Scholarly Works, Hospitality and Tourism Management
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- Multi-level differentiation of short-term rental properties: A deep learning-based analysis of aesthetic designZhang, Huihui; Zach, Florian J.; Xiang, Zheng (Elsevier, 2023)This study aims to test the effects of differentiation on short-term rental performance along the dimension of aesthetic design. Online platforms display listing cover photos as search results, thus making aesthetic design a key element of differentiation. We hypothesize opposite impacts in two geographical scopes, local- and city-level, which answers an important question in differentiation literature of whom to compare to. Based on the assumption that localized competition has asymmetric influences, we introduce competition intensity as moderator. Hypotheses are tested with 96,196 listings from April 2021 to March 2022 in the Texas Airbnb market. We quantify aesthetic design by probability distribution scores over four design styles predicted by a pre-trained machine learning model. This study identifies differentiation benefits at local-level but discounts at city-level. Furthermore, it shows market intensity strengthens benefits and mitigates discounts regardless of the geographic scope. Finally, implications for aesthetic design as a strategic tool are discussed.
- Green and non-green outcomes of green human resource management (GHRM) in the tourism contextTandon, Anushree; Dhir, Amandeep; Madan, Poornima; Srivastava, Shalini; Nicolau, Juan Luis (Elsevier, 2023-10)Globally, organizational espousal of green and sustainable operations has been critically facilitated by green human resource management (GHRM) initiatives, especially in the tourism and hospitality sector. This research is an effort to examine the nuances of employees' responses to GHRM and contribute to this field by examining how narcissism, an individual trait and boundary condition, influences GHRM's relationship with employees' green (voluntary and task-related practices) and non-green outcomes (task performance and job satisfaction). Our hypotheses, grounded in social identity and trait activation theories, were tested with data obtained through a time-lagged two-wave survey of 219 UK-based hotel employees via the Prolific Academic platform. Analysis revealed significant associations between GHRM and all employee outcomes. Narcissism was shown to have a significant moderating effect on GHRM's associations with both green and non-green (task performance) behaviors. Our results imply important understandings for the advancement of theoretical knowledge and practical implementation of GHRM.
- Resident perceptions and responses to tourism: individual vs community level impactsSegota, Tina; Mihalic, Tanja; Perdue, Richard R. (Routledge, 2022-11)This paper reviews resident tourism attitude research through the lens of the individual- and community-level perceived impacts of and responses to tourism. It explores how perceived impacts of tourism and responses to tourism development have been conceptualised and measured in the existing resident attitudes models published between 1990 and 2020. Three categories of variables were identified and used: antecedent variables, tourism impact variables, and dependent variables. The latter three categories are used to discuss the research topic from the lenses of improvements in measurement instruments. Finally, the paper suggests rethinking the overall conceptualisation of residents' perceptions of and reactions to tourism - it proposes future research directions to distinguish between individual-level and community-level effects and reactions.
- Social and Personal Norms in Shaping Customers' Environmentally Sustainable Behavior in Restaurants' Social Media CommunitiesJang, Yoon-Jung; Kim, Eojina (MDPI, 2023-04-09)This study aimed to investigate how personal and social norms affect customer engagement with social media that promote environmentally sustainable behaviors. A self-administered survey of potential participants was conducted. Hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis. The findings confirmed the strong positive effect of social norms on customer engagement; this engagement had a significant influence on brand commitment and sustainable behavior. The moderating roles of social rewards were indicated by significantly greater effects of social norms on customer engagement in the high social reward group.
- Evolving Landscape of Partnerships of U.S. Destination Marketing Websites: External Hyperlinks From 1999 to 2018Zach, Florian J.; Baggio, Rodolfo; Xiang, Zheng (SAGE Publications, 2023-03-01)Hyperlinks to external websites are a reflection of partnerships of destination marketing organizations (DMOs). This longitudinal study investigates the external hyperlinks placed on the home page of U.S. state tourism websites from 1999 to 2018. Our analysis shows that the landscape of DMO partnerships underwent considerable growth; however, the growth was distributed unevenly among categories of partners, particularly as social media became increasingly dominant. State DMOs appeared to be changing their external partnerships quite often, while their strategy was likely influenced by technological innovation, policy, and destination-specific issues. Based on these findings, the authors discuss the study implications and provide suggestions for future research.
