Attribution Theory Revisited: Probing the Link Among Locus of Causality Theory, Destination Social Responsibility, Tourism Experience Types, and Tourist Behavior

Abstract

From a parochial perspective, destination social responsibility (DSR) is crucial in maintaining tourists’ loyalty, trust, and satisfaction. From a broad sense, destination social responsibility could play an essential role as an attribution shifting mechanism inside tourists’ mindsets and differ according to tourism experiences’ nature. To investigate this broad sense, the present study is the first to use locus of causality theory (LOC) to address this issue. By employing a quantitative method, we found that with the presence of DSR, tourists who externally (vs. internally) attribute positive events’ outcomes and have no intention to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM) changed their attribution toward events with positive WOM. Moreover, adventure, business, and sustainable tourists are likely to perceive DSR advantages compared with leisure and cultural tourists by considering their internal LOC (internal attribution) and external LOC (external attribution). Furthermore, the study provided critical theoretical and managerial implications for tourism managers/scholars.