Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres Exploring the dialogic communication potential of selected African destinations' place websites Robert E. Hinsona, Ellis L.C. Osabuteyb,⁎, John Paul Kosibac aUniversity of Ghana Business School, Accra, Ghana bUniversity of Roehampton Business School, London, SW15 5SL, UK cUniversity of Professional Studies, Accra, P. O. Box LG 149, Accra – Ghana A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Dialogic communication Place identity Place website Destination image Visiting intention A B S T R A C T As websites have become increasingly popular as a source of information for customers, place websites can play a critical role in the choices potential visitors/tourists make about destinations. This study aims at understanding how the dialogic communication potential of four African destinations' place websites relates to destination image from the perspective of potential visitors/tourists. The study employed a quantitative research approach for data collection and analyses. Specifically, data was analysed using the structural equation modelling ap- proach. The dialogic communication principles of a website serve as an antecedent to forming customer per- ceptions about a destination. The destination image impression of a country positively relates to visiting in- tentions; an indication that perceived destination image is another antecedent of visiting intentions. Place websites have surprisingly not adequately featured in academic and practitioner interrogation with respect to brand marketing and communications and this paper is one of the attempts to address this research lacuna. Significant implications for researchers and managers promoting destinations have been highlighted. 1. Introduction Tourists are often faced with uncertainty with regards to the ben- efits of visiting a particular destination (Cho, Wang, & Fesenmaier, 2002; Fesenmaier & Jeng, 2000). Since tourists are increasingly using the internet as a source information many countries are also beginning to rely on destinations' place websites to plan their communication activities to project a positive image about themselves to potential tourists through the development of visually pleasing websites char- acterised by richness of information and ease of navigation (Cyr, 2013) whilst emphasising the natural assets and attractions of the destination. Although, most websites fail to help achieve these objectives (Hausman & Siekpe, 2009), countries have not stopped using place websites as a way to enhance destination image and influence visiting intentions. Place websites, therefore, have a strategic marketing communication's role to promote a tourism destination. The burgeoning literature on tourism provides theoretical and practical arguments supporting the effect of online presence on indirect tourism experiences (Bastida & Huan, 2014). That is to say, these online visits are imitations of actual visits that give the potential tourists the opportunity to access and evaluate the destination before the actual visit (Cho et al., 2002). Successful destinations or places need to be positively positioned and differentiated from competitors (Calantone, Di Benedetto, Hakam, & Bojanic, 1989; Govers, Go, & Kumar, 2007) and this can be achieved by developing destination websites that show key elements of identity and image (Foroudi et al., 2018). Offline in- formation does not permit the flexibility of dialogic engagement and relationship building which the web permits (Buhalis & Law, 2008). These expectations require effective website designs to address tra- vellers' needs (Dickinger & Stangl, 2013; Park & Gretzel, 2007). Studies on websites suggest that the use of dialogic strategies could lead to greater interactive communication, resulting in greater engagement and relationship building between organisations and visitors (e.g. Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Saxton & Waters, 2014). A website with effect dialogic communication principles could help countries exploit their tourism potential. Thus, in this paper we focus on two research questions: 1) Do place website dialogic communication principles influence destination image impression? 2) Does destination image impression influence visiting intentions of individuals? Currently, there are few studies that explore defensive website strategies and their impact on image impression and visiting intentions (Foroudi et al., 2018), but there is limited studies that investigate place website's dialogic communication principles' ef- fect on destination image impression. Additionally, the dialogic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.033 Received 22 February 2017; Received in revised form 20 February 2018; Accepted 27 March 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: rhinson@ug.edu.gh (R.E. Hinson), e.osabutey@mdx.ac.uk (E.L.C. Osabutey). Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 Available online 12 April 2018 0148-2963/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01482963 https://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.033 mailto:rhinson@ug.edu.gh mailto:e.osabutey@mdx.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.033 http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.033&domain=pdf principles have been employed in various fields to include the insurance industry (Hinson, van Zyl, & Agbleze, 2014), the banking industry (Hinson, Madichie, & Ibrahim, 2012), the security industry - police (Madichie & Hinson, 2014), as well as non-profit organisations (Kent, Taylor, & White, 2003; Taylor, Kent, & White, 2001). They have also been used in examining organisation's social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter (see Cha, Yeo, & Kim, 2014; Kim, Kim, & Nam, 2014; Sundstrom & Levenshus, 2017). However, research that investigates the importance of the dialogic principles in place destina- tion websites and whether they promote destination image are scarce. The results of this study provide support for using place website's dia- logic communication principles as a platform for optimising the impact of website influence on destination image. This paper provides implications useful for both practice and theory alike. From a practice perspective, managers of countries' brands can use it for insight into how the place website can currently employ dialogic communication principles in building the image of a country. The paper also provides a validated model depicting the relationship between place website, place identity, and behavioural intentions thereby contributing to the theoretical perspectives of the growing body of knowledge. To present the practical and research implications, the paper is or- ganised as follows: the next section reviews relevant literature which evaluates the existing theoretical underpinning to develop hypothesis for this study. The paper then discusses the context of study before describing the methodology. The succeeding sections present the results followed by the discussions. Finally, the paper draws conclusions with theoretical and practical implications and sets an agenda for future research. 