Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale (ISMS)

Abstract

The Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale (ISMS) is a psychometric instrument developed by Bekir Bora Dedeoglu, Babak Taheri, Fevzi Okumus, and Martin J. Gannon in 2020 to measure the subjective value and cognitive importance that prospective consumers—specifically tourists and travelers—assign to peer-generated online content. Grounded in digital consumer behavior and travel informatics, the ISMS operationalizes consumer-generated content (UGC) across two distinct empirical and theoretical dimensions: Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS) and Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS). Participant sharing represents content distributed within formal, organizationally moderated, or structurally bounded commercial platforms (e.g., TripAdvisor, online travel agencies, destination management organization portals), where information serves an explicitly utilitarian, functional, and risk-mitigating purpose. Conversely, non-participant sharing captures organic, peer-to-peer content shared on personal social media profiles and feeds (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, personal travel vlogs), which is predominantly driven by hedonic, aesthetic, self-expressive, and relational motivations.

The scale was engineered through an empirical four-phase development methodology encompassing netnography, expert content validation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and cross-cultural measurement invariance testing across independent samples in Turkey and Scotland. Comprising calibrated items measured on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree), the ISMS exhibits robust internal consistency (Cronbach’s α > .88; Composite Reliability > .89), high convergent validity (Average Variance Extracted > .55), and strict discriminant validity via the Fornell-Larcker criterion and the Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlations. The ISMS serves as a vital diagnostic tool for hospitality researchers, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and consumer psychologists seeking to model how different modalities of digital electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) shape destination image formation, perceived destination trust, and downstream travel booking intentions.

Keywords

Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale, ISMS, consumer-generated content, participant sharing, non-participant sharing, electronic word-of-mouth, tourism marketing, psychometrics, scale development, structural equation modeling

Authors

The ISMS was conceptualized, operationalized, and psychometrically validated by an international research team specializing in tourism marketing, service management, and consumer psychology:

• Bekir Bora Dedeoglu, Ph.D. — Faculty of Tourism, Department of Tourism Management, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Nevşehir, Turkey. Dr. Dedeoglu’s research focuses on tourist behavior, destination marketing, social media dynamics, and quantitative psychometrics in hospitality management.
• Babak Taheri, Ph.D. — Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (subsequently affiliated with Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University). Dr. Taheri specializes in consumer engagement, service marketing, cultural heritage consumption, and structural equation modeling.
• Fevzi Okumus, Ph.D. — Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, United States. Dr. Okumus is the CFHLA Preeminent Professor of Hospitality Management and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Hospitality Management, widely recognized for seminal work in strategic management, crisis leadership, and technology adoption in tourism.
• Martin J. Gannon, Ph.D. — Business School, Edinburgh Napier University / Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Dr. Gannon’s research explores tourist sociology, heritage tourism, sharing economy platforms, and quantitative research design.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale (ISMS) is to address a critical theoretical and empirical gap in digital consumer psychology: the pervasive conflation of diverse social media channels into an undifferentiated, monolithic construct labeled “social media” or generic “electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).” Prior to the development of the ISMS, hospitality and consumer behavior literature routinely measured consumers’ interaction with social media through generic frequency counts, aggregate time spent online, or uniform “perceived usefulness” scales. These legacy approaches failed to account for structural, functional, and psychological distinctions between different types of virtual spaces wherein consumer-generated content (CGC) is hosted, curated, and consumed.

The ISMS decouples peer-generated communications based on the architecture of the hosting environment and the psychological contracts that govern consumer interaction within those spaces. In modern digital ecosystems, a traveler seeking advice encounters content in two radically different contexts: institutionalized, transaction-adjacent platforms where commercial entities host user feedback (participant sharing), and non-commercial, personal social networks where peers curate lifestyle narratives (non-participant sharing). The utilitarian value derived from inspecting aggregated rating distributions on TripAdvisor or Booking.com is psychologically distinct from the affective, aspirational, and identity-driven value derived from viewing an acquaintance’s spontaneous vacation imagery on Instagram.

