Professor Emily (Jintao) Ma
Academic and research departments
Department of Hospitality and Events, Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management.About
Biography
Dr. Emily Ma is a Professor at the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, the University of Surrey, UK. Her research area includes organizational behaviour, customer experience management and women in leadership. Her most recent research looks at how robots can be applied in hospitality and tourism contexts to enhance employee well-being and customer experience.
Emily received her education and practiced teaching and research in four continents, including Asia, North America, Australia/Oceania, and Europe. She serves as editorial board members for multiple journals and also serves as the Associate Editor for Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SSCI, ABDC: A), official journal of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE).
Areas of specialism
ResearchResearch interests
Organizational Behavior in Hospitality
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Motherhood and Women in Leadership
Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pM9U_ZcAAAAJ&hl=en&inst=15262…
Research interests
Organizational Behavior in Hospitality
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Motherhood and Women in Leadership
Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pM9U_ZcAAAAJ&hl=en&inst=15262…
Teaching
Leadership
Strategic HR
Intercultural Communiction
Publications
As teaming humans and robots becomes increasingly common in hospitality organizations, it is crucial to understand factors that facilitate and hinder human-robot collaborations. Building upon the Job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this research examines how service robots' human likeness and job design factors affect hospitality employees’ perceptions and collaboration intentions. Data was collected from 488 hospitality employees through three experiment studies. The results show that employees feel more enjoyment and less stress when working with non-humanoid (vs. humanoid) robots, leading to higher collaboration intentions. Specifically, the adverse impact of robot-human likeness on employees' intention to collaborate is mitigated where task interdependence is high, and role clarification is better. The research findings offer hospitality organizations valuable insights into the types of robots that service employees are more likely to accept in collaborative work conditions. Furthermore, it suggests two job interventions to enhance collaborations between humans and robots.
This paper examines hotel management students' perceptions of the quality aspects of a Virtual Field Trip (VFT) technology based learning and teaching tool, and its effect on their satisfaction. With the help of an online VFT tool, students were familiarized with the theoretical concepts of hotel operations, and then exposed to the insights of the actual operations of two hotels. To assess satisfaction, 182 undergraduate students in a large public university in Australia responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, principle component factor analysis and multiple regression techniques. The results suggest that there are three factors of quality promoting students' satisfaction, however, the factor of 'system quality' was found to be the most important predictor for satisfaction when using the technology based learning and teaching tool. Further analysis revealed that international students' satisfaction with the factor of 'content quality' was higher than domestic students. (C) 2017 The Authors.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate attendees' perceived importance and performance of two major exhibitions in China and to understand the impact of the performance dimensions on attendees' overall expenditures. The results of the paired-sample t-test found that there were significant differences between attendees' perceived importance and performance of the two exhibitions. The results of the importance-performance analysis showed that 10 out of 21 attributes were in the area of "keep up the good work," 2 were in the area of "concentrate here," 8 were in the area of "low priority," and 1 was in the area of "possible overkill." Principal component analysis on the 21 attributes generated 4 factors. A multiple regression was performed to test the relationship between attendees' satisfaction with the four factors and their overall expenditure. The result showed that two out of four factors-F2: Hotel, Food, and Attractions and F4: Facilities-were significant predictors for attendee's overall expenditure.
This study proposes and examines the role server-friendly customers play in the customer-employee exchange stage of service encounters, and how customer-employee exchange relates to employee organizational citizenship behaviors toward customers, colleagues, and hotel organizations. To further explain how service employees could reenergize through the psychological resources gained from server-friendly customers at the point of customer-employee exchange, conservation of resources theory was applied. Hotel employees in the United States and China were sampled to jointly examine our proposed model. Findings of this study contribute valuable theoretical implications by emphasizing the role of customer-employee exchange in the formation of employee citizenship behaviors, as well as practical implications with regard to mentoring employees, thus strategically reenergizing psychological resources and obtaining tacit knowledge of citizenship behavior and its practice.
This study examined whether international and domestic Thai tourists differ in their demographic characteristics, their evaluation of Bangkok's performance as a tourist destination, their satisfaction, and their intent to revisit Bangkok or to recommend Bangkok to others. A total of 254 international and 266 domestic Thai tourists participated in the study. The results revealed that international and domestic Thai tourists differed in their demographic characteristics, evaluation of Bangkok's performance, satisfaction, and intention to revisit. The linear regression analysis revealed that the tourists' image of Bangkok and its attractions and quality of destination factors contributed to their satisfaction, intention to revisit, and intention to recommending Bangkok to others. The entertainment factor was an additional factor contributed to tourist satisfaction, while the safety and security factor played an important role in intention to revisit and to recommending Bangkok to others.
Using a national survey with 72,533 samples, this study empirically tested whether pre-travel anticipation, actual previous travel experiences and a series of socio-economic and demographic factors could significantly influence the happiness and life satisfaction of Chinese travellers. The comparison between urban and rural Chinese travellers indicated that pre-travel anticipation, current income, expected income, gender, and marital status could positively influence the happiness of urban and rural Chinese travellers who plan to travel. Our results also showed that previous travel experiences did not affect the happiness of either urban or rural Chinese travellers.
This research examines students' experience with an innovative virtual field trip of hotels. Students taking a Food and Beverage Management course participated in this research. The VFT included aspects of managing the food and beverage function of hotels and supplemented the delivery of face-to-face teaching to form a blended learning experience. Personal interviews with 18 students in two stages were conducted to establish their expectations and perceptions of a VFT experience. The level of innovation in this research was evaluated using a mapping framework, designed to gauge the veracity of information and communication technology-enabled innovation for learning. The results revealed that students' learning experience was enhanced by the existence of the VFT environment. Students emerged to be active rather than passive learners, and the VFT environment helped in advancing their fundamental business graduate skills (i.e., problem solving), which is undeniably essential in preparing the hotel leaders of tomorrow.
Building on three theoretical perspectives, Alchian-Allen theorem, sunk cost fallacy, and mental account theory, this study proposed and tested a model on Chinese outbound travelers' impulse shopping behaviors as determined by sunk cost, information confusion, after-sale risk, and anticipated regret (both downward and upward). Using a sample of 314 Chinese outbound travelers, findings of the study suggested that sunk cost, after-sale risk, and downward anticipated regret significantly influence travelers' impulsive shopping, with downward anticipated regret mediating the relationship between information confusion and impulsive purchase and between sunk cost and impulsive purchase. The study contributes to existing theories and literature for a better understanding of how sunk cost influences outbound travelers' impulsive shopping behavior from three theoretical perspectives, particularly in a Chinese cultural context. The findings of the study also have important implications for destination stakeholders.
Destination attractiveness is an important stream of literature. Australia has been recognized as one of the world's most attractive destinations. This study looked into international students' perceptions of Australia as an attractive international tourism destination as well as their travel intention. A sample of 252 Chinese and Indian international students participated in the study. Students' perceived destination attractiveness and how it influenced their travel intention, pleasure of travel and place attachment were investigated. The study also looked into perception differences between Chinese and Indian students using t-test and hierarchical regressions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global tourism and hospitality industry with drastic results. Hotels have been experiencing unprecedented challenges, leaving many to temporarily or permanently closed. Employing a case study approach supported by both quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study examined how two hotels in Oklahoma City had coped with challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, from day to day operations, health and safety measures to marketing, human resources and cost-saving strategies. The study contributes to the tourism crisis and disaster literature by providing micro-level coping strategies, a literature gap that needs to be addressed, particularly under the current pandemic.
