From Social Media Novelty to Trial Intention: The Sequential Role of Pioneering Feeling in Boutique Hotel Choice

Boutique hotels often lack the brand recognition of established hotel chains, making it important to understand how distinctive social media content may shape consumers’ willingness to try unfamiliar properties. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, this study examines the proposed sequential relationship between perceived brand novelty, social media experience, pioneering feeling, and willingness to try a boutique hotel. Pioneering feeling is conceptualized as a situationally activated sense of discovering an offering ahead of others and is examined as an identity-related psychological response within the S–O–R framework. A scenario-based, cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted with 159 eligible participants aged 20–35 who used Instagram or TikTok for travel-related information. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling with bootstrapping. The results showed positive associations between perceived brand novelty and social media experience, social media experience and pioneering feeling, and pioneering feeling and willingness to try. The specific sequential indirect effect was also statistically significant, consistent with the proposed pathway through social media experience and pioneering feeling. These findings provide initial empirical support for pioneering feeling as a situational psychological state that helps explain how perceived novelty may be associated with willingness to try an unfamiliar boutique hotel. The study contributes to hospitality and tourism research by extending S–O–R applications beyond conventional cognitive and affective responses to incorporate a situationally activated identity-related response. For boutique hotels, the findings highlight the potential relevance of distinctive social media experiences in shaping perceptions of early discovery. Because the study uses a cross-sectional design, however, the observed associations should not be interpreted as evidence of temporal or causal mediation. Future research using longitudinal or experimental designs can further examine the proposed sequence.