2. Literature review and hypothesis development 2.1. African destinations' place website Tourism contributes significantly to the economic growth in Africa compared to other regions (Ivanov & Webster, 2013), however, con- flicting brand image and brand identity (De Chernatony, 1999; Grönroos, 2007) could explain the under exploitation of tourism po- tential in Africa. Potential tourism opportunities in Africa and their related benefits have consequently not been realised (Adegoju, 2017; Hinson, Abdul-Hamid, & Osabutey, 2017; Osabutey, Williams, & Debrah, 2014; Osei & Gbadamosi, 2011; Santos & Campo, 2014), partly due to the poor destination branding. In a related study, Pitt, Opoku, Hultman, Abratt, and Spyropoulou (2007) looked at the effectiveness of how some African countries have communicated their brand person- alities and concluded that whilst some destinations have specific brand personalities they communicate, others fail to do so succinctly. On the issues of the effectiveness of communication, Opoku and Hinson (2006) found that not all African countries have official websites. Arguably, the absence of good official country websites would make the commu- nication of brand personalities less effective. Most countries in Africa need a brand identity especially because most non-Africans often easily assume that Africa is a country rather than a continent (Osei & Gbadamosi, 2011). In addition, adverse events such as wars, famine and catastrophes have marred the image of Africa (Maeda, 2000; Mou, 2014; Osei & Gbadamosi, 2011). Such events in parts of Africa have resulted in negative perceptions that lead to erro- neous views about the majority of destinations in Africa. Consequently, trade, investment, and tourism within this region have generally suf- fered (Lepp, Gibson, & Lane, 2011). Nonetheless, African nations that have destination websites are aggressively seeking to counteract such perceptions via their websites (Lepp et al., 2011). As Anholt (2007) posits, the image of a destination signifies how a government prioritises travel and tourism. It could, therefore, be argued that a destination with an eye-catching online presence would attract more visitors. Countries in Africa could exploit their tourism potential better if they adopted more modern and integrated communications strategies. Pang, Shin, Lew, and Walther (2018) notes that the link between dialogic communication and relationship development and image building had not been empirically tested. In addition, despite the growing research on place website interactivity and its potential effects on destination image (Foroudi et al., 2018), there is paucity of research that examines website dialogic communication principles' influence on both destination branding and visiting intentions. Place websites have surprisingly not adequately featured in academic and practitioner in- terrogation of brand marketing and communications. Ivanov and Webster (2013) found that Africa had the highest contribution of tourism to economic growth compared to other regions. Nevertheless, there is unfulfilled tourism potential (Osei & Gbadamosi, 2011) and studies that explore the communication elements are scarce. This study, therefore, employs dialogic communication elements proposed by Kent and Taylor (1998) to evaluate how dialogic principles could influence visiting intentions of African destinations through websites. 2.2. Brand image, brand identity, and nation-brand Brand image, brand identity, nation-brand, are interrelated con- cepts. Arguably, whilst identity depicts the true essence of an entity, image symbolises how the entity is perceived. It is not surprising that the gaps between the identity and image could be misconstrued (often negatively). Therefore, congruence between brand image and brand identity, invariably, leads to building a strong brand that creates a bond between the brand and consumers (Roy & Banerjee, 2007). Conse- quently, when the communications of brand image and brand identity are not consistent, expected outcomes are not achieved (De Chernatony, 1999; Grönroos, 2007). A brand connects a product or service with a unique identity. What makes a brand valuable to marketers is the equity it engenders among consumers, therefore destination marketers com- monly agree that the general principles of consumer branding can be applicable in the context of destination marketing (Dioko & So, 2012). For tourism purposes, destination branding identifies and differ- entiates and communicates the image of a destination to tourists by highlighting distinctive and attractive features (Blain, Levy, & Ritchie, 2005; Hall, 1999). The identity of the location and the brand story reflects the destination's culture and image (Morgan, Pritchard, & Piggott, 2002). The culture, heritage and community history are also important components of destination branding because they provide historical accounts of locations (Runyan & Huddleston, 2006). There- fore, whether the destination is national, sub-national or a local area, marketing and promotional activities are geared toward the production of a distinctive and competitive place identity (Dredge & Jenkins, 2003); for example, Hershey, Pennsylvania is known as the “Sweetest Place on Earth”, Arlington, Texas, the “Bowling Capital of the World”, San Diego, California, the “City with Sol”, Canada, “Mounties, moose and snow-capped mountains” (Deloitte & TIAC, 2007), Egypt, “Pyr- amids”, Emirates Airline, “Brand Ambassador for Dubai” (Balakrishnan, 2008), France, “number one destination for overseas tourists” (Uzama, 2009) and Western Canada “Okanagan Valley as the wine region” (Getz & Brown, 2006). Accordingly, Foroudi et al. (2018) argued that a place website can shape place identity. Place identity is also a core concept in the field of environmental