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1 – 7 of 7James A. Busser and Lenna V. Shulga
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and test customer perceptions of four types of value co-creation (VCC), explore VCC a priori condition of relatedness, operationalized as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and test customer perceptions of four types of value co-creation (VCC), explore VCC a priori condition of relatedness, operationalized as commercial friendship, examine customer voluntary participation in VCC through initiation (customer vs company), and the influence of these factors on relational outcomes of VCC: satisfaction, loyalty and trust.
Design/methodology/approach
A scenario-based 2×2×4 experimental design was set in a destination resort context: weak vs strong commercial friendship, customer vs company co-creation initiation and four types of VCC. The 248 resort guests were equally and randomly assigned to experimental conditions. Multivariate analysis of variance and repeated measures analysis of variance was utilized.
Findings
Results demonstrated that customers perceived VCC processes differently. Co-creation of experience and co-recovery outcomes had significantly higher relational outcomes when compared to co-creation of marketing and co-innovation. Experiencing stronger commercial friendship, as customer–company relatedness and being invited to co-create resulted in stronger customer relational outcomes.
Originality/value
The core theoretical contribution of this study is the comparative analysis of customer perceptions of four distinctly different types of VCC: co-innovation, co-creation of experience, co-creation of marketing and co-recovery. A priori conditions of relatedness and co-creation initiation were established as antecedents of VCC processes among customers and service providers. When a service provider initiates VCC, it can positively affect customers’ relational outcomes of satisfaction, loyalty and trust.
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Lenna V. Shulga and James A. Busser
The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of consumers value collaboration with a service provider, specifically, how consumer self-determination affects value…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of consumers value collaboration with a service provider, specifically, how consumer self-determination affects value co-creation outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Self-determination theory (SDT) need-based motivational factors were operationalized in co-creation as commitment to resources (autonomy), feedback (competence) and collectives (relatedness). A between–within factorial experimental design (3 × 2 × 4) was conducted using online scenarios depicting value co-creation in a destination resort setting. Respondents were randomly and equally assigned to strong and weak SDT factor conditions. Next, they were exposed to scenarios depicting four types of value co-creation: co-innovation, co-creation of marketing, co-creation of experience and co-recovery, followed by an assessment of their co-created value (CCV), well-being, satisfaction and service advantage perceptions.
Findings
Results revealed that overall strong SDT conditions produce better outcomes. Consumers’ relatedness showed the strongest difference between strong and weak SDT conditions on the CCV dimensions. Further analysis revealed that autonomy and relatedness are crucial for collaboration. CCV meaningfulness is central for customers to improve their well-being, satisfaction and competitive advantage perceptions through co-creation.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a line of research on successful voluntary value co-creation processes between consumers and a company. The integration of service-dominant logic (SDL), axiology of value (AOV) and SDT, uniquely operationalized as commitment to resources as autonomy, feedback as competence and co-creation collective as relatedness offers a better understanding of how customers appraise the dimensions of CCV and outcomes of well-being, satisfaction and competitive advantage.
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Lenna V. Shulga, James A. Busser and Billy Bai
This study aims to examine how hospitality consumers of different generations appraise competitive service advantage (CSA) of service providers, based on providers’ business…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how hospitality consumers of different generations appraise competitive service advantage (CSA) of service providers, based on providers’ business models and value propositions, particularly, how these perceptions influence consumers’ purchase intention, subjective well-being and trust in service provider.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a 3 × 4 between-within online scenario-based experimental design (business models: traditional, collaborative, shared; value propositions: innovation, marketing, service production, recovery) using equal and randomized assignment to experimental conditions. Following equal quota-based randomized sampling, three generations were examined (n = 180): baby boomers, Generation Xers and millennials. Multivariate analysis of variance and PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data.
Findings
Hospitality consumers perceived value propositions from providers with different business models inversely based on their perceptions of firms’ CSA, subjective well-being and trust. CSA amplified the outcomes and served a mediating role for purchase intention, subjective well-being and trust. Different outcomes were based on generational cohorts.
Practical implications
Customer perceptions of firm’s unique competitive position should be managed holistically by combining business models, value propositions and generational cohorts to ensure customers’ purchase intention, trust and subjective well-being. CSA should be communicated to customers differently based on generational membership.
Originality/value
This study deepens knowledge of CSA, specifically from the consumer level of analysis. The key contribution is the role of CSA as a mediator for hospitality business models and customer-related outcomes of purchase intention, subjective well-being and trust. This study brings forward consumer subjective well-being as a potential goal for hospitality firms.
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James A. Busser and Lenna V. Shulga
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer involvement with a popular US-based coffee-shop brand consumer-generated advertising (CGA) and its effect on brand loyalty and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer involvement with a popular US-based coffee-shop brand consumer-generated advertising (CGA) and its effect on brand loyalty and trust, to test the influence of antecedents: organizational transparency and brand authenticity on CGA involvement, and to analyze differences among customers and non-customers of the brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in the service-dominant logic and signaling theory, a scenario-based survey describing a contest to co-create a video commercial, as CGA, for a prominent US-based coffee-shop brand, yielded 492 responses from recent restaurant patrons. Structural equation modeling was used to test the effects of involvement in CGA on loyalty and trust. Multi-group comparison examined the differences between customers and non-customers of the brand.
