Variables y operacionalización

The main outcome of this research is the operationalization of the reputation construct comprising three elements representing the individual level of reputation (PUTO), which are: opinion (the contents belonging to a specific semiotic code); stakeholder (who expresses an opinion formed through different sources); relevant object (the object that holds the stakeholder’s opinion). Two other components emerged from the theoretical investigation of the reputation construct representing the RE level (reiteration of the PUTO level), which are a social dimension (the same opinion, or similar opinions, has to be shared by many stakeholders, and refers also to shared values within a community), and a long-term component (that is, opinions shared in a community that are quite stable and evolve over time as a result of the evaluation of an object by a group of stakeholders).

The definition of the online contents classification framework (eTDR), research Phase A of this study, turned out to be apt for the analysis of online conversations, contributing to the field of content analysis in tourism by introducing a top-down deductive approach — that is, a definition of a pre-established content classification framework, which allows for the systematic analysis of destination reputation dimensions in online media, and also allows for further comparison among similar objects, such as tourism destinations.

146 Conclusion and final remarks

Findings from research phase A, demonstrate how the eTDR was able to capture and map opinions published online, in particular the ones that express feelings, using five main reputation drivers: the tourism destination offers products and services that are good value for the money; the tourism destination offers interesting local cultures and traditions; the tourism destination offers a satisfying tourism experience; the tourism destination offers a safe environment; and the tourism destination offers favorable weather. As well, a common ability among untrained web users to recognize the topic and the sentiment expressed on various social media pages set the stage for the next research phase, with a projected extensive quasi-experiment with web users.

The contribution of this research is twofold, as it focused on the two main dimensions considered within the agenda-setting domain. The first contribution refers to the analysis of the (online) media salience, i.e., the prominence of a topic or the selective public attention on a specific object. In particular, eTDR contributes to the development of topic dimensions for tourism destination analysis, allowing future research to adopt and refine the topic components for exhaustive media coverage analysis. The second contribution in the agenda setting studies refers to the analysis of the tone, which is the favorability expressed in online opinions or the attitude/evaluation of the object. In particular, eTDR contributes to the development of a content analysis protocol that takes into account the positive or negative feelings expressed online, which are associated with one of the topic dimensions proposed.

The second research phase of this study (Phase B), focused on the social dimension of the reputation construct, namely the opinions shared by many stakeholders in the online domain, i.e., the RE level (the reiteration of the PUTO level) within the proposed operationalization of the reputation construct. The opinion shared among a group of stakeholders was easily perceived by web users.

Results from Phase B confirmed the ability of people to recognize the dominant opinion presented online, and to investigate the message cues that affected the perception and possible confirmation/disconfirmation of prior beliefs.

Finally, results obtained from the model test, confirmed users’ familiarity with a recognition of a dominant online opinion and an overall ability to identify online messages that present arguments strength and consistency. This finding encourages research on reputation analysis in online media within the tourism domain, particularly on defining the role of the online messages in the formation of destination reputation.

Conclusion and final remarks 147

5.1.1. Limitations

The definition of the online contents classification framework (eTDR), first research phase of this work, suffers from the following limitations:

(1) Case studies are related to few destinations––one popular destination (London), and three specific destinations. Therefore, we cannot posit that the content analysis research has been extensively tested on many destinations. However, during the time that was dedicated to this research, several content analyses were performed with other destinations, and demonstrated a consistency with the outcome obtained in the case studies reported here.

(2) The five main reputation drivers emerged from an investigation of users’ perception at Italian airports are based on an European perspective, as the majority of the respondents were from Europe. This outcome has been then used for the subsequent content analysis and the creation of stimulus material for a quasi-experiment design with American respondents not considering the cultural issue. Data about American respondents gathered from airport investigation was compared with European responses, confirming that there were no differences in the definition of the relevant topic dimensions. However, the number of American respondents was low, so cultural issues should be reconsidered in future research.

(3) The proposed content analysis process generated a general classification of the topics expressed online. Peculiarities of a destination could not emerge from this kind of analytical approach, as each content was associated with a main topic dimension and, therefore, may have lost relevant characteristics of a place.

(4) Coding with user tests has limitations too. The test did not consider principles from technology persuasion studies, e.g., the tendency of users to look at prominent signals on the page like titles, ranks, or to pay attention to the right corner of the screen or the first part of the page, etc.

Regarding the research Phase B of this work, the investigation of a perceived dominant opinion expressed online about tourism destinations suffers from the following limitations:

(1) Quasi-world simulation. This experiment was based on a set of pre-defined stimuli materials (i.e., 20 pages per destination), thus, this work cannot extensively cover the online representation of each destination. Moreover, insights from real navigation were not considered, as respondents were obliged to navigate the stimuli within the online questionnaire.

148 Conclusion and final remarks

(2) Sample. This work is based on a sample that considers only American respondents. Thus, it cannot be extrapolated to the entire Internet population. Moreover, the response rate of 3.4 percent cannot ensure an accurate representation of the overall American population.

(3) Construct refinement. Some items did not provide adequate reliability (i.e., perceived reputation, message sidedness, trust of social media), and these results suggest room for improvement.

(4) The overall reputation assessment of each destination is inferred from the ranks given by the respondents per each reputation dimension proposed. Thus, there is a lack of a specific unique question regarding the perceived reputation of a destination before and after stimuli exposure.

(5) Online domain limited to the social media context. This work is based on an experiment performed only with social media-related stimuli materials.