A safety marketing stimuli-response model of passenger behaviour in the ferry context

Purpose: This study aims to propose a safety marketing stimuli-response model to explain passengers’ safety behavior in the ferry services context. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the impact of safety marketing stimuli on passengers’ safety awareness and behavior by using data obtained from a survey of 316 ferry passengers in Hong Kong. Findings: The authors found that passengers’ perceptions of ferry safety marketing stimuli positively affected their safety awareness and safety awareness positively affected passengers’ safety behaviors. Specifically, they found that safety awareness played a mediating role in the relationship between ferry safety marketing stimuli and passengers’ safety behaviors. Practical/implications: The empirically validated scales can be adapted to practices of safety marketing, while providing helpful information for ferry operators to evaluate their efforts of safety marketing and implications for improvement. Originality/value: According to the authors' knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to fill this research gap by empirically validating and theoretically conceptualizing measures of safety marketing stimuli based on the marketing stimulus-response model.