psychology which identities how a place relates to the environment (Gieseking, Mangold, Katz, Low, & Saegert, 2014). Since the introduction of the “place-identity” theory, it has been a dominant model used in explaining identity in the environmental psy- chology literature (Hauge, 2007). Place-identity theory does not give much insight into explaining identity with respect to structure and process (Twigger-Ross, Bonaiuto, & Breakwell, 2003), yet alludes to the “schemata” that Neisser (1976) and Piaget (1954) describe as percep- tions and ideas that relate to the physical environment. Place identity, therefore, refers to “an individual's strong emotional attachment to particular places or settings” (Proshansky, Fabian, & Kaminoff, 1983, p. R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 691 61). Place can be a piece of a person's character; social cooperation and individual encounters can create a bond between an individual and a specific place (Rubinstein & Parmelee, 1992; Yuksel, Yuksel, & Bilim, 2010). Even though the connection to a specific place often begins after at least one visit, it is conceivable that people may have characteristic compelling passionate connections to a specific place they are yet to visit (Changuklee & Allen, 1999). This emotional connection could be founded on stories, recollections or suggestions from companions and relatives, or from the media (Yuksel et al., 2010). Place identity is, consequently, an interactive process and although various studies use the concept of place and identity, a handful encapsulate the relation- ship between identity and place (Foroudi et al., 2018). Nonetheless, “a better understanding of the relationship between place identity and place brands might advance the theory of destination/place branding” (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013, p. 71). This current research, therefore, seeks to evaluate the conceptualisation of the relationship between place identity and place websites. Kavaratzis and Hatch (2013) argue that place identity should be thought of as a complex process of identity construction rather than a specific outcome. As a result, place identity and place branding are understood as dialogue between stakeholders (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013). Markwick and Fill (1997) indicated that corporate identity is portrayed to stakeholders by using a number of cues. Yet, incon- sistencies in the communication between brand image and brand identity could inhibit the extent to which such objectives could be achieved (De Chernatony, 1999; Grönroos, 2007). Current approaches fail to encapsulate the various constituencies that embody and com- municate the plurality of a place through a website. This study is based on the premise that a dialogic communication strategy can make use of a place website to connect nations/destinations and potential custo- mers/visitors/tourists via a number of cues as a result of deliberately planned messages that portray the identity of a destination. 2.3. Theoretical foundations and conceptual model development Increasingly, small and large companies are using websites to fa- cilitate dialogic communication with their stakeholders (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010). In much the same way, dialogic communication re- lationships with stakeholders (visitors/tourists) through the use of strategically designed websites can improve the attractiveness of a given destination. Kent and Taylor's (1998) five dialogic communica- tion principles can help facilitate positive image formation and re- lationship building. The framework uses the five features of these websites namely, ‘dialogic loop’, ‘usefulness of information’, ‘return visits’, ‘ease of interface use’, and ‘conservation of visitors’ to examine place/destination websites. The dialogic loop allows visitors to raise queries and more im- portantly, gives an opportunity to respond to questions and concerns. A dialogic loop offers an opportunity of interactivity, engagement, com- munication and learning (Tanev et al., 2011). It facilitates dialogue which helps in the development of trust among participants (Ballantyne, 2004) and stimulates a negotiated exchange of ideas and opinions with publics (Kent et al., 2003; Kent & Taylor, 1998). Usefulness of information, (another principle), provides website visitors with contact details of relevant departments and agencies. Useful information to website visitors helps facilitate dialogue. Website visitors are likely to leave a site if the information provided is not useful. Accordingly, Cox and Dale (2002) argue that where website information is insufficient, misleading or irrelevant, customers are more likely to visit a competitor's site. Return visits involves the provision of exciting and attractive features on a website to encourage repeat visits for updated information, changing issues, special forums, new commentaries, on-line question and answer sessions, and on-line “experts” to answer questions. More visits to sites are likely to lead to the engagement in dialogue. Bortree and Seltzer (2009) found that on a Facebook advocacy group, return visits significantly influences the number of user responses to each other. Ease of interface use principle postulates that website visitors should find the sites easy to access and understand. Previous literature shows that perceived ease of use is particularly vital in user satisfaction with information system (IS) (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh & Davis, 1996). Therefore, a user who perceives an IS easy to use, is more likely to be satisfied with it than one who does not, and would be more likely to use the IS for dialogic engagement (Calisir & Calisir, 2004). Conservation of visitors states that websites should include only “essential links” with marked paths that guarantee visitors return to the site, and should avoid “links” that can put them off. When a website contains useful links potential tourists spend more time navigating and learning about a product or service which eventually leads to dialogic communications. 