Customer brand engagement via value co-creation with hotel online media and travel websites and its effect on brand equity: the moderating role of culture

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze how hotels’ customer brand engagement (CBE) can be enhanced through tourists’ value co-creation with hotel online media or travel websites, as a means of achieving greater brand equity. The analysis considers the role of tourist national culture and draws on service-dominant logic as a theoretical framework. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative empirical study was conducted among Spanish and British hotel guests. Findings The results of this study show that: hotel CBE has a positive and significant effect on hotel brand equity; for Spanish hotel guests, value co-creation with travel websites has a positive and significant effect on hotel CBE; and for British hotel guests, value co-creation with hotel online media has a positive effect on hotel CBE. Practical implications The results of this study point to recommendations to guide hotel companies on how to achieve greater brand equity and CBE through value co-creation. Originality/value The main contributions of this study are that: it expands the extant service-dominant logic literature; it demonstrates the influence of CBE on brand equity in the online environment; it demonstrates the moderating role that tourists’ national culture plays in the relationship between online value co-creation and CBE; and it empirically demonstrates the impact of value co-creation with the hotel online media and with travel websites as well as the existence of a new phase in the tourist customer journey (the dreaming phase).