When social class and social norms shape word of mouth about eco-friendly tourism businesses

This study aims to investigate the effect of two types of environmental messages (individualized vs. collective) on consumers’ word-of-mouth intention. This study also examines the moderating effects of consumers’ social class and eco-friendly social norms on word-of-mouth intention. Based on US participants recruited from an online panel platform, Study 1 reveals that individualized messages increase word-of-mouth of high-class individuals, whereas collective messages enhance word-of-mouth of low-class individuals. Study 2 showcases that individualized messages boost word-of-mouth among consumers whose eco-friendly social norms are low. Conversely, regardless of individualized and collective messages, word-of-mouth intention is invariantly high among consumers whose eco-friendly social norms are high. Hotel managers should leverage proxies for social class, survey their customers to gauge eco-friendly social norms, and tailor environmental messages accordingly.