Customers choosing Airbnb over a traditional hotel are looking for a different experience. Despite the popularity of Airbnb in China, little research has been devoted to examining customers' perception and experience with this nascent form of accommodation. Through the lens of the expanded Experience Economy Model, and based on 7606 customer comments for 294 listed Airbnb accommodations in Hangzhou, China, this study explored eight aspects of customer experience-namely, entertainment, education, esthetics, escapism, interaction, home-feeling, tangible-sensorial and localness-regarding Airbnb experiences in China. Findings of this study suggested that although all eight aspects were present, there is in general a lack of entertainment and escapist experience in Airbnb accommodations in Hangzhou, suggesting meaningful directions that Airbnb accommodations need to work on. The study contributes to customer experience literature, particularly to the Experience Economy Model and also has important empirical significance.
While the impact of organizational diversity on employee work outcomes has received significant research attention, there is a dearth of literature in hospitality settings, particularly in Eastern cultures. Integrating the Social Identity Theory and diversity literature, this study, using data collected from 22 hotels in Taiwan, examined the relationship of perceived organizational diversity with Job Performance (JP), Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) and Turnover Intention. The results indicated that the level of diversity perceived by hotel employees, significantly influenced employee JP and OCB. Ethnicity status also moderated the relationship between the perception of diversity levels and employee turnover intention. Specifically, a negative relationship between perceived diversity and turnover intention was observed among indigenous employees while a positive relationship was observed among non-indigenous employees. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
This study investigated the issue of work-family conflict (WFC) among university foodservice managers. Multiple regression results showed that Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity were two significant antecedents of WFC. In addition, working on weekends also led to increased levels of WFC. The main finding of the study is that WFC is a significant antecedent of university foodservice managers' intention to leave, indicating that WFC is an important factor that explains the high turnover rate of hospitality employees.
The aim of this study is to assess the effects of leisure time on China's long-run economic growth. Two compensation effects of leisure are introduced into the growth model to assess if leisure choice-set affects economic growth in the long term. Time series data covering 23 years (19812003) are used in the study, and a neoclassic growth model is employed to analyze the data. The result shows a weak and negative relationship between leisure time and China's long-term economic growth.
Guided by the Transaction Cost Theory and the Resource Base Views, the study proposed a framework on hotel outsourcing decisions and empirically tested it. Data were collected using a survey from 240 supervisory and management level hotel employees in China who've dealt with outsourcing. The study found that suppliers' cost-efficiency and specialization contribute to the overall efficiency of hotels, which further enhances the perceived overall service performance of outsourcing suppliers and hotels' long-term commitments with outsourcing suppliers.
•Globalization has contributed to the formation of diversified teams comprised of people with different characteristics, such as ethnicity, race, gender and other backgrounds, which present new challenges in how we understand and effectively manage teams. As hotels become more diversified, team faultlines will become more common in the workplace.•The study fills in a research gap on team faultlines in hospitality contexts, and empirically tested how the underlying mechanism of team faultlines influences hotel frontline employees’ work engagement by regarding psychological safety as a mediator, using data collected at multiple times.•The study confirmed that inclusive leadership can alleviate the negative impact of team faultlines while facilitating hotel employees’ work engagement. The study provides a more optimistic view that measures can indeed be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of team faultlines, and give certain practical implications for how to effectively manage diversified teams under globalization context. Team faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into two or more subgroups based on individual (diversity) attributes, which negatively influence team process and outcomes. Linking with diversity literature and building on social identity and optimal distinctiveness theories, our study examined a multilevel moderated mediation model on whether, how, and when team faultlines would affect hotel frontline employees’ work engagement using data from 337 Chinese hotel employees nested in 102 work groups, collected at multiple times. The results indicated that team faultlines negatively influenced hotel frontline employees’ work engagement, and that individual perceived psychological safety played a mediating role. Inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship between team faultlines and employees’ work engagement via psychological safety, thus providing a more optimistic view that measures can indeed be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of team faultlines.
Building on signaling theory and the job demands‐resources model, this paper assessed mentorship, training and interpersonal helping's role on employee attitude and performance. Using a sample of 424 millennial young frontline employees from upscale hotels in China, results of this study suggested that training and mentorship positively influence employees' task performance both directly and indirectly (via job satisfaction), and their direct and indirect influences were similar in effect sizes; job satisfaction has a positive effect on task performance, while the moderating effect of interpersonal helping was not confirmed. This study contributes to signaling theory and job‐demands‐resources model, as well as providing important practical implications to hotel operators.
Labor efficiency is a central concept in economics. Although investigators have studied the influence of some variables (e.g., education time and physical capital) on labor efficiency, most studies overlook the impact of leisure time. This investigation examines the relationship between leisure time and labor efficiency in the world's three largest economies: China, the US and Japan. Results revealed a significant correlation between leisure time and labor efficiency, and demonstrate that active leisure participation can improve productivity. The findings also demonstrate that, in contrast to the US and Japan, China, as a typical developing country, has seldom seen an apparent positive effect of leisure time on efficiency, which may partially explained by the type of leisure participation (active or passive).
UNESCO designated the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages (Guangdong, China) a World Heritage Site in 2007. As a unique ancient cultural site, Diaolou villages attract large numbers of visitors every year. The purpose of this study was to investigate how perceived value and experience with Diaolou villages would influence tourists' satisfaction and re-visit intention. Using a sample of 617 visitors, the study found that social, emotional, brand, functional, and monetary values offered by Diaolou villages positively influenced tourists' satisfaction and behavioral intention. The study contributed to the perceived value literature by validating a multidimensional model of perceived value in ancient village contexts.
Building customer loyalty is an important strategy for the success of fine-dining restaurants. Knowing individual customers' differences, especially the distinction between male and female customers in service quality and image perception, as well as satisfaction and loyalty formation, is crucial to attract and retain customers. This study examined the structural relationships among food quality, staff service quality, image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty in the context of fine-dining restaurants with a special focus on gender's moderating effects. The results showed that food quality and staff service quality both contributed to the customers' satisfaction and perceived image of the restaurant. Restaurant image and customer satisfaction explained a large variance in customer loyalty. Gender moderated five out of the six proposed relationships, which supported gender's moderating role in the context of fine-dining restaurants.
This paper fills the gap through theoretical reasoning and empirical testing of the effects of housework on job performance. Guided by the time allocation theory, the study proposed an optimization model based on the household production function, which indicates that an increase of time spent on housework will improve individual job performance with a progressive increase in the marginal return of housework time to household production. A field study using assembly-line workers in a Chinese manufacturing factory partially supported the proposition, suggesting that workers with longer housework time have accumulated higher character skills, particularly female workers.
