International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Are information quality and source credibility really important for shared content
on social media?: The moderating role of gender
Bekir Bora Dedeoglu,
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Bekir Bora Dedeoglu, (2018) "Are information quality and source credibility really important for shared
content on social media?: The moderating role of gender", International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2017-0691
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Moderating
Are information quality and source role of gender
credibility really important for
shared content on social media?
The moderating role of gender
Bekir Bora Dedeoglu Received 10 November 2017
Faculty of Tourism, Nevsehir Hacı Bektas Veli University, Nevsehir, Turkey Revised 16 January 2018
9 April 2018
Accepted 9 June 2018

Abstract
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Purpose – This paper aims to first examine tourists’ perceptions of the source credibility and information
quality of social media content to see whether they would have an impact on their perceptions of the importance
of shared content on social media. The moderating role of gender in this relationship was then examined.
Design/methodology/approach – The research sample was composed of domestic and foreign tourists
in Alanya, an important tourist destination in Turkey. The data in the current study were collected by the
questionnaire method. The structural relationships in the research were examined using the partial least
squares structural equation modeling, and the moderating effect of gender was examined via the partial least
squares multiple group analysis.
Findings – According to the research findings, tourists’ perceptions of source credibility regarding social
media content had a positive impact on the importance attached to non-participant shared content, whereas their
perceptions of information quality had a positive impact on the importance attached to participant shared
content. Furthermore, it was also observed that gender had a moderating effect on the relationship between
information quality and source credibility perceptions and the importance of shared content on social media.
Originality/value – Two important predictive variables have been examined in the current research in
term of customer-generated contents. It has been demonstrated that the effects of these predictive variables on
different customer-generated types could be different. Furthermore, it has been determined that the effects of
these influences differ according to the gender of the individuals following the content. Thus, the current
study provides significant findings to understand the impacts of these variables on the basis of gender.
Keywords Gender, Information quality, Source credibility, Male, Female, Destination,
Customer-generated content, Shared content on social media
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
In addition to the increasing diversity of products and services, the number of channels
through which information about products and services can be obtained is growing. The
internet and social media, which are among the largest information sources, have been
growing in importance day by day. Consumers wishing to obtain information about a
specific product or service make use of the internet and social media ideally. Especially
electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) or content generated on social media by others has
become essential for consumers’ purchasing decisions, preferences and attitudes (Sotiriadis,
2017). E-WOM or consumer-generated contents are able to reach more population faster
than the traditional WOM (Litvin et al., 2018). Viglia et al. (2016) have found that online International Journal of
reviews, a type of e-WOM or consumer-generated content, are an important precedent in Contemporary Hospitality
Management
terms of hotel occupancy rate. The fact that content generated on social media by other © Emerald Publishing Limited
0959-6119
individuals shapes the decisions and preferences of consumers in a significant way has DOI 10.1108/IJCHM-10-2017-0691
 IJCHM created the necessity for organizations to focus on these media. Organizations such as
Sheraton or Starwoods have started to take steps to ensure the interaction of consumers
with both the company and other consumers (Sigala, 2009).
In addition to providing opportunities for consumers to freely express their
opinions about products and services, such measures taken to encourage the
participation of consumers could enable other consumers to be informed and affected
by these opinions. Moreover, shared content on social media is an important factor in
reaching a large audience in one move for a low cost (Safko, 2012). It, it is highly likely
that this shared content has the power to influence potential consumers during the
experience and purchasing processes by increasing their interest in and curiosity
about the brand. Thus, content generated by others might result in a specific level of
awareness for consumers about brands (products and services) (Kim and Park, 2017).
However, a large volume of content is generated on social media – perhaps even an
excessive amount (Inversini and Buhalis, 2009). While this kind of information is
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considered crucial by consumers (Park and Lee, 2009), it might be considered

unnecessary or useless by consumers. This highlights the level of importance
attached by individuals to shared content on social media. Thus, it is necessary to
understand the kinds of factors at play in the importance attached by users to these
types of shared content. As such, it is necessary to examine consumers’ perceptions of
quality regarding the content of such social media posts and their perceptions of the
credibility regarding the sources generating the content. As a matter of fact, when
consumers perceive the information of content on social media as high quality or the
source as reliable, they may think that the content is useful (Sussman and Siegal,
2003), and this could result in consumers paying increased attention to shared content
on social media. As stated by such researchers as Petty et al. (1983) and Shan (2016),
information quality and source credibility are of critical importance in terms of the
impact of the message conveyed. Therefore, the information quality and source
credibility of social media content are expected to be important antecedents of the
importance attached to shared content on social media (Cheung et al., 2012).
Although activities organized on social media by brands encouraging the
participation of consumers have become more common, the process is still in its very
early stages. In the tourism sector, destination management and marketing
organizations remain remarkably passive (Pike and Page, 2014). However, social media
mediums play a more critical role for the tourism sector than other industries (Litvin
et al., 2018). Therefore, it is highly plausible that potential tourists need the opinions of
individuals who have already experienced the products and services that they plan to
experience. Accordingly, it is necessary to examine the impact of shared content on
social media in more detail within the scope of the tourism industry.
Besides being an important and specific variable, gender is a market segmentation
that can be easily observed (Dedeo g lu et al., 2016). Gender plays an important role in
social media usage: consumers’ genders can easily affect their assessments,
perceptions, and attitudes regarding social media content. In addition, the gender of
consumers might play an important role in the assessment of information quality or
content source (Lim and Kwon, 2010). For these reasons, how the effects of consumers’
perceptions of information quality and source credibility change in accordance with
gender should be clarified. Nevertheless, the literature review makes clear that there
exists a shortcoming in this field. Therefore, the present study aims to eliminate the
shortcoming in question.
 Conceptual framework Moderating
Shared content on social media, information quality and source credibility role of gender
Shared content on social media can be generated by both customers and firms (Xiang and
Gretzel, 2010). Firm-generated content endeavors to attract customers, whereas customer-
generated content is the result of individuals’ various motivations (e.g. socialization,
entertainment, seeking social status and information and other social and hedonic factors)
(Park et al., 2009; Parra-Lopez et al., 2011). Although content shared on social media examined
as an overall structure within the scope of customer-generated content, this form of
examination could also result in the ignorance of important components for organizations.
Indeed, some authors state that consumers can create content in different forms (Abrantes et al.,
2013; Kulmala et al., 2013; Oh et al., 2015). It is possible that these different contents cause
different effects. Therefore, it is necessary to examine customer-generated content in detail.
Today, organizations can prompt their consumers to generate content through
social media as well as on their official websites. From the perspective of the customer
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participation concept in the literature on consumer behavior, information,

