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This study aims to investigate the factors that impact the solo travel intentions of millennial women in rural and urban areas. By exploring these factors, this research also sheds light on the similarities and differences in travel behaviors and motivations of women in different geographical contexts within India.

With recent advances in artificial intelligence, the hospitality industry has introduced the concept of unmanned smart hotels staffed by service robots instead of human employees. Research is needed to understand consumers’ receptivity to such an innovation. This paper examines factors associated with consumers’ potential resistance to using automated service hotels via two sequential studies. Given that younger generations of consumers are typically early adopters of advanced technology and innovative services, our sampling approach focused on this consumer group.

Two studies were conducted. Study 1 proposed and empirically tested a theoretical model. Results revealed that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control each positively influenced individuals’ intentions to use unmanned smart hotels. In Study 2, we further investigated aspects informing perceived security, a key variable in the use of unmanned smart hotels.

Findings showed how people’s beliefs about unmanned smart hotels and security control assurances led to perceived security. These perceptions were shaped by perceived physical risks, privacy concerns, website design and hotel reputation. Overall, this research provides theoretical and practical implications for various stakeholders associated with unmanned smart hotels.

Findings of this study suggested that managers of unmanned smart hotels should design user-friendly, secure processes and offer comprehensive support resources to enhance customer experience and usage.

The findings provide a holistic understanding of consumers’ receptivity to unmanned smart hotels.

Food and beverage (F&B) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must diversify their markets and obtain predictable sources of revenues to withstand difficult and volatile periods such as the post-pandemic geopolitical scenario, recently burdened by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. On the other hand, another strand of the literature suggests that public procurement could be considered a great source of income, enabling solid contracts, revenues and cash-flow stability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the role of public procurement, the adoption of e-commerce platforms and their interactions in affecting the exporting performances of SMEs operating in the F&B sector.

The study retrieves data from 2,186 Italian F&B manufacturing SMEs relying on Margò by Cribis database. Therefore, it conducts a structured equational model (SEM) to test the developed hypotheses empirically.

The findings reveal that digital selling platforms positively affect exports, whereas public procurement negatively affects F&B SMEs exports. Nonetheless, findings underline that the interaction between public procurement and the adoption of digital selling platforms dampens public procurement's negative effects on exports.

This study brings an original contribution to the F&B literature by conducting empirical research on an extensive sample of firms from one of the most influential countries in the F&B vertical, Italy, with officially registered data. More importantly, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study pioneers the investigation of the relationship between public procurement and e-commerce platforms in affecting F&B SMEs' export performances.