Investigating the Drivers of Choice Behavior in Tourism: Corporate Image, Perceived Risk and Trust Interactions through Reputation Management

This study examines how reputation management (RM) activities influence consumers' choice behaviors. In order to understand the relationship between them the possible consequences of RM activities such as corporate image, consumer trust, and perceived risk were analyzed as the antecedents of consumers' choice behavior. Specifically, a structural equation model was developed for hypothesized relations between the constructs of the study. Empirical research was conducted using data from 232 individual consumers in Albania (n=109) and Turkey (n=123) to test our conceptual model. The data were analyzed through t-test and structural equation modelling (SEM). The study shows that RM activities obviously determine the constructs of corporate image and consumer trust positively, whereas they affect perceived risk by consumers negatively. The lower level of perceived risk through RM activities was found as a significant determinant of consumers' choice behavior.