assessments and the like generated on social media by others can be regarded as
participatory behavior (Bonner, 2010). Therefore, such kinds of behaviors embody
participant sharing, although non-participant content sharing also exists. Non-
participant shared content is content that the organization in question is not involved
with and that the individual posts directly on his or her own account, profile or
friend’s profile (Dedeo g lu, 2016). For example, participant sharing is the content that
an individual creates in the organization’s social media tools or third-party sites.
Possible motivation of the person is to share information about the product and
service. On the other hand, non-participant sharing is content that someone generates
in person’s own or friends’ social media tools (e.g. microblogs, social networks) about
her/his experience. These people are more likely to be driven by motives such as
approved by society, socialization and self-expressing. Nevertheless, to entice
consumers to share such content, it might be necessary for organizations to encourage
them: in other words, make investments. Non-participant sharing, conversely, can
be directed more by consumers’ wishes and motives than participant sharing can be
(Kim and Jogaratnam, 2003), and the organization incurs almost no cost for it. Since
non-participant sharing is not generated for the purpose of disseminating information
about the brand, and the brand (or the producer of the brand) is not included in it, it is
perceived by consumers as warmer and more sincere and thereby becomes a more
important factor (Brown and Hayes, 2008). Although many studies have been carried
out on social media or user-generated content, this small but important point has not
yet been examined. However, it is expected that non-participant sharing directs the
wishes, interests, motivations, and behaviors of consumers as much as participant
sharing does. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the kinds of factors at play in
the importance attached by users to these types of shared content.
The perceptions of information or argument quality and source credibility are
critical in terms of the content’s power to influence customers (Morosan and
Fesenmaier, 2007). As a matter of fact, the power of these factors to affect consumers is
also stated in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and heuristic-systematic (HSM)
models. ELM and HSM explain the persuasive power of messages through the dual
process method. ELM refers to an individual’s action of further thinking so as to
determine the accuracy of arguments on a subject rather than taking all possibilities
into consideration by himself/herself (Cacioppo and Petty, 1984). In ELM, the source
credibility can represent the peripheral route and the information quality can represent
 IJCHM the central route (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Sussman and Siegal, 2003). Peripheral route
is followed when motivation to evaluate the central merits of an attitude object
personally is low, and attitudes are affected primarily by simple cues in the persuasion
environment. On the other hand, central route is followed when people are motivated
and able to engage in a careful examination of the central merits of an attitude object
(Petty et al., 1987). Similarly, heuristic-systematic model proposes two different modes
of information processing (Rudolph, 2017). Systematic mode similar to the central route
in the ELM, the heuristic mode resembles a peripheral route (O’Keefe, 2008). In short,
individuals can be convinced of the contents of messages conveyed by the dual process
method and attach importance to this. Therefore, perceptions of the source posting the
message as reliable as well as perceptions of accuracy of the information conveyed
through the messages are of vital importance for the message content to be influential
and convincing (Petty et al., 1983; Shan, 2016; Sussman and Siegal, 2003). As a matter of
fact, these two points were researched in literature using the terms “information/
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argument quality” and “source credibility,” and their roles in consumer attitudes were
examined.
Argument quality is defined by Eagly and Chaiken (1993) as the persuasiveness or
the power of a convincing argument. Information quality is similar to argument quality;
however, it is examined from a more general perspective. As a matter of fact,
information quality is defined in the literature as “the extent to which consumers
perceive that the information content posted by a company on its brand page is of high
quality” (Zhang et al., 2016, p. 16) or “the quality of a review’s content from the
perspective of information characteristics (relevance, understandability, sufficiency,
and objectivity)” (Park et al., 2007, p. 128). Accordingly, information quality on social
media can be considered to be the perceptions resulting from the assessment of any
content generated by any user (a customer or an organization) on social media based on
metrics such as accuracy, consistency and sufficiency. Nevertheless, measurement
items for information quality are often implemented within the scope of argument
quality because the terms are used interchangeably (Sussman and Siegal, 2003). Given
this, information quality was measured in the present study through the argument
quality items developed by Sussman and Siegal (2003), based on the study of Bailey and
Pearson (1983). If consumers perceive the quality of the content created in social media
positively, this may mean that the individual can benefit from the content (Ahn et al.,
2007). Therefore, if individuals perceive content as useful, they will increase the
likelihood of attaching importance to content.
Source credibility is defined by Ohanian (1990, p. 41) as “a term commonly used to
imply a communicator’s positive characteristics that affect the receiver’s acceptance of
a message.” Given this definition, it is expected that consumers pay attention to shared
content on social media if they perceive the content as high quality or perceive the
sources as reliable. This expectation is that people consider content that they perceive
as high quality or whose sources they perceive as reliable to be beneficial (Sussman and
Siegal, 2003). As a matter of fact, those who consider content to be useful pay more
attention to it (Lee et al., 2015). More clearly, if an individual trusts the information
source due to its expertise or honesty, this sense of trust might lead him or her to
perceive the content as useful (Cheung et al., 2008). In short, when individuals trust the
source, their perception of risk for the content will decrease and they will be able to
benefit more from the content (Hussain et al., 2017). This will enable consumers to
attach importance to content.
 In this way, individuals attach importance to information provided by trusted sources. Moderating
Similarly, if individuals perceive certain information on social media content as high quality, role of gender
they may attach importance to it, as long as the information is useful for them (Ahn et al.,
2007). Accordingly, individuals’ perceptions of the information in shared content on social
media as high quality or that the source of the content is trustworthy are expected to
increase their tendency to attach importance to the social media content. In this regard, the
hypotheses have been developed as follows:

H1. Tourists’ perceptions of information quality in relation to social media content have a
positive and significant effect on the importance they attach to participant sharing.