Findings
Involvement in CGA had positive effects on loyalty and trust for both brand customers and non-customers. Transparency builds perceptions of brand authenticity; both authenticity and transparency significantly and positively affected trust, but only authenticity influenced loyalty. There was a stronger impact of involvement with CGA on loyalty for non-customers than brand customers. Non-customer perceptions of the brand’s authenticity influenced brand trust more significantly than customer perceptions.
Practical implications
Coffee-shop brand marketers should leverage online and physical brand exposure to involve both customers and non-customers in company-driven CGA, as a relationship management and marketing tool. Marketers should enhance transparency, which builds perceptions of brand authenticity, leading to greater CGA involvement.
Originality/value
This study contributes to hospitality research and literature, revealing that non-customers can be converted to brand customers through authenticity and indirect involvement with CGA, leading to long-term relational outcomes. The results identified consumers’ perception of organizational transparency is an antecedent of brand authenticity and established CGA contests as a relational marketing tool for hospitality brands.
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Lenna V. Shulga and James A. Busser
The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the state of substantive, methodological and conceptual development of talent management (TM) within hospitality and business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the state of substantive, methodological and conceptual development of talent management (TM) within hospitality and business research and to identify gaps, examine debates and provide hospitality research direction.
Design/methodology/approach
After identifying 545 articles from 22 peer-reviewed journals from Google Scholar using “talent management,” only articles directly related to TM (n = 149) were analyzed using the validity network schema (VNS). The advantage of the VNS approach is in-depth analysis of the three research domains – substantive, methodological, and conceptual – and evaluation of the pathways between domains emerging in a unique hospitality TM perspective.
Findings
Substantive domain TM discourse analysis identified 12 general and 5 hospitality-related topics. The resulting research framework depicted how global trends, organizational, employee-specific factors and organizational-management tactics affect (1) organizational, (2) personal, (3) societal, and (4) customer outcomes. Methodological domain analysis revealed business TM research in the mature stage, while hospitality TM research is in the embryonic stage of development. TM researchers predominantly used observational, descriptive and industry-specific data, advancing the field with associated research frameworks. Conceptual domain analysis uncovered opportunities to advance theoretical foundations and test causal relationships.
Originality/value
VNS analysis identified the importance of conceptual, methodological and substantive domains of TM research. The comprehensive TM research framework was proposed with eight research pathways to guide future hospitality studies. This paper advances the unique hospitality industry-specific scholarship and practice, focused on employee well-being rather than solely organizational gain.
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Solbi Lee, James A. Busser, Minji Kim and Lenna V. Shulga
As the overflow of information accelerates the pace of life, people search for opportunities to escape from their fast-paced lifestyle by engaging in slower consumption. This…
Abstract
Purpose
As the overflow of information accelerates the pace of life, people search for opportunities to escape from their fast-paced lifestyle by engaging in slower consumption. This research empirically tested the role of slow tourism experience (STE) in improving one’s well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, 205 qualified tourists participated. Exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis with Promax rotation in SPSS v.26 was deployed to examine scale factors. Study 2 consisted of 460 tourists to test the conceptual model using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Multi-group analysis identified statistically significant differences between path coefficients in the structural models for males and females.
Findings
Results revealed a three-dimensional STE measure: deceleration, immersion and self-reflection. STE significantly impacted positive emotions and mediated tourist engagement and subjective well-being. Gender multi-group analysis indicated STE had a positive direct impact on SWB for male tourists; however, STE positively affected SWB through tourist destination engagement for female tourists.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to tourists who had stayed at a destination. Future research may consider the different modes or mindsets that tourists use in designing their itinerary, length of stay, type of transportation, level of investment in the environment and culture.
Practical implications
Practitioners can distinguish tourism activities based on gender, focusing on engaging female tourists and triggering emotions for male tourists.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to operationalize and examine STE, extending the broad-and-build theory’s relevance in slow tourism research by revealing the effects of STE on tourists’ SWB.
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Lenna V. Shulga and James A. Busser
As the tourism industry emerges from full or partial closure caused by the COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative to understand the internal conditions that assisted organizations to…
Abstract
Purpose
As the tourism industry emerges from full or partial closure caused by the COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative to understand the internal conditions that assisted organizations to maintain positive employee attitudes despite the adverse effects of unpopular cost–retrenchment strategies. Therefore, this study aims to understand the impacts of transformational leadership (TFL), human resource management (HRM) crisis cost–retrenchment and ethical climate (EC) on employee job outcomes affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Mid-level managers of service organizations from a travel destination heavily reliant on the tourism participated in an online self-administered survey one month after the state eased its COVID-19 travel restrictions. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) examined how TFL and EC influenced cost–retrenchment crisis–management HRM, satisfaction and trust in the organization, followed by PLS multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) to understand differences between hospitality and non-hospitality employees.
Findings
Results revealed an overall positive effect of TFL that diminished the negative affect of HRM cost-retrenchment on employee satisfaction. PLS-MGA showed a significant positive role of other-focused EC on employee outcomes, especially for hospitality organizations, whereas self-focused EC had a negative impact for non-hospitality firms.
Originality/value
This study contributes to contingency theory of leadership by demonstrating that TFL in combination with EC mitigates or overpowers the negative effects of cost–retrenchment crisis management strategies on employees. The study advances knowledge of self-focused and other-focused moral reasoning climate impacts under COVID-19 conditions for hospitality organizations. The industry comparison results highlight the important positive characteristics of hospitality crisis management.
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