- Design standardization by Airbnb multi-unit hosts: Professionalization in the sharing economyZhang, Huihui; Zach, Florian J.; Xiang, Zheng (Elsevier, 2023-01-01)Increased professionalism in the short-term rental market has enabled multi-unit hosts to replicate design features across their listings to increase efficiency; however, this standardization represents a huge risk caused by decreased flexibility. We identify the impacts of functional and aesthetic design standardization on guest experience and satisfaction using Airbnb as a case study. The findings show that design standardization impacts guest experience and satisfaction asymmetrically. The results provide implications for tourism place design by articulating the structural relationships of standardized design on guest experiences within the typically unstandardized home-sharing market. This study contributes to design literature by studying design from a strategic level and adds knowledge to standardization literature by testing customer-side outcomes within a micro-entrepreneurship context.
- Predicting Conversion Rates in Online Hotel Bookings with Customer ReviewsTang, Liang; Wang, Xi; Kim, Eojina (MDPI, 2022-09-30)E-commerce in the hospitality and tourism field has already ranked No. 2 among all online shopping categories worldwide. However, customers’ visits to a hotel booking website cannot guarantee the generation of sales, while the conversion rate is regarded as the indicator that effectively assesses the e-commerce website performance. This study aimed to investigate the influential factors of conversion rates from both affective content and the communication style of customer’s online reviews. The affective content was evaluated with eight emotional dimensions (i.e., joy, sadness, anger, fear, trust, disgust, anticipation, and surprise) in Plutchik’s emotion wheel, and the communication style perspective was assessed with linguistic style matching (LSM). In total, 111,926 customer reviews from 641 hotels in five cities in the U.S. were collected for the analysis. Results indicated that LSM and four emotions have significant impacts on hotel conversion rates. This research contributes to the knowledge body of customers’ conversion behaviors on hotel booking websites and offers pertinent practical implications.
- Dual-Branded Hotels: Resource-based entry strategies in agglomerated marketsBianco, Simone; Singal, Manisha; Zach, Florian J.; Nicolau, Juan Luis (Elsevier, 2023-04)Despite the growing importance of dual-branded hotels, research on this trend is lacking. This study investigates the effect of resource-based entry strategies for dual-branded hotels vis-à-vis incumbent market competition on performance. Using a hierarchical linear model, we found that best performance is achieved by dual-branded hotels that pursue a diversification strategy by entering the market with one brand above and one brand below the mode class of the market. Dual-branded hotels can thus achieve competitive advantage by exploiting superior financial resources and tourism destinations are able to gain monetary advantage from resources employed by dual-branded hotels. This study extends current research on dual-branded hotels by investigating entry strategies and contributes to the resource-based view literature by investigating dual-brands’ resource exploitation and resource spillovers in agglomerated markets.
- A look into the crystal ball of ski destination development - The role of Alpine Summer ParksHapp, Elisabeth; Seidl, Maximilian; Zach, Florian J.; Schnitzer, Martin (Elsevier, 2022-09-21)Recently, winter tourism destinations have developed summer attractions as climate change threatens their success. Increasing the number of summer attractions in ski resorts could also be part of the operators’ strategy to adapt to shorter winter and longer summer seasons. Scholarly literature on this evolution is currently limited. This research note aims to close this research gap: first, by examining the relevance of summer tourism at ski resorts and for ski-resort operators; second, by investigating reasons for opening summer attractions and third, by analyzing the impact of summer attractions on climate-induced issues. Two focus groups and one association study were conducted among ski-resort operators to assess why ski resorts invest in summer attractions, specifically Alpine summer parks [ASP] that are branded separately but are typically located in the ski resort. The results show that these attractions are designed to increase visitor numbers in summer and are thus considered an essential element of the summer season. At the same time, while the summer season per se is (still) given little importance, its future potential was emphasized by all respondents. ASPs are seen as part of the future, but not as the future. While climate change was never mentioned in the focus groups, the results of the association study show that climate-induced issues are recognized as a critical challenge for ski-resort operators.
- Investigating the emergence of third-party online food delivery in the U.S. restaurant industry: A grounded theory approachTraynor, Mark; Bernard, Shaniel; Moreo, Andrew; O’Neill, Sorcha (Elsevier, 2022-10)This qualitative study explores the emergence of Third-Party Online Food Delivery (TPOFD) in the US restaurant industry. The study used grounded theory to obtain insight into the perspective of restaurant operators regarding TPOFD adoption through interviews with seventeen restaurant managers and owners who use and do not use TPOFD in their businesses. The results identified several emergent themes relating to motivations, experienced outcomes, and future strategies for adopting TPOFD. These findings were used to propose a conceptual model that describes the adoption of TPOFD in the restaurant industry. The data shows that while the tremendous consumer demand for TPOFD is a motivation factor to adopt TPOFD, many restaurants are deterred by various adverse outcomes, most notably, the high commission and service fees paid to TPOFD aggregators. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail.