H2. Tourists’ perceptions of information quality in relation to social media content have
a positive and significant effect on the importance they attach to non-participant
sharing.
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H3. Tourists’ perceptions of source credibility in relation to social media content have a
positive and significant effect on the importance they attach to participant sharing.

H4. Tourists’ perceptions of source credibility in relation to social media content have a
positive and significant effect on the importance they attach to non-participant
sharing.

Gender as a moderating variable

Individuals react differently to the same situation depending on their gender (Coley and
Burgess, 2003). This can be seen more clearly in consumer product evaluations and
purchasing behaviors. More clearly, gender is an important variable that directs customers’
purchasing behaviors and evaluative judgements in various ways (Holbrook, 1986). It is not
only an easily identifiable variable but also gender segments are both accessible and large
enough to be profitable (Darley and Smith, 1995). In addition, the ability to identify gender
differences can help ensure that the steps to be taken for each segment are accurate.
Therefore, gender can be used by organizations as an important factor in market
segmentation (Kim et al., 2007).
Although gender is a very important factor in terms of market segmentation, it might
shed light on the reasons why individuals use social media in the way they do (Yoo and
Gretzel, 2008). According to the findings of Gefen and Straub (2000), females use social
media networks to build rapport, whereas males use them for reporting. In addition, Weiser
(2000) discovered that men use the internet for the purposes of leisure and entertainment,
while women use it for interpersonal communication and educational assistance. Based on
these findings, it can be stated that females’ and males’ motivations for social media usage
differ. On the other hand, female and male users’ attitudes toward the other people’s shared
content may also differ. Similarly, Gretzel and Yoo (2008) found that female users examined
both travel agency websites and travelers’ reviews more than male users to obtain more
detailed information. In addition, according to other findings in the study, women think that
reading others’ reviews helps them make decisions and saves time. Furthermore, they think
that the content of reviews helps reduce risks and uncertainty.
Taking these findings into consideration, gender is expected to play a moderating role in
various other relationships as well. As a matter of fact, Sanchez-Franco et al. (2009) stated
 IJCHM that gender plays a very important role in the use and acceptance of information technology.
Also, the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between social media and various
variables has rarely been examined (Correa et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2015; Lu et al., 2010; Ong
and Lai, 2006).
In addition to the moderating effect of gender, such factors as the quality of the
information shared or the trust in the source generating the content may be perceived by
individuals differently based on gender. However, the literature review revealed that the role
of gender in terms of the determinative effects of the information quality of social media
content and the credibility of the sources generating the content has not been examined
sufficiently. Nevertheless, the information quality of shared social media content is
expected to play a more determinative role for males than females because males are more
interested in using social media to obtain information and ideas about different topics
(Pedersen and Macafee, 2007). Or, as males tend to take more risks compared to females
(Darley and Smith, 1995), source credibility is expected to be more determinative for males.
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On the other hand, perceptions of information quality and source credibility are also
expected to be more determinative for females. For instance, information quality and source
credibility regarding shared content on social media may become more determinative for
females because they perform more detailed searches than males, make their decisions in
light of the information they obtain from external resources rather than focusing on their
own judgments, and pay more attention to multiple sources of information before making a
final decision (Kim et al., 2007). Thus, the role of gender in the abovementioned relationships
is not clear and should be clarified. In this regard, gender is expected to play a moderating
role in terms of the effects of information quality and source credibility on the importance
attached to shared content on social media. However, how it would affect this relationship is
unclear. The present study attempts to eliminate this shortcoming using the following
hypotheses:

H5. The effect of tourists’ perceptions of the information quality of social media content
on the importance they attach to participant sharing differs significantly in regard
to gender.

H6. The effect of tourists’ perceptions of the information quality of social media content
on the importance they attach to non-participant sharing differs significantly in
regard to gender.

H7. The effect of tourists’ perceptions of the source quality of social media content on
the importance they attach to participant sharing differs significantly in regard to
gender.

H8. The effect of tourists’ perceptions of the source quality of social media content on
the importance they attach to non-participant sharing differs significantly in regard
to gender.

Methodology
Instrument
The study questionnaire was adapted from researches by Bailey and Pearson (1983) and
Sussman and Siegal (2003) with regard to the statements used in the measurement of
 information quality and by studies by Wu and Shaffer (1987), Sussman and Siegal (2003) Moderating
and Bhattacherjee and Sanford (2006) with regard to statements used to measure source role of gender
credibility. The importance attached to shared content on social media was measured on a
scale with eleven items and two structures (participant and non-participant sharing)
(Dedeog lu, 2016) (Figure 1). The scale of importance attached to shared content on social
media was inspired by a study by Dedeog lu (2016).
As the questionnaires were to be administered to tourists of different nationalities, they
were prepared in Turkish, Russian, German and English after considering the most
common nationalities of tourists visiting Alanya. The back-to-translation method was used
to translate the questionnaires (Brislin, 1976). Within this scope, the questionnaires were
first prepared in English. English was used as the source language because the original
measurement items were in English and the present study attempted to not modify them.
After the questionnaire was prepared in English, it was sent to a specialist for proofreading.
Then, it was sent to translators to be translated into German, Russian and Turkish. After
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that, the translated questionnaires were sent to different translators to be translated into
English. The translations were compared, and it was observed that each questionnaire
translated from one of the target languages back into English had retained its meaning.
Using the translated questionnaires, a pretest was performed on 10 participants from each
language group to prevent possible misunderstandings. As the pretest revealed that the
items were clear and understandable, the questionnaires were used as they had been
prepared.

