Ilker Sahin, Mustafa Gulmez and Olgun Kitapci
This research aims to scrutinize the negative reviews regarding the 5-star chain hotels and the e-responses on TripAdvisor, to categorize the complaints declared in the review…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to scrutinize the negative reviews regarding the 5-star chain hotels and the e-responses on TripAdvisor, to categorize the complaints declared in the review texts, to provide better understanding of the online problem-solving methods of hotels and their corporate approach to e-complaints and to reveal the post-vacation electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) behaviours of the complaining tourists.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the scope of this research, 404 negative reviews and 364 e-responses are subject to an extensive content analysis. A total of 1,655 tourist e-complaints which were mentioned in the negative online reviews are categorized according to their subject matters and grouped under main themes. The e-responses of hotels and statements of e-complaining tourists regarding post-vacation experience are analysed in detail based on a qualitative research approach.
Findings
As a result of the research, 82 sub-themes within 11 complaint categories are determined, and it is found out that the e-complaints mainly focus on “food and beverage services”, “room comfort” and “hotel staff”. The hotel management mainly implemented problem-solving strategies such as “request for future patronage, a recovery plan as a result of the detailed analysis of the problem and warning to the relevant department performing poor service” as well as giving unsatisfactory “cliché responses”. Dissatisfied tourists performed negative e-WOM behaviours by using abusing expressions in review text, recommending different hotel alternatives, failing to recommend the hotel and expressing that they would not return.
Originality/value
Combing through negative e-reviews which include wide range of complaints of disappointed tourists and the statements which reveal post-vacation tendencies and feelings, the e-responses of hotels that are providing insight regarding the corporate approach to negative feedbacks and formation of post-vacation relations between the hotel and customers, the paper adopts a qualitative and utilitarian approach. The originality of the paper stems from its elaborative context analysis and balanced comparison of three 5-star luxury chain resort hotels located on the shores of the Mediterranean with almost similar quality standards and guest relations/public relations (GR/PR) departments that represent corporate identity. To this respect, the research is thought to be original in quality and can fill out the gap in the tourism literature. Presenting conceptual framework and practical information, the paper is predicted to guide the future studies, tourism marketers, travel consultants, PR/GR staff and managers employed in hospitality businesses.
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Birdogan Baki, Cigdem Sahin Basfirinci, Ilker Murat AR and Zuhal Cilingir
This paper seeks to provide new solutions to cargo companies’ service quality efforts by integrating different scientific methodologies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to provide new solutions to cargo companies’ service quality efforts by integrating different scientific methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Strengths and weaknesses of logistics services of a well known cargo company in Turkey are defined by using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL), service quality attributes are categorized using the Kano model in order to see how well these attributes are able to satisfy customer needs, and findings are transferred to quality function deployment (QFD).
Findings
The findings of the Kano model show that ten of the 27 service quality attributes can be categorized as “attractive”, implying the maximum effect on consumer satisfaction. Through the customer priority level of QFD, the three most important service quality attributes are found to be: VIP Service, informing customers about delivery time before sending, and taking deliveries from customers’ addresses. Also, strengthening information technology infrastructure is the most important technical requirement to focus with the highest technical importance level.
Research limitations/implications
The study involves only one cargo company, it concerns just Trabzon city center branch offices and its sample includes only individual customers instead of individual and institutional customers together.
Practical implications
Offering a case study, the paper presents a guide for cargo companies to employ different scientific methodologies in their service quality development efforts.
Originality/value
Intending to offer scientific approaches to cargo companies as a tool of development in their practical procedures, the paper tries to bridge the current gap between academicians and practitioners and adds to the relatively limited theoretical literature.
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Gul Imamoglu, Ertugrul Ayyildiz, Nezir Aydin and Y. Ilker Topcu
Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply…
Abstract
Purpose
Blood availability is critical for saving lives in various healthcare services. Ensuring blood availability can only be achieved through efficient management of the blood supply chain (BSC). A key component of the BSC is bloodmobiles, which are responsible for a significant portion of blood donation collections. The most crucial factor affecting the efficacy of bloodmobiles is their location selection. Therefore, detailed decision analyses are essential for the location selection of bloodmobiles. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to bloodmobile location selection for resilient BSCs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides a novel integration of the spherical fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (SF-AHP) and spherical fuzzy complex proportional assessment (SF-COPRAS) methodologies. In this framework, the criteria are weighted using SF-AHP. The alternatives are then evaluated using SF-COPRAS, employing criteria weights obtained from SF-AHP without defuzzification.
Findings
The results show that supply conditions and resilience are the most important criteria for a bloodmobile location selection. Additionally, the validation analyses confirm the stability of the solution.
Practical implications
This study presents several managerial implications that can aid mid-level managers in the BSC during the decision-making process for bloodmobile location selection. The critical factors revealed, along with their importance in choosing bloodmobile locations, serve as a comprehensive guide. Additionally, the framework proposed in this study offers decision-makers (DMs) an effective method for ranking potential bloodmobile locations.
Originality/value
This study presents the first application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for bloodmobile location selection. In this manner, several aspects of bloodmobile location selection are considered for the first time in the existing literature. Furthermore, from the methodological aspect, this study provides a novel SF-AHP-integrated SF-COPRAS methodology.
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Naveen Donthu, Satish Kumar, Nitesh Pandey and Gunjan Soni
This study provides a retrospect of Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (APJML) for the 27-year period between 1993 and 2019.