This article explores differences in perceptions of organisational attractiveness (e.g., job, company and diversity attributes) between Taiwanese indigenous and non-indigenous employees. A mixed method study, framed by social identity theory, was conducted utilising semi-structured interviews and a survey of 305 employees from 22 hotels in Taiwan. Overall, the results indicated that although organisational diversity is important to hotel staff, especially for indigenous employees, this feature was the least well performing organisational attribute across the three types of hotels. Furthermore, hotels with low levels of ethnic diversity did not meet the expectations of employees about some elements of desired organisational diversity attributes (e.g., ethnic composition of the workforce). The results suggest there is a need for managers to better understand employee attitudes about organisational diversity. If organisational diversity is effectively managed, employers may be better placed to implement equal opportunity, affirmative action policies and diversity management strategies that attract and retain employees from both indigenous and non-indigenous backgrounds. (C) 2014 The Authors.
Traditional theories of consumer economy suggest that outbound tourism expenditure may inhibit domestic tourism expenditure. However, little is known about whether the effect really exists. This study applied Thaler's Mental Accounting Theory and the Family Utility Function Model to test the relationship between domestic and outbound tourism expenditure using a sample of 1,147 Chinese travelers. The study suggests that outbound tourism expenditure has a promotional effect on domestic tourism expenditure, because: 1) the majority of Chinese travelers' outbound tourism is still characterized by sightseeing tours with shallow experiences, and 2) unsatisfied needs and expenditures in outbound travel can promote expenditures in domestic tourism. The study makes two important theoretical contributions. First, findings of the study helped to solve the disagreement on the relationships between domestic and outbound expenditures by applying the Mental Accounting Theory. Second, it considered characteristics of both tourism products and tourists' experiences' influence on the allocation of travel expenditures. Given the influence of the pandemic which prohibited outbound travel, such a study is timely and has meaningful empirical implications.
Given the growing importance of the Chinese tourist market to Australia, an understanding of Chinese tourists' arrival patterns is essential to accurate forecasting of future arrivals. Drawing on 25years of records (1991–2015), this study developed a time-series model of monthly arrivals of Chinese tourists in Australia. The model reflects the exponentially increasing trend and strong seasonality of arrivals. Excellent results from validation of the model's forecasts endorsed this time-series model's potential in the policy prescription and management practice of Australian tourism industries. •We reviewed the growth of China as an important inbound tourism market for Australia in the past three decades•We analyzed monthly tourist arrivals from China to Australian from January 1991 to September 2015•We identified the exponential trend and monthly seasonality of Chinese tourist arrivals to Australia•We compared a set of SARIMA time series models in terms of prediction accuracy•We forecast monthly Chinese tourist arrivals to Australia up to September 2017 and pointed out potential opportunities and challenges facing the Australian tourism industry
This paper applies an economic game theory model to explain the decisive mechanism of organizational citizenship behavior (OCR). The Sub-game Perfect Nash Equilibrium (SPNE) indicates that an employee's unique motivation of OCB is to maximize his or her own performance outcome. The findings also suggest that workload, importance of work to performance outcomes and cost of OCB jointly determine the amount of OCB that each individual employee exhibits. An empirical test utilizing frontline hotel employees was performed (N = 175). Using a partial related test and logistical model, the results supported three propositions, suggesting that the amount of OCR exhibited by each employee is jointly influenced by the workload, cost of OCBs and OCBs performed by coworkers. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Building on proxemics theory and social exchange theory, this study investigated how different levels of psychological social distancing, protective wears, and social interactions influence customers' perceived risk, social exchange with service employees and their intention to avoid dining in restaurants under the 'new normal' of COVID-19. Using an experimental design with a total of 404 participants in US, this study shows that regardless of social distancing measures, both protective wear and social interaction levels can significantly influence customers' risk perception and social exchange quality. The study contributes to the tourism and hospitality literature by providing a timely understanding of customers' psychological perceptions, and responses of dining in restaurants during this difficult transition time. More importantly, this study adds hard empirical evidence to the current debate of restaurant re-open measures beyond widely circulating opinion pieces.
China's first Tourism Law came into force on October 1, 2013 with the purpose of regulating malpractices in the tourism industry, in particular coercive shopping, low price, and poor quality tours. It is still not clear how it has impacted on travelers and the relevant stakeholders, such as destinations and travel agencies. As an exploratory study, the authors have identified and analyzed the possible outcomes of the Tourism Law's impacts on various stakeholders and pointed directions for future research on this topic.
This study investigates employees' perceptions of hygiene and motivation factors in Taiwanese hotels. Using a comparative importance-performance analysis approach, the study also examines the differences between the perceptions of employees in low- and high-diversity organizations. The results reveal that employees in hotels with a high level of organizational diversity reported higher levels of employee job satisfaction than did employees in hotels with low levels. The authors discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of their findings.
The literature on the sharing economy within tourism and hospitality predominantly focuses on the accommodation sector regardless of the evolutionary trends in other sectors. The objective of this study was to examine the status of the urban sharing literature to fill research gaps. A review of 88 studies was performed, and the contexts, methods, and theories were synthesised. The findings revealed the status of urban sharing research. Major themes, theories, methods, and contexts were identified. The study also discussed future research directions to build an understanding of urban sharing research in the hospitality and tourism literature. Our findings suggest a need for more research to understand the dynamics of urban sharing ecosystems. The exclusion criteria limited the study's scope, suggesting greater exploration and the inclusion of non-accommodation sectors to support greater development of the literature.
Hospitality literature constitutes a considerable accumulation of data for follow-up studies. This study used CiteSpace to analyze investigations published in three top journals of hospitality research: International Journal of Hospitality Management (2008–2014), Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (2008–2014), and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (2009–2014). This application resulted in comprehensive knowledge maps of hospitality research. The study identified major disciplines that provide knowledge and theories for the hospitality discipline as well as contemporary research topics and most influential researchers.
This study examined students' expectations and perceptions of quality features of a virtual field trip in a course within a hospitality degree. A quantitative research design was used and data were collected from 182 hospitality students at an Australian university. Descriptive analysis and Importance-Performance analysis were performed to analyze the data. The results revealed that overall students were satisfied with the quality of the learning experience they gained from using the website. Through Importance-Performance Analysis, the study also identified aspects of the website that need to be further improved. The study enriches the literature in electronic-learning and confirms the virtual field trip as an effective tool for supporting the practical components of hospitality education and improving students learning experience. To allow a similar approach to be applied to other courses within hospitality degrees, additional research is required to assess its effectiveness in terms of students' learning experience and educational outcomes.
▶ We proposed and tested a three-dimensional (OCB-O, OCB-I and OCB-C) framework of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) for the hotel industry. ▶ We expanded social exchanges by including leader-member exchange, co-worker exchange and customer-employee exchange. ▶ Three types of social exchanges influence three types of OCBs differently. This study developed and empirically tested a three-dimensional framework of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the hotel industry. Using a social exchange perspective, the study expanded social exchange theory's emphasis on leader–member exchange to include coworker exchange and customer–employee exchange. The three types of social exchanges were tested as motivators for three types of OCB; organizational, interpersonal and customer. The findings support the distinctiveness of the three types of OCB and the importance of social exchanges as motivators for OCBs. This study contributes to the literature on OCB dimensionality in service organizations, as well as social exchange theory's application to discretionary performance in the hotel industry.
