Promoting Ethical Actions against Unethical Hotels (Conference presentation)
Delistavrou, A./ Tilikidou, I./ Sarmantiotis, C./ Gounas, A./ Δελησταύρου, Α./ Τηλικίδου, Ειρήνη/ Σαρμανιώτης, Χρήστος/ Γούνας, Α.
This paper presents the investigation of consumers' intentions to adopt negative and discursive ethical actions
with regard to a hotels' choice. Within the ethical tourism research area, the usual approach has been to examine
consumers' preferences towards green and/or ethical hotels. This approach, although very useful in consumer research,
“suffers” from a social desirability effect especially in cases, which examine a topic related to the social welfare. In this
study, an opposite approach has been put under examination: it was hypothesized that a consumers' association needs
reliable information with reference to consumers’ intentions to reject (boycott) or sign a petition against an unethical hotel
chain in conjoint with the most suitable for these actions promotion media. On the basis of this research information, the
consumers' association shall build an optimum strategy for its members and for the general public to adopt it.
The Conjoint Analysis has been utilized to formulate distinct types of the consumers' association strategy based on 2 chosen
attributes, namely: action (boycotting, petition signs) and media (flyers, e-mail/sms, social media post). The orthogonal
design provided 6 combinations of the associations' potential strategies and the respondents were asked to both rate and
rank the relevant cards.
A structured questionnaire was administered to 450 households in the Thessaloniki urban area provided 420 usable
questionnaires. Besides the cards of the combinations, the questionnaire included selected demographics (age, education,
gender, income and occupation). The respondents were approached through personal interviews taken by trained marketing
senior students. The sampling method was a combination of the two-stage area sampling and the systematic sampling.
The conjoint results surprisingly revealed that the most important factor of the respondents’ rating is the media and not the
action (76.515% and 23.485% of the overall performance determined respectively).
Both ranking and rating results indicated that boycotting through social media is the most preferable combination. Analysis
of Variance revealed that young (25-34 years of age) and University graduates are those to participate in boycotting
promoted by social media more willingly than their counterparts are.
This study is financed by the Research Committee of A.T.E.I. of Thessaloniki, Research Support Programme 2010. Project
number 80099 entitled: Investigating aspects of the negative ethical consumerism: Emphasis on the determination of factors
influencing the choice of “ethical or green” hotels by their potential customers.
Institution and School/Department of submitter: | Σχολή Διοίκησης και Οικονομίας / Τμήμα Διοίκησης Επιχειρήσεων |
Keywords: | Green Hotels;Ethical Consumption;Boycotting;Petition Signs;Social Media;Πράσινα ξενοδοχεία;Ηθική καταναλωτή;Σημάδια αναφοράς;Μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης |
Citation: | International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues (ICCMI) 13 – 15 June 2012 Thessaloniki, Greece |
Description: | Άρθρο Συνεδρίου--ΑΤΕΙΘ, 2012 |
URI: | http://195.251.240.227/jspui/handle/123456789/1258 |
Publisher: | Alexander Technological Educational Institute (ATEI) of Thessaloniki, Department of Marketing Bucks New University |
Appears in Collections: | ICCMI (2012) |
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