International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management最新文献

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to point out that most research published in hospitality and tourism industry journals is of no value to the visitor industries or society. It argues that a primary reason is the academic practice of evaluating the utility of its research with the inappropriate metrics of journal impact factors and citation counts. To become relevant, academic leaders must refocus evaluation of the field’s research on its meaningful impacts on society.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviews the literature that differentiates the constructs of research quality and research impact and identifies their limitations.

Findings

The contention that either journal impact factors or citation counts adequately measure the usefulness of research is challenged. It is suggested that reliance on them has resulted in an academic self-serving “echo chamber.” The author argues the field should refocus away from the echo chamber to shift the primary evaluation of research to societal impact. Illustrations are offered from the author’s recent experiences that illustrate the fallacy of confusing citation counts with impact. The challenges of shifting to an impact assessment from the existing system are acknowledged, and a way forward is proposed.

Research limitations/implications

Continuing to embrace beguiling measures that are invested with a conventional, but false, aura of truth inevitably means the field’s scholarship will continue to be ignored.

Originality/value

An analytical critique of the prevailing metrics is undertaken, and a five-step process to shift the emphasis to societal impact is offered.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how realistic job previews can mitigate the negative relationship between perceived leader behavioral integrity and employees’ perceptions of psychological contract breach.

Design/methodology/approach

A between-subjects field experiment was conducted in the hotel industry. Five waves of data were collected from 104 newcomers over a four-month period.

Findings

The results indicated that perceiving leader behavioral integrity reduces newcomer psychological contract breach, turnover intention and increases job performance. The intervention of realistic job previews effectively mitigated the negative relationship between behavioral integrity and psychological contract breach when leader–member value congruence was low.

Practical implications

The findings of this study offer actionable strategies for hotel professionals to improve employment outcomes, particularly during the pre-entry phase and the early socialization process of newcomers.

Originality/value

By integrating social exchange theory and expectancy theory within a framework of employees’ psychological contract breach, this study reveals the positive effects of realistic job previews on creating a positive work experience of newcomers.

Purpose

This study aims to explore how witnessing a hospitality employee mistreating a customer impacts observers’ revenge-seeking behavior, directed not only at the offending employee but also at innocent employees.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducts four online experiments to test the proposed relationships involving 881 UK adults.

Findings

Observing hospitality employees mistreating customers prompts observers to view the guilty employee as harmful, triggering revenge-seeking behavior. This perception of harmfulness also extends to innocent employees, leading observers to seek revenge against them. However, empowering fellow customers during the recovery process reduces observers’ intent to seek revenge against both guilty and innocent employees. In addition, the results reveal the black sheep effect, where shared group membership between the observing customer and the guilty employee results in harsher punishment for the latter, particularly when the mistreatment targets an out-group customer.

Practical implications

The findings offer practical guidance for hospitality companies on how observers’ perceptions of employees can reshape service evaluations and influence restorative approaches. Service recovery efforts should extend beyond directly affected customers to include those who witnessed the incident.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explain how observers appraise the mistreatment of fellow customers and how this influences their perceptions and revenge-seeking behavior toward both guilty and innocent employees.

Purpose

This paper aims to put forth the proposition that the concept of hospitality is broader than what is often acknowledged in academic research. Specifically, this paper establishes hospitality as a fundamental human virtue. Accordingly, all people are proposed to exhibit daily actions associated with this virtue – albeit to varying degrees. A conceptual and operational definition of hospitality virtue is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

Churchill’s (1979) construct development process is used to operationalize the hospitality virtue construct. Item generation, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to establish an operational definition for the construct.

Findings

The results indicate that hospitality virtue is a second-order construct consisting of three dimensions: empathy, execution and embrace. This specification is referred to as the E³ hospitality virtue scale. As evidence of the nomological validity of this scale, the construct is demonstrated to have a positive impact on human flourishing.

Research limitations/implications

To date, the vast majority of hospitality research has been conducted at the industry level. This research has the potential to break down the industry barriers that have constrained the broader impact of hospitality research and practice at the human and societal levels.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically consider hospitality not as an industry-level phenomenon, but as a fundamental part of the human condition. While there is evidence for this idea throughout the history of philosophy, this paper is the first to lend an operational structure to this concept.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate and compare the factors that affect Millennials and Generation Z (Gen Z) hotel guests’ intention to adopt cryptocurrency payments (CPs) when booking a hotel.

Design/methodology/approach

A sequential mixed-methods approach was used. Study 1 included 20 semi-structured interviews. The qualitative findings subsequently informed the design of a quantitative survey in Study 2, conducted with 604 participants. Additionally, the authors examined the moderating effect of generational differences.

Findings

Through a thematic analysis, Study 1 identified six predetermined factors from the innovation diffusion theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology – trialability, observability, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and social influence – and two additional elements – personal innovativeness and perceived risk. Study 2 quantitatively examined that all eight factors were significant predictors of intention to adopt CPs among Millennials and Gen Z hotel guests. Furthermore, the findings from the comparative analysis based on the generational cohort theory indicated that generational differences moderated the relationships among performance expectancy, effort expectancy and personal innovativeness and adoption intention.

Practical implications

The results of this study offer actionable insights for hotel operators and policymakers aiming to expedite CP adoption among Millennials and Gen Z hotel guests.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first studies to comprehensively identify the determinants and their significance differences in Millennials and Gen Z hotel guests’ intentions to adopt CPs via a sequential mixed-methods approach.

