaurant menu font style, background color, and physical weight on consumers’ perceptions. Int J Hosp Manag 53:42–48

Martinez-Navarro J, Bigne E (2022) Sponsored consumer-generated advertising in the digital era: what prompts individuals to generate video ads, and what creative strategies do they adopt? Int J Advert 41(4):623–654

Massara F, Severino F (2013) Psychological distance in the heritage experience. Ann Tour Res 42:108–129

Mehmood S, Liang C, Gu D (2018) Heritage image and attitudes toward a heritage site: do they really mediate the relationship between user-generated content and travel intentions toward a heritage site? Sustainability 10(12):4403

Mi L, Sun Y, Gan X, Yang H, Lv T, Shang K, Qiao Y, Jiang Z (2020) Promoting employee green behavior through the person-organization fit: the moderating effect of psychological distance. Front Psychol 11:568385

Miao M, Chenya M, Yushi J (2021) The effects of different types of images on tourists’ attitudes toward heritage tourism advertising. Tour Trib 36(10):74–84

Muntinga DG, Moorman M, Smit EG (2011) Introducing COBRAs exploring motivations for brand-related social media use. Int J Advert 30(1):13–46

Petty RE, Cacioppo JT (1986) The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 19:123–205

Phillips P, Antonio N, de Almeida A, Nunes L (2020) The influence of geographic and psychic distance on online hotel ratings. J Travel Res 59(4):722–741

Pickering C, Walden-Schreiner C, Barros A, Rossi SD (2020) Using social media images and text to examine how tourists view and value the highest mountain in Australia. J Outdoor Recreat Tour 29:100252

Qiu QH, Zuo YF (2023) “Intangible cultural heritage” label in destination marketing toolkits: does it work and how? J Hosp Tour Manag 56:272–283

Sanford BC (2006) Influence processes for information technology acceptance: an elaboration likelihood model. MIS Q 30(4):805–825

Shiau W, Zhou M, Liu C (2022) Understanding the formation mechanism of consumers’ behavioral intention on Double 11 shopping carnival: integrating S-O-R and ELM theories. Front Psychol 13:984272

Shahin S, Saldaa M, De Zúiga HG (2020) Peripheral elaboration model: the impact of incidental news exposure on political participation. J Inf Technol Politics 18(2):148–163

Shulga LV, Busser JA, Bai B, Kim H (2023) Branding co-creation with consumer-generated advertising: effect on creators and observers. J Advert 52(1):5–23

Song H, Schwarz N (2009) If it’s difficult to pronounce, It must be risky: fluency, familiarity, and risk perception. Psychol Sci 20:135–138

Stroop JR (1992) Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. J Exp Psychol 121(1):15–23

Su XW, Li X, Wang YC, Zheng ZM, Huang YS (2020a) Awe of intangible cultural heritage: the perspective of ICH tourists. Sage Open 10(3):2158244020941467

Su X, Li X, Chen W, Zeng T (2020b) Subjective vitality, authenticity experience, and intangible cultural heritage tourism: an empirical study of the puppet show. J Travel Tour Mark 37(2):258–271

Tan WK, Hsu CY (2023) The application of emotions, sharing motivations, and psychological distance in examining the intention to share COVID-19-related fake news. Online Inf Rev 47(1):59–80

Trevor KJ, Hanna Z (2017) The effects of group memberships of victims and perpetrators in humanly caused disasters on charitable donations to victims. J Appl Soc Psychol 47(8):446–458

Trope Y, Liberman N, Wakslak C (2007) Construal levels and psychological distance: effects on representation, prediction, evaluation, and behavior. J Consum Psychol 17(2):83–95

UNESCO (2023) World Heritage List. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

Vu HQ, Luo JM, Ye B, Li G, Law R (2018) Evaluating museum visitor experiences based on user-generated travel photos. J Travel Tour Mark 35(4):493–506

Wang LL, Guo ZQ, Zhang GY, Xu XA (2022) Effective destination user-generated advertising: matching effect between goal framing and self-esteem. Tour Manag 92:104557

Wang X, Chen X (2018) Fit of graph and text in user-generated contents and its effect on the perceived usefulness for consumers. J Manag Sci 31(01):101–115

Wei PS, Lu HP (2013) An examination of the celebrity endorsements and online customer reviews influence female consumers’ shopping behavior. Comput Hum Behav 29(1):193–201