This study proposes and empirically tests a holistic framework of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) motivation that uses an altruistic-egoistic continuum. It also tests the structural relationships between altruistic and egoistic motivations and different dimensions of OCB. Analysis of questionnaire data from 398 hotel employee respondents supported eight of nine proposed relationships. Study results indicate a continuum incorporating multiple altruistic and egoistic motivations and suggest that OCB can be stimulated by both altruistic and egoistic motivations. The findings show that managers should facilitate positive social exchange in the hotel, provide constructive feedback regarding the desired performance, and encourage employees to engage more often in OCB directed toward the organization.
This study developed and tested a multilevel, moderated mediation model of whether, how, and when authentic leadership can affect employee work engagement in a hotel context, building on social exchange theory. A two-wave data collection process gathered 440 valid responses of hotel frontline employees from five-star hotels in China. The result supported a positive influence of authentic leadership on work engagement and the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX). Hotel employees' perceived power distance orientation moderated the indirect relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement through LMX. In contrast to previous studies supporting the negative effect of power distance on employee behavior, the present findings suggest that power distance strengthens the relationship between authentic leadership and hotel employees' work engagement. This study contributes to authentic leadership literature and provides insights into how interactions between personal and contextual factors affect authentic leadership's influence on work engagement in hospitality organizations.
Despite its known impacts on organizational effectiveness, few studies have investigated organizational citizenship behavior's (OCB's) impact on the individual employee. This study explored the affective and dispositional consequences of OCB for hotel employees and their relationships with turnover intention. A cross-cultural comparison of U.S. and Chinese hotel employees was incorporated into the survey-based research design. The results supported positive emotion, continuance commitment, and workplace social inclusion as consequences of OCBs and mediators in the OCB-turnover relationship, with significant differences by OCB targets. The results also supported culture's moderating role in the relationship of OCB and its consequences. The implications of the findings and directions for future research were discussed.
Improving employee creativity has become a critical issue for modern hospitality organizations in order to survive in a fast-paced and ever-changing business environment. Based on Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), the current research constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the influence of hospitality employees' positive affect on individual creativity within team context. We conducted a three-wave field survey gathering data from hotel employees in China. Employees' positive affect was positively related to individual creativity and individual's perceived psychological safety mediated the relationship. Interpersonal justice negatively moderated the above indirect relationship, where lower levels of interpersonal justice increased the mediating effect of perceived psychological safety. These findings provide insight into how interactions between individual and contextual factors influence individual creativity with implications on how hospitality organizations can boost up employees' positive affect to improve their creativity.
Chinese food is one of the three most popular ethnic foods in the United States (U.S.). However, relative little research attention has been paid to this segment, especially in the areas of service quality and customer satisfaction. This study is conducted in a Chinese restaurant located in the midwestern U.S. The purpose of this study is threefold: to identify the determinant factors of customers' satisfaction, to determine the relationship between customers' satisfaction and revisit intention, and to examine the moderating effect of culture on these relationships. The study revealed that three aspects of Chinese restaurant service performance determine customers' overall satisfaction, and customers' overall satisfaction is a significant mediator of customers' revisit intention. Finally, culture moderated the relationship between employees' service performance and customers' overall satisfaction.
Despite the abundance in methodologies for tourism demand modeling, most methods examine demand growth levels rather than growth patterns. The latter, however, can be of great value for destination management to minimize business risks and for authorities to prescribe effective policies. Meanwhile, describing demand growth as a simplex S-shaped life-cycle curve may oversimplify the heterogeneity in visitor flows. There is thus a need for methods that can identify market segments based on demand growth patterns to enable smart destination management strategies and provide theoretical insights. This article introduces a longitudinal profile analysis via multidimensional scaling (LPAMS) as an effective and easy to implement data-driven segmentation tool. This practitioner-friendly quantitative analytic tool is justified in the theoretical background of embracing complexity in business research, data disaggregation, and modeling interdependence in tourism forecasting. The conceptual and procedural details of LPAMS are explained at a level that is comfortably understood by researchers and practitioners, together with methodological comparisons with conventional methods. A demonstration of LPAMS is presented to identify five typical annual arrivals' growth patterns of Australia's 43 main inbound markets over 1991-2016. This study contributes to the methodologies for longitudinal tourism demand analysis and market segmentation techniques.
This study develops and tests a tourism employment model with 17-year time series data in China. The model reveals that tourism employment does not always grow in accordance with the tourism economy. The results indicate that tourism employment in China is driven mainly by the development of tourism-related industries. The results also show that technological progress has a slight negative effect on tourism employment in China.
Building on prospect theory, construal level theory, and corporate social responsibility literature, this study investigated how messaging framing strategies impact buffet diners' food waste and repatronage intentions using three experimental studies. Findings suggested that framing strategies (gain vs. loss) and point of reference (self vs. others vs. environment) interactively influence diners' behavioral intentions through corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, a gain-framing strategy with self or other-referencing points could enhance perceived CSR and repatronage intentions. However, when the referencing point changes to environment, gain-framed and loss-framed messages result in similar levels of perceived CSR, food waste reduction intentions, and repatronage intentions. Evidence also suggests that the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomenon could occur when it comes to food waste prevention. This study contributes to the literature by delineating the mediation mechanism of perceived CSR between message framing and diners' behavioral intentions. It also shed light on restaurants' food waste management, with implications for designing effective communication messages to enhance diners' engagement in food waste prevention.
As one of China's fastest growing outbound travel markets, Shanghai has witnessed a steady growth in outbound travel demand in recent years. The worldwide financial crisis, starting in 2007, negatively affected the global economy. Does the global financial crisis affect Shanghai residents' outbound travel too? Using descriptive analysis and factor analysis, this study explored and identified the preferences and influencing factors of Shanghai residents' outbound travel.
Most research examining organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has focused on employees' efforts that benefit the organization or the individuals' coworkers. A third dimension that is critical for the hospitality industry is behavior above and beyond the specific job description that is directed at customers. While most OCB studies have considered what behaviors are essential to corporate citizenship, but specific behaviors might be culturally bound. To avoid cultural issues, a more effective approach is to analyze the targets of citizenship behavior, that is, the organization, coworkers, and customers. A study of 240 hotel workers in China found support for a three-leg model of OCB, combining behavior aimed at these targets: at the organization itself, at coworkers, and at customers. Citizenship behavior aimed at the organization includes such activities as promoting a hotel's products and making favorable comments about the property outside of work. Citizenship behavior in support of coworkers includes assisting them as needed and taking time to listen to coworkers' concerns. Customer-focused OCB includes such activities as maintaining a positive attitude at work and performing duties carefully and accurately. Although this study did not expressly measure the results of such actions, previous work has shown increases in guest satisfaction and company revenue when OCB activities are high.
Purpose The study aims to provide a critical review of the origin, development and process of sentiment analysis (SA) and a demonstration for hospitality researchers and students on how to perform SA using a sample study. Design/methodology/approach A critical review and sample case demonstration approach was applied. The sample study used Leximancer to perform SA using TripAdvisor review data. Findings A critical evaluation of the most popular SA tools was provided, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. A step-by-step demonstration with data provided makes it possible for readers to learn this technique at own pace. Originality/value By providing a critical review of SA supported with a demonstration case study, this study makes a timely contribution for broader awareness and understanding, as well as the application of SA in hospitality.
