Exploration of Moderated, Mediated, and Configurational Outcomes of Tourism-Related Content (TRC) on TikTok in Predicting Enjoyment and Behavioral Intentions

Abstract

The significance of social media content in consumers’ decision-making journeys has acquired substantial attention among scholars and business practitioners in recent times. However, the exploration of how marketing strategies should design social media content to influence behavioral intentions remains fairly inadequate, particularly within the tourism industry. This study is aimed at developing a model that includes the moderating, mediating, and configuration effects of tourism-related content (TRC) dimensions on TikTok to predict enjoyment and behavioral intention. This study employs a hybrid approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to test hypotheses and propositions using a sample of 319 participants who have experience watching TRC on TikTok and have the intention to visit the destinations presented in the content. The results from SEM confirm that content reliability and understandability significantly influence perceived enjoyment. Furthermore, visit intention is predicted to increase through the contributions of content understandability and perceived enjoyment. Insights from the mediating effect reveal that perceived enjoyment serves as a fully mediating factor between content understandability and visit intention. Moreover, the moderating effects of gender and frequency of use exhibit significant differences in their impacts on perceived enjoyment and visit intention. The outcomes of fsQCA confirm that various configurations of TRC dimensions and enjoyment provide valuable insights for designing content-marketing strategies. The consideration of different combinations of these constructs can impact behavioral intentions. This research makes significant contributions to both theory and marketing practice, as the comprehensive discussion of the combinations of configurations provides amplified insights into this study’s findings.