Sampling and data collection

The research population is composed of domestic and foreign tourists in Alanya. Foreign
tourists were included in the population because the majority of the tourists visiting Alanya
are foreigners. On the other hand, a possible decrease in the number of international tourists
should be taken into account. In case of such an event, it is necessary to attract domestic
tourists. As such, the national and local authorities are required to examine domestic
tourists to better promote domestic tourism. Alanya also accounts for 14 per cent of
domestic and 8 per cent of foreign tourist income in Turkey (Alanya Economic Report,
2016). In addition to this, it can be assumed that Alanya is a mature destination which is
known by most domestic and foreign tourists (Spilanis et al., 2012). Moreover, the majority
of foreign tourists coming to Alanya are German and Russian tourists (Alanya Economic
Report, 2016). Internet and social media usage rates of these tourists are quite high.
Domestic tourists also have a high level of social media use (The World Bank, 2018; GWI,
2014). In addition, tourists who want to come to Alanya can find it in part when they are
looking for information on this destination in third part vehicles. For this reason, the model

Gender

Importance attached to
participant sharing
Information Quality

Importance attached to
Source Credibility non-participant sharing Figure 1.
Research model
 IJCHM developed in the current research was applied in a destination such as Alanya. Therefore, in
addition to foreign tourists, domestic tourists have also been selected as part of the
population.
The questionnaires were conducted with the help of interviewers through personal
interviews and the drop-collect method. When interviewers were selected, the questionnaire
was considered to be applied on four different levels. For this reason, interviewers were
selected who are compatible with the language of the mother tongue questionnaire.
Questionnaires have been applied to public places such as beaches and parks where tourists
are located, as well as private businesses such as hotels and restaurants. While personal
interviews are used in public places, both personal interviews and drop-collect methods are
used in private businesses. Respondents were selected via convenience sampling. Although
a total of 650 questionnaires were conducted, some of them were not suitable for analysis.
The procedures recommended by Hair et al. (2014) were taken into consideration in the
determination of inappropriate questionnaire responses. Accordingly, 57 questionnaires had
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a “straight-lining” problem, and more than 5 per cent of the values were missing in 54
questionnaires. For this reason, these questionnaires were excluded from the analysis. As a
total of 111 of the 650 questionnaires were not filled out adequately, 539 questionnaires were
used for the analysis. An a priori sample size calculation was performed to obtain the
sample size required for the assessed model (Soper, 2017; Westland, 2012). According to this
calculation, considering anticipated effect size of 0.30, the desired statistical power level of
0.8 and probability level of 0.05, a minimum sample size of 137 is required. Our sample of
539 fulfilled the recommended minimum sample size to test the model.

Data analysis
A complex model has been developed in the present investigation. Structural equation
modeling (SEM) is an appropriate analytical technique for the use of complex models
(Schumacker and Lomax, 2010). However, SEM can be implemented in two forms, variance-
based and covariance-based. Hair et al. (2011, p. 144) stated that “If the research is
exploratory or an extension of an existing structural theory, select PLS-SEM [partial least
squares structural equation modeling]”. This research is exploratory because the
relationships of concepts investigated in this study were not sufficiently examined.
Therefore, it can be said that the relations between these structures need to be discovered
more clearly. For this reason, PLS-SEM was used in the current study. Also, PLS boasts
high statistical power despite a small sample size, and insufficiency in the sample size of the
research groups can be tolerated by using PLS (Hair et al., 2014). In the present study,
the groups were divided by gender to investigate the moderating effect of gender, thus
decreasing the number of samples. The PLS technique, however, can tolerate the problems
that arise from this decrease. Furthermore, the model investigated in the present study is
complex, and PLS is most suitable for complex models (Hair et al., 2011). Therefore, PLS-
SEM was implemented using SmartPLS (3.2.7) (Ringle et al., 2015). A PLS-SEM path model
consists of two elements: outer and inner model (Hair et al., 2014). The outer model was
checked at first; then, the inner model was examined.
To examine gender’s moderating effect, a partial least squares multiple group analysis
(PLS-MGA) was conducted (Hair et al., 2014). However, to use a PLS-MGA, measurement
invariance must first be provided: Sarstedt et al. (2017) explain, “PLS-SEM-based model
estimation always relies on composites” (p. 7). Therefore, the measurement invariance of
composite models (MICOM) method was used, as suggested by Henseler et al. (2016). Then,
the significance of differences between the path coefficients of each group was analyzed
through the permutation-based test (Chin and Dibbern, 2010) and PLS-MGA (Hair
 et al., 2014). The parametric approach was chosen in the PLS-MGA. Accordingly, the results Moderating
of the parametric and Welch–Satterthwait tests were considered. role of gender
However, a data screening process was first applied. Accordingly, the missing values
were first determined, and then, the normal distribution assumption was checked. The
procedure suggested by Hair et al. (2014) was applied for the assignment or elimination of
the missing values. Accordingly, the imputation method was preferred and was
complemented by the mean substitution method. Then, the skewness and kurtosis values
were examined, and the normal distribution assumption was checked. Since the lowest and
highest values were
0.757 and
0.027 for skewness and
0.973 and 0.154 for kurtosis,
respectively, the normal distribution assumption was met (Kline, 2011).