From a research perspective, the ISMS provides an empirically validated measurement battery that enables researchers to:

• Isolate the differential predictive utility of utilitarian versus hedonic social media channels on cognitive, affective, and conative destination image formation.
• Examine the moderating role of consumer sociodemographics, digital literacy, and cultural orientation on information-seeking strategies during pre-trip decision-making.
• Evaluate how platform architecture affects consumer skepticism, source credibility evaluation, and cognitive dissonance in high-involvement service purchases.

From an applied management and marketing perspective, the scale equips destination marketing managers, hotel operators, and digital strategists with a reliable diagnostic instrument to evaluate target audience psychographics. By understanding whether a specific target market segment prioritizes participant sharing over non-participant sharing, marketing executives can optimize budget allocations between formal review management systems (e.g., reputation management software, third-party booking channel monitoring) and organic influencer, ambassador, or peer-advocacy social campaigns.

Psychological Construct

The ISMS measures an individual’s cognitive appraisal of the importance, utility, and subjective value of peer-produced digital information encountered during decision-making processes. The scale conceptualizes this valuation not as a generic personality trait, but as a multi-dimensional cognitive-evaluative construct operationalized across two primary dimensions: Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS) and Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS).

1. Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS)

Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS) reflects the degree of value a consumer places on consumer-generated content hosted within platforms characterized by direct or indirect organizational or commercial involvement. These platforms include commercial review aggregators (e.g., TripAdvisor, Yelp), online travel agencies (OTAs such as Expedia, Booking.com), and official destination or hotel websites containing integrated customer feedback modules.

Psychologically, IPS represents an analytical, utilitarian information-processing strategy. The consumer interacting with participant sharing environments operates under a goal-directed mindset aimed at functional risk mitigation, attribute comparison, and performance verification. When evaluating participant sharing, consumers appraise:

• Objective Verifiability: The degree to which ratings, standardized criteria (e.g., cleanliness, location, value for money), and verified-buyer badges validate the factual assertions made in reviews.
• Risk Reduction: The utility of aggregate crowdsourced data in minimizing perceived financial, physical, and psychological risk inherent in high-involvement, experiential purchases.
• Comparative Efficiency: The capacity to rapidly filter, sort, and benchmark competitive alternatives based on standardized peer evaluations.

For example, a tourist scoring high on IPS prioritizes granular feedback concerning room acoustics, air conditioning reliability, and breakfast quality posted to an OTA review section, viewing this content as essential due diligence before committing financial resources.

2. Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS)

Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS) captures the psychological significance an individual assigns to consumer-generated content published on personal, decentralized, and socially oriented digital networks (e.g., personal Instagram accounts, TikTok feeds, Facebook profiles, personal travel blogs). In these spaces, commercial organizations maintain no direct platform governance or hosting oversight; the content exists primarily within interpersonal social graphs.

Psychologically, INPS is driven by affective, experiential, and symbolic information processing. Rather than seeking standardized metrics, consumers value non-participant sharing for its perceived authenticity, emotional resonance, and lifestyle congruence. The cognitive appraisal of INPS involves:

• Source Homophily and Perceived Authenticity: The belief that content creators on personal social networks share genuine, uncurated personal experiences devoid of commercial interest or review manipulation.
• Aesthetic and Hedonic Inspiration: The capacity of narrative imagery, immersive short-form video, and visual storytelling to stimulate daydreaming, wanderlust, and affective destination desire.
• Social Proof and Relational Signatures: The identification of lifestyle markers and cultural values that align with the consumer’s self-concept and aspirational social identity.

For instance, a traveler scoring high on INPS finds high informational and emotional value in an organic photograph of a hidden coastal cove posted by an acquaintance or lifestyle influencer on Instagram, interpreting the post as an authentic endorsement of the destination’s atmosphere rather than a calculated operational review.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the ISMS integrates several foundational paradigms from communication science, social psychology, and consumer economics, primarily synthesizing Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), Social Exchange Theory (SET), and the Dual-Process Theory of cognitive information processing.

Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT)

Originally formulated by Elihu Katz, Jay G. Blumler, and Michael Gurevitch (1973), UGT posits that media consumers are not passive recipients of communication, but active, goal-directed agents who deliberately select specific media channels to satisfy psychological and social needs. The ISMS maps directly onto the functional taxonomy of UGT by identifying the divergent gratifications sought across virtual spaces:

• Cognitive and Utilitarian Gratifications: Operationalized through the IPS subscale. Consumers deliberately navigate to participant sharing platforms to acquire factual knowledge, reduce environmental ambiguity, and optimize rational decision-making algorithms.
• Affective, Integrative, and Escapist Gratifications: Operationalized through the INPS subscale. Consumers browse personal feeds to fulfill needs for social connection, aesthetic enjoyment, identity maintenance, and emotional stimulation.

Dual-Process Theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model

The cognitive validation of the ISMS is deeply rooted in dual-process cognitive architectures, particularly the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) developed by Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo (1986). ELM posits two distinct routes to persuasion and attitude formation: the central route and the peripheral route.

The ISMS demonstrates that information processing across social media channels fluctuates predictably along these routes:

• The Central Route (System 2 Processing): Predominates within IPS contexts. Consumers engage in high-elaboration cognitive processing, scrutinizing arguments, assessing review credibility, evaluating variance across multiple ratings, and performing counter-attitudinal checks regarding service failures.
• The Peripheral Route (System 1 Processing): Frequently governs INPS interactions. Persuasion and value attribution are mediated by heuristic cues, such as the visual attractiveness of the imagery, perceived source likability, influencer prestige, and affective resonance, requiring lower cognitive elaboration while eliciting powerful emotional responses.

Social Exchange Theory (SET)

Rooted in the sociology of George C. Homans (1958) and Peter Blau (1964), SET asserts that human interactions are transactional exchanges based on subjective cost-benefit analyses. When translated to digital environments, consumers weigh the cognitive costs of information acquisition (e.g., search effort, cognitive overload, risk of misinformation) against the expected psychological rewards (e.g., optimal purchase decisions, social validation, reduced travel risk). The ISMS captures the subjective “return on investment” that users anticipate when dedicating cognitive attention to either organizationally governed (IPS) or socially autonomous (INPS) digital ecosystems.

Validity

The psychometric validation of the ISMS followed a stringent, four-phase procedural framework consistent with the scale development guidelines established by Churchill (1979) and Gerbing and Anderson (1988). The empirical validation demonstrated extensive evidence for content, construct, convergent, discriminant, and cross-cultural validity.

Content and Face Validity

Content generation originated from a netnographic investigation of travel forums, destination communities, and social media networks, coupled with qualitative in-depth interviews with international tourists. An initial pool of potential items was evaluated by an international expert panel comprising seven university professors specializing in hospitality management, digital marketing, and psychometrics. The expert review assessed item clarity, domain representativeness, and semantic uniqueness, establishing a Lawshe Content Validity Ratio (CVR) exceeding the required critical thresholds and refining the item pool for subsequent quantitative field testing.

Convergent Validity

Confirmatory factor analysis conducted across independent calibration and validation datasets confirmed high convergent validity across both latent constructs. As documented in the original validation study by Dedeoglu et al. (2020):

• All standardized factor loadings (λ) exceeded the recommended .70 benchmark (ranging from .724 to .878), demonstrating statistical significance at p < .001.
• The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for the Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS) construct surpassed the standard .50 threshold (AVE = .58 in the primary Turkish sample; AVE = .61 in the Scottish replication sample).
• The Average Variance Extracted for the Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS) construct similarly exceeded standard benchmarks (AVE = .56 in the Turkish sample; AVE = .59 in the Scottish sample).