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides a retrospect of Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (APJML) for the 27-year period between 1993 and 2019.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the Scopus database to identify the most-cited APJML articles and most prolific authors, institutions and countries in APJML between 1993 and 2019. The study uses bibliometric indicators as well as tools such as bibliographic coupling and science mapping, to analyze the publication and citation structure of APJML. The study provides a temporal analysis of APJML publishing across different periods.
Findings
APJML's publication has grown at an average rate of 17% per year, while its citations have grown at an impressive rate of 60%. The contributors to the journal come mainly from the Asia Pacific region, which is not surprising given the journal's scope of publication. Bibliographic coupling of articles reveals that the journal has focused mostly on issues related to market orientation, advertising, marketing research, consumer behavior, customer service, marketing in the digital environment and consumer ethnocentrism. Quantitative research in marketing and consumer ethnocentrism is among the emerging themes in the journal and would benefit from more exploration from scholars.
Research limitations/implications
This study uses data from the Scopus database, whose limitations have implications for the findings. For example, data for the journal's first five issues are not available on Scopus and therefore are not included in the analysis.
Originality/value
This study provides the first overview of APJML's publication and citation trends as well as its thematic structure.
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S.H. Chung, Ying Kei Tse and T.M. Choi
The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comprehensive review for state-of-the-art works in disruption risk management of express logistics mainly supported by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comprehensive review for state-of-the-art works in disruption risk management of express logistics mainly supported by air-transportation. The authors aim to suggest some new research directions and insights for express logistics practitioners to develop more robust planning in air-transportation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors mainly confined the research to papers published over the last two decades. The search process was conducted in two dimensions: horizontal and vertical. In the horizontal dimension, attention was paid to the evolution of disruption management across the timeline. In the vertical dimension, different foci and strategies of disruption management are employed to distinguish each article. Three keywords were used in the full text query: “Disruption management”, “Air transportation”, and “Airline Operations” in all database searches listed above. Duplications due to database overlap, articles other than those from academic journals, and papers in languages other than English were discarded.
Findings
A total of 98 articles were studied. The authors categorized the papers into two broad categories: Reactive Recovery, and Proactive Planning. In addition, based on the problem characteristics and their application scenarios, a total of 11 sub-categories in reactive recovery and nine sub-categories in proactive planning were further identified. From the analysis, the authors identified some new categories in the air-transportation recovery. In addition, by analyzing the papers in robust planning, according to the problem characteristics and the state-of-the-art research in recovery problems, the authors proposed four new research directions to enhance the reliability and robustness of air-transportation express logistics.
Research limitations/implications
This study provided a comprehensive and feasible taxonomy of disruption risk management. The classification scheme was based on the problem characteristics and the application scenarios, rather than the algorithms. One advantage of this scheme is that it enables an in-depth classification of the problem, that is, sub-categories of each class can be revealed, which provides a much wider and clearer horizon to the scientific progress in this area. This helps researchers to reveal the problem’s nature and to identify the future directions more systematically. The suggestions for future research directions also point out some critical research gaps and opportunities.
Practical implications
This study summarized various reasons which account for the disruption in air-transportation. In addition, the authors suggested various considerations for express logistics practitioners to enhance logistics network reliability and efficiency.
Originality/value
There are various classification schemes in the literature to categorize disruption management. Using different algorithms (e.g. exact algorithm, heuristics, meta-heuristics) and distinct characteristics of the problem elements (e.g. aircraft, crew, passengers, etc.) are the most common schemes in previous efforts to produce a disruption management classification scheme. However, the authors herein attempted to focus on the problem nature and the application perspective of disruption management. The classification scheme is hence novel and significant.
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Abdelrahman E.E. Eltoukhy, Felix T.S. Chan and S.H. Chung
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to carry out a comprehensive literature review for state of the art regarding airline schedule planning and second to identify some new…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to carry out a comprehensive literature review for state of the art regarding airline schedule planning and second to identify some new research directions that might help academic researchers and practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors mainly focus on the research work appeared in the last three decades. The search process was conducted in database searches using four keywords: “Flight scheduling,” “Fleet assignment,” “Aircraft maintenance routing” (AMR), and “Crew scheduling”. Moreover, the combination of the keywords was used to find the integrated models. Any duplications due to database variety and the articles that were written in non-English language were discarded.
Findings
The authors studied 106 research papers and categorized them into five categories. In addition, according to the model features, subcategories were further identified. Moreover, after discussing up-to-date research work, the authors suggested some future directions in order to contribute to the existing literature.
Research limitations/implications
The presented categories and subcategories were based on the model characteristics rather than the model formulation and solution methodology that are commonly used in the literature. One advantage of this classification is that it might help scholars to deeply understand the main variation between the models. On the other hand, identifying future research opportunities should help academic researchers and practitioners to develop new models and improve the performance of the existing models.
Practical implications
This study proposed some considerations in order to enhance the efficiency of the schedule planning process practically, for example, using the dynamic Stackelberg game strategy for market competition in flight scheduling, considering re-fleeting mechanism under heterogeneous fleet for fleet assignment, and considering the stochastic departure and arrival times for AMR.
Originality/value
In the literature, all the review papers focused only on one category of the five categories. Then, this category was classified according to the model formulation and solution methodology. However, in this work, the authors attempted to propose a comprehensive review for all categories for the first time and develop new classifications for each category. The proposed classifications are hence novel and significant.