From Experience to Advocacy: The Role of Outcome Expectations in Driving Brand Evangelism

In hospitality contexts where customer experience is a key source of competitive advantage, its role in fostering brand evangelism remains insufficiently understood. Despite growing interest in customer experience, the existing literature has largely overlooked the cognitive dimension, particularly outcome expectations, and its role in linking tourist experiences to brand evangelism on social media. This study examines how customer experience influences brand evangelism through the mediating role of outcome expectations in the hospitality context. Data were collected from 452 tourists in Koh Samui, Thailand, and PLS-SEM was applied. The results indicate that customer experience, conceptualized through the dimensions of education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism, has a significant positive effect on both self-centered and community-related outcome expectations. These outcome expectations act as key drivers of brand evangelism, reflected in customers’ willingness to share positive experiences on social media and actively promote the brand. These findings suggest that outcome expectations act as a key cognitive mechanism transforming experience into brand evangelism, particularly in digital environments where social visibility and sharing intensify consumer engagement with the brand.