Explicit vs. implicit? How different self-presentations of luxury tourism experience trigger others’ value co-destruction intention in online travel communities

Abstract

Online self-presentation of luxury tourism experiences can lead to negative outcomes such as others' envy and hostility in online travel communities (OTCs). Thus, some users have learned to present their tourism experience in a more implicit manner, rather than being explicit, and the influence of different self-presentations merits exploration in the tourism literature. Drawing on the theory of value co-destruction, we examine whether, how, and when explicit (vs. implicit) self-presentation of luxury tourism experiences would induce others' value co-destruction intention by triggering perceived conflict in OTCs. Three experiments show that explicit (vs. implicit) self-presentation is more likely to trigger others’ value co-destruction intention by intensifying perceived informational and relational conflict. In addition, for implicit self-presentation, those sharing similar experiences with luxury self-presenters would develop weaker conflict perceptions than would those without similar experiences. We offer novel insights for improving the OTC experience to prevent value co-destruction.