2.4. Place website and destination image High-quality websites are critical because today's travellers reg- ularly search for information online and purchase tourism related items and services (packaged tours, hotels, airline tickets and restaurant services) (Bieger & Laesser, 2004; Dickinger & Stangl, 2013; Gursoy & McCleary, 2004). In the online shopping context, greater dialogic in- teractions between consumers and online vendors have now provided the mechanisms for expanding business activities (Hausman & Siekpe, 2009). Dailey (2004) suggests that online vendors should consciously design web environments to facilitate dialogic communication in order to improve shopping experiences. The same argument should apply to destination marketing. The image of a destination is important for building and main- taining positive relationships with its local and international audiences. Hunt (1975) defines destination image as perceptions held by in- dividuals about an area. Baloglu et al. (2014, p. 1058) also define the concept as the “perception of a person or a group of people regarding a place”. According to Baloglu et al. (2014) and Sahin and Baloglu (2011), individuals form an image about a destination based on beliefs and knowledge about objective attributes. Hence, if a potential visitor/ tourist, for instance, is exposed to positive information about a desti- nation, he/she would form positive image evaluations of that destina- tion and vice versa. Destination image can be viewed as one of the primary aims of a tourism destination strategy which influences potential tourists' deci- sion-making process. This would then lead to positive reactions which allow destination image to influence the impression of a tourist about a particular destination (Lawson & Baud-Bovy, 1977). Echtner and Ritchie (2003, p. 38) explain that destination images stem from a “flood of information” sourced from promotional literature (travel brochures, posters), the opinions of others (family/friends, travel agents) and the general media (newspapers, magazines, television, books, movies). In this vein, Rodríguez-Molina, Frías-Jamilena, and Castañeda-García (2015) argue that a place website can be one of the essential tools that the tourism industry of a country can use to assist tourists by providing clear information about the positive destination image to the potential tourists. Thus, the perceptions of a place can be enriched by designing new websites or improving existing ones (Foroudi et al., 2018). Al- though Foroudi et al. (2018) conceptualised and provided empirical support for the relationship between place websites and image forma- tion processes they did not use dialogic communication principles. Their work did not evaluate the changing dynamics of the dialogic nature of websites. We argue that place websites with strategic dialogic communications, with respect to interactivity and relationship building effects, can influence the image of a destination. We therefore hy- pothesise that: H1. A place website's dialogic communication principle is significantly associated with a destination image impression. R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 692 2.5. Place website, destination image and visiting intentions The association between destination image and behaviours such as visit, purchase or investment intentions are well established in the lit- erature (see Baloglu et al., 2014; Chen & Tsai, 2007; Chi & Qu, 2008; Lee, 2009). For instance, in a study on the influence of the country-of- origin image, product knowledge and product involvement on con- sumer purchase decisions, Lin and Chen (2006), found that country-of- origin image has a significantly positive effect on consumer product evaluations and purchase decisions. The study of Baloglu et al. (2014) on Jamaica's destination image and brand personality also discovered that destination image was positively related to visiting intentions, and potential tourists are likely to visit if they possess a favourable image of the destination. This assertion is also supported by Court and Lupton (1997) who found that destination image can positively affect tourists' intentions to visit the same destination in the future. However, these studies were not based on image impression formed from an online context; given that online presence and websites have transformed considerably over the last two decades. To this end, the second and third hypotheses for this current study state that: H2. A destination image impression is significantly associated with visiting intentions of individuals. H3. A destination image impression mediates the relationship between the place website dialogic communication principles. 2.6. Southern and non-southern Africa place website, destination image and visiting intentions Generally, regional travellers continue to be Africa's biggest single market in the area of ‘international tourism’ (UNWTO, 2006). Despite Africa's progressive increase in regional travel and tourism perfor- mance, sub-Saharan Africa remains, on aggregate, the region where travel and tourism competitiveness is, relatively, the least developed (World Economic Forum, 2017). Southern Africa remains the strongest sub-region, followed by Eastern Africa and then Western Africa (World Economic Forum, 2017). This is not surprising because within southern Africa, diverse ways to developing tourism joint ventures have emerged (Ashley & Jones, 2001). In Southern Africa, the countries are fairly large in physical area, except three smaller landlocked states: Lesotho, Swaziland, and Malawi. The larger countries—South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Angola—all have extensive mineral deposits, and these countries have vast mineral resources making them one of the wealthiest regions of Africa with the greatest potential for economic growth (University of Minnesota, 2016). In South Africa, “as well as in other Southern African countries, tourism has become an important sector of the economy” (Hottola, 2009, p. 217). It could be argued that the growth in Southern Africa's regional and international tourism could be linked to the favourable place identity and image of the destination. These arguments lead to hypothesis 4: H4. H1, H2 and H3 will be significantly different across southern and non-southern destinations in Africa. 