How to inspire users in virtual travel communities: The effect of activity novelty on users’ willingness to co-create

Abstract

Virtual travel community managers tend to incorporate a degree of novelty within activity design to foster interaction between users. Little is known of how users respond to these novel activities. Based on customer inspiration theory, this research investigated the mechanisms of activity novelty on users' willingness to co-create and the moderating effect of user regulatory focus and activity goal attainability. Results of three scenario-based experiments revealed that activity novelty positively influenced users’ willingness to co-create via user inspiration. Promotion-focused users were more inspired by novel activities and in turn had a higher willingness to co-create than those were prevention-focused. When activity goal attainability was high (vs. low), the positive effect of activity novelty on inspiration was attenuated. We present the theoretical and practical implications of activity design within virtual travel communities.