Dr Bora Kim
About
Biography
Dr. Bora Kim is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management. She examines managerially-relevant questions in the tourism and hospitality industry from the perspective of strategic and financial management. Particularly, she examines how characteristics of executives and corporate governance influence managerial actions and firm performance.
Bora's research focuses on how executive characteristics and corporate governance influence managerial actions and firm performance. Her work also explores the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in transforming business practices. She has a strong interest in promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and is committed to using strategic leadership as a means to foster positive social change.
She is a Fulbright Scholar, having earned her Ph.D. and MSc in Hospitality Management from Pennsylvania State University, and holds a BBA in Hotel Management (Summa cum laude) from Kyung Hee University. Bora's international education and diverse experiences across continents provide her with a global perspective on the impact of tourism, allowing her to bridge theory and practice in her teaching and research.
University roles and responsibilities
- Surrey Business School Educaiton Committee
- Early Career Researcher (ECR) Representative for SHTM
- PhD Supervisor
My qualifications
Previous roles
Affiliations and memberships
ResearchResearch interests
- Corporate social responsibility
- Sustainability and ESG
- Food and plastic waste
- Strategic management
- Strategic leadership
- Corporate governance
- Quantitative research methods
Research projects
Start date: August 2022
End date: March 2023
Start date: February 2022
End date: July 2022
Research interests
- Corporate social responsibility
- Sustainability and ESG
- Food and plastic waste
- Strategic management
- Strategic leadership
- Corporate governance
- Quantitative research methods
Research projects
Start date: August 2022
End date: March 2023
Start date: February 2022
End date: July 2022
Teaching
- MAN2154: Applied Financial Management in Services (UG)
- MAN1110: Financial Accounting in Service Industry (UG)
- MAN3161: Dissertations Module (UG)
- MANM490: Accounting & Finance for the Service Industry (PG)
Publications
Highlights
Kim, B., & Lee, S. (2024). Restaurant Celebrity CEO and Risk-taking: The Moderating Role of CEO Origin and Franchising. Tourism Economics. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548166241264595
Park, S., Kim, B., & Song, S. (2024). Generalist vs. specialist CEOs: Towards an understanding of CSR scheme in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2024.103797
Cho, J., Kim, B., Shin, H., & O’Connell, J.F. (2023). The impact of political conflicts on airlines performance. Annals of Tourism Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103648
Kim, B., Yu, H., Huang, Y., & Lee, S. (2023). Impact of Customer Incivility on Restaurant Employee Stress Spread and Turnover: COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 103522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103522
Lee, S., Liu, B., Jung, S., & Kim, B. (2023). The effect of vaccination during the COVID-19 for the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 103451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103451
Kim, B., & Lee, S. (2022). The impact of celebrity CEOs on restaurant firm performance: The moderating role of environmental dynamism. Journal of Business Research,139, 869-880. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.031
Jang, S., Kim, B., & Lee, S. (2022). Impact of corporate social (ir) responsibility on volume and valence of online employee reviews: Evidence from the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2022.104501
Nicolau, J. L., Shin, H., Kim, B., & O’Connell, J. F. (2022). The impact of loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity on airline revenue: Price sensitivity in cabin classes. Journal of travel research, 00472875221093014. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875221093014
Jolly, P., Van Hoof, H., Kim, B., Chen, F., Duran, M.E., Navas, A.C., Maldonado, G., Valle, J.G. (2021). Cultural Looseness and Tightness (CLT): A Study of Cultural Looseness and Tightness in the context of Latin America, PLoS ONE 16(1): e0246064. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246064
Kim, B., & Lee, S. (2020). The impact of material and immaterial sustainability on firm performance: The moderating role of franchising strategy. Tourism Management, 77, 103999. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.103999
Kim, B., Lee, S., & Kang, K. H. (2018). The moderating role of CEO narcissism on the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and CSR. Tourism Management, 67, 203-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.01.018
Lee, S., Kim, B., & Ham, S. (2018). Strategic CSR for airlines: does materiality matter? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(12), 3592-3608. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2017-0697
Jung, S., Kim, J. H., Kang, K. H., & Kim, B. (2018). Internationalization and corporate social responsibility in the restaurant industry: risk perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 26(7), 1105-1123. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2017.1421201
Kim, B., & Kang, K.H. (2013). Accounting Analysis for the Airline Industry: A Case Study of Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, Management Information Journal, 23(1), 1-17.
Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are receiving considerable attention in the travel and tourism workplace and the overall sector. At a global level, a wide range of agreements and pledges exist to ensure the advancement towards EDI in the sector (Ferguson, 2018) (i.e., 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). Despite global commitments, there is a substantive disconnection between global policy and practices of equality, and its absence across the tourism sector (Ferguson, 2018). Consequently, progress is primarily gradual and inconsistent across the travel and tourism industry. There are several societal, cultural and industry barriers that contribute to the continued inequality and inequity across the industry. An overarching barrier or challenge is the variation across the travel and tourism sector about how to define the terms and address EDI issues. While there are examples of good industry practices, there has been a general lack of successful and sustainable implementation of EDI initiatives, agendas and programmes. The aim of the ESRC IAA Project was to identify key challenges and barriers inhibiting our understanding of EDI in travel and tourism to foster inclusive organisational cultures, achieve representation and progression of diverse groups (i.e., ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality etc.) across all areas of management in the industry. The EDI impact workshops (co-moderated by the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, & the Travel Foundation) in London held on October 14th and 21st 2022 explored the issues through three tasks (See Fig. 1). Collectively, the tasks contributed to building a greater understanding of different dimensions of EDI and create a flexible and usable toolkit that meets the different contexts and needs of stakeholders. The findings of the workshops contributed to the design of the EDI toolkit of strategies and interventions may be used to support and guide organisations and policy makers toward achieving the EDI agenda across the sector.
In 2021/2022, approximately 16 million people in the UK, or 24% of the population, experienced a disability. This significant figure highlights the societal impact, with roughly one in four individuals facing varying degrees of impairment. As of February 2023, 6.3 million people in Great Britain were claiming extra cost disability benefits, representing 9 to 10% of the population, according to Commons Library Research Briefings. Notably, nearly 25% of individuals with disabilities are of working age (See Fig. 1). This demographic change emphasisesthe importance of recognising the potential of this substantial market segment. It underscores the urgent need for discussions on social inclusion, particularly focusing on strategies to integrate people with disabilities into the workforce. In light of this, it is critical for sectors such as hospitality and tourism to actively participate in dialogues aboutsocial inclusion and to strive to create environmentsthat are inclusive and cater to the diverse needs of individuals with disabilities.
Some business leaders, just like some artists and politicians, acquire celebrity status and become more visible as star CEOs through increased media attention. However, to date, little has been known about how such celebrity status affects the individual and their organizations. Based on identity control theory and celebrity role constraints logic in the context of upper echelons perspective, this study provides initial empirical evidence on how restaurant CEOs’ celebrity affects managerial risk-taking actions and how CEO-specific and firm-specific factors moderate this relationship. The results indicate that the main effect of CEO celebrity on risk-taking is insignificant. Yet, the dynamic is swayed positively by a CEO’s background, especially when CEOs are outsiders; these celebrity CEOs demonstrate a propensity for bolder strategies. Moreover, as a restaurant firm’s franchising quotient escalates, a star CEO exhibits amplified risk tendencies. The results provide theoretical and practical implications for restaurant corporate governance and shareholders.
The purpose of the study is to determine whether vaccination rates and the use of franchising have an impact on the volatility of stock returns in the restaurant industry. Based on the agency and resource scarcity theories, this study first examines the effect of vaccinations against COVID-19 on a restaurant firm’s stock return volatilities caused by uncertainty during a crisis. The study further investigates whether firm-specific vaccination rates more greatly reduce stock return volatilities as the degree of franchising increases. With a two-way fixed-effects model, the study finds that the firm-specific vaccination rate reduces volatilities of the firm’s stock returns. However, the study also finds an opposite direction to the moderating effect of franchising in that the more a restaurant firm franchises, the further the risk-reduction effect of its vaccination rate diminishes. Theoretical and practical implications along with limitations are discussed.
In response to the unprecedented pandemic in recent history, COVID-19 vaccination mandates in the U.S. caused significant changes and disruption in hospitality operations and customer experiences. The primary goal of this study is to examine whether and how customer incivility induced by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the U.S. affects employees’ behavioral outcomes (i.e., stress spread between employees and turnover intention) via psychological mechanisms (i.e., stress and negative emotion) and when the relationship is moderated by personal (employee prosocial motivation) and organizational (supervisor support) characteristics. Findings show that customer incivility increases employee turnover intention as well as interpersonal conflicts at work via increased stress and negative emotions. These relationships are weakened when prosocial motivation of employees and the level of supervisor support is high. Findings expand the occupational stress model by specifically incorporating the context of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and further provide implications for restaurant managers and policy makers. •Customer incivility increases both employee stress and negative emotions•Customer incivility indirectly increases employee turnover intention and stress spread at work•Employee prosocial motivation attenuates the impact of customer incivility on employee emotions and behavior•Supervisor support mitigates the impact of customer incivility on employee emotions and behavior
In response to the increasing interest in and importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the role of leadership in the restaurant industry, there is a strong need to better understand how restaurant firms engage in CSR initiatives. Based upon the upper echelons perspective, this study examines how generalist and specialist CEO characteristics are manifested in firms CSR profiles and how franchising and internationalization strategies moderate this CEO-CSR relationship. Results from the panel analysis show that generalist CEOs of restaurant firms are more likely to engage in CSR activities that accommodate a wide range of stakeholders. In addition, franchising and internationalization strategies positively moderate the relationship between generalist CEOs and CSR actions, encompassing various stakeholder groups.