3. Methodology 3.1. Measures and pilot testing The measuring scales were extracted from Kent and Taylor's (1998) seminal publication on building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web and modified to suit the place website context. The original Kent and Taylor data instrument had five sections, usefulness of site, dialogic loop, ease of interface, return visit and conservation of visitors. Usefulness of site in the original Kent and Taylor questionnaire had eight items; dialogic loop also had eight items, with the other three sections comprising four items. We adapted destination image and visiting intention measures from Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt, and Füller (2013), Lu, Chang, and Chang (2014), and Davis, Golicic, and Marquardt (2009) because of the related focus of this study. To ensure instrument validity of the measurement scales, pre-tests were carried out using the Executive Master of Business Administration (Marketing) class of 21 working professionals from varied sectors such as manufacturing, educational, telecommunications, banking, in- surance, etc. at the University of Ghana Business School. Given that “small samples (5–15 participants) are prone to missing even fairly common problems” (Perneger, Courvoisier, Hudelson, & Gayet-Ageron, 2015, p. 150), a sample size of 21 for pre-test was deemed appropriate. They had a cumulative travel experience of over a hundred years, had travelled to fifteen (15) African countries and were not only technolo- gically savvy, but also active on social media (Facebook, Twitter, In- stagram, Snap Chat, etc.). Based on their suggestions, modifications to question wording were made to fit the place website context. The final survey consisted of four parts covering the following issues: dialogic communication elements, destination image, visiting intention, and demographics. All items were measured on a seven-point Likert Scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Table 2 pre- sents the final measurement items (Fig. 1). 3.2. Sampling and data collection An online questionnaire survey was employed in collecting the data using LimeSurvey. The use of online survey has become increasingly popular because it reduces the costs associated with locating appro- priate respondents, increases response rates, and ensures immediate availability of the respondents. Simultaneously, its popularity does not mean that the method is inherently valid and reliable due to some problems that are associated with this sampling method (e.g., control and representativeness issues) (De Gregorio & Sung, 2010). Despite the difficulties associated with online survey, the current study employed this method because the objective was to obtain a large sample fea- turing a variety of demographic and socialisation characteristics from across the nation (De Gregorio & Sung, 2010). Given that there is untapped tourism potential across Africa, the study sought to not focus exclusively on preforming or non-preforming destinations, but African destinations with place websites. We focused Vising intentionsDestination imagePlace website dialogic communication principles H1 H2 H3 Fig. 1. Place website dialogic communications, destination image and visiting intentions. R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 693 on official destination place websites of African countries because, de- spite the popularity of social media, most countries still redirect po- tential tourists to their websites. To reduce limitation related to single country studies, four African destinations were selected, and this was deemed adequate as similar studies have used samples from three, four or five country destinations (see in Hu et al., 2004; Bastida & Huan, 2014). English speaking countries (because respondents are English speakers) with place websites where grouped into southern and non- southern destinations, particularly, because we hypothesise a perfor- mance difference between southern and non-southern destinations. Two destinations were selected from each group using simple random sampling without replacement to avoid sample bias. The four African countries selected had known and established tourist destinations and reliable and functional place websites. The selected countries with their websites are South Africa (https://www.brandsouthafrica.com); Bots- wana (http://www.bitc.co.bw); Cameroon (http://www. brandcameroon.com) and Kenya (http://www.brandkenya.go.ke). Tourism is one of the major industries in each of these four countries (BBC, 2016; One World Nations Online, 2016) and it directly con- tributes to the gross domestic product (GDP) of these countries (see Table 1). As a result of the importance of the sector in the selected countries, it would seem logical that country brand promotions agen- cies would have dialogic communication websites to encourage sub- sequent visits. The links to the questionnaire for each destination and corre- sponding place websites were sent to potential visitors/tourists to gather information on perceptions in relation to the influence of place websites on destination image and future visiting intention. Target re- spondents include 100 working and part-time postgraduate students in the Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) comprising of Master of Philosophy, Executive Master of Business Administration, Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in Marketing Strategy. The University of Ghana, the premier university, is noted for attracting ju- nior and senior managers for top-up undergraduate and postgraduate studies which allowed the study to capture a considerable number of technologically savvy individuals with the requisite travel and tourism exposure. The online questionnaire was also sent to 1114 UGBS and 100 Political Science undergraduate students. The lead collaborator also put the link on his Facebook page, potentially exposing the questionnaire to 5000 Facebook contacts. To reduce drawbacks of online surveys, questionnaires were administered to different groups of individuals (i.e. undergraduates, postgraduates, Facebook contacts) to eliminate the issue of representativeness. Respondents were required to spend a minimum of 120 s surfing a destination's website before filling the questionnaire. The minimum time provided was deemed adequate as Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, and Brown (2006) found that web site impressions are created within 50 s of contact. Moreover, Missouri University of Science and Tech- nology in a study indicated that it took online visitors less than two- tenths of a second to form a first opinion of a brand once they perused the organisation's website and another 2.6 s to reinforce that first im- pression, using eye-tracking software and an infrared camera to monitor/study participant's eye movements (Dahal, 2011). Data collection occurred between 15th and 30th October 2016. Of the 7641 responses received, 2687 completed the survey. Incomplete