- Early and late-stage startup funding in hospitality: Effects on incumbents' market valueBianco, Simone; Zach, Florian J.; Liu, Anyu (Elsevier, 2022-07)This study investigates the change in investors’ awareness of startups following received funding rounds. We specifically investigate the stock market assessing startups as potential new entrants in an industry that overlooked the disruptor Airbnb to the point where consumers started to embrace the new products, thus costing incumbents market share. This study contributes to the literature on competitive dynamics by investigating resource similarity and market commonality as potential influencer of investors’ awareness. Furthermore, this study offers a new contextualization for studies connecting risk assessment and market value and contributes to the tourism and hospitality literature by investigating investors’ awareness of potential new market entrants. Finally, this study provides managerial insights as it highlights what high-level decision makers can learn from the stock markets’ reactions to startup funding as a means of anticipating possible changes in the competitive environment.
- Explaining the willingness of consumers to bring their own reusable coffee cups under the condition of monetary incentivesNicolau, Juan Luis; Anna Stadlthanner, Katja; Andreu, Luisa; Font, Xavier (Elsevier, 2022-05)An increasing number of hospitality firms attempt to foster sustainable practices among their customers. Amongst these, incentives for customers to bring their own reusable products stand out. In this study, we first analyse whether consumers are willing to bring a reusable coffee cup (RCC) under the condition of a monetary incentive (qualitative decision) and the minimum discount required for individuals to be willing to use an RCC (quantitative decision). Second, we analyse the explanatory factors impacting these two decisions. Several factors are proposed to explain an individual's willingness to bring an RCC including their environmental knowledge and involvement, and personal restrictions for using an RCC. An empirical application, conducted on 1,371 individuals using a Heckit model, allows us to conduct a joint modelling and provide a novel methodological contribution to the study of the willingness, and barriers, of individuals towards the use of RCCs in the coffee shop industry.
- Disruptor Recognition and Market Value of Incumbent Firms: Airbnb and the Lodging IndustryBianco, Simone; Zach, Florian J.; Singal, Manisha (Sage, 2022-04-03)Although Airbnb debuted in 2008, incumbent lodging firms did not fully recognize it as a legitimate competitor for several years. However, as Airbnb made inroads into the accommodation business, hotel firms and their investors started to take notice and to legitimize its disruptive role. In this paper, we investigate investors’ awareness of the disruptor Airbnb as a competitor of incumbent lodging firms. Specifically, we assess the effect of awareness on incumbent hotel management and hotel property owner firms. Employing an event study methodology, our analysis finds that Airbnb performance milestones negatively affect incumbents’ market value. This research contributes to our understanding of the role played by investors and financial analysts in shaping competitive markets by legitimizing an industry disruptor and by spurring competitive action among incumbent firms.
- Big Data Analytics and Hotel Guest Experience: A Critical Analysis of the LiteratureZarezadeh, Zohreh; Rastegar, Raymond; Xiang, Zheng (2022)Purpose: Guest experience and satisfaction have been central constructs in the hospitality management literature for decades. In recent years, the use of big data as an increasing trending practice in hospitality research has been characterised as a modern approach which offers valuable insights into understanding and enhancing guest experience and satisfaction. Recognising such potential, both researchers and practitioners need to better understand big data’s application and contribution in the hospitality landscape. This paper critically reviews and synthesizes the literature to shed light on trends and extant patterns in the application of big data in hospitality, particularly in research focusing on hotel guest experience and satisfaction. Design/Methodology/approach: This research is based on a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Metaanalysis (PRISMA) literature review of academic journal articles in Google Scholar published up to the end of 2020. Findings: By data types, user-generated content, especially online reviews and ratings were at the centre of attention for hospitality-related big data research. By variables, the hospitality-related big data fell into two crucial factor categories: physical environment and guest-to-staff interactions. Originality/value: This paper shows that big data research can create new insights into attributes that have been extensively researched in the hospitality field. It facilitates a thorough understanding of big data studies and provides valuable insights into future prospects for both researchers and practitioners.
- Imbrications of IT and Hospitality OrganizationsWang, Dan; Wang, Jigang; Xiang, Zheng (2021-10-01)The impact of information technology (IT) on the hospitality and tourismindustry has been extensively documented in the last two decades. However, what happens during the adoption process and to the organization over time due to changes in IT is unclear. This study applies the lens of “imbrication,” stemming from Giddens' theory of structuration, to examine the interactions between a casino resort in Macau, China and the use of customer relations management systems over 20 years (1997–2017). The processes of imbrications of IT and people reveal the social construction of reality. This paper expands our scope of knowledge on organizations' integration of IT by offering a window into the complex, recurrent nature of IT adoption in hospitality and tourism industry.
