ABSTRACT

The present research investigates how the threat of COVID-19 affects consumers’ choices among hospitality/travel options of varying levels of quality and price. Drawing on compensatory consumption theory, we predicted that the virus’s prominence would increase consumers’ preference for more expensive options in a choice set. Five empirical studies and one secondary data analysis investigated consumers’ choice among various business and budget hotels. The results consistently showed that consumers increase their safety-seeking under a high threat of COVID-19 and prefer a more expensive hotel option. To enhance the study’s internal validity, we provide converging evidence by either measuring (studies 1, 2, 3, and 5) or manipulating the threat of COVID-19 (study 4). We also provide the secondary data analysis with words searched in Google Trends (study 6). Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

摘要

本研究调查了 COVID-19 的威胁如何影响消费者在不同质量和价格水平的款待/旅行选择中的选择。我们利用补偿性消费理论预测，病毒的突出地位将增加消费者对选择集中更昂贵的选择的偏好。五项实证研究和一项二级数据分析调查了消费者在各种商务和经济型酒店中的选择。结果一致表明，消费者在 COVID-19 的高威胁下增加了对安全的追求，并且更喜欢更昂贵的酒店选择。为了提高研究的内部有效性，我们通过测量（研究 1、2、3 和 5）或操纵 COVID-19 的威胁（研究 4）来提供聚合证据。我们还使用在 Google 趋势中搜索的词提供辅助数据分析（研究 6）。最后，我们讨论了我们发现的理论和管理意义。