questionnaires, which may have resulted from respondents' lack of the knowledge to answer correctly, created missing data. We could not attribute specific trends or reasons for the missing data and the ex- amination of sampled incomplete questionnaires did not reveal any preconceptions. The remaining responses were adequate for statistical significance of our study. Consequently, after data cleaning, we re- moved unengaging responses and incomplete questionnaires to address the issue of control (i.e. responses with a standard deviation equal to zero). The study therefore used 1827 engaging and fully completed responses. The majority of the respondents were studying for a Bachelor/Master (70.7%), the average income level was below 250 USD (83.3%), and the average of the respondents' ages was between 20 and 24 years (51.6%). The female respondents (52.3%) were more than the male respondents. The demographics used in this study relate to work by Foroudi et al. (2018) where a high percentage of respondents were students and majority were female. In addition, Ye, Barreda, Okumus, and Nusair (2017) also, similarly, used data with majority (51.7%) fe- male respondents. Also 40% of their study's respondents had ages be- tween 26 and 35 years with 43.3% being 25 years or younger. In ad- dition, most of the respondents were bachelor's degree holders. 3.3. Common method bias Common method variance may exist due to the use of a single survey method. Concerns of common method variance were examined using Harman's one-test factor for this study (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). This is to assess whether majority of the var- iance could be accounted for by one general factor. The results of the analysis revealed three factors with eigenvalues > 1 which explained 55.878% of the total variance. The first factor accounted for 39.287% (<50%) of the variance which did not account for the majority of the variance. In conclusion, the data for the study did not suffer from common method bias (see in Podsakoff et al., 2003). 4. Data analysis and results For each destination, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was first fit for the model using the Analysis of Moments of Structures (AMOS) software package (Version 22) as well as maximum likelihood estima- tion procedure. The dialogic communication principle was con- ceptualised as a higher order construct in the research model. All four samples obtained acceptable model fits: Botswana: χ2/df= 1.353, CFI= 0.979, SRMR=0.040, RMSER=0.030 and PClose 1.000; Cameroon: χ2/df= 1.807, CFI= 0.955, SRMR=0.048, RMSER=0.048 and PClose 0.663; Kenya: χ2/df= 1.801, CFI= 0.963, SRMR=0.045, RMSER=0.045 and PClose 0.822; and South Africa: χ2/df= 1.705, CFI= 0.968, SRMR=0.038, RMSER=0.032 and PClose 1.000. Subsequently, the data was grouped in order to assess reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity test with factor loadings as presented in the Tables 2 and 3. Table 1 World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) country reports, for March 2017. Country GDP Direct contribution South Africa The direct impact of Travel and Tourism to GDP “was ZAR127.9bn (USD8.7bn), 3.0% of the total GDP in 2016 and is forecast to rise by 2.7%, and then by 4.5% pa, from 2017 to 2027, to ZAR204.4bn (USD13.9bn), 3.8% of total GDP in 2027” (WTTC, 2017a). Botswana The direct impact of Travel & Tourism to GDP “was BWP6, 278.9mn (USD573.5mn), 3.9% of total GDP in 2016 and is forecast to rise by 8.5% in 2017, and then by 5.1% pa, from 2017 to 2027, to BWP11, 208.0mn (USD1,023.7mn), 4.3% of total GDP in 2027” (WTTC, 2017b). Cameroon The direct impact of Travel & Tourism to GDP “was XAF682.1bn (USD1.2bn), 3.7% of total GDP in 2016 and is forecast to rise by 5.2% in 2017, and then by 5.3% pa, from 2017 to 2027, to XAF1,204.5bn (USD2.0bn), 3.8% of total GDP in 2027” (WTTC, 2017c). Kenya The direct impact of Travel & Tourism to GDP was “KES257.4bn (USD2.5bn), 3.7% of total GDP in 2016 and is forecast to rise by 6.0% in 2017, and then by 6.0% pa, from 2017 to 2027, to KES487.1bn (USD4.8bn), 3.7% of total GDP in 2027” (WTTC, 2017d). R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 694 https://www.brandsouthafrica.com http://www.bitc.co.bw http://www.brandcameroon.com http://www.brandcameroon.com http://www.brandkenya.go.ke 4.1. Validity and reliability of final measurement model The intercorrelations among the latent constructs are included in Table 3. Fornell and Larcker's (1981) tests for discriminant validity were all found to be acceptable with results reported for composite reliability and average variance extracted for all latent variables (see Table 3). The reliability measures in this study were above the accep- table satisfactory levels (Cronbach's alphas (CA) > 0.70, composite reliability (CR) > 0.70 and average variance extracted > 0.50) as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981), and Bagozzi and Yi (1988). With the acceptable measurement model established, this study proceeded to estimate the structural model method, however, the da- taset was separated into two groups to create a sample that assesses and differentiates Southern Africa's place websites (Botswana and South Africa) from non-southern Africa's place websites (Cameroon and Kenya). All two samples obtained acceptable model fits: Southern part of Africa: χ2/df= 1.931, CFI= 0.978, SRMR=0.032, RMSER=0.029 and PClose 1.000; Non-southern part of Africa: χ2/df= 2.121, CFI= 0.976, SRMR=0.036, RMSER=0.039 and PClose 0.999. 