Editorial

Citation

Okumus, F. (2009), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 21 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2009.04121eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Volume 21, Issue 5

This issue consists of six research articles, two research-in-brief (RIB) papers, and a book review. In the first article, Mahmood Khan and Maryam Khan analyzed the impact of technological innovations on the extent of outreach of hospitality services to customers. As the technological innovations develop, new categories of services are emerging. These authors placed these categories into six different cells identifying services based on their innovative characteristics. Their findings led to the recommendations for service innovations, location of desired markets, and providing services to customer at near and far locations. Service providers and marketers can benefit by utilizing innovative technology suitable for reaching their selected target customers.

In the second article, Michael Ottenbacher and Robert Harrington examined the innovation process activities described by quick service restaurant (QSR) managers and compare it with an earlier QSR process model and to those used in other foodservice settings. Their findings have not only important implications for QSR settings but also other restaurant segments, and other hospitality service endeavors.

In the third article, Wilco Chan evaluated the performance of environmental management systems (EMS) in hotels. A total of 113 measures were identified, with nearly half of which concerning energy conservation. Results showed that the explanatory power was strong for electricity consumption, moderate for fuel gas consumption, and weak for both gas and water consumption. Hotel operators and owners can use these measures as a reference to either apply EMS certification or developing their own EMS.

The next article by Zheng Gu and Ricardo Chi Sen Sui examined the relationship between work performance and job satisfaction in Macao’s casino hotels. The authors found that mediocre interpersonal skills are the major weakness of the labor force and job satisfaction is significantly correlated with job performance. The study provides an assessment of the Macao casino hotel workers’ performance and job satisfaction and offers useful insights on how work performance and job satisfaction may be improved. On-the-job training is proposed for the industry to boost job satisfaction and work performance.

Adam Weaver empirically explored how recent graduates of a university’s tourism management program in New Zealand perceive job quality in the tourism industry. The research findings indicate the importance of job content and its compatibility with interests and preferences. Graduates associate job quality with opportunities to consume tourism products, assist tourists, acquire valued knowledge, confront challenges, and perform meaningful work. The quality of a job is influenced by the types of tasks graduates are required to undertake.

Erdinc Karadeniz, Serkan Yilmaz Kandir, Mehmet Balcilar, and Yildirim Beyazit Onal investigated the factors affecting capital structure decisions of Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) lodging companies. Results suggest that effective tax rates, tangibility of assets, and return on assets are related negatively to the debt ratio, while free cash flow, non-debt tax shields, growth opportunities, net commercial credit position, and firm size do not appear to be related to the debt ratio. Although their findings partially support the pecking order theory neither the trade-off nor the pecking order theory exactly seem to explain the capital structure of Turkish lodging companies. The findings of the study clearly demonstrate the importance of capital structure decisions on financial sources.

In the first research in brief paper, Wai Mun Lim evaluated the various stages of technologies adoption by hoteliers. This paper examines two established theoretical paradigms jointly, facilitating an understanding of not only the antecedents affecting technology adoption but also the hoteliers’ intensity of technology adoption. Due to the perpetual proliferation of internet technologies, the investigation of hoteliers’ propensity to adopt internet technologies could be enhanced with the inclusion of the various levels of internet applications that are adopted. The paper could help practitioners to become more aware of the factors that drive their internet technologies adoption. Academics could advance this paper’s discussion of internet technologies adoption to other sectors of the tourism and hospitality industry.

The next research in brief paper by Rob Law, Catherine Cheung and Tao Hu investigated the perceptions of e-buyers and e-lookers in Hainan, China on usability performance of China-based travel websites, an emerging sector of the tourism industry in China. Empirical findings indicated that respondents only viewed China-based travel websites had an average usability performance. More importantly, there was no significant difference between e-buyers and e-lookers. With the views of 489 respondents, research findings should provide an overview for tourism practitioners to allocate their limited resources on e-business development appropriately. Finally, Konstantina Tsiakali reviews the edited book by Latif Al-Hakim entitled: “Challenges of managing information quality in service organizations”.

Fevzi OkumusEditor-in-Chief