Investigating Environmental Value and Green Image Supposed Effects on the Word of Mouth Advertising Tendency by Explaining Green Trust and Willingness to Pay Roles through the SOR Model Framework

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Management, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economic, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran

2 Assistant Prof., Department of Management, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economic, Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran.

3 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Business Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Objective
Hotels are considered to be an integral part of energy and water consumers in the tourism industry today, as they consume an appropriate amount of energy and resources (water, electricity and many more disposable products) that have become an important source for the environment. There have been growing public concerns about environmental issues recently, and consumers have more environmental information and knowledge compared to past decades. Many customers favor green consumption and consider it an effective way to protect the environment. As a result, many hotels took steps in adopting green practices and developing environmental programs to make their hotels greener in order to attract customers and achieve a niche in the competitive market .Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to use the stimulus-evaluation-response (SOR) framework to examine the relationship between green image and environmental value with willingness to market mouth to mouth and to test the mediating effects of green trust and willingness to pay. Application of SOR's framework in current research can lead to better understanding of the relationship between brand image, environmental value and intention to mouth advertising.
 
Methodology
This study is based on objective, applied and based on how to obtain the required data, is a descriptive and survey research. The population of this study is young customers of international hotel of independence in Tehran, which are infinite. The sampling method was used to obtain the sample size. As a result of specifying the sample size, the researcher collected data from 435 customers of which 412 questionnaires were collected and 391 questionnaires were used after screening. The required data were collected through standard questionnaire. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the correlation between the research variables and Structural modeling technique was used to test the hypotheses using the LISREL software.
 
Findings
The results show that the value of green trust, green image, and willingness to pay and tendency to mouth to mouth advertising has a significant effect. Also, the green image has a significant effect on green trust, willingness to pay and tendency to mouth of mouth advertising. The willingness to pay has a significant effect on the willingness of mouth of mouth advertising. Green trust has a significant effect on willingness to pay and willingness to mouth of mouth advertising.
 
Conclusion
Employee knowledge about environmental issues is an important and effective factor on customer green trust. In fact, the hoteliers have to implement special programs to enrich their employees ' environmental knowledge. In addition, the experience of guests in green hotels is also important to raise the level of green confidence in consumers. On this basis, the hotel owners had to provide resources to increase the green confidence by extending their facilities and even free accommodations. Conservation of the environment by hotels can lead to better and superior green image quality, which is one of the most important factors in attracting young customers. Hotels that strive to protect the environment make a positive image of customers ' minds. Therefore, hotel owners in the hotel industry need to improve the green image of the hotel and to build waste management systems and develop recycling programs to achieve the goal of improving the green image. Thus, preventing environmental pollution and protecting the environment by the hotel makes customers more willing to pay more for staying in hotels. Finally, considering that environmental value is an individual factor, hotels are able to use a segmentation approach to identify individuals with environmental concern and those staying in green hotels. With emphasis on this group of customers, hotels provide packets that provide opportunities to participate in various environmental activities during the stay for customers (for example environmental tours).

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Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Business Management
Volume 11, Issue 4
2019
Pages 804-824

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