This empirical research into tourists' motivation for visiting wineries aims to understand the role of cultural value in China's domestic wine tourism. The study focuses on the motivations of tourists from the perspective of culture-related wine value and the process of consumers' psychological recognition by utilizing three-level identity theory. Xiao zi, a Chinese lifestyle, is central to this investigation. A process of semi-structured interviews was utilized. The study has identified the dimensionality of xiao zi and revealed it to be a manifestation of the individualism currently burgeoning in contemporary China which historically has been known for its collectivist nature. The findings also suggest that xiao zi does have an impact on wine tourists' cellar door visitation motivation, and it has presence in three identity levels, relating to personal, interpersonal and group-level appraisals. This article offers a richer and more comprehensive understanding of xiao zi in relation to tourism.
Building upon equity, expectancy-disconfirmation, and social exchange theories, this research broadens the tipping literature by examining employees’ psychological and behavioral responses when receiving tips that differ in size from expectations, and how managers’ support influences perceptions. Using a 2 (actual-expected tipping discrepancy: higher vs. lower-than-expected tip size) x 2 (manager delivered social praise: presence vs. absence) between-subjects experimental design, the study finds that employees receive higher-than-expected tip size (vs. lower-than-expected tip size) have a higher level of social dignity, which promotes employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The results also support an interaction effect of manager delivered social praise and tipping discrepancy on employees’ social dignity. The results provide important theoretical and managerial implications to the tipping, social dignity, OCB, incivility, and social praise literature. •Employees who receive higher than expected tip size have a greater level of social dignity.•Employees’ dignity and OCB-C intention increase when they receive higher than expected tip size.•There is an interaction effect of manager delivered social praise and tipping discrepancy on employees’ social dignity.
Wine tourism in China is an emerging market. This study addresses two research questions: the product offering and the tourist experience in this market. Findings of an exploratory study using netnography were examined by combining product levels theory and the experience economy model. The resulting proposed theoretical framework identified the status of China's wine tourism market as situated in the infancy stage. Results revealed the core product needed more customers' involvement, and enrichment of the augmented product, to best position the wine destinations. While, enhancing educational, entertainment, and escapist experiences would benefit the whole experiences and increase future loyalty.
Integrating two theoretical frameworks, the product level theory and the experience economy model, this research analyzed and compared robotic technology applications and customer experiences in selected case robot restaurants in the United States and China. Guided by the product level theory, we first analyzed in which product/service levels were robots applied in each case restaurant in Study 1. Then in study 2, guided by the experience economy model, we further explored customers' dining experiences and compared if customers' experience differs due to variations in product/service levels that robot applied. The study first contributes to the product level theory by extending its application to the context of robotic restaurants. It also contributes to the experience economy literature, and in particularly, whether applications of robotic technologies at different product levels matter in customers' dining experience. The study included case restaurants both from the United States and China, presenting findings with cultural implications. Given the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the industry is exploring alternative ways for service delivery and food production, such a study is particularly meaningful.
This study used a mixed-method research design to investigate Chinese university students' perception of crowding during travel and the positive or negative affect crowding had on their satisfaction. It also explored the strategies Chinese student travelers adopted to cope with crowding during travel. The findings suggested that Chinese college students' perception of crowding did not directly impact their travel satisfaction, but indirectly influenced satisfaction via positive and negative affect. As a result of crowding, most students adopted displacement and product shift as coping strategies.
Owing to the service-oriented nature of hospitality organizations, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has drawn increasing attention from hospitality researchers over the last two decades. Taking a systematic and meta-analytical approach, this study presents a comprehensive picture of the status, conceptual and measurement frameworks, fundamental theories, method, antecedents, consequences, and meta-analytical relationships among popular variables. In addition, the study points out research gaps and future directions for hospitality OCB research, drawing on comparison with mainstream OCB literature. In particular, there is a need for more holistic, reliable, and validated OCB frameworks and measures for different hospitality contexts; a need for research on the consequences of OCB at the level of customers, coworkers, and employees; and more rigorous research methodologies. The findings further suggest that the unique characteristics of hospitality organizations not only provide meaningful contexts but also broaden and deepen the scope of OCB theories.
The purpose of this study was to provide empirical information necessary for filling some gaps in the extant literature on Chinese restaurant service quality in a U.S. setting. Using a case approach, the study investigated customers' perception toward the various service aspects of a Chinese restaurant in the United States. Applying the Importance-Performance Analysis technique, the study also identified the areas of services that require special attention. Several comparisons were made to identify the influence of different demographic characteristics on customers' service quality perceptions.
Building on agency theory and signaling theory, this study investigated the psychological mechanism of how empowerment impacts hotel frontline employees' self-esteem, perceived trust, and OCBs performed toward both internal and external customers. Using a longitudinal research design with data collected via three waves, the results supported that three out of four dimensions of empowerment had significant and positive influence on employees' self-esteem and perceived trust, both of which are significant predictors for three types of OCBs. The study makes important contributions to literature and suggests that hotel employees feeling empowered can enhance their overall wellness while contributing to their OCB performances. Thus, empowerment should be properly used as a strategy to facilitate employees' contextual performance.
The aim of this study was to explore whether Taiwanese hospitality workers' gender moderates the relationship between perceived ethnic diversity levels within their workplace and work-related outcomes at an individual employee level. Data were collected from 371 employees across 26 hotels in Taiwan. The results supported mediation effects of job satisfaction and affective commitment on the relationship between perceived ethnic diversity and employees' turnover intention. Gender moderated the relationships between perceived diversity and job satisfaction, affective commitment and the relationships between job satisfaction and turnover intention. This study highlights the importance of ethnic diversity impacts on employee work outcomes within Asian hospitality organizations, specifically in Taiwan.
Using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design supported by quantitative and qualitative evidence, this study explored how local residents can trigger tourists' pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) from three theoretical perspectives: social learning, norm activation, and reference group theories. Our findings suggested that residents' PEBs trigger tourists' PEBs by serving as reference groups for tourists' personal norms, helping tourists become aware of environmental consequences, and making tourists learn that they have a role to play in protecting destinations. Tourists may bring this influence back home, turning them from bystanders into regular actioners of PEBs. The study makes important contributions to Norm Activation Theory, Social Learning Theory, and the reference group literature by integrating three theoretical perspectives. It highlights the important roles destination residents can play in influencing and transforming tourists’ PEBs and thus has important implications for local government authorities and destination management companies and professionals. •The study explored how local residents can trigger tourists' PEBs.•Social learning, norm activation, and reference group perspectives were used.•The study used a mixed-method sequential explanatory design.•Both quantitative and qualitative evidence were used.•Tourists can carry forward residents' influence and continue to practice PEBs.
The creation of wellness values in wine tourism is at the heart of this chapter based on two distinct value generation approaches: service-dominant and customer-dominant logics that prevail in the service marketing arena, reflecting divergent worldviews. This chapter investigates which logic dominates the establishment of wellness values. Moreover, in attempting to better understand the factors that drive its creation, an inductive technique was used to make four breakthroughs. First, the study of wine tourism has expanded into wellness value development, increasing the scope of both wellness tourism and wine tourism. Second, this chapter reveals that the wellness value of wine is not intentional but rather based on individuals, with wine firms and wineries co-creating this value. Third, "wine," "reality and life" and "intangible culture" are variables found in this study that contribute to the establishment of wellness values. Finally, the proposed framework makes three additional contributions. Meanwhile, online and offline data collection offer a richer picture of the service providers' sphere.
