VIRTUAL REALITY AS A MARKETING TOOL TO DRIVE CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING

Authors

  • Hamza Shahab Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan-Department of Management, University of Malaya, Malaysia
  • Farhan Shahzad Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan
  • Ghulam Yasin Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52567/pjsr.v4i1.933

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a tool for helping tourism marketers in forming realistic customer expectations. Extant literature is available on the technological adoption of VR in business-related fields like marketing and tourism. Still, a gap exists in studying decision-making to visit a destination and attitude towards a tourism destination. This study attempts to cover the gap by investigating decision-making behaviour with respect to VR for selecting a tourism destination. Individuals' decision-making is based on a cognitive or emotional approach; therefore, Elaboration Likelihood Model is used in this research to understand consumer decision-making. Eight face-to-face interviews were conducted from students to identify the most unfamiliar destination. Field experimentation was used to collect data from 216 Malaysian students; one group experienced VR, and another watched a video. The results reveal that the information quality (cognitive approach) of VR plays a significant role in attitudinal change. On the contrary, video positively influences the attitude through information quality and source credibility, but its intensity is low compared to VR. This research makes a substantial contribution for VR marketers to focus on informational aspects while developing a prototype of VR.

Keywords: Virtual reality; elaboration likelihood model; tourism marketing; decision-making; field experimentation.

Author Biographies

  • Hamza Shahab, Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan-Department of Management, University of Malaya, Malaysia

    Lecturer, PhD Scholar

  • Farhan Shahzad, Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan

    Lecturer

     

  • Ghulam Yasin, Department of Management Sciences, University of Wah, Pakistan

    Lecturer

Additional Files

Published

2022-03-31

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2022): Pakistan Journal of Social Research (PJSR)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Hamza Shahab, Farhan Shahzad, Ghulam Yasin

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

How to Cite

[1]
“VIRTUAL REALITY AS A MARKETING TOOL TO DRIVE CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING”, Pak. J, Soc. Sci., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 664–677, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.52567/pjsr.v4i1.933.