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1 – 10 of 16Carmen Kar Hang Lee, Ying Kei Tse, Minhao Zhang and Yichuan Wang
In accommodation-sharing, hosts must provide satisfactory stay experiences for guests, who will then express intentions to revisit (behavioral loyalty) and/or recommend the…
Abstract
Purpose
In accommodation-sharing, hosts must provide satisfactory stay experiences for guests, who will then express intentions to revisit (behavioral loyalty) and/or recommend the experiences to others (attitudinal loyalty) in their reviews. Through the lens of expectation-confirmation theory, this study aims to investigate the service dimensions customers focus on in their reviews and their relationships with customer-loyalty manifestations in accommodation-sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses topic modeling to discover distinctive dimensions from Airbnb reviews from a micro perspective and map them onto overarching themes from a macro perspective, and further examine the relationships among topics using cluster analysis.
Findings
This study reveals “information” as an important theme rarely mentioned in the literature. Besides, “homeliness” is a unique dimension associated with behavioral and attitudinal loyalty toward accommodation-sharing.
Practical implications
The findings help accommodation-sharing platforms and hosts identify customer concerns and the drivers of customer loyalty in accommodation-sharing.
Originality/value
In the existing literature, customer perceptions and loyalty are largely determined through surveys, and the findings are not univocal due to the inconsistencies of measurement items used, the potential response bias and limited sample sizes. This study capitalizes on the wealth of user-generated content and extracts service dimensions and customer loyalty directly from textual reviews, overcoming previous research limitations.
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Ying Kei Tse, Minhao Zhang and Fu Jia
Firms face critical challenges in managing product quality in a global supply chain. In many cases, these challenges could be regarded as an agency problem which is a result of…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms face critical challenges in managing product quality in a global supply chain. In many cases, these challenges could be regarded as an agency problem which is a result of the goal conflict between the supply chain members. To address such agency problem, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain how risk and reward sharing practices contribute to firms’ quality performance in the supply chain; and second, to identify the drivers of applying risk and reward sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypothesised model, based on agency theory, is empirically verified by original survey data of 200 Chinese manufacturing companies using the structural equations modelling approach in a context of product recall.
Findings
Supplier involvement and task programmability are two significant antecedents of risk and reward sharing. Further, the paper shows that risk and reward sharing have a positive effect on quality performance, however, in terms of contribution to quality performance, risk sharing and reward sharing may be substitution practices.
Practical implications
This research explains how managers could embrace better preparedness for risk and reward sharing in their supply chains. It is also suggested that although risk and reward sharing are seen as efficient means to improve quality performance, such practices should not be treated as a bundle.
Originality/value
Building on supply partnership literature, this paper contributes to agency theory by providing a solution to the agency problem, i.e., risk and reward sharing and adding to the limited understanding of the antecedents of risk and reward sharing and examining the effects of risk and reward sharing on quality performance.
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Yichuan Wang, Minhao Zhang, Ying Kei Tse and Hing Kai Chan
Underpinned by the lens of Contingency Theory (CT), the purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate whether the impact of social media analytics (SMA) on customer…
Abstract
Purpose
Underpinned by the lens of Contingency Theory (CT), the purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate whether the impact of social media analytics (SMA) on customer satisfaction (CS) is contingent on the characteristics of different external stakeholders, including business partners (i.e. partner diversity), competitors (i.e. localised competition) and customers (i.e. customer engagement).
Design/methodology/approach
Using both subjective and objective measures from multiple sources, we collected primary data from 141 hotels operating in Greece and their archival data from TripAdvisor and the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) database to test the hypothesised relationships. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling.
Findings
This study confirms the positive association between SMA and CS, but it remains subject to the varied characteristics of external stakeholders. We find that an increase in CS due to the implementation of SMA is more pronounced for firms that (1) adopt a selective distribution strategy where a limited number of business partners are chosen for collaboration or (2) operate in a highly competitive local environment. The results further indicate that high level of customer engagement amplifies the moderating effect of partner diversity (when it is low) and localised competition (when it is high) on the SMA–CS relationship.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights for managers on the need to consider external stakeholder characteristics when implementing SMA to enhance firms' CS, and for researchers on the value of studying SMA implementation from the CT perspective.
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Carmen Kar Hang Lee, Ying Kei Tse, Minhao Zhang and Jie Ma
The purpose of this paper is to investigate attributes that influence Airbnb customer experience by analysing online reviews from users staying in London. It presents a text…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate attributes that influence Airbnb customer experience by analysing online reviews from users staying in London. It presents a text mining approach to identify a set of broad themes from the textual reviews. It aims to highlight the customers’ changing perception of good quality of accommodations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses 169,666 reviews posted by Airbnb users who stayed in London from 2011 to 2015. Hierarchical clustering algorithms are used to group similar words into clusters based on their co-occurrence. Longitudinal analysis and seasonal analysis are conducted for a more coherent understanding of the Airbnb customer behaviour.
Findings
This paper provides empirical insights about how Airbnb users’ mindset of good quality of accommodations changes over a five-year timespan and in different seasons. While there are common attributes considered important throughout the years, exclusive attributes are discovered in particular years and seasons.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is confined to Airbnb experiences in London. Researchers are encouraged to apply the proposed methodology to investigate Airbnb experiences in other cities and detect any change in customer perception of quality stay.
Practical implications
This paper offers implications for the prioritisation of customer concerns to design and improve services offerings and for alignment of services with customer expectations in the sharing economy.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to examine the change in customer expectation across the timespan and seasons in the case of Airbnb. It also contributes by illustrating how big data can be used to uncover key attributes that facilitate the engagement with the sharing economy.
