Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

William F. Harrah College of Hospitality

First Committee Member

Billy Bai

Second Committee Member

Ashok Singh

Third Committee Member

Joseph Lema

Fourth Committee Member

Xi Leung

Fifth Committee Member

Natalie Pennington

Number of Pages

234

Abstract

Residents have played an indispensable role as hosts in tourism destinations. Their support for tourism is essential to a destination’s success. Considering their consequential role in destinations, scholars advocate understanding residents’ pro-tourism citizenship behaviors (TCB) by analogizing employees’ positive discretionary behaviors in organizations known as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Residents’ TCB refers to their positive discretionary behaviors that benefit local tourism performances but are not directly rewarded. However, most tourism studies directly borrowed OCB’s measurement while ignoring the contextual uniqueness of destinations and differences between employment in corporations and citizens’ residency in destinations. Without well-grounded measurement scales, residents’ TCB research will remain in infancy. This research seeks to develop a measurement scale of residents’ TCB and validate it in a nomological network based on social exchange theory (SET) and cognitive appraisal theory (CAT). Following a five-stage scale development procedure with sampling in the U.S. urban destinations, the study proposes a four-dimensional approach with 15 items grouped in “Self-regulated behavior,” “Sustainable behavior,” “Pro-social behavior,” and “Participatory behavior.” The proposed scale shows a hierarchical structure from self-interested to altruistic (help others) of residents’ TCB. The nomological validation verified both measurement scales and the hierarchical tendency with relationships to perceived tourism benefits and affinity. The descending coefficients significantly supported three direct effects between perceived tourism benefits and self-regulated, sustainable, and pro-social behaviors. In contrast, indirect effects of affinity invert such tendencies through significant mediating more altruistic dimensions (pro-social and participatory behaviors). Results also confirm exchanges based on perceived tourism benefits affect with more egoistic dimensions while affinity mediates altruistic ones. From a theoretical perspective, the developed scale lays a solid foundation for further enhancing and extending residents’ citizenship behavior in tourism destinations, especially cities. The hierarchical structure of four dimensions also unveils the heterogeneity of residents’ TCB in the eyes of citizens. The nomological validation connects the newly developed scale with the existing construct and provides suggestions to destination managers to activate residents’ corresponding behaviors in destinations. Finally, research limitations and future research directions are also discussed within the context of resident citizenship behavior.

Keywords

residents' pro-tourism citizenship behavior; scale development; scale validation; tourism destination

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations

File Format

pdf

File Size

2100 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download

Available for download on Tuesday, May 15, 2029


Share

COinS