ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed a phenomenal growth in the literature about the effect of user-generated content (UGC) on consumer responses in the hotel and restaurant sectors. Although a variety of problems have been addressed, the findings are rather fragmented. To date, a review paper that synthesizes these findings based on a theoretical framework has been lacking. Given this research gap, this chapter critically reviews recent studies related to UGC in hotels and restaurants and develops a modified social communication framework for the effect of UGC on consumer responses. The framework has five components: response, stimulus, communicator, receiver, and contextual factors. Their relationships and sub-components are identified and discussed to pave the way for future studies.