A multi-stage, multi-method approach using participatory research methodology that considers the perspectives of tourism and hospitality professionals, and academic experts is used to develop an integrated model of transferable skills gained by working in the industry. Grounded in career construction theory, this study is anticipated to provide a comprehensive understanding of essential skills in the tourism and hospitality industry. It also aims to reshape the image of working in the industry into a more positive one, emphasizing the opportunities of the sector not only as a career but also as a steppingstone to learn transferable skills needed in different sectors, and ultimately contribute to the long-term and sustainable development of the tourism and hospitality sector. [Display omitted] •Explore transferable skills crucial in tourism and hospitality via a robust multi-method study.•Illuminate key competencies to transform the image of tourism and hospitality work positively.•Contribute to the long-term vitality of the industry by addressing skill shortages and fostering a positive perception.•Provide a nuanced view of essential skills, informing both professionals and the public alike.
Not all recoveries are successful. Previous research mostly focuses on employee service-recovery actions, while limited research examines how customers evaluate the interactions of employees’ diverse appearance features and their performance in service recoveries. To build upon the research gaps, this study examines the two processes of evaluation: inference-based and recognition-based evaluations. To do so, this research examines how service employees’ diversity features (e.g., gender and race) and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance influence customer evaluations of service recovery. Using a between-subjects experimental research design, the findings contribute to the diversity, service recovery, and OCB literature by adding new evidence on how recognition-based evaluations of employees’ appearances (gender and race) and inference-based evaluations of behaviors (OCB to customers) can affect customer perceptions of employee competence, trustworthiness, and dignity in service recoveries.
Event volunteers are a significant asset for event organisers as they contribute to the successful execution of events. However, organisers face challenges when recruiting and retaining volunteers due to the lack of understanding of factors contributing to volunteering outcomes. Building on the Motivation, Ability and Opportunity (MAO) model, the current study aims to deepen the understanding of antecedents of event volunteer outcomes (satisfaction, intention to volunteer again and Organisational Citizenship behaviour). An online survey distributed via event organisers collected 320 responses from event volunteers in Queensland, Australia. The Structural Equation Modelling underlined the positive effect of event volunteers' motivations on satisfaction. The analysis revealed that event volunteers' perceived opportunities are an antecedent of their satisfaction and intention to volunteer again. Finally, the study found that abilities positively impact event volunteers' organisational citizenship behaviour. Theoretically, the study contributes to the episodic event volunteer literature by systematically identifying the interrelated antecedents of event volunteer outcomes. Managers should consider the impact of MAO elements on volunteering outcomes when attracting and retaining event volunteers.
Building on the linguistic landscape theory and literature on customers' experience with restaurants' authenticity and status, this study investigates whether restaurants' outdoor signs influence customers' perceptions and behavioral intentions. Using an experimental design comprising two studies, supported by data collected from Chinese consumers, we test how display characters and text flow may jointly impact on customers' perceptions of the status and authenticity of ethnic (Japanese and Taiwanese) restaurants, thus influencing their visiting intentions and willingness to pay. We find that display characters influence Chinese customers' perceptions of authenticity and status in both Japanese and Taiwanese restaurants in Mainland China. There is an interaction effect between display characters and text flow on customers' perception of authenticity and status in Japanese restaurants in Mainland China. This study applies the linguistic landscape theory to a restaurant context and examines how such features may influence customers’ perceptions and decisions. The findings have important practical implications on managing customer experiences and perceptions via effective restaurant sign designs. •The study is built on linguistic landscape, restaurant authenticity and status literature.•It tested whether restaurant outdoor signs influence customers' authenticity, restaurant status, and behavioral intention.•Display characters shape customers' perception of both Japanese and Taiwanese restaurants.•There is an interaction effect between display characters and text flow on customers' perception of Japanese restaurants.
Service is entering a 2.0 transformation where service no longer simply involves customer-employee interactions, but customer-technology-employee interactions. However, previous literature predominantly focuses on customers from a marketing approach, failing to incorporate employees' perspective in the face of technology-enabled changes in a service encounter. Building on Job demand-resource model, this study proposes mobile applications as a job resource and examines their impact on restaurant employees. This study conducts interviews and qualitative content analysis in Study 1 and further employs a 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design in Study 2. The results indicate that mobile orders may assist frontline employees to invest less cognitive and emotional effort, even in the condition of higher order complexity, leading to enhanced employee workplace well-being. This study newly introduces mobile apps as job resources and a potential way to improve employees' well-being at work. This study contributes both JD-R and the well-being literature with practical implications.
Taking a systematic literature review approach, this study examines research on service robot adoption from hospitality employees’ perspectives. The findings reveal the current status of service robot research on hospitality employees by summarizing publication channels, temporal distribution, classifications of publications, and countries of focus of existing studies. This study also identifies key theories and constructs applied in existing research. Building on these, a holistic conceptual model including key antecedents, mediators, outcomes, and moderators in terms of service robot adoption among hospitality employees is proposed. Furthermore, several key promising research directions have been identified and discussed in this study, which serve as important references for researchers interested in pursuing this topic. •This is a systematic review of robotic applications among hospitality employees.•A comprehensive picture of existing service robot studies is provided.•Key theories and models applied in existing studies are identified and discussed.•A conceptual model of service robot adoption from hospitality employees’ perspectives is proposed.•Several key promising directions for future research are recommended and explained.
The study proposed a dual-path model to examine the relationship between customer perceived hotel innovativeness and customers’ interactivity, building the signaling theory. The model was tested with hotel customers from China. The findings suggest that customers’ perceived hotel innovativeness not only has a positive and direct impact on their interactivity, it also indirectly contributes to customers’ interactivity via two indirect paths, one featuring a cognitive-economic motivation pathway and the other featuring an affective-motivation pathway.
Wellness value is a neglected research area within the field of wine tourism. The connection between wine and wellness in this context is just starting to appear. Using an inductive approach, we established two research questions (RQs) to guide this study. RQ1: Who is concerned with the health-related values of wine tourism? RQ2: What are the dimensions of health-related values in wine tourism? An in-depth and semi-structured interview was conducted. Informants aged 18-45 years, who have health awareness and suffer from wellness problems, are concerned with health-related values in wine tourism. Findings indicated six relevant dimensions: wine health attributes, knowledge, wine destination attributes, mental benefits, social and space needs, and wellness facilities. Further, this study proposes a conceptual framework linking wine-drinking behaviour and destination facilities and attributes with affective and cognitive beliefs that contribute to the overall value of wellness. This proposition shifts the traditional affective and cognitive approach towards values.
