Online engagement and persistent reactions to social causes: The black-owned business attribute

Abstract The persistence of COVID-19 exerts an unprecedented impact on the tourism and hospitality industry and the Black-owned businesses had been hit disproportionately harder than any other racial group. Many platforms (e.g., Airbnb and Yelp) have run a series of campaigns to support Black-owned businesses. Determining whether these campaigns are effective in attracting supports from consumers or just merely promotional is key. Based on the theoretical framework of Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) and Aldous et al. (2019) and data collected from Yelp, this study reveals that higher levels of engagement produce persistent reactions. Specifically, the rating support lasts for one month and then vanishes; the review support increases for three months and then gets reversed; and the verbal support lasts for three months but does not get reversed. The findings of this study contribute to theories of online engagement and provide direct implications for platforms involving social campaigns in business practice.