Purpose

Based on the advice response theory perspective, this study aims to investigate the effects of human managers and artificial intelligence (AI) systems on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems in the hospitality industry. It examined the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems.

Design/methodology/approach

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted (Nexperiment 1 = 499 and Nexperiment 2 = 300). Experiment 1 compared the effects of different advisor types (human managers vs AI systems) on employees’ aversion to AI systems. Experiment 2 investigated the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility).

Findings

The results showed employees tended to prioritize advice from human managers over output from AI systems. Moreover, advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) played mediating roles in the relationship between advisor type characteristics and employees’ aversion to AI systems.

Practical implications

These findings contribute to the understanding of AI system aversion and provide theoretical insights into management practices involving customer-contact employees who interact with AI technology in the hospitality industry.

Originality/value

The primary contribution of this study is that it enriches the literature on employee aversion to AI systems by exploring the dual mediators (advice content characteristics and advice delivery) through which advisor type characteristics affect AI system aversion.

Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly involved in idea generation and production processes. To understand AI’s pivotal roles in the back-of-house operations of restaurants, this study aims to examine the effects of AI involvement in recipe creation and food production on consumers’ willingness to order food.

Design/methodology/approach

We conduct three experiments in the context of casual dining restaurants. The authors examine the main effect of AI involvement in recipe creation and food production on the willingness to order food in a hypothetical restaurant (Study 1) and a real restaurant (Study 2). In addition, the authors also investigate the mediating role of uniqueness neglect. The authors explore whether the negative effect of AI involvement in recipe creation is attenuated in the presence of cues of uniqueness consideration (Study 3).

Findings

We demonstrate that AI involvement in food production does not elicit negative responses to a menu but that consumers show unfavorable responses when AI is involved in recipe creation. The authors also identify the mediating role of uniqueness neglect. Furthermore, the authors reveal a way to mitigate the negative perceptions of AI involvement in tasks requiring intuition and instinctive decision-making (i.e. recipe creation) by incorporating cues that emphasize uniqueness considerations.

Originality/value

We deliver causal evidence for the significant impacts of AI involvement in recipe creation and food production, using multiple experimental designs involving both hypothetical and real restaurants. The findings, thus, can tackle an ongoing challenge in the tourism and hospitality industry – the deficit of human resources in back-of-house operations.

Purpose

Although the metaverse has been widely adopted in developed countries, there has not been any research investigating the implantation of this highly transformative technology in emerging economies and disadvantaged regions, such as Tunisia. This paper aims to critically explore the factors influencing the adoption of metaverse for cultural heritage experience and discusses how will it disrupt the future of the hospitality industry.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 44 semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Tunisian hospitality industry who provided their expert opinions during in-depth interviews. The interviews were then analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings

The findings indicate that the metaverse presents benefits, success factors and challenges for offering cultural heritage experiences in the hospitality industry and that its adoption in poor and less developed countries is nuanced.

Practical implications

The findings of the study help hospitality managers identify opportunities and challenges in metaverse, fostering an understanding of the cultural environment and its socio-economic development as key requirements to enhance visitor experience via metaverse.

Social implications

Leveraging the metaverse for cultural enrichment can be a powerful tool for the socio-economic development of underprivileged regions, provided that it is implemented inclusively to include underprivileged labour, whose work in the industry lies on the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Originality/value

This paper further explains the impacts of metaverse on cultural heritage experience provided in the hospitality industry rooted in the previous literature relating to technology-enhanced experience.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the role of emoji and the moderating effects of recycling messages in encouraging customers’ attitudes toward recycling and their recycling intentions via processing fluency.

Design/methodology/approach

Two 2 × 2 between-subject experiments are conducted to investigate the role of emojis, the moderating role of recycling messages and the mediating role of processing fluency on customers’ recycling experiences.

Findings

Study 1 identifies that customers’ attitudes toward recycling are enhanced when a positive emoji is used with a promotion-focused message, compared to a prevention-focused message. Study 2 finds that customers’ attitudes and recycling intentions are enhanced when a positive emoji is used with an upcycling message, compared to a recycling message. Both Study 1 and Study 2 identify the mediating role of processing fluency.

Practical implications

Results suggest strategically using emojis and various recycling messages to enhance customers’ recycling experience.

Originality/value

This study investigates the role of emojis as an effective recycling communication strategy.

Purpose

This paper aimed to propose a research model that investigated job satisfaction (JSAT) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) as the serial mediators linking intercultural sensitivity (IS) to service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (SOCB). It also explored sociocultural adaptation (SA) as a moderator of the influence of IS on JSAT.

Design/methodology/approach

Data gathered from Korean cabin attendants employed at Middle Eastern airlines were utilized to gauge the aforementioned relationships via structural equation modeling.

Findings

Cabin attendants high on IS were satisfied with their jobs and therefore exhibited affective commitment to their airline company. Such employees in turn displayed heightened SOCB. SA strengthened the positive influence of IS on JSAT.

Practical implications

The presence of interactive training, scenario-based simulations and cross-cultural communication exercises would enable cabin attendants to manage passengers with different cultural background successfully.

Originality/value

This empirical piece contributes to the pertinent literature by investigating the mechanisms underlying the link between IS and organizationally valued behavioral outcomes such as SOCB. It also enhances the understanding about SA which increases the positive impact of IS on JSAT.