Strategic Storytelling in Tourism: How Social Comparison Moderates Underdog vs. Top-Dog Narrative Efficacy on Brand Loyalty

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-642-5_118How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Brand biography; Social comparison; Consumer-brand identification

Abstract

In tourism brand building, brand biography, as the core carrier to convey the brand identity narrative, plays a vital role in shaping the emotional connection of tourists. This research aims to examine the interaction effect between brand biography type and social comparison orientation on brand loyalty, with consumer-brand identification serving as a mediating mechanism. Through study conducted in tourism contexts, this study examines the interaction between brand biography types (underdog and top-dog) and social comparison (upward and downward) on tourism brand loyalty. The study found that for tourists in the upward social comparison, top-dog brand biography can effectively enhance consumers’ brand identity, so as to improve brand loyalty; For those who make a downward social comparison, underdog brand biography will trigger a more significant identification effect. This research pioneers a novel theoretical perspective by integrating social comparison theory with tourism brand narrative, revealing the intricate relationships among brand biography, social comparison, and brand loyalty. It provides practical guidance for tourism enterprises to formulate differentiated brand narrative strategies, especially in social media marketing and tourism relationship management.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xue Lin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/29
TI  - Strategic Storytelling in Tourism: How Social Comparison Moderates Underdog vs. Top-Dog Narrative Efficacy on Brand Loyalty
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 11th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1119
EP  - 1127
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-642-5_118
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-642-5_118
ID  - Lin2026
ER  -