Political conflicts between countries can disrupt normal functioning of the airline industry, leading to uncertainty and affecting airline demand (Dwyer et al., 2013). Empirical evidence shows that political conflicts have a dampening effect on airline demand (Zhang & Zhang, 2017; Laufer, 2018), and can results in a significant decrease in passenger traffic (Fernandes & Pacheco, 2017). Airlines respond to political conflicts by implementing various coping strategies, such as route diversification, code-sharing agreements, and fleet renewal (Zuidberg & de Wit, 2020). For example, airlines may shift their focus to alternative destinations or establish partnerships with other carriers to expand their route options when facing reduced demand due to political instability (Button et al., 2016; Corbet et al., 2019). Understanding the impact of growing political conflicts on airline demand and management strategies is crucial as airlines serve as the primary transportation mode for domestic and international tourists. However, research has largely overlooked the differential impact on distinct airline business models, such as full-service carriers (FSCs) and low-cost carriers (LCCs). This research note aims to address this gap by examining the effects of the China-Korea political conflict, specifically the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), on FSCs and LCCs operating in South Korea in terms of flight numbers and seat capacity.
CSR and sustainability engagement is growing rapidly with ever-increasing attention. Accordingly, restaurant stakeholders now demand restaurant companies to disclose relevant ESG information (i.e., materiality) to analyze risks and opportunities that ESG factors bring to firms over the long term. As established in stakeholder theory, restaurant materiality is shaped by a firm's key stakeholders and also by the industry's distinguishing factor, franchising. However, despite their importance and timeliness, materiality and franchising remain largely absent from scholarly discussion in the field of tourism and hospitality. Using a novel industry-specific materiality classification of sustainability initiatives, here we show that franchising positively moderates the impact of investing in immaterial sustainability on firm performance. The results provide early empirical validation of stakeholder theory in relation to restaurant materiality and franchising, and show the impact of allocating a firm's resources to material and immaterial sustainability issues on firm performance in the restaurant context. •This study categorizes CSR into material and immaterial sustainability activity.•This study examines the effect of material and immaterial CSR on restaurant firm performance.•This study investigates the moderating role of franchising.•Franchising moderates the relationship between immaterial sustainability investment and firm performance.
While most businesses actively adopt a data-driven approach for revenue management decisions, understanding how air travellers perceive and behave differently to pricing strategies is essential for yielding optimal financial outcomes. This study analyses the loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity mechanisms of prospect theory in economy and business cabin classes. With rich longitudinal airfares, regression models and revenue data (15,868 observations from the top-10 aviation routes in the world) from 2014 to 2019, this study finds that lower-(higher-)than-expected airfares have a positive (negative) impact on revenue. When the effect of loss-coded and gain-coded tickets were compared, the extent to which passengers avoided losses (vs. welcomed gains) had a greater impact on revenue, supporting that loss aversion applies to the airline revenue, especially for business passengers. This study contributes to the further refinement of prospect theory by showing that the loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity mechanisms manifest differently in each cabin class.
In today’s media-saturated world, intense media attention propels some CEOs to stardom. This social escalation of CEOs to celebrities inherently affects their actions and strategic choices, and thus the performance of their host organizations. Despite the importance of understanding upper echelons—especially celebrity CEOs in the tourism and hospitality industry—researchers have devoted little attention to the implications of CEO celebrity. As a result, whether CEO celebrity serves as a company asset or liability remained largely unknown. Based on the upper echelons theory and CEOs’ behavioral constraints, this study uncovers and provides initial empirical evidence on how a CEO’s celebrity affects firm performance, with a detailed examination of the restaurant industry. Further, we show that industry dynamism, an important external environmental factor, plays a positive moderating role such that the positive effect of CEO celebrity on firm performance becomes weaker as industry dynamism increases.
Cultural tightness-looseness represents the degree to which a particular culture possesses strong behavioral norms, and the degree to which members of that culture are likely to sanction individuals who deviate from those norms. While tightness-looseness has been quantified for a large and growing number of countries around the world, there are many countries where a tightness-looseness score has yet to be determined, thus impeding the inclusion of those countries in cross-cultural research with a tightness-looseness focus. There is a dearth of research on cultural tightness-looseness in South America in particular. We report results from a national survey of 1,265 Ecuadorian residents which provided quantification of the relatively tight culture of Ecuador.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) can influence employee voice behavior in online review platforms. This study utilizes online employee review (OER), builds upon ethical climate theory, and hypothesizes the independent and joint effects of CSR and CSI on two aspects of employee voice – OER volume and OER valence. Using novel OER data of US tourism and hospitality firms, we perform a panel data regression with industry and year fixed effects. The results indicate that firm CSR engagement increases both the volume and valence of OER, whereas CSI accelerates (attenuates) the positive CSR effect on OER volume (valence). These findings can help tourism and hospitality firms implement CSR strategies for enhancing employees’ word of mouth from both volume and valence perspectives.
This article uses the dataset of tourist satisfaction index of Hong Kong to investigate the impact of culture difference on the gap between tourists’ expectations and their perceptions of actual service performance. When the demographic profile and travel experience are controlled, it is found that small culture difference (Hong Kong and China) has positive impact on Expectation-Performance Gap (EPG); whereas negative relationship with EPG is identified for large culture difference (Hong Kong and western countries). The practical implication for tourism managers in Hong Kong is that service providers should manage EPG in accordance with the aspects of the culture difference between the destination and the source markets.