- Smiley guests post long reviews!Li, Chunhong; Ye, Qiang; Nicolau, Juan Luis; Liu, Xianwei (Elsevier, 2021-07-01)The inclusion of a photo in users’ profile provides information about them and shows a higher sense of self-expression and potential engagement. On peer-to-peer rental platforms, profile images may be useful for hosts and guests to infer individual characteristics and expectations. We try to fill a gap in the literature by inferring guests’ posting behavior through their profile image. Using Airbnb data and deep learning techniques, our empirical analysis reveals that guests who upload profile images—especially profile images displaying happy emotions—are more involved in posting long reviews. As theoretical implications, these results add knowledge to the application of the Five Factor Model of Personality, deep learning, image recognition, and emotion recognition in hospitality. As managerial implications, the prediction of posting behavior through the mining of visual information can be a relevant tool in the age of big data.
- Satisfaction and Expenditure in Wineries: A Prospect Theory ApproachSellers, Ricardo; Nicolau, Juan Luis (SAGE, 2021-07-22)Visitor satisfaction has been shown to be a critical determinant of visitor expenditure in wineries. Although the relationship between visitor satisfaction and expenditure in wineries has been investigated in previous literature, we have unearthed potential intricacies that emerge when this relationship is analyzed within the reference dependence framework of prospect theory. To fill this gap, we use segment-based reference points to capture the singularity of winery visitors, and results show that demographics and psychographics confirm reference dependence. When reference points are based on psychographics, loss aversion is confirmed (lowering visitor satisfaction has a greater negative impact on expenditure than the positive impact derived from increasing visitor satisfaction), while diminishing sensitivity is observed for losses (the effect of the variations in visitor satisfaction shifts depending on the distance from the individual’s reference point). Interestingly, when the reference points are obtained through demographics, loss aversion is reversed. Relevant managerial implications are outlined.
- The impact of hotel CSR for strategic philanthropy on booking behavior and hotel performance during the COVID-19 pandemicShin, Hakseung; Sharma, Abhinav; Nicolau, Juan Luis; Kang, Juhyun (Elsevier, 2021-08-01)During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some hotels have engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to help overcome the crisis. Given that most existing research examines the impact of hotel CSR on a single stakeholder, how hotel CSR activities in a crisis are perceived by multiple stakeholders is unknown. Drawing on the concept of strategic philanthropy, this study examines the impact of hotel CSR activities during the pandemic, such as providing accommodations to healthcare workers, on hotel firms' market value and prospective hotel customers’ booking behavior. Adopting mixed-methods approach, this study finds negative impacts of hotel CSR for strategic philanthropy on firm market value and customer booking behavior. The study result indicates that the value of hotel CSR depends on the nature and environmental contexts of CSR. Specific theoretical and practical implications are provided.
- Advance booking across channels: The effects on dynamic pricingBigne, Enrique; Nicolau, Juan Luis; William, Edu (Elsevier, 2021-10-01)This research analyzes the effects of advance booking and channel type on hotel rates. While this relationship has been addressed in the literature, most studies take a partial approach by focusing only on one distribution channel or one destination. This study fills this gap by analyzing the price dynamics for four channels and multiple destinations. The data set consists of 39,363 bookings for 1085 hotels over 27 consecutive months. We used two-stage least squares to solve potential endogeneity issues, and the results proved that distribution channel, hotel type and hotel size have an influence on the effect of advance booking on hotel rates. Critical managerial implications are discussed.
- The Impact of COVID-19 Vaccine Passport on Air Travelers' Booking Decision and Companies' Financial ValueShin, Hakseung; Kang, Juhyun; Sharma, Abhinav; Nicolau, Juan Luis (SAGE, 2021-11-15)The ongoing debate about vaccine passport policies for dealing with COVID-19 has necessitated analyzing its effectiveness in the airline and tourism industry. This study was purposed to analyze how vaccine passports are evaluated by multiple stakeholders, such as airline investors and passengers for leisure/vacation purposes. The findings of the first study show that the implementation of vaccine passports is positively evaluated by airline investors. The results of the second study highlight the role of vaccine passports in reducing perceived health risks, which is integral to leisure travelers’ decision making. This study offers a theoretical lens to understand the value of vaccine passports and provides guidance for airline companies and tourism marketers in deciding whether to implement a vaccine passport policy.