EXPRESS: When Communication Multiplies: Effects of Mixed Strategies on Hotel Guests’ Sustainable Behavioral Intentions

Drawing on psychological reactance theory and the persuasion knowledge model, this research investigates how combinations of non-personal, semi-personal, and personal communication influence hotel guests’ psychological responses and sustainable behavioral intentions. A pretest and two experiments (N= 713) were conducted. The pretest confirms the distinctiveness of the three communication strategies. Study 1 shows that combining non-personal and personal communication enhances participation intention compared with non-personal communication alone and the combination of non-personal and semi-personal communication, with psychological reactance partially mediating this effect. Study 2 reveals that although the all-three-strategy mix generates the highest psychological reactance, its indirect effect on participation intention through reactance is moderated by hotel type. Particularly, stronger negative indirect effects emerge in budget hotels than in luxury hotels for certain communication comparisons. The research advances sustainability communication research by demonstrating that the effects of mixed communication strategies depend on communication intensity and service context.