The popularization of smart phones has fostered the use of e-hailing apps, which can effectively reduce information asymmetry and provide ease and convenience during travel. Meanwhile, problems such as product homogeneity, slow operation speed, and interface confusion in travel apps also exist, leading to negative user experience. Building on the theory of planned behavior and technology acceptance model, this study examines multiple features of travel apps and their influence on university students' experience and travel intentions. Findings of the study suggest that, compared to the contents of travel apps, the ease of use seems to have a stronger influence on students' attitude, perceived behavioral control, and travel intention. The study contributes to the integration of the technology acceptance model and the theory of planned behavior in travel contexts. The findings also offer meaningful practical implications and recommendations on product and service design to relevant stakeholders willing to offer a better travel app user experience.
Cost-saving and sanitation considerations and the challenge of labor shortages have catalyzed the application of service robots in restaurants. Although service robots can perform multiple roles and functions, more research attention is needed in hospitality contexts on how different combinations of using robots and humans at different product/service layers may influence customers’ experiences and behavioral intentions. Building on the literature of product level theory and authenticity, this study empirically investigated this issue with data collected from 364 customers in China. The results show that the use of robots in core and facilitating product levels is less effective in improving consumers’ perceived service and brand authenticity. Consumers’ perceived service authenticity positively influences their brand authenticity and repurchase intention. Consumers’ perceived brand authenticity only positively affects their repurchase intention. Both theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in this paper. •Conceptualizes the use of service robots in multiple product levels, authenticity, and behavioral intentions.•Explores authentic hospitality experiences through the adoption of robotic employees.•Examines both customers’ dining and life domains of authenticity behavioral intentions.•Contributes to knowledge in product level theory between robotic employees and human employees.
This study explores Gen Z diners' perceptions of restaurant food waste generation and prevention, as well as their related moral decision-making. Drawing on the norm activation model and moral disengagement theory, a dual-route process model was developed to depict Gen Zers' the moral judgement for wasting food or not at restaurants. Six online focus groups with Gen Z diners in the United States were conducted and thematic analysis was applied. The findings of this study identified multiple underlying psychological mechanisms (e.g., moral obligation activation vs. moral disengagement) for explaining Gen Z diners' food waste behaviors. Situational factors, cultural factors, and restaurant-related factors all play a key role in the moral judgment process. The findings also revealed what Gen Z diners expect restaurants to do in order to address the food waste problem. This study provides valuable theoretical and managerial implications for tackling the food waste issue. The practical contribution of this study supports the restaurant industry to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 "Responsible Consumption and Production".
Building on a three-dimensional cultural competence model and treating customer–employee exchange as a vital form of social exchange, this study examines how different dimensions of cultural competence of service providers and their social investment impact event attendees' perceived destination experience and behavioral intentions in cross-cultural service encounters. Using data collected during a major sports event in Australia, the study found that cultural awareness and skills significantly influenced event attendees' perceived social investment and destination experience, while the role of cultural knowledge was not significant. Employees' cultural awareness and cultural skills had a stronger influence on perceived social investment among international tourists than they did on domestic tourists, but social investment had a stronger influence on domestic tourists' destination experience and revisit intention than it did on that of international tourists. The study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how cultural competence can shape customers’ destination experience. In addition, it introduced a cultural perspective to the social exchange process, contributing to the broadening and deepening of social exchange theory.
Building on Trait Activation Theory, this study explored whether, how, and why proactive personality and inclusive leaders can foster creativity at both individual and team levels. Using multi-wave data collected from hotel frontline employees and their supervisors, the study first found that at individual level, proactive personality could influence creativity via psychological safety, with inclusive leadership moderated the indirect relationship. The study further tested at team level, using lab experiment with hospitality majored students, the relationship between proactivity and creativity. The findings at the team level suggested that teams with highly proactive members exhibited higher levels of creativity than teams without highly proactive members. This research revealed the psychological mechanism of how proactivity contributes to individual creativity, and teams can benefit from having proactive members. •The study explored whether, how, and when proactive personality and inclusive leaders can foster team creativity.•The study employed a mix-method research design, examining individual level relationships and team level relationships.•At individual levle, psychological safety mediated the relationship between proactive personality and individual creativity.•At team level, teams with highly proactive members outperform teams without.
The sustainable development of tourism is essential for revitalizing historically and culturally significant ancient villages in China. Despite the longstanding recognition of the relationship between the spatial distribution of village destinations and their sustainable development, there is a dearth of longitudinal studies in village tourism. Using the geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis method and the exploratory spatial data analysis model, this study explored the spatial-temporal features of ancient village tourism over three important time nodes of rural tourism development (in Zhejiang, China), as well as the contributing factors at both the provincial and prefectural city levels. The findings of this study suggested a spatial inequality in the distribution of ancient villages, in terms of tourism development over time. In particular, tourism development was clustered in the southern region, with a noticeable spillover effect. Meanwhile, transportation, source markets, and physical topography are essential factors contributing to this spatial distribution. The study contributes to ancient village tourism development literature and offers meaningful, practical implications for regional governments and business investors.
Although work-family issues have received nascent attention in the hospitality industry due to their value to stakeholders (e.g., organizations, employees, and their families), the existing literature is not conclusive. And there is a need to seek ways of creating work-family support to help employees balance between work and family spheres. Taking a systematic review approach aided by structured synthesis and meta-analysis across disciplines, this research provides a comprehensive conceptual model of work-family support literature. The model includes formal work-family support policies, supporting theories, and outcomes on multiple levels, thus representing the relational mechanisms of key variables. By doing so, this study presents the current status of hospitality literature. It offers valuable future research avenues: increased academic attention to a need for more research on work-family support policy in the hospitality industry, a call for studies on childcare policies, and a comprehensive perspective of work-family issues by taking into account individual differences of employees, various countries as a research context, and far-reaching outcomes of work-family support policies. •This study assesses the current status of workplace work-family support research.•A systematic literature review on the topic was performed both within and outside of the hospitality discipline.•A conceptual framework on mechanism of key ariables and supporting theories was developed.•Meaningful research gaps in and future research directions are discussed.
This study proposes a moderated mediation model of customer-driven hotel employee service innovations. Building on social exchange and social identity theories, we suggest that positive customer-employee exchanges influence employees' service innovations via direct and indirect paths. While the reciprocal nature of social exchanges was used to explain the direct path from customer-employee exchange to employees' service innovation, social identity theory was used to explain the indirect path whereby customers' inputs shape employees' creative role identities, thus fostering innovation behaviors. The study further tests how organization openness serves as a boundary condition, and the results support the moderating role of organization openness, suggesting that while positive customer-employee exchanges help shape employees' self-identification (as being creative) and trigger employees' service innovation, an open organization encourages employees to actively engage in service innovations.
China has become Australia’s most important source market and there are growing number of visitors participated in wine tourism. Using in-depth interviews, the study looked into Chinese tourists’ preferences, motivations and barriers to participate in wineries tours in Australia. The study enriched to literature on wine tourism. It offered practical implications for wineries and destinations to better understand and accommodate Chinese wine tourists’ needs and preferences.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to critically reflect on visually impaired customers' technology assistance needs and the perceptions of existing technologies' performance in the contexts of hospitality and tourism. Design/methodology/approachFollowing a qualitative approach, this study used in-depth semistructured interviews with 19 participants with visual impairments. FindingsPositive and negative sides of technology-assisted experiences in the hotel, restaurant, and travel domains were summarized, and room for improvement was discussed to enhance the quality of life and travel experience of visually impaired customers. Practical implicationsFindings from this study offer actionable implications and future directions to technicians and managers to make hospitality and travel experiences more inclusive. Originality/valueThis timely reflection addresses a critical situation by offering original ideas and calling for more discussion of under-represented groups with visual impairments. Shi (Tracy) Xu can be contacted at: s.xu@surrey.ac.uk.
