Abstract The purpose of this study has been to provide a deeper understanding of how companies in the travel industry works with social media and electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM) by analyzing and investigating social media and eWOM and how it effects customers’ expectations on the companies service quality. In connection with the purpose we have chosen the following research questions: 1. In which way can companies in the travel industry interact with their customers participation on the Internet through social media. 2. How can companies in the travel industry through their presence on the Internet work to influence customers’ expectations using eWOM. Based on our research questions we decided to use a qualitative research methodology in order to create a deeper understanding for the phenomenon. Moreover, we chose to work on our study using an inductive approach but with some featuring elements of deduction. To obtain a broad and rich overview of our studied research questions we interviewed a varied selection of representatives in the travel industry. In total we interviewed eight representatives with a wide range of different positions. Our analysis was divided into three distinct categories that we identified using our main theory, the travel decision-making process. Below each of the categories we could specify when companies and customers interacted with each other using social media and when customers used eWOM as a means of ensuring the service quality of the company. This provided us with the information to determine the importance for companies in the travel industry to make use of customers’ eWOM and that it could actually be of higher importance than the companies’ own product information. Finally, we discovered that to a great extent customers’ expectations are based on eWOM, which in turn makes it of crucial importance for companies in the travel industry to use for their advantage.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-43515 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Bordier, Isabelle, Masth, Robin |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring (MF), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring (MF) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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