Destination websites as advertising: An application of Elaboration Likelihood Model

Liang Tang, Purdue University

Abstract

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a noteworthy theoretical framework of social cognition used, to analyze information processing. It is a dual-route (central & peripheral), multi-process model of persuasive message processing. It has been applied to understand the persuasion and communication process in different media. However, it has rarely been applied to websites, especially to destination websites. The aim of this research was to systematically understand the dual-route information processing when people browse destination websites, with theoretical support of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The study included two parts: In the first part an extended ELM framework was proposed. As a hierarchy-of-effects model, the extended framework explained the persuasion process that occurred on destination websites. In the second part, the key constructs were extracted from the extended ELM framework which suggested a conceptual model to illustrate the correlations between these constructs. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual model. The results indicated that (1) There is a difference between central route and peripheral route. In the central route people’s attitude toward websites affects their consumer acceptance/rejection of message claims (Destination cognition), and consumer acceptance/rejection of message claims (Destination cognition) further decides their attitude toward destination. In the peripheral route, attitude toward websites impinges on audiences’ attitude toward destinations directly through a process of affect transfer. (2) Psychological involvement is an important moderator of dual-route persuasion, while behavioral involvement is not; (3) Website design characteristics significantly influence audiences’ cognition of the websites in both high psychologically involved and low psychologically involved groups; (4) Information quality of the destination websites only has significant impact on audiences’ cognition of the destination in the high psychologically involved group, not in the the low psychologically group; (5) Audiences’ attitude toward destinations has significant impact on their further information search behavior and travel intention in the high psychologically involved group, while the impact is insignificant in the low psychologically involved group. The research is significant in both theory and practice. From the theoretical perspective, the study contributes substantially to the understanding of the persuasion process on destination web pages. From the practical perspective, the description of web surfers’ cognitive process helps destination marketers design more effective web pages.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Morrison, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Marketing|Mass communications

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