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was verified using both classical and contemporary psychometric standards:

• Fornell-Larcker Criterion: The square root of the AVE for both IPS and INPS exceeded the inter-construct correlation coefficient (φ) between the two dimensions across all tested datasets. Specifically, the inter-construct correlation was moderate (r ≈ .42 to .48), confirming that while both dimensions relate to social media valuation, they represent statistically non-redundant constructs.
• Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT): Contemporary structural equation modeling mandates that the HTMT ratio remain below the conservative threshold of .85. The observed HTMT values between IPS and INPS ranged between .49 and .54, establishing robust discriminant validity.

Nomological and Predictive Validity

Nomological validity was established through structural equation modeling linking the ISMS dimensions to downstream behavioral outcome variables. Both IPS and INPS emerged as significant, positive predictors of:

• Overall Destination Image: Influencing both cognitive destination evaluations and affective destination associations.
• Destination Trust: Showing that higher perceived importance of peer sharing directly enhances institutional trust toward the destination.
• Visit / Behavioral Intentions: Indirectly and directly driving pre-trip behavioral commitments and booking intentions.

Cross-Cultural Invariance

A major psychometric strength of the ISMS is its verified measurement invariance across distinct cultural samples (Turkey, representing an emerging market/collectivist context, and Scotland, representing a mature market/individualist context). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) confirmed:

• Configural Invariance: Equivalent two-factor conceptual baseline structures across cultures.
• Metric (Weak) Invariance: Equivalent factor loadings (Δχ² non-significant, ΔCFI < .01), verifying that respondents in both cultures interpret scale items identically.
• Scalar (Strong) Invariance: Equivalent item intercepts, confirming that observed mean differences reflect genuine cross-cultural latent trait variances rather than item-level response bias.

Reliability

The reliability of the ISMS has been verified across multiple independent iterations of exploratory and confirmatory testing, showing high internal consistency across diverse consumer populations.

Internal Consistency Coefficients

In the primary empirical validation studies (Dedeoglu et al., 2020), internal consistency was evaluated using both traditional Cronbach’s alpha (α) and Composite Reliability (CR, McDonald’s ω analog):

• Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS):
  • Sample 1 (Turkey, N = 412): Cronbach’s α = .886; Composite Reliability (CR) = .891
  • Sample 2 (Scotland, N = 389): Cronbach’s α = .894; Composite Reliability (CR) = .898
• Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS):
  • Sample 1 (Turkey, N = 412): Cronbach’s α = .881; Composite Reliability (CR) = .885
  • Sample 2 (Scotland, N = 389): Cronbach’s α = .889; Composite Reliability (CR) = .893

All observed values significantly exceed the established psychometric reliability threshold of .70 recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994), indicating negligible measurement error attributable to item sampling.

Item-Total Correlations and Stability

Corrected item-total correlation coefficients for all individual items within their respective subscales consistently exceeded .62, well above the standard .30 threshold. Deletion of any single item resulted in a decrease or negligible change in the overall scale Cronbach’s alpha, demonstrating that every item contributes meaningfully to construct measurement.

Factor Analysis

The dimensional architecture of the ISMS was isolated and confirmed through a rigorous two-step factor analytic sequence utilizing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

Exploratory Factor Analysis (Phase 1)

Prior to conducting EFA on the initial development sample, data suitability diagnostics were verified:

• The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy yielded values > .91, indicating excellent sample adequacy.
• Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was highly significant (χ² = 3412.82, df = 120, p < .001), rejecting the identity matrix hypothesis.

Principal Axis Factoring with oblique (Promax) rotation was employed, reflecting the theoretical expectation that IPS and INPS would share an underlying correlation. The EFA unambiguously extracted two latent factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, explaining more than 62.4% of the total cumulative variance. No items displayed cross-loadings greater than .30 on the secondary factor, demonstrating clean factorial divergence.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Phase 2)

Confirmatory Factor Analysis using maximum likelihood estimation was executed on subsequent independent samples using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM via AMOS). The hypothesized two-factor oblique measurement model demonstrated superior global fit to the empirical data across both cultural samples, substantially outperforming alternative rival models (such as a single-factor unidimensional model or orthogonal models).