Findings
Demographic findings
Of the respondents, 53.8 per cent were female (f = 345), and 51.9 per cent were younger than
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42. Approximately half (51.8 per cent) of the respondents were single, and 20.6 per cent had
no children. The percentages of respondents who held a high school diploma, an associate
degree, and a bachelor degree as their highest level of education were 26.9, 26.5 and 24.7 per
cent, respectively. Germans accounted for 27.1 per cent of the respondents, and 18.2 per cent
hailed from Russia. Accordingly, 30.8 per cent of them spoke German as a native language
and 19.5 per cent Russian. Only 34.7 per cent of the respondents were visiting Alanya for the
first time. Many of the respondents stayed in four-star hotels (34 per cent), and about a
quarter (25.6 per cent) of them stayed in five-star hotels. Respondents were distributed quite
evenly across income groups.

Outer model
As the first step in the PLS-SEM, the outer model was tested. According to the first results of
the outer model, the three statements of the “importance attached to participant sharing
(IPS)” dimension were removed from the outer model because the factor loadings were
below 0.70, and the measurement model was then re-examined. The results of the
measurement model are shown in Table I.
Table I presents factor loadings and t-values for each indicator. All indicators were
significant at p < 0.05 and with the t-values of the indicators ranging from 6.01 to 56.63 for
all data sets. Furthermore, all indicators’ factor loadings were above 0.70. In addition, the
AVE scores of the constructs ranged from 0.66 to 0.77, which suggests adequate convergent
validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The composite reliabilities indicate internal
consistency, meaning that the measurements all consistently represent the same latent
construct (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The composite construct reliability for each construct
ranged from 0.89 to 0.91. Table I also depicts the AVE square root on the diagonal and the
correlations estimated for each pair of constructs in the elements outside the diagonal. This,
in return, confirms the discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). Moreover,
Heterotrait–Monotrait (HTMT) criteria were used to confirm the discriminant validity. As
the HTMT values were less than 0.85, discriminant validity was established (Henseler et al.,
2015), which is illustrated in Table I. Consequently, the hypothesized measurement model is
a reliable means of testing the structural relationships among the constructs.

Inner model
A PLS-SEM was conducted to test the relationships among the constructs. The results of the
proposed model are shown in Figure 2.
 IJCHM t
Dimension Items Path coefficients values CR AVE Cronbach’s alpha

IPS IPS3 0.84 41.05 0.91 0.72 0.87

IPS4 0.86 39.37
IPS5 0.86 45.55
IPS6 0.83 34.87
INPS INPS1 0.82 6.40 0.90 0.70 0.86
INPS2 0.80 6.07
INPS3 0.86 6.43
INPS4 0.87 6.29
IQ IQ1 0.90 56.53 0.91 0.77 0.85
IQ2 0.87 37.63
IQ3 0.86 41.01
SC SC1 0.74 6.01 0.89 0.66 0.83
SC2 0.89 9.34
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SC3 0.84 7.83

SC4 0.78 8.03

Fornell–Larcker IQ IPS INPS SC HTMT IQ IPS INPS SC

IQ 0.88 IQ
IPS 0.24 0.85 IPS 0.27
INPS
0.03 0.08 0.84 INPS 0.05 0.12
SC 0.18 0.07 0.13 0.81 SC 0.21 0.08 0.15
Table I. Notes: IPS: Importance attached to participant sharing; INPS: Importance attached to non-participant
Result of sharing; IQ: Information Quality; SC: Source Credibility; CR: Construct Reliability; AVE: Average variance
measurement model extracted

β = 0.24, t = 4.950 Importance attached to

Information participant sharing
Quality
β = –0.06, t = 0.942
Figure 2. β = 0.02, t = 0.374
Source Credibility Importance attached to
Result of structural non-participant sharing
model β = 0.14, t = 2.110

The hypothesized relationship between information quality (IQ) and IPS (H1) was supported
by the corresponding estimate of 0.24 (p < 0.001), showing that IQ significantly affects IPS.
The standardized path coefficient of the relationship between IQ and importance attached to
non-participant sharing (INPS) (H2) was
0.06 (p > 0.001), which indicates that IQ was not
a significant predictor of INPS. H4 was supported by an estimate of 0.14 (p < 0.05),
suggesting that source credibility (SC) is a significant antecedent of INPS. The hypothesized
relationship between SC and IPS (H3) was not supported ( b = 0.02; p > 0.001). The “inverse
square root” method proposed by Kock and Hadaya (2018) was used to determine whether
the non-significant effects were due to a small sample size. According to this method, with
the desired probability (p = 0.05) and statistical power (0.80), the minimum suggested
sample size was 316. Therefore, the non-significant effects were not due to sample size
(Mayr et al., 2007).
 According to the f2 value (Cohen, 1988), customers’ perceptions related to IQ had a low Moderating
effect (0.06) on IPS. On the other hand, customers’ perceptions related to SC had a low effect role of gender
(0.02) on INPS. Stone-Geisser’s Q2 value was taken into consideration for the assessment of
the predictive relevance. For the examination of Q2, the cross-validated redundancy value
recommended by Hair et al. (2011) was used. The Q2 value was obtained using the
blindfolding procedure (Tenenhaus et al., 2005). As the Q2 value is larger than zero for both
IPS (SSO = 2.156; SSE = 2.078; Q2 = 0.036) and INPS (SSO = 2.156; SSE = 2.134; Q2 = 0.10),
its explanatory latent construct exhibits predictive relevance (Henseler et al., 2009).

