My research navigates consumer behavior in digital contexts, with a special emphasis on the impact of social media influencers, negative online reviews, and managerial responses.

- Publications -

  • Rathjens, B., Wu, A., Zhang, L., & Wei, W. (In press.) When social media influencer endorsement backfires: Unpacking fallout from explicit endorsements across brand equity levels. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

  • Yang, W., Zhang, L., Wei, W., Yoo, M., & Rathjens, B. (2023). Do we love celebrity endorsers? The joint impacts of consumers’ need for status, celebrity’s star power and image congruence on celebrity endorsement effectiveness. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-05-2023-0313

  • Rathjens, B., Gunden, N., Zhang, L., Jain, G., & Law, R. (2023). A systematic review of contactless technologies research in hospitality and tourism during the COVID-pandemic. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480231191192

  • Zhang, L., Wei, W., Rathjens, B., & Zheng, Y. (2023). Pet influencers on social media: The joint effect of message appeal and narrator. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 110, 103453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103453

  • Rathjens, B., Van Der Heide, B., Pham, D., Earle, K., Ulusoy, E., Mason, A. J., Zhang, Y., & Bredland, A. (2023). Negative online reviews and manager response: Applying expectancy disconfirmation theory in a CMC context. Communication Reports, 36(2), 110–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2022.2154815

  • Wei, W., Zhang, L., Rathjens, B., & McGinley, S. (2022). Electronic consumer-to-consumer interaction (eCCI) post a service failure: The psychological power of need for approval. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/10963480221141649

- Conferences -

  • Rathjens, B.*, Van Der Heide, B., Pham, D., Zhu, R., & Bredland, A. (2024). Deceptive online review writing: Unraveling the role of self-interest, ethical norms, and moral disengagement. [Accepted for paper presentation]. 2024 Association for Business Communication Southwestern U.S. Conference. Galveston, TX.

  • Rathjens, B.*, Van Der Heide, B., Zhu, R., & Pham, D. (2024). Motivations unveiled: How altruism and self-interest shape exaggeration behavior. [Accepted for paper presentation]. Central States Communication Association (CSCA) Annual Convention. Grand Rapids, MI.

  • Rathjens, B.*, Rhodes, N., & Zhang, L. (2024). When influencers recommend and their followers disagree: The effects of race and vicarious dissonance. [Paper presentation]. The 29th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism. Miami, FL.

  • Rathjens, B.*, Zhang, L. & Cha, J. (2023). Chatbots for customer service requests: Investigating goal orientation and task complexity. [Paper presentation]. The 7th World Research Summit for Hospitality and Tourism. Orlando, FL.

  • Rathjens, B.*, Van Der Heide, B., & Pham, D. (2023). When the act of writing a negative review makes you more negative: The attenuating effect of manager response. [Paper presentation]. National Communication Association’s 109th Annual Conference. Association for Business Communication division. National Harbor, MD.

  • Rathjens, B.*, Zhang, L., & Cha, J. (2023). Robots vs. humans in services: examining the role of process- vs. outcome-orientation. [Paper presentation]. The 28th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism. Pomona, CA.

  • Pham, D., Van Der Heide, B., Zhang, Y., Earle, K., Rathjens, B., Ulusoy, E., Mason, A. J., & Bredland, A. (2022). Testing the effects of providing feedback on perceiving selective self-presentations in computer-mediated communication. [Paper presentation]. National Communication Association’s 108th Annual Conference. New Orleans, LA.

  • Van Der Heide, B., Mason, A. J., Earle, K., Ulusoy, E., Pham, D., Rathjens, B., Zhang, Y., & Bredland, A. (2022). Does warranting theory function best outside of a truth-default state: initial experimental evidence. [Paper presentation]. National Communication Association’s 108th Annual Conference. New Orleans, LA.

  • Zhang, L., Wei, W., Rathjens, B.*, & Zheng, Y. (2022). Message appeal and narrators: examine the effect of pet influencers on consumers. [Paper presentation]. The Academy of Business Research Spring 2022 Conference. New Orleans, LA.

- Grants Awarded -

  • Greater Lansing Accessibility Grant (Summer 2023, awarded) $20,000
    Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau. Dr. Lu Zhang, P.I.

  • Kasavana & Schmidgal Research Grant (Spring 2022, awarded) $4,000
    Michigan State University, The School of Hospitality Business.
    Project: Robots vs. humans in services: Examining the role of process- vs. outcome-orientation.