The role of trust in tourists’ motivation to participate in co-creation

Abstract

Purpose Intention to re-participate in co-creation (IRCC) is an essential indication of customers to their deal proneness. Therefore, this study aims to focus on the role of trust in the relationship between tourists’ motivation for IRCC activities and the perceived service outputs in the tourism research. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a quantitative method approach to achieve perceptions into this unfamiliar phenomenon of IRCC. A total of 305 valid questionnaires were collected from October 10 to October 30, 2020 in Istanbul, then analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling using the linear structural relations (LISREL) software package. Findings The findings of the study showed that the tourists’ IRCC is categorized under four factors: learning benefit, social interaction benefit, hedonic benefit and financial benefit. In the context of IRCC, organizational trust partially mediates the relationship between tourist intention and deal proneness motivation for IRRC. Research limitations/implications The scope of research was limited to domestic tourists visiting Istanbul. Research must be conducted on tourists visiting other destinations and who differ in terms of cultural features to make assessments on a larger scale. Furthermore, when considering that co-creation is the consequence of the collaboration between the business and the customers, researching businesses’ initiatives based on promoting the participation in co-creation will make a contribution both for the managers and to the literature to formalize the co-creation process. In addition, social networks are one of the main platforms where tourists motivation to participate in co-creation, but tourists can both create and destroy value on social media regarding the businesses and touristic experience. In this respect, future research should analyze tourists’ motivation elements that urge them to co-create and co-destroy value on social networks, contributing to understanding and evaluating the co-creation process in all aspects. Practical implications In contrast with prior research, this study offers a model that integrates the antecedents and consequences of the IRCC process. In this perception, insight tourist motivational factors to IRCC activities provides a path for tourism businesses to strategically manage their activities. This study mostly uncovers the role of organizational trust positively in effect the re-participation. Originality/value IRCC is an issue that should be evaluated with its antecedents and outputs. In the literature, several studies evaluate co-creation outputs but research on antecedents promoting IRCC is limited. In this study, the antecedents (motivation to re-participate) and outputs of co-creation (trust and perceived benefit) are evaluated together.