The Impacts of Host Photos on Consumer Purchase Probability in P2P Short-Term Rental Platform: Mediating Effect of Initial Trust

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 137 - 158, 31.05.2019

Hui Wu Jing Chen Muhittin Cavusoglu Cihan Cobanoglu

https://doi.org/10.30519/ahtr.453268

Cited By: 5

Abstract

In recent years, the shared
housing rental platform (hereafter, the short-term rental platform), designed
to serve the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) market, has flourished and received extensive
attention from the business community and academia. However, few studies have
focused on the effect of hosts’ personal information on consumer purchase
behavior. This article selects the host’s photo as an entry point because of
its important position in the site interface and builds a conceptual framework
among host photo, reputation, initial trust, and consumer purchase probability
based on Face Processing Theory. Three-hundred valid, scenario-based
questionnaires were used for hypotheses testing. Results show that photo-based
social impression perception and reputation both help consumers form initial
trust, which ultimately affects consumer purchase probability；
photo-based perceived social impression has a greater impact on initial trust
and purchase probability than does reputation. Results will provide some
guidance for the marketing management of sharing platform organizations.

Keywords

reputation, perceived social impression, sharing economy, face processing theory, photo-based social impression

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