Abstract: Based on the social cognitive theory, this paper constructed a moderated influence mechanism model, and explored the influence and boundary conditions of warmth and competence values in the content of the host self-descriptions on the sales on peer-to-peer platforms. This paper divided the content of the host self-descriptions into four types, namely "warmth-incompetence", "warmth-competence", "warmth-incompetence", "no warmth-incompetence" and "no warmth-competence" and constructed an evaluation framework for guests' cognition of the content of the host self-descriptions. Then, based on 339,600 listings in 21 cities around the world obtained from the Airbnb platform, this study constructed a word classification model of the content of the host self-descriptions, used hierarchical regression analysis to verify the mechanism model of the impact of four types of the content of the host self-descriptions on homestay sales, and discussed the possible boundary conditions. The results show that: firstly, if a host shows warmth in the self-description, it will increase the online sales, but if a host shows his/her competence in the description will not. Secondly, the higher the rating of the homestays, the stronger the impact of the host's warmth and competence reflected in the self-description on sales. Thirdly, as the number of years of operation increases, if a host demonstrates warmth and/or competence in his/her self-descriptions, the increase in sales will be higher than that of a host with a shorter operating year. Fourth, if the homestay is rented out as a whole, if the host demonstrates his/her warmth and competence in the self-description, the impact on the sales will not be significant, but if the host demonstrates his/her warmth and competence, it will promote sales. Furthermore, if the homestay is rented out as a shared room, the host will increase homstay sales by only showing his/her warmth in the self-descriptions and will reduce sales if the host only shows his/her competence. This paper applies the social cognitive theory to the peer-to-peer platforms and explores the content of the host self-descriptions and its impact on the sales from a macro perspective, which is conducive to guiding the hosts to adjust their self-descriptions in a timely manner according to the changes of the homestays and their own situation, so as to increase online sales.

Key words: host self-description, online sales, homestay, text mining, social cognitive theory