Standardized factor loadings across all items ranged from .72 to .88, with all t-values exceeding 14.50 (p < .001). Comparison against a nested one-factor model confirmed a statistically significant deterioration in fit for the unifactorial specification (Δχ² > 650.0, p < .001), definitively confirming the multi-dimensional structure of the ISMS.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational characteristics, administration protocols, and scoring parameters of the ISMS are structured as follows:

• Instrument Designation: Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale (ISMS).
• Target Population: Prospective consumers, tourists, hospitality patrons, and digital media users evaluating destinations, leisure products, or experiential services.
• Administration Mode: Self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire, web-based survey instrument, or integrated mobile testing environment.
• Estimated Completion Time: Approximately 3 to 5 minutes.
• Response Format: Symmetrical 7-point Likert scale formatted as follows:
  • 1 = Strongly Disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Somewhat Disagree
  • 4 = Neither Agree nor Disagree (Neutral)
  • 5 = Somewhat Agree
  • 6 = Agree
  • 7 = Strongly Agree
• Dimensional Architecture: Two distinct first-order subscales:
  • Importance of Participant Sharing (IPS): Measures valuation of consumer content shared on platforms with direct/indirect organizational integration (e.g., TripAdvisor, online travel agencies, review sites).
  • Importance of Non-Participant Sharing (INPS): Measures valuation of consumer content shared on personal profiles and social feeds (e.g., personal Instagram accounts, personal Facebook pages, private travel blogs).
• Scoring Guidelines:
  • No reverse-scored items exist within the scale; all items are positively phrased.
  • Subscale Mean Scores: Calculated by summing the numerical responses of the items corresponding to each respective dimension and dividing by the total number of items within that dimension. This yields an IPS score and an INPS score ranging from 1.00 to 7.00.
  • Composite (Overall) Score: While subscale separation is strongly recommended to preserve dimensional specificity, an aggregate social media sharing score may be derived by calculating the unweighted arithmetic mean across all items.
  • Interpretation: Higher mean scores reflect a greater cognitive and decision-making reliance on that specific social media sharing modality during pre-purchase evaluation phases.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Importance of Social Media Sharing Scale (ISMS) was formally published in 2020 in the academic journal Tourism Management (Volume 76, Article 103954). The copyright is held by Elsevier Ltd.

• Academic and Non-Commercial Research: Under standard international academic convention and fair-use principles, researchers and educators are permitted to utilize the scale for scholarly, non-profit empirical investigations without financial charge, provided that proper bibliographic citation is accorded to the original authors (Dedeoglu et al., 2020) and the publisher.
• Commercial Applications: Commercial organizations, corporate market intelligence firms, destination consultants, or proprietary software developers intending to embed the scale within commercial diagnostic instruments or monetized survey platforms must obtain formal licensing permission through Elsevier’s RightsLink copyright clearing service.
• Author Contact: Correspondence regarding scale utilization, translation protocols, or raw psychometric norms may be directed to the lead author, Bekir Bora Dedeoglu, or co-authors through their institutional faculty pages.

References

• Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. John Wiley & Sons.
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• Dedeoglu, B. B., Taheri, B., Okumus, F., & Gannon, M. (2020). Understanding the importance that consumers attach to social media sharing (ISMS): Scale development and validation. Tourism Management, 76, 103954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.103954
• Gerbing, D. W., & Anderson, J. C. (1988). An updated paradigm for scale development incorporating unidimensionality and its assessment. Journal of Marketing Research, 25(2), 186–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378802500207
• Homans, G. C. (1958). Social behavior as exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 63(6), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1086/222355
• Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and gratifications research. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1086/268109
• Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2

Items of the Scale