The moderating effects of gender

To be able to examine the moderating effect of gender, the measurement invariance
regarding the female and male groups formed in accordance with the variables should be
supported (Henseler et al., 2016). Therefore, before the PLS-MGA was conducted,
the measurement invariance for gender was examined using the three-step MICOM
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procedure as suggested by Henseler et al. (2016). However, each group in the PLS-MGA
applications should fulfill the minimum sample size requirements (Hair et al., 2014). Thus,
the calculation method applied to the general sample was examined in the PLS-MGA sample
groups. The results indicated that the minimum suggested sample size was 137 for a model
with 4 latent variables, 15 observed variables, a 0.30 medium anticipated effect size, a 0.80
desired statistic power level and a 0.05 probability level. As the lowest number of samples
(194) is greater than the result (137), this requirement was also met.
MICOM was run through the permutation procedure with 5,000 samples of both males
and females. The configural invariance was established using the same setup for each
group-specific model estimation. As seen in Table II, the compositional invariance was also
established. However, Step 3 found significant differences in the means and variances of
INPS between males and females. Thus, Step 3 was not met. In cases where Steps 1 and 2
but not Step 3 were proven, partial measurement invariance was provided. Indeed, the
partial measurement invariance was sufficient to proceed with the PLS-MGA for the
comparison of the structural paths across groups (Henseler et al., 2016). Therefore, the PLS-
MGA was applied (Table III).
Based on both the permutation results and the PLS-MGA results, significant group
differences were found in the effects of SC on IPS (D b = 0.234, p = 0.033) and INPS
(D b = 0.324, p = 0.011) and in the effects of IQ on IPS (D b = 0.275, p = 0.015).
Specifically, the findings demonstrated that while the effects of IQ perception on IPS
and the effects of SC perception on INPS are more determinative for female tourists

Compositional invariance Equal mean Equal variance

(Correlation =1) (Step2) (Step 3a) (Step 3b)
CI
Constructs (Step 1) C=1 CI PMI Dif. CI Dif. CI FMI

IQ Yes 0.995 [0.992, 1.000] Yes 0.000 [
0.171, 0.165]
0.031 [
0.227, 0.222] Yes
IPS Yes 0.991 [0.989, 1.000] Yes 0.124 [
0.175, 0.168] 0.153 [
0.257, 0.252] Yes
INPS Yes 0.814 [0.790, 1.000] Yes
0.049 [
0.166, 0.169]
0.288 [
0.278, 0.263] No
SC Yes 0.995 [0.883, 1.000] Yes 0.084 [
0.170, 0.169] 0.052 [
0.256, 0.257] Yes

Notes: CI: Confidence Interval; Dif: Differences; CI: Configural invariance; PMI: Partial measurement Table II.
invariance; FMI: Full measurement invariance; IPS: Importance attached to participant sharing; INPS: Results of MICOM
Importance attached to non-participant sharing; IQ: Information Quality; SC: Source Credibility for gender
 IJCHM than male tourists, the effects of SC on IPS are more determinative for male tourists
than female tourists. Additionally, no significant effects of IQ perceptions on IPS and
INPS or of SC perceptions on INPS were found for the male respondents. Similarly, no
significant effects of SC perceptions on IPS or of IQ perceptions on INPS were observed
for the female respondents.
In addition, the x 2 significance test was performed between these gender groups and the
demographical variables such as age, education, number of child, type of hotel and
questionnaire language to ensure the differences among the gender groups (male and
female) subjected to the measurement invariance tests. According to the results of the x 2
significance test, no significant difference was found between the gender and age ( x 2 =
7.026; df = 6; p = 0.368), education ( x 2 = 11.019; df = 5; p = 0.051), number of child ( x 2 =
9.436; df = 4; p = 0.051), type of hotel ( x 2 = 2.184; df = 5; p = 0.823), and questionnaire
language ( x 2 = 4.861; df = 3; p = 0.182). It can be indicated that the distribution of the
demographical variables and the gender groups is proportional (Oh and Hsu, 2014), which
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means it will not cause any ambiguity in the results regarding the relationship between the
gender groups and the demographical variables of the respondents (Rodríguez Molina et al.,
2013).

Discussion and conclusions

Conclusions
The present research has examined how information quality and source credibility
factors, which are of vital importance for increasing content efficiency and
persuasiveness, contribute to the attachment of additional importance to tourism-
related content generated by other consumers. An examination of these relationships
within the scope of tourism, a high-risk sector, will ensure a better understanding of
information quality and source credibility in terms of tourism-related content.
Therefore, the research findings are expected to make significant contributions to social
media studies within the tourism context.
Moreover, the moderating effect of gender was also examined in the present study. In
addition to being an important segmentation variable, gender can provide marketers with
important information. Accordingly, the findings in the present study facilitate a better

Path
Hyp. Relation Group coefficients t Permutation Parametric Welch–Satterthwait Supported

H5 IQ ! IPS Female 0.36 5.933 D b =
0.275 D b = 0.275 D b = 0.275 Yes

Male 0.08 0.826NS p = 0.006 p = 0.015 p = 0.018
H6 IQ ! INPS Female
0.05 0.749NS D b =
0.071 D b = 0.071 D b = 0.071 No
Male
0.03 0.811NS p = 0.525 p = 0.655 p = 0.670

H7 SC ! IPS Female
0.07 1.006NS D b = 0.234 D b = 0.234 D b = 0.234 Yes

Male 0.17 1.891 p = 0.035 p = 0.033 p = 0.035

H8 SC ! INPS Female 0.27 3.634 D b =
0.324 D b = 0.324 D b = 0.324 Yes

Male
0.06 0.514NS p = 0.039 p = 0.011 p = 0.013
Table III.
Result of PLS-MGA Notes:  p < 0.001;  p < 0.01; NS: Not significant; IPS: Importance attached to participant sharing; INPS:
for gender Importance attached to non-participant sharing; SC: Source credibility; IQ: Information quality
 understanding of the role of gender in tourists’ perceptions of information quality and Moderating
source credibility and how these affect the importance they attribute to content generated by role of gender
others on social media.