Wijesinghe SNR, Mura P, Tavakoli R (2020) A postcolonial feminist analysis of official tourism representations of Sri Lanka on Instagram. Tour Manag Perspect 36:100756

Wu WZ, Zhang LP, Qiu FD (2017) Determinants of tourism ticket pricing for ancient villages and towns: case studies from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui provinces. Tour Manag 58:270–275

Wu XH, Lai I (2023) How the creativity and authenticity of destination short videos influence audiences’ attitudes toward videos and destinations: the mediating role of emotions and the moderating role of parasocial interaction with Internet celebrities. Curr Issues Tour 27(15):2428–2447

Xu J, Liu R, Chai S, Song L (2008) The effect of concreteness of the text and diagram in multimedia environment on transfer of learning. Chin J Appl Psychol 14(03):238–243

Yan H, Liao Q, Xiong H (2024) Emotional or non-emotional? The impact of emojis on the usefulness of online restaurant reviews. Tour Trib 39(05):145–160

Yan J, Li Y, Feng M, Li K (2020) Interaction effects of customer Q & as and online reviews on consumer product attitudes. J Manag Sci 33(02):102–113

Yin J, Ji YC, Ni YS (2023) How does cultural confidence awaken community citizenship behaviors? The moderating effect of cultural involvement. J Hosp Tour Manag 55:425–434

Zhang K, Zhang J, Yang J (2023a) The influence of human elements in photographs on tourists’ destination perceptions and intentions. Tour Manag 95:104684

Zhang K, Zhang M, Law R, Chen X, Wang Q (2020) Impact model of tourism production and consumption in Nanjing Yunjin: the perspective of cultural heritage reproduction. Sustainability 12(8):3430

Zhang SY, Liu JM, Pei T, Chan CS, Gao CX, Meng B (2023b) Perception in cultural heritage tourism: an analysis of tourists to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. China J Tour Cult Change 21(5):569–591

Zhang S, Liang J, Su X, Chen Y, Wei Q (2023c) Research on global cultural heritage tourism based on bibliometric analysis. Herit Sci 11(1):139

Zhang YC, Wang JW, Zhang LY (2023d) Tourists’ national identity at heritage sites of natural disasters. J Hosp Tour Manag 55:282–291

Zhou Y, Li Y, Ruan W, Zhang S (2023) Owned media or earned media? The influence of social media types on impulse buying intention in internet celebrity restaurants. Int J Hosp Manag 111:103487

Zou YG, Yang Y, Li Y, Liao JJ, Xiao HG (2023) How do tourists’ heritage spatial perceptions affect place identity? A case study of Quanzhou, China. J Hosp Tour Manag 55:460–470

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 23BGL320): The influence mechanism and realisation path of agricultural heritage activation on rural residents’ well-being.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Youcheng Chen, Sunbowen Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

College of Digital Economy, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Quanzhou, 362400, Fujian, China

Youcheng Chen, Sunbowen Zhang & Yongqiang Ma

College of Tourism, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, Fujian, China

Wenqi Ruan, Meiyu Wang & Yan Zhou

International School of Cultural Tourism, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou, 310015, Zhejiang, China

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualisation: YM and SZ; methodology: YZ, SZ and YC; software: MW; validation: YM, SZ and YC; formal analysis: WR and SZ; investigation: SZ; resources: YC and YM; data curation: YM and SZ; writing—original draft preparation: WR and YM; writing—review and editing: YM and MW; supervision: YC and SZ; project administration: WR and YM; funding acquisition: YM and WR. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wenqi Ruan or Yongqiang Ma .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was not required for this study which is in accordance with institutional requirements. This category spans all non-invasive, non-clinical research on human subjects, where subjects are transparently informed about the purpose, aim, and risks of the studies and when these risks are reasonably low.

Informed consent

The participants were informed that their participation was completely voluntary and could be stopped at any time. The results of the study were intended to be used for scientific purposes and solely to be analysed by the authors. Also, they were informed of their legal rights, data protection regulations that due to the high standard of privacy protection none of their data can be identifiable after collection. All participants were of legal age and consented to take part in the study under these circumstances. This manuscript does not contain any individual details, videos, or images of individual persons.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Chen, Y., Zhang, S., Ruan, W. et al. What kind of UGA is effective for heritage tourism marketing? Matching effects of human elements and review types. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1114 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03613-1

Download citation

Received : 11 January 2024

Accepted : 12 August 2024

Published : 31 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03613-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies