9th Student Research Conference in Marketing (SRCM) - 2025
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Item The Impact of Online Consumer Reviews on Hotel Booking Intentions in Colombo City Hotels in Sri Lanka: The Moderating Role of Price Sensitivity with Special Reference to Gen Z Customers(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2025) Kaluarachchi Liyanage, D. S.; Mirando, U. J.A growing reliance on the internet as an information source when choosing tourism products raises the need for more understanding of electronic word of mouth. The development of the internet and technology has provided the public with an open space to share their thoughts without any impediments. Consumers often rely on evaluations such as online reviews shared by other consumers when purchasing. Online reviews have emerged as a crucial marketing tool that offers a distinct advantage over traditional methods by fostering trust among consumers. Subsequently, previous studies have advanced our understanding of how eWOM drives the continued development of digital communication in different sectors. However, the results remain inconclusive. This discrepancy highlights a critical aperture in converting reviewer engagement into actionable consumer behavior. Moreover, existing literature is context-specific, and their results could have limited applicability in the diverse and competitive tourism market of Colombo. However, with the rapid advancement of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, it is important to investigate how these factors interact with the consumer behavior of Gen Z travelers in the local context to improve booking results. Therefore, this study explores the impact of online consumer reviews (OCRs) on hotel booking intentions in Colombo City hotels, specifically focusing on Generation Z consumers. Adding to this complexity is the moderating role of price sensitivity, a concept that significantly affects tourists’ choice of tourism products. Although price sensitivity has been examined in various settings, its interplay with online consumer reviews and hotel booking intentions within the tourism and hospitality industry in Sri Lanka remains underexplored. Furthermore, these apertures underline the need for a focused investigation to optimize the effectiveness of managing OCRs in fostering both reviewer engagement and booking results. Employing a positive paradigm and a deductive approach, the research utilizes non-probability convenience sampling to gather insights from 385 Gen Z participants across the country. Data collection was conducted through a structured questionnaire designed to capture the interplay between OCR dimensions, including review source, quality, volume, recency, and valence to determine their influence on booking decisions. Regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses, ensuring a robust examination of the proposed relationships. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between OCR and hotel booking intention with review quality and recency emerging as the most influential factors. Price sensitivity moderates this relationship emphasizing the importance of tailored pricing strategies for Gen Z who are both tech-savvy and budget-conscious. These results underscore the need for Colombo City hotels to refine their digital marketing efforts, focusing on authentic reviews and competitive pricing to attract this demographic. Consequently, the implications of this research are both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, it advances the understanding of eWOM by elucidating the role of price sensitivity as a moderator between consumer reviews and hotel booking intentions. Practically, it provides actionable recommendations for marketers in the Sri Lankan tourism and hospitality sector. Marketing professionals in Colombo City hotels must improve their strategies to offer a better experience to this consumer segment by upgrading their online review strategies, working on price sensitivity, making good use of social media, using local cultural experiences, and reviewing management practices. Future research could expand the scope by incorporating longitudinal designs and exploring diverse experimental designs to ascertain cause and effect. Despite its contributions, the study is not without limitations. Colombo City hotels that target Generation Z consumers restrict the findings of research from being generalized to other demographic groups, geographical locations, and accommodation types. Furthermore, many previous studies relied on self-reported data, which itself may exert some social desirability biases, recall errors, etc.Item Impact of Consumer Attitude on Consumer Buying Behavior with the Moderating Effects of Price Sensitivity and Consumer Trust with Special Reference to the Organic Food Industry Western Province in Sri Lanka(Department of Marketing Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2025) Dileesha, W. M. N.; Mirando, U. J.The organic food industry in Sri Lanka, especially in the Western Province, has shown significant growth in recent years due to increasing consumer awareness of health and sustainability. Understanding consumer attitudes and their impact on purchasing behavior is crucial for effectively targeting and retaining consumers in this emerging market as well as for business survival. In today's health-conscious society, there is a strong demand for organic foods. Consumers look for more information when buying organic food than when buying conventional food. In some cases, when buying organic food, there is doubt in society about whether the food is organic food. There is a question in the market that needs to be researched in this field to find out the reason why the price of organic food is higher than non-organic food and how price sensitivity influences consumer behavior. Along with knowledgeable and educated consumers, consumption could be raised on another level. Do people who talk about sustainability and organic pay attention to sustainability and organic when they buy in the market? Or whether they buy non-organic items and don't buy organic items because their prices are high or because of a no belief that the vegetables are organic or not, no study has been done specifically for vegetables. limited product choice, high price, consumer distrust toward organic products, satisfaction with conventional food, or a lack of consumers perceived differences in the taste of organic products. In recent decades, there has been extensive growth in the global demand for organic. There is no recent study on how consumer trust and price sensitivity affect buying attitudes and buying behavior and there is no study that correlates these variables. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of consumer attitudes on purchasing behavior in the organic food sector while also examining the moderating effects of price sensitivity and consumer trust. This research takes a deductive research approach. The research utilized a quantitative approach, with primary data collected from 384 respondents in the Western Province of Sri Lanka through a structured questionnaire. Data collection is one of the important steps within the research study. It will be facilitated testing the hypothesis and to guarantee the representativeness of the population the random sampling method was consumers. The standard questionnaire was distributed among the current and potential organic food consumers. The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale to indicate the respondents’ ideas. Convenience sampling was employed to construct the sampling framework. The data were analyzed usindescriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics 23 to identify the relationships between key variables. The findings suggest that consumer attitude significantly influences purchasing behavior, with positive attitudes toward organic food leading to higher purchase intentions. These suggestions for future research can help deepen our understanding of consumer attitudes and behaviors toward organic food products in Sri Lanka, as well as provide insights that can inform marketing strategies, product development, and industry policymaking. Price sensitivity was found to moderate this relationship, as price-sensitive consumers are less likely to translate favorable attitudes into actual purchases. Normally, consumer trust in organic food labels and certifications emerged as a critical moderator, enhancing the strength of the relationship between attitude and purchasing behavior. These results underscore the importance of building trust and addressing price concerns to increase consumer engagement in the organic food market. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing insight into the interplay between consumer attitudes, price sensitivity, and trust in the organic food industry. The study offers useful practical recommendations for marketers, including strategies to enhance consumer trust with transparency and education, and ways to reduce price sensitivity through targeted promotions. This study is important for several reasons. It is important for businesses operating in the organic food industry to understand consumer behavior, which will help them develop and implement effective marketing strategies and policies. It also suggests future research directions, focusing on exploring the influence of physiological, cultural, and demographic factors on purchasing behavior in the organic food sector. The research study has several limitations that affect the generalizability and robustness of its findings. Its geographical focus is limited to the Western Province of Sri Lanka, limiting the applicability of the results to other regions with different economic conditions and cultural backgrounds. A limitation of the study is that it did not use a longitudinal data system. The data used here is cross-sectional. Relying on surveys as the primary data collection method may introduce participant self-reporting errors and biases.