Anna de Visser-Amundson, Mirella Kleijnen and Aylin Aydinli
Hospitality companies increasingly sell their unsold, or so-called rescued meals, on food waste reduction applications (e.g. Too Good To Go [TGTG]). The purpose of this research…
Abstract
Purpose
Hospitality companies increasingly sell their unsold, or so-called rescued meals, on food waste reduction applications (e.g. Too Good To Go [TGTG]). The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of product construal and benefit appeals on consumer evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 (N = 277 participants) is an online experiment with a 2 × 3 between subject design analyzed using ANOVA and planned contrast analysis. Study 2 is a 2 × 2 field experiment (N = 147 sold rescued food boxes) using chi-square tests for the main analysis.
Findings
This study finds that an abstract product description (e.g. a magic box with an opaque content) matched with an environmental benefit appeal renders significantly higher consumer evaluations in comparison to when the same product is paired with financial benefits. In contrast, a concrete product presentation featuring financial benefits as opposed to environmental benefits increases consumer purchase intentions and willingness to pay.
Research limitations/implications
We empirically show how the interaction and congruency between product construal and benefit appeals affect evaluations in a last-minute purchase context.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to look at the interactive effect between product construal and benefit appeals in a food waste and technology context.
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Keywords
Anna De Visser-Amundson, Annemieke De Korte and Simone Williams
In a society of abundance, complexity, uncertainty and secularisation, consumers seek extreme market offerings. They thereby avoid the grey middle ground and rather seek white or…
Abstract
Purpose
In a society of abundance, complexity, uncertainty and secularisation, consumers seek extreme market offerings. They thereby avoid the grey middle ground and rather seek white or black, or rather utopia or dystopia, in their experiences. This consumer behaviour is coined the Polarity Paradox. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the Polarity Paradox on travel and tourism and specifically highlight how darker and dystopian type of tourism experiences can add value to the overall tourist experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on literature and trend report reviews to support the direction of the Polarity Paradox trend and the opportunities it presents to the hospitality and tourism industry.
Findings
Travellers do not seek only beauty and happiness when travelling. Examples of the thrilling or dystopian side of the Polarity Paradox clearly illustrate travellers’ emerging needs to look for the extreme. In fact, new travel and hospitality experiences are all about originality and understanding that whether the experience triggers positive or negative emotions matter less in a market where consumers want to be “shaken up”, surprised, taught something or seek a deeper meaning. The difference with the past is that these same thrill seeking tourists, also seek “white” and chilling experiences and that demands a new approach to market segmentation.
Originality/value
Until now, the Polarity Paradox has been described as a general consumer trend. In this paper, the authors are the first to analyse its possible impact on hospitality and tourism and in detail describe that black, dystopian and thrilling experiences can be positive when they trigger emotions and reactions meaningful to the traveller. The authors further show that “playing it safe” will not be the future to build successful hospitality and tourism experiences. The examples explore how the hospitality and tourism industry can add elements of “dystopia” and by doing that actually add value to the overall travel experience.
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Jeroen A. Oskam and Anna De Visser-Amundson
The purpose of this paper is to identify the state of academic research on ethical issues connected to innovation in hospitality. Through a systematic review of the literature on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the state of academic research on ethical issues connected to innovation in hospitality. Through a systematic review of the literature on this topic, the authors aim to offer a synthesis of research approaches and to provide proposals for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted searches in four different databases, to select articles based on the inclusion criteria: the articles should combine the topics of innovation and hospitality/tourism and have been published between 2011 and 2021. Through an iterative screening process, the authors selected 71 research articles.
Findings
This paper distinguishes two categories of approaches to the topic: a first and predominant approach in which innovations are derived from evolving ethical insights and a more dispersed second category that explores the ethical implications of innovations. In the first category, articles about ethical leadership represent the greatest number, followed by those about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Almost half of the papers studied followed qualitative methods.
Research limitations/implications
The authors argue that the prevalent perspective represents a specific interpretation of the social role of private companies, but that the ethical effects of commercial or technological innovations deserve more attention. Despite a rigorous procedure in reviewing the literature systematically, they also discuss that there are multiple relevant debates that do not refer explicitly to ethical aspects, but that should be included in the topic.
Practical implications
Addressing the research gaps in ethics and innovation in hospitality must provide practitioners with an understanding of the ramifications of their innovations and with criteria for ethical decision-making.
Social implications
The current orientation of the debate underscores ethical innovations in hospitality and tourism, whilst ethical risks of other developments in these industries may remain understudied.
Originality/value
This review updates earlier reviews of ethical issues in hospitality and tourism, whilst the link to innovation and the distinction of two categories, based on the causal direction between ethical considerations and innovation, identify an imbalance in the study of the topic.
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Pratim Chatterjee and Rita Karmakar
This chapter aims to list the literature that document the role of hospitality industry achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to summarize those contributions…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter aims to list the literature that document the role of hospitality industry achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to summarize those contributions, related to the literature. Extensive literature review was also conducted to explore a critical analysis of sustainable digitalization of the hospitality industry.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The article has undertaken a systematic literature review of all the significant research area of almost last two decades. Keyword searches were performed in Google Scholar search engine, where timeframe of “2001–2023” was used to filter the desired article. Total 141 research articles were primarily identified after the initial search. After screening the articles for relevance or duplicates, finally 107 articles were considered for this study.
Findings
This study figures out those environment-related SDGs which is considered essential for the hospitality industry. This study found the importance of adopting digitalization in hospitality sector to build inclusive environment and providing seamless experience to customers while focusing on both positive and negative aspects associated with digital transformation.
Originality/Value
Hospitality industry of numerous countries around the world are now exploring by implementing SDGs and Digitalization in their business practices. This study will provide insight to policymakers as development and usage of digital technologies and implementing SDGs in their practices are crucial for the sustainable transformation of hospitality industry. Sustainable transformation of hospitality sector not only improves services and helps us to make wiser choices when planning for a trip but also positively impact both physical and psychological well-being.