The application of Social Exchange Theory in tourism research: a critical thinking

Abstract

Social Exchange Theory research in the field of tourism has accumulated some achievements. It is a very widely used theory in tourism research. It is widely used in residents' support, forecasting future tourism development and other issues, and has strong explanatory power. However, as an important academic school of sociology, social exchange theory has a long history of development and theoretical connotation, not just two simple concepts of cost and benefit. Early researchers simplified the social exchange theory as cost and benefit, which is convenient for quantitative research. With the deepening of the research, there are some phenomena in the field of tourism that can't be explained by the social exchange theory, and the social exchange theory can't accurately explain some complex problems. There are some problems in the use of social exchange theory and research methods in tourism academia, which leads to the lack of theoretical contribution in related research. This paper attempts to trace the origin of social exchange theory in the field of tourism, analyze various research methods and scales, and critically reflect on the problems existing in the research of social exchange theory in the field of tourism. The research in the field of tourism simplifies the social exchange theory, but the social exchange theory has a complex and huge theoretical background and foundation. In the tourism research, we find out the parts that are easy to quantify, and ignore some other parts that have explanatory power in the field of tourism. The cost-benefit model commonly used by researchers is convenient for quantitative explanation of some phenomena in the field of tourism and helps to explain many phenomena. However, the existing research framework and models are oversimplified and misused, ignoring the original rich connotation of social exchange theory, such as some important variables and principles, and even being mistaken for only the connotation of cost and benefit. In the future, tourism research should clarify the theoretical basis, theoretical source and theoretical connotation of social exchange theory, adhere to the problem oriented research design, avoid following others' advice, and ignore other explanatory parts of social exchange theory in the field of tourism. Social exchange theory is a rich theoretical mine, and there are many contents that can be mined. In the future, we should bring the contents previously ignored for research into the research framework and research model, so as to improve the explanatory power of social exchange theory on complex tourism phenomena.