(2023) critically reflect on diversity and inclusion research in the hospitality and tourism literature by integrating two separate perspectives: human resources and customer behavior. The second study recruits 116 hospitality employees to complete a two-wave time-lagged survey on abusive supervision and gender-leadership bias, followed by questions on external attribution and insubordination two weeks later. The findings reveal three main themes and 10 subthemes related to women’s professional identity, highlighting the importance of work environment, social evaluation, perception of work and demonstrating professional competence. The authors argue that to truly promote diversity, the events industry must acknowledge the role of racial power dynamics and implement interventions to address these issues.
An organization that highlights the necessity to promote ethnic diversity will not only meet the demands of the market for a diverse customer base in a global hospitality setting but will also benefit the employees of an organization, with staff more likely to present higher levels of cultural competency, work motivation, and organizational commitment. Taking a systematic literature review approach, this chapter discusses the concepts of diversity and ethnic diversity and examines the importance of diversity management and ethnic diversity. More importantly, it illustrates a detailed description of status, conceptual frameworks, related theories, measurement scales, methods, antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences among common variables, drawing upon a comparison with critical literature on ethnic diversity in the hospitality field. The discussion provides meaningful contexts and broadens and deepens the scope of diversity-related theories. The study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how ethnic diversity can provide more advantages than it does challenges. In addition, it brings a cultural perspective to the common identity process, contributing to the broadening and deepening of social identity theory.
This paper aims to provide a critical reflection on diversity and inclusion research from the hospitality and tourism literature. Design/methodology/approach Through conducting a critical reflection, this paper used a thematic analysis focused on integrating the scholarly literature that has developed separately: one focusing on the human resources perspective and another concentrating on customer behavior. This critical reflection bridges the gap between these two perspectives. Findings The authors develop and offer a research agenda for future research drawing from three areas ripe for future research: human resources management, diversity resistance and marketing. They focus on theory-driven research that has practical applications to make hospitality and tourism more inclusive for both the workforce and consumers. Practical implications Meaningful research must be translated into practice, and by addressing these research gaps, organizations can gain insights into diverse worker and customer experiences and create more effective diversity initiatives. Originality/value The current literature often lacks an integrated approach that bridges the gap between the two reviewed perspectives: the human resources management and marketing perspectives. A holistic understanding of diversity and inclusion is vital, as it recognizes the interconnectedness between employees and customers within the context of the hospitality and tourism sector is important for several reasons.
The growing popularity of robot-related research contexts in hospitality and tourism calls for in-depth analysis of how different product/service designs strategies integrating robots may influence customers' experiences. Employing a scenario-based 2 × 2 × 2 experimental research design, this study assesses service robots applied at three different product/service levels (i.e., core, facilitating, and augmented). From surveying 378 customers of mid-priced casual restaurants and 312 tourists of a mid-priced theme park restaurant, findings of the study suggest that using robots at all three product/service levels lead to a more positive educational experience but not entertainment experience. The study further extends the literature by positioning dining at a robotic restaurant as an important occasion to showcase the latest technologies to customers. By providing memorable entertainment and educational experiences, customers’ technology readiness could be enhanced, making them more willing to try new technologies. Such a focus brings in unique contributions both in literature and practice.
Hospitality management research pays much attention to how work-related factors affect employees’ extra-role behaviors, while the potential role of work-family factors seems to be neglected. Using a sample of employees and their direct supervisors from several five-star hotels in China, a three-wave survey study was conducted to explore the effects of family motivation on employees' organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and voice behaviors, as well as to clarify the underlying mechanisms. The results show that family motivation stimulates employees to see their jobs as a means to obtain financial rewards to support their families (i.e., job instrumentality) and then to be more concerned about their jobs’ security. Further, job security concern would enhance employees’ impression management motives, leading to more OCBs toward different targets while inhibiting voice behaviors. Implications for family motivation and extra-role behaviors research and practice are discussed.
Purpose Drawing on person–environment fit theory, this study aims to investigate how the relationships between service task types (i.e. utilitarian and hedonic service tasks) and perceived authenticity (i.e. service and brand authenticity) differ under different conditions of service providers (human employee vs service robot). This study further examines whether customers’ stereotypes toward service robots (competence vs warmth) moderate the relationship between service types and perceived authenticity. Design/methodology/approach Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, Study 1 examines a casual restaurant, whereas Study 2 assesses a theme park restaurant. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS are used to analyze the data. Findings Both studies reveal that human service providers in hedonic services positively affect service and brand authenticity more than robotic employees. Additionally, the robot competence stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services, service and brand authenticity, whereas the robot warmth stereotype moderates the relationship between hedonic services and brand authenticity in Study 2. Practical implications Restaurant managers need to understand which functions and types of service outlets are best suited for service robots in different service contexts. Robot–environment fit should be considered when developers design and managers select robots for their restaurants. Originality/value This study blazes a new theoretical trail of service robot research to systematically propose customer experiences with different service types by drawing upon person–environment fit theory and examining the moderating role of customers’ stereotypes toward service robots.
Building on Agency Theory and Job Characteristics Theory, this study examines how the autonomy of work interacts with individual proactivity and jointly enhances hotel frontline employees’ self-affirmation and performance. Using a longitudinal research design of three-wave data collection, the findings of this study suggested that the autonomy of work enhances employees’ perceived self-efficacy and sense of personal control. Although the perceived sense of control did not lead to employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), self-efficacy can facilitate employees’ OCBs directed toward both internal and external customers. In addition, the autonomy of work’s influence on employees’ perceived self-efficacy and sense of control was stronger among employees with relatively proactive personalities. The study adds empirical evidence to Agency Theory and Job Characteristics Theory and supports the importance of autonomy at the workplace as a necessary factor to encourage employees’ OCBs. •This study examines how autonomy of work and individual proactivity jointly enhances hotel frontline employees’ self-affirmation and performance.•We found autonomy of work enhances individual employees perceived self-efficacy and sense of personal control.•Self-efficacy can facilitate employees’ OCBs directed toward both internal and external customers.•The autonomy of work’s moderation effects was stronger among employees with relatively proactive personalities.
Based on trial-and-error learning theory, this study proposes an OCB-C (Organizational Citizenship Behavior towardcustomers)-driven social learning mechanism for the formation of other two types of OCB (OCB-O toward organizationsand OCB-I toward coworkers). In this process, we propose that each of the employee empowerment factors play vitaltrial-and-error opportunities for employees to perform OCB-C, offering employees chances to learn from errors andgain positive affect. A total of 422 respondents were collected from employees at upscale hotels. We found that twoempowerment factors (i.e., work competency and employee impact) supported OCB-C. Engaging in OCB-C not only ledto the increase of learning from errors and positive affect, but also the increase of OCB-O and OCB-I. In addition, whilelearning from errors assisted employees to exercise OCB-O and OCB-I, positive affect helped employees to contributeOCB-O.