The relationship between phubbing and green hotel consumption: the roles of need for uniqueness, social value perception, and gender difference.

Abstract

Green hotel serves as an effective way of achieving sustainable development in hospitality industry, few studies have tested the association between social relationships and green hotel consumption. Since the emerging of phubbing has changed social interaction norm, the association between phubbing and green hotel consumption remains unknown. Drawing upon optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT), the present study aims to address this research gap by examining the relationship between peer phubbing and green hotel booking intention. Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of the need for uniqueness and investigated the moderating role of social value perception of green hotel and gender differences. Based on snowball sampling technique, 461 valid questionnaires were collected. The results revealed a positive association between peer phubbing and green hotel booking intention. The mediating effect of need for uniqueness was found significantly between peer phubbing and green hotel booking intention. The significant moderating effects of social value perception was only found on the relationship between peer phubbing and green hotel booking intention in women group, and the moderating effects were significant between need for uniqueness and green hotel booking intention in both women and men group. The current study demonstrates the impact mechanism of peer phubbing on green hotel consumption, provides a new perspective that green hotel managers could customize marketing strategies, targeting phubbed individuals as potential consumers.