International Journal of Hospitality Management最新文献

The purpose of this study is to lay the foundations for measuring customer performance in the outdoor hospitality sector and encourage relevant internal benchmarking through an adapted balanced scorecard. The literature on balanced scorecard and customer performance is classified by identifying their antecedents in the context of outdoor hospitality management. Using an inductive approach, the study employs a lexicometric analysis to identify the main categories of customer satisfaction in a well-known European camping chain. In addition, this research proposes a methodological building block adapted for camping business that integrates multiple classes and attributes into the customer perspective of the BSC model addressing the current over-simplification of this element of the model. This study highlights the importance of integrating customer feedback into a performance measurement system and provides a practical tool for managers to apply and adapt customer comments into a campsite BSC system.

As guests’ norms and behaviours are rapidly evolving in the digital world, explicitly problematizing commensality, a term designating the social aspects of eating with others, is needed in hospitality contexts. This article introduces the "commensal scene" concept, applying Social presence theory to redefine commensality in dining settings amidst digital-age transformations. Challenging traditional views of physical co-presence, it explores the multi-spatial, multi-levelled dynamics of being 'with others' in both physical and digital contexts. The model allows for a deeper understanding of how digital media reshapes presence beyond mere spatial factors. It highlights the evolving nature of guest behaviours and norms, focusing on the interplay between different communication mediums and responsive social spaces. This innovative approach offers new insights into emerging commensal practices, proposing a framework for designing relevant dining experiences in a digitally-influenced world.

The hospitality industry has been increasingly adopting digitalization programs to improve the information technology (IT)-enabled productivity of their employees. However, due to limited resources and capabilities, small and medium-sized hotel enterprises (SMHEs) often resort to cost-effective digital technologies, resulting in an imperfect fit between IT and the organization. As a result, productivity falls short of expectations, posing a significant challenge for enterprises dealing with the resource constraints of implementing digital technologies. To address this issue, this study found a substitution effect between IT identity and the organizational fit of IT (OFI) in influencing IT-enabled productivity through a mixed-methods approach. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study investigates the impact of brand and reputational differences on consumer preferences and the effect of these differences on hotel pricing decisions in response to competitors’ price promotions. Accordingly, using reputational and brand difference models, the paper explores how hotels should respond to competitor-driven price promotions. Key findings are as follows. It is not advantageous for hotels to match a competitor’s price promotion instinctively. Moreover, the hotel’s price response is symmetrical in the reputational difference model, but asymmetrical in the brand difference model. Finally, when in determining their price response, hotels should consider the magnitude of their competitors’ price promotions, the number of consumers exclusively attentive to price fluctuations, and variations in consumer preferences for different hotels.

African American restaurateurs’ number one challenge is limited access to capital, and crowdfunding can be an alternative financing vehicle. However, funding success of African American restaurateurs is significantly lower than that of Caucasian counterparts. To address the gap, the current study examined whether the linguistic styles of African American restaurateurs impact their crowdfunding success. Based on the symbolic interaction framework and 2907 restaurant crowdfunding projects from Kickstarter.com, we found that African American restaurateurs’ project descriptions show distinctive linguistic styles. African Americans use a considerably fewer articles (i.e., “a, “an,” and “the”) and a substantially higher number of religious terms than their Caucasian counterparts. The usage of religious words and negations (e.g., the usage of “none” or “never” in place of “any” or “ever”) are also found to affect fundraising success negatively. This study’s findings help African Americans to compose more effective project narratives to enhance their ability to obtain financing.

This study examines the effect of national economic development (NED) on the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and firm performance. While ESG principles are embraced collectively by firms and nations, the influence and benefits of implementing ESG practices may vary across countries and firms operating within them. Drawing on the market-orientated perspective and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, we attempt to fill the gap within the global hospitality context by examining NED as a country-level boundary condition. With a sample of 1383 observations of global hospitality firms from 2002 to 2022, the findings suggest that the more economically developed a country is, the more firms can generate firm performance by engaging in sustainability performances. Moreover, it suggests the varying effects of individual ESG factors on firm performance regarding their short- and long-term effects. The study findings have important implications, providing valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

Effective communication with customers is a key factor in achieving positive reactions, especially in text-based chatbots where no human interaction is involved. This study investigates how the use of humor and informal language by chatbots affects service recovery satisfaction (SRS) following service failures, with a focus on the moderating role of brand equity and service failure severity. Results from the two scenario-based experiments suggest that a match between humor and informal language can increase SRS, particularly for low-equity brands and low severity failures. The findings provide practical implications for companies using chatbots for customer service and suggest incorporating humor and informal language into their messaging when addressing service failures.

Despite recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) in hospitality, little is known about its unintended consequences on consumers’ privacy concerns. Through an empirical package combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, this research reveals that framing AI as “powerful” enhances privacy concerns (Studies 1–5) by reducing AI-control over data (Study 3). Notably, such effects are reduced in consumer-human agent interactions and increased in consumer-AI ones (Study 4). Finally, interventions providing privacy guarantees can reduce privacy concerns stemming from powerful artificial agents and enhance willingness to disclose data (Study 5). Our findings highlight the unique issues arising from human-AI interactions when using powerful AI and their influence on consumers’ privacy concerns and provide practical implications for hospitality managers.

Neolocalism as a conscious effort to actively seek out a sense of place with local communities, has been growing rapidly among craft breweries’ customers in recent years. Oftentimes served as a marketing strategy, neolocalism also aids in local communities’ sustainable development. However, it is unclear what constitutes “local” in craft brewery settings, though in this fast-growing industry, neolocalism has been implemented extensively to attract visitors. So far, assessments of neolocalism have been predominantly conceptual and qualitative, with an empirically validated neolocalism measurement scale unavailable. Taking a mixed-methods approach, this study addressed this gap and developed and validated a neolocalism scale with a two-factor structure (sense of belonging and local roots) to understand what experience elements project the sense of “local” for brewery visitors. This study provides practical implications for craft brewery marketing and visitor experience management.

The private chef dining experienscape is a correct mixture of pedantry and love towards the food, orchestrated by the considerable skills of the modern chef. This study explores consumers’ intentions towards private chef dining experience as a contemporary model of the sharing economy using a Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm. The data was collected from various respondents residing in several regions in Asia, Europe, and the USA (n = 394). The private chef dining experiences are a way for consumers to express and even transcend themselves to the infinite possibilities of the shared economy. Furthermore, our study unearths the boundary conditions (moderating effect) of Western and Eastern consumer cultures impact on relationships between constructs within S-O-R framework. This study helps practitioners to re-evaluate their business strategy and make necessary adjustments to deliver dining experience that is built on private chefs’ joyous creativity that shines through the modern lens of the sharing economy.