Theoretical implications
According to the research findings, information quality perceptions regarding social media
content have a positive and significant effect on importance attached to participant sharing,
whereas source credibility perceptions have a positive and significant effect on importance
attached to non-participant sharing. When examined from the perspective of customer
participation in customer behavior literature, participant sharing can be regarded as a
structure from which tourists receive feedback on products and services. As a matter of fact,
as participant sharing is generated on social media, where businesses are involved either
directly or indirectly (Dedeog lu, 2016), it can be considered that the primary purpose of
tourists paying attention to the information provided in this shared content is to obtain
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information (Dabholkar, 2015). More clearly, since participant sharing is posted on the
businesses’ own social media accounts or on social media accounts with which the
businesses are indirectly involved, potential tourists using these social media networks and
accounts are likely to be the first to obtain the information. Therefore, it is critical that the
information in such social media content is perceived to be of high quality. Accordingly,
when tourists think that the information quality of such social media content is low, the
importance of participant sharing generated by other individuals decreases or, if they think
the quality is high, increases. On the other hand, since non-participant sharing is done via an
individual’s own or his or her friends’ social media accounts, it is expected that potential
tourists would benefit from non-participant sharing to (unintentionally) increase their’
interest in the shared content (touristic experiences, activities) rather than to obtain
information. Likewise, potential tourists may find their friends’ or acquaintances’ shared
social media content interesting and could focus their attention on the shared content. As
such, it is highly likely that potential tourists would pay more attention to the sincerity and
credibility of the source than the information quality.
In the current research, it was determined that female and male’s attitudes to content
have different effects on their source credibility and information quality perceptions, thus
contributing significantly to social media and gender studies in tourism. This study is a
pioneer for researchers who want to work on information quality, source credibility, social
media and gender issues.
In accordance with the findings of the multiple group analysis, the extent to which
female tourists pay attention to participant sharing on social media is affected by their
information quality perceptions regarding the content, whereas the extent to which they pay
attention to non-participant sharing is affected by their source credibility perceptions. On
the other hand, the extent to which male tourists pay attention to participant sharing on
social media is affected by their source credibility perceptions the content. As observed in
the studies carried out on social media, the motivations for social media usage, the time
spent on it and the importance attached to the content can differ in accordance with gender.
Therefore, information quality perceptions of social media content being more effective for
female tourists in terms of the extent of attention paid to participant sharing on social media
can be explained by the findings revealed by Gretzel and Yoo (2008), who found that females
visit travel agencies’ websites and read other visitors’ reviews in order to obtain detailed
information more than males. In addition, they observed that women can make decisions
more easily thanks to other visitors’ reviews. Thus, females make use of social media to
obtain detailed information, and therefore, their perceptions of the quality of the information
 IJCHM obtained through these mediums do primarily affect importance attached to participant
sharing. Accordingly, this justifies the claim in the present study that the effects of
information quality perceptions on importance attached to participant sharing are a more
influential factor for females. Furthermore, females focus more on details than males and
allocate more attention to multiple sources of information and external sources rather than
to their own judgments (Kim et al., 2007). This finding supports the notion that Kim (2016)
stated that men were more likely to use new technologies during the 1990s; however,
recently female used more internet applications because they acted to share pictures and
stories in social media accounts. Also, the behavior of creating picture and story content is
more non-participant sharing. For this reason, it can be expected that the gender of the
content creators is also a significant determinant for the importance attached to contents.
This expectation can be seen as a point to be investigated in future studies. Therefore, the
extent to which females pay attention to non-participant sharing on social media might be
affected by their source credibility perceptions of the content.
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On the other hand, males’ source credibility perceptions affecting the extent to which
they pay attention to others’ participant sharing can be explained by the fact that they make
decisions more quickly and tend to take more risks than females (Kim et al., 2007). When
examined within the scope of the elaboration likelihood model, source credibility could
function as a peripheral route, or as heuristics processing (Slater and Rouner, 1996), when
examined within the scope of the heuristic-systematic model, in males’ quicker and riskier
decision-making process. Peripheral routes put emphasis on the content credibility, which
refers the individual trusting the content for various reasons (e.g. the source is perceived as
an expert) without doing further research on it (Petty et al., 1983), whereas heuristics
processing makes use of shortcut cues to assess the message (Cheung et al., 2008). Therefore,
tourists’ high perceptions of source credibility can reduce the duration of their research and
the risks related to content, helping them make decisions much more easily, and thus can
lead them to grant more attention to the content.

Practical implications
Organizations should understand what participant and non-participant sharings are.
Content generated by others on the organization’s official social media account constitutes
as participant sharing. This means that, for example, a hotel wishing to direct the attention
of potential tourists to such content should make sure that the information quality of the
content is perceived to be of high quality. In this regard, organizations should monitor the
information shared about them and intervene when misleading information is shared,
thereby ensuring that potential tourists perceive the content as high quality. For this aim,
taking into account the increase in social media usage, organizations should employ a
specialist to manage their social media accounts.
Non-participant sharing can be content generated by a person on his or her own account
or his or her friend’s account. Organizations play almost no direct role in the generation of
such content. However, considering that such content contributes significantly to increasing
potential tourists’ interest in specific touristic products and services, organizations should
explore ways to increase source credibility perceptions, thereby enhancing the importance of
such content. Thus, it is recommended that organizations provide promotions to prompt
individuals who have had experiences in the destination to post content about it on their
official accounts in order to increase source credibility perceptions. In this way, since they
are trusted, individuals, as opposed to the organization, having posted the content could
enhance the importance attached to the non-participant sharing and increase the interest in
the touristic products and services in question.
 The role of gender, an important segmentation factor in the studied relationships, was Moderating
also examined., it might be necessary to follow the abovementioned recommendations on the role of gender
basis of gender regarding the studied relationships, as it was observed that those
relationships were significant for females. Therefore, taking into account the findings,
organizations should take steps to increase females’ information quality perceptions to
prompt them to pay more attention to participant sharing. Likewise, they should try
to increase females’ source credibility perceptions to prompt them to pay more attention to
participant sharing. In this point, tourism enterprises are obliged to perceive the quality of
the information about the contents of the social media to consumers. For this reason, it
should ensure that experienced consumers are able to create content with visuals,
photographs and videos they have experienced. As a matter of fact, in addition to sharing
knowledge of experimentation, consumers can visually follow the experiences of others to
ensure that they obtain more convincing and accurate information. In this way, a high
perception of the quality of the information can be achieved.
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Unlike the results of the inner model, the results of the multiple group analysis suggested
that the role of source credibility perceptions of social media content on the importance
attached to others’ participant sharing on social media was only determinative for males.
Accordingly, organizations should focus on source credibility to enhance the importance
attached to non-participant sharing by females and to participant sharing by males.
Organizations could, for example, prompt potential tourists’ friends to post comments using
hashtags or to generate content on a specific topic. In this regard, the levels importance
attached to non-participant sharing of females and the levels importance attached to
participant sharing of males can be increased by fostering a high source credibility
perception. In addition, organizations can distribute various titles to them to increase
perception of source credibility. The distribution of titles to be made according to criteria
such as more comments, more appreciation, more sharing, re-sharing of the content can
make other followers (potential tourists) attach importance to the content. In particular,
females’ importance attached to non-participant sharing and male importance attached to of
participant sharing can be increased in this way.