4.2. Structural model estimation and findings With the acceptable measurement model established, the study proceeded to estimate the multi-group structural model for the southern and non-southern place websites. The same set of fit indices used in assessing the CFA was employed to examine the fit of the structural model - χ2/df= 1.937, CFI= 0.999, SRMR=0.014, RMSER=0.023 and PClose 0.998. A step by step process was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The first stage of the analysis was to examine the control variables namely, gender, age and travel experience which is contained in model 1. The second stage is the introduction of the direct effect and the third stage is the inclusion of the mediating variable representing model 2 and model 3 respectively. Among the three models examined, model 3 has the highest R2 value, therefore, it was used in interpreting the hypotheses. Although not hypothesised for, we examined the relationship between place website and visiting intention. The result did not support the fact that place website significantly influences visiting intentions of southern (β=−0.06, p < 0.09) and non-southern (β=−0.03, p < 0.49) destinations. The analysis however shows that destination websites' dialogic communication principles relate significantly to destination image impressions for both the southern destinations (H1: β=0.87, p < 0.00) and non-southern destinations (H1: β=0.91, p < 0.00), indicating that online dialogic communication is an important ante- cedent of destination image impression, providing support for H1. The proportions of variance of the endogenous variables accounted for by the hypothesised influences were as follows: R2 southern countries destination image= 0.763 and R2 non-southern countries destination image= 0.840. The findings also provide support for H2 as the study revealed that desti- nation image impression also had a strong positive effect on visiting intentions for both the southern destinations (H2: β=0.79, p < 0.00) and non-southern destinations (H2: β=0.85, p < 0.00). In support of H3, results show that the significant positive relationship between the dialogic communication principles and visiting intention is fully mediated by destination image impression (β=0.78, p < 0.00) (Table 4). We examined a series of nested models against our baseline model through sequential chi-square tests with the parameter constraints of interest in this study, following the method suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988). As shown in Table 5, the chi-square difference between Southern African destinations and non-Southern African destination was significant (Δχ2= 17.592, Δd.f. = 6, p < 0.007). Since the southern and non-southern models were statistically significantly dif- ferent, we check the path difference using a z-score. The findings of the z-score show that there are differences between the 2 groups in terms of the relationship between the dialogic communication principles and destination image (2.094**) and also in terms of relationship between destination image and visiting intentions (−3.249***). This is an in- dication that the dialogic communication principles differ across place websites and this in turn, affects destination image impression and Table 2 Scale items and loadings. Construct Loadings T-values Dialogic elements (2nd order) Usefulness of information 0.803 Dialogic loop 0.857 20.435 Ease of interface use 0.785 17.415 Return visits 0.816 17.888 Conservation of visitors 0.828 18.971 Usefulness of the site The country's brand identity is consistently presented throughout the website 0.695 The country's site weaves a story about its brand's history, heritage, character or attitude 0.688 23.394 The country communicates its key brand values on the website 0.65 22.477 Dialogic loop The country's website creates an engaging, and interactive consumer experience 0.718 The country's site creates a sense of community and provides ample opportunities for community members to interact with each other over time 0.732 26.536 The country's site has chat rooms 0.653 24.179 Ease of interface The country's website map is easy to find and use 0.603 The search engine on the website is effective 0.687 20.631 The website's navigation is intuitive and consistent 0.69 20.678 Return visit The country's site has directories with hypertext links to specific pages on other sites 0.639 The website is personalized to suit visitors' preferences (wallpaper, first page viewed, customized content, etc.) 0.715 20.584 Conservation of visitors I believe the website makes it easier for me to transact business with the country 0.646 I believe the website encourages me to bookmark the site. 0.806 25.914 I believe the website encourages me to sign up for a newsletter or consistent streams of information from the country. 0.706 24.065 Destination image In comparison to other countries, this country seems to have higher service quality standards 0.715 This country has a rich history 0.704 26.323 A visitor (I) can reliably predict what to expect if they visit this country. 0.727 27.015 Visiting intention I plan to take a vacation to this country 0.829 I intended to visit this country in the future 0.865 41.584 I am willing to recommend others to visit this country 0.826 39.634 Table 3 Construct intercorrelations and reliabilities. Destination image Dialogic Visiting intention Destination image 0.821 Dialogic 0.635 0.606 Visiting intention 0.604 0.552 0.896 CA 0.888 0.758 0.876 CR 0.759 0.910 0.878 AVE 0.512 0.669 0.706 Note: On the diagonal in bold is the square root of AVEs; the correlations are off-diagonal. For discriminant validity, diagonal elements should be greater than off-diagonal elements. R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 695 visiting intentions in different ways. 5. Discussions and conclusions The study investigated how the nature and quality of African place websites could facilitate destination image formation and consequently the intention to visit. The research results confirm that dialogic com- munication principles are essential for communicating destination image which leads to an increasing propensity to visit a destination. Findings from this study suggest that dialogic communication principles are critical for communicating place identity. Since congruence be- tween brand image and brand identity leads to developing strong brands (Roy & Banerjee, 2007), dialogic communication through place websites ensures the consistency between identity and image and therefore destination branding. As ascertained in the literature, a better understanding of the relationship between place identity and place brands might advance the theory of destination/place branding (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013). Our findings emphasise the importance of the quality and nature of websites in connecting identity, image and brand. Dialogic communications principles, therefore, ensures sustain- able image formation. Dialogic elements such as dialogic loop, useful- ness of information, return visits, ease of interface and conservation of visitors would go a long way to help build and manage a nation's image. Given the rather poor image of Africa created in the mainstream media and other related literature (Adegoju, 2017; Browning & de Oliveira, 2016; Osei & Gbadamosi, 2011), applying the dialogic communication principles to a place website would help build the image of