Perceived social media agility and consumer responses: the roles of consumer experience and media richness orientation

Abstract

Drawing on uses and gratifications theory, the stimulus-organism-response model and media richness theory, this study aims to examine how perceived social media agility (PSMA) influences electronic word-of-mouth and booking intentions directly and indirectly through consumer experience and how media richness orientation (MRO) moderates these effects. Three scenario-based online experiments used a single-factor, between-subjects design to test the proposed model. Participants were recruited from Türkiye (n = 154), India (n = 188), and United States through Prolific (n = 211). PSMA positively influences electronic word-of-mouth and booking intentions, both directly and indirectly via consumer experience. These effects are stronger among consumers with greater MRO, providing support for the proposed moderation and conditional indirect effects. Hotel managers should strengthen social media agility by delivering timely, personalized and rich interactions that enhance consumer experience and encourage favorable consumer responses. Incorporating consumers’ MRO can further refine targeting and optimize engagement strategies. The study conceptualizes and empirically validates PSMA in hotel settings and identifies consumer experience and MRO as the psychological process and contextual boundary conditions explaining how and when PSMA influences consumer responses.