Limitations and future research

This study faces several limitations that offer opportunities for future studies. First, the
results are based on a sample in Alanya, Turkey. The study should be carried out on
different samples from different regions to generalize the research model. Second, the
respondents’ statements on the items in the scales were recorded during their experience of
the destination. Nevertheless, considering that their holidays were still in progress, it must
be considered that anything they may have experienced in the remaining days of their
vacation could have changed their perceptions and opinions. For this reason, questionnaires
in future studies should be conducted when the tourists are about to leave the destination.
Third, the current study did not use a control variable to represent tourists’ previous
experiences in a host city or nation, which could affect their destination perceptions.
Therefore, the future studies should explore the moderating effect of the tourists’ previous
experiences in the destination.
Fourth, source credibility can be evaluated as a multi-dimensional concept consisting of
attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise (Ohanian, 1991). Multidimensional
consideration of source credibility can lead to more useful findings. As a credibility of source
can influence the quality of information (Lee, 2012), information quality and source
credibility can interact (Zhang et al., 2017). For this reason, different studies can be carried
out in future studies, taking into consideration the interaction effect of information quality
 IJCHM and source credibility. Lastly, Kim et al. (2016) reviewed the cases of satisfiers and
dissatisfiers according to the reviews of tourists regarding the different services of the hotel
enterprises and provided detailed findings. In this point, customer-generated content can be
evaluated by considering the dimensions of the destination quality of service. In this way,
more detailed and useful information can be reached.

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 Appendix Moderating
role of gender
Dimension Measurement items References

Importance

attached to participant sharing
IPS1 When choosing the destination, recommendations of others on a Dedeo glu
destination website and/or on social media websites (Facebook, (2016)

Instagram, etc.) about the destination are important to me
IPS2 When choosing the destination, sharings of others on a destination
website and/or on social media websites (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
about the destination are important to me
IPS3 When choosing the destination, comments of others on a destination
website and/or on social media websites (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
about the destination are important to me
IPS4 When choosing the destination, ratings of others on a destination
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website and/or on social media websites (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

about the destination are significant to me
IPS5 When choosing the destination, ratings of other users on websites (e.g.,
Tripadvisor, booking.com) where travel evaluations are included and
holiday packages are sold are important to me
IPS6 When choosing the destination, comments of other users on websites
(e.g., Tripadvisor, booking.com) where travel evaluations are included

and holiday packages are sold are important to me
IPS7 When choosing the destination, recommendations of other users on
websites (e.g., Tripadvisor, booking.com) where travel evaluations are
included and holiday packages are sold are important to me
Importance attached to non-participant sharing
INPS1 Holiday related comments of other users on their own social media
accounts (profiles) (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) are important to me
INPS2 Holiday related sharing of other users on their own social media
accounts (profiles) (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) are important to me
INPS3 Holiday recommendations of other users on their own social media
accounts (profiles) (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) are important to me
INPS4 Holiday related sharing (photo, video) of other users on social media
accounts of others (profiles) (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) are
important to me
Information quality
IQ1 The information on social media mediums is complete Bailey and
IQ2 The information on social media mediums is consistent Pearson,
IQ3 The information on social media mediums is accurate 1983;
Sussman and
Siegal, 2003
Source credibility
SC1 The person who comments on social media mediums is expert about a Sussman and
specific topic Siegal, 2003;
SC2 The person who comments on social media mediums is knowledgeable Wu and
about a specific topic Shaffer, 1987
SC3 The person who shares on social media mediums is trustworthy Bhattacherjee
SC4 The person who shares on social media mediums is credible and Sanford,
2006
Table AI.
Note:  This item was deleted after examining measurement model Measurement items
 IJCHM About the author
Dr Bekir Bora Dedeo glu earned PhD degree from the Tourism Management
Department at Akdeniz University and at the present time, is working in the
Tourism Faculty at the Nevs ehir Hacı Bektas  Veli University in Turkey. His
research areas include destination marketing, destination branding, tourist behavior
and hospitality marketing. He has published articles in professional journals
including the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, the
Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, International Journal of
Hospitality Management and the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing. Dr
Dedeoglu has also served as reviewer for top tourism and hospitality journals such as Tourism
Management, Tourism Management Perspectives, International Journal of Hospitality Manage-
ment, etc. Bekir Bora Dedeoglu can be contacted at: b.bora.dedeoglu@nevsehir.edu.tr
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