Kam Hung, Sha Wang and Chaohua Tang
This study aims to understand the normative expectations of travelers on the services and experiences provided by Buddhism-themed hotels as well as how service providers perceive…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the normative expectations of travelers on the services and experiences provided by Buddhism-themed hotels as well as how service providers perceive such expectations. The growth of religion-themed hotels in China follows a larger and more generalized global marketing trend in terms of providing tourists and consumers with “themed” experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the service quality model, this study investigates these expectations of Buddhism-themed hotels in China. The Delphi method was used with two expert panels, namely, travelers and tourism/hotel practitioners. Preliminary interviews revealed 98 normative expectations from Buddhism-themed hotels. Two sets of Delphi questionnaires were used to compare tourist expectations with practitioner perceptions.
Findings
Results show a wide range of expectations of travelers staying in Buddhism-themed hotels. They also reveal how the expectations of the two groups aligned as well as differed.
Research limitations/implications
This study extends the application of the service quality model to the context of religion-themed hotels. As this study adopted the Delphi technique through criterion sampling, future studies should use a larger random sample to verify the results of this study.
Practical implications
The results help religion-themed hoteliers to understand their customer expectations better.
Originality/value
Given the lack of studies on religion-themed hotels, especially on the gap between tourist expectations and service providers’ perceptions, this study is a timely contribution to improve the understanding on the needs and expectations of customers when visiting religion-themed hotels.
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Keywords
Zhi Li, Jiuchang Wei, Dora Vasileva Marinova and Jingjing Tian
This paper aims to explore the explanations of “information effect” and “agency effect” of corporate diversification with cross-industry knowledge under a crisis situation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the explanations of “information effect” and “agency effect” of corporate diversification with cross-industry knowledge under a crisis situation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an event study of 203 public companies’ crises in China between 2008 and 2018, the authors verify the information and agency effects of corporate diversification under a crisis situation by, respectively, examining the effects of interactions of corporate unrelated diversification with corporate transparency and knowledge deficiency attribution on the stock market’s responses to the crises.
Findings
It is found that corporate unrelated diversification serves as a buffer in protecting firm value while attribution of knowledge deficiency can be a burden. The buffering effect is stronger when the corporate transparency is higher but weaker when the crisis is attributed to be caused by corporate tacit knowledge deficiency.
Practical implications
Unrelated diversified firms should strengthen information communication with stakeholders so as to break down the stakeholders’ cross-industry knowledge barriers, and thus protect their own value at the crisis’ onset. Also, they can further buffer the loss by reducing stakeholders’ perceptions of the corporate tacit knowledge deficiency revealed in the crisis.
Originality/value
This study is the first to illustrate that the information and agency effects of corporate diversification strategy can be partially explained under a crisis situation, which provides meaningful insights about how firms can conduct knowledge management in their daily operations to deal better with corporate crises.