African destinations. Since the internet broadens the geographical scope of communications, it gives developing countries such as those in Africa, the opportunity to manage impressions. The findings of this study make theoretical contributions with significant implications for research, practice and society. From a theoretical perspective, this was one of the first studies to use the dialogic communication principles to confirm the relationship between place website and destination image. As noted in the litera- ture, although the components of online dialogic communications have received considerable attention, they have seldom been examined as strategic tools for building a destination image. Our study advances Kavaratzis and Hatch's (2013) identity-based approach to place branding theory which states that place branding is best understood as a dialogue. Thus, through dialogic communication features of a place website, a destination's identity can be understood. This study validates the role of website dialogic components as an antecedent of destination image. The study, therefore, contributes to the growing body of knowledge on place website, place identity, and behavioural intentions in several ways by testing the mediating effect of perceptions (image destination) proposed in the model - the relationship between dialogue and behaviours. The mediating role of perceptions on a theoretical model incorporating dialogic communication of place website and be- haviours have been under researched, and this study paves the way for related future studies. Our findings have practical implications for governments and their institutions responsible for the promotion of image, tourism and foreign investments. Practically, to portray a good national image, government agencies and other relevant stakeholders must ensure place websites have inbuilt systems that encourage interactivity, timely communica- tion and contain relevant information that is easily accessible. Organisations need to ensure that dialogic communication principles are incorporated in the development of websites with specialised and dedicated employees to provide timely customer and technical services. Therefore, there is the need for a shift from websites as mere in- formation portals to use as a strategic means of communication with stakeholders aimed at image formation. This follows the suggestion by Kinsey and Chung (2013) that to build and manage national image, governments need to invest resources in understanding perceptions of international audiences through effective communication strategies. More resources are required to build websites that have the ability to interact with stakeholders. This would, serendipitously, create more believable impressions about nations if previous foreign visitors can communicate their impressions on well-developed websites. Indeed, to be able to manage impressions, there should be an avenue of dis- covering the impressions held by international audiences. Developing countries such as those in Africa need to ensure that they follow the advice of Adegoju (2017) to ‘tell their own story’, given that there are numerous potential tourist attractions in Africa which remain un- known. In addition, such activities could go a long way to change ne- gative stereotypes about the African continent. Our study has research implications. More research needs to be done on perceptions of international audiences on Africa in general with particular emphasis on how websites could support impression management. The use of online survey and sampling, as discussed in the Table 4 Findings on hypotheses testing. Independent variables Dependent variable: visiting intentions Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Southern Non-southern Southern Non-southern Southern Non-southern Control paths Gender 0.019 (0.536) 0.062 (0.096) 0.033 (0.139) −0.007 (0.757) 0.034 (0.068) −0.006 (0.769) Age 0.101 (0.002) 0.165 (0.055) 0.023 (0.285) −0.017 (0.508) 0.005 (0.815) 0.002 (0.931) Travel experience −0.025 (0.440) −0.023 (0.570) −0.013 (0.570) −0.060 (0.017) 0.003 (0.877) −0.026 (0.206) Dialogic communication 0.679*** 0.777*** Mediator Destination image 0.696 (0.001) 0.782 (0.001) R2 0.013 0.008 0.464 0.606 0.636 0.840 ΔR2 0.451 0.598 0.172 0.234 Note: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. Table 5 Nested model comparisons. Model DF CMIN P NFI Delta-1 IFI Delta-2 RFI rho-1 TLI rho2 Structural weights 6 17.592 0.007 0.003 0.003 0.003 0.003 R.E. Hinson et al. Journal of Business Research 116 (2020) 690–698 696 Methodology section, present limitations which suggests that future studies could use social media sites to target a wider and more varied sample. The study was also limited in the sense that responses were from only one country, a larger study with participants from multiple countries or a multi-country comparative study could enhance our understanding of dialogic communication principles and impression management of nations. Future research could also investigate how demographics (e.g. income level, gender and travel experience) play a role in determining how the dialogic elements impact on destination image and visiting intentions. 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https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2017/kenya2017.pdf https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2017/kenya2017.pdf https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2017/kenya2017.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.09.046 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0148-2963(18)30161-9/rf0580 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0148-2963(18)30161-9/rf0580 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S0148-2963(18)30161-9/rf0580 Exploring the dialogic communication potential of selected African destinations' place websites Introduction Literature review and hypothesis development African destinations' place website Brand image, brand identity, and nation-brand Theoretical foundations and conceptual model development Place website and destination image Place website, destination image and visiting intentions Southern and non-southern Africa place website, destination image and visiting intentions Methodology Measures and pilot testing Sampling and data collection Common method bias Data analysis and results Validity and reliability of final measurement model Structural model estimation and findings Discussions and conclusions References