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Fei Ye, Min Ke, You Ouyang, Yina Li, Lixu Li, Yuanzhu Zhan and Minhao Zhang
While the usage of digital technology can bring many operational improvements for firms, it is unclear whether it can effectively improve firm resilience to deal with supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
While the usage of digital technology can bring many operational improvements for firms, it is unclear whether it can effectively improve firm resilience to deal with supply chain disruptions caused by emergencies such as COVID-19. From a dynamic capability perspective, this study aims to investigate how digital technology usage can improve firm resilience in a rapidly changing and turbulent environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the survey sample of 237 Chinese firms, the stepwise regression approach was used to examine the proposed research hypotheses.
Findings
The empirical evidence shows that digital technology usage has a U-shaped effect on firm resilience, and that effect is fully achieved by first affecting market acuity and then promoting resource reconfiguration. Moreover, the authors further found that the U-shaped association between digital technology usage and firm resilience is derived from the U-shaped association between digital technology usage and market acuity.
Originality/value
This study enriches the resilience literature by revealing the mechanism of digital technology usage’s effects rather than focusing on the role of specific digital technologies. This study also provides guidance for firms to develop effective digital technology usage strategies.
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Ying Kei Tse, Minhao Zhang, Pervaiz Akhtar and Jill MacBryde
– This paper aims to identify the antecedents of firm’s supply chain agility (SC agility) and how SC agility impacts on firm’s performance.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the antecedents of firm’s supply chain agility (SC agility) and how SC agility impacts on firm’s performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual model was proposed, in which the interrelated hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling methodology using a dataset collected from 266 Chinese electronics firms.
Findings
Initially, it was found that SC integration and external learning positively influenced SC agility. Second, the results indicated that firm’s performance is positively impacted by SC agility. Moreover, SC agility also fully mediated the effect of SC integration on firm’s performance and the effect of external learning on firm’s performance.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of this research sample might be the major limitation of this study. Therefore, future research can adopt other industry sectors samples, such as automobile manufacturing, or other country samples to validate the research model.
Practical implications
This research outlines strategies for better preparedness to achieve SCs to be agile which is a core competency of electronic firms in emerging market. Findings reveal that the external coordination practices – external learning and SC integration – are important factors of SC agility. In addition, the findings contribute to understanding the important role of SC agility in improving firm’s performance.
Originality/value
This research examines the impact of two antecedents (i.e. SC integration and external learning) on SC agility and is the first empirical research to analyze the mediation effect of SC agility on the relationship between SC integration and firm performance and the relationship between external learning and firm performance.
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Ying Kei Tse, Minhao Zhang, Bob Doherty, Paul Chappell and Philip Garnett
Social media has become an important part of daily interpersonal communication in contemporary society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of UK consumers by…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media has become an important part of daily interpersonal communication in contemporary society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of UK consumers by identifying the hidden information in tweets, and provide a framework which can assist industry practitioners in managing social media data.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a large-scale dataset of tweets relating to the Horsemeat scandal of 2013, a comprehensive data analysis framework, which comprises multidimensional scaling and sentiment analysis, alongside other methods, was applied to explore customers’ opinions.
Findings
Making jokes in social media was a main trend in the tweets relating to Tesco during the Horsemeat scandal. Consumer sentiments were overall negative and burgers were the most mentioned product in the week-long period after the story broke. The posting of tweets was correlated with the timing of news coverage, which indicates that the traditional media is still crucial to public opinion formation.
Practical implications
This paper presents a progressive tweet-mining framework that can serve as a tool for academia and practitioners in crisis management. The proposed framework indicates the significant importance of timely categorising the topics, identifying the sentiment of tweets and understanding the changes of consumer opinions over time in a crisis.
Originality/value
The research presented in this paper is one of the limited social media research to focus on a UK food fraud issue and adds to the limited body of literature investigating consumer social media use from the side of industry practitioners.
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Yanming Zhang, Minhao Gu and Baofeng Huo
An agile supply chain (SC) is critical in achieving competitive advantages in the vulnerable environment. Based on the competence–capability–performance paradigm, this study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
An agile supply chain (SC) is critical in achieving competitive advantages in the vulnerable environment. Based on the competence–capability–performance paradigm, this study aims to investigate how information technology (IT) usage and employee multi-skilling influence internal, supplier and customer agility that are the three dimensions of SC agility. It further explores relationships between SC agility dimensions and SC performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a survey method to collect primary data and sampled 216 Chinese manufacturing firms in different industries. Construct validity and reliability were confirmed. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.
Findings
The findings indicate that internal agility is the baseline of SC agility, which improves supplier and customer agility. IT usage is more important than employee multi-skilling in facilitating SC agility. The former improves all three dimensions, whereas the latter only improves internal agility. Both internal and supplier agility can improve SC performance, whereas customer agility has no significant effect.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the SC agility literature in two folds. On the one hand, based on the dynamic capability perspective, this research clarifies three dimensions of SC agility and their interrelationships. On the other hand, integrating competence–capability–performance paradigm with information processing view, this research investigates the antecedent and outcome of SC agility. In addition, to date, this is one of the first studies to simultaneously examine the effect of two critical competencies, namely, IT usage and employee multi-skilling on SC agility.
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Xi Zhang, Rui Chang, Minhao Gu and Baofeng Huo
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that uses cryptography to ensure transmission and access security, which provides solutions to numerous challenges to complex supply…
Abstract
Purpose
Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that uses cryptography to ensure transmission and access security, which provides solutions to numerous challenges to complex supply networks. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the complex adaptive systems (CASs) perspective. It further explores how business diversification, supply chain (SC) concentration and environmental complexity affect the relationship between blockchain implementation and shareholder value.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 138 blockchain implementation announcements of listed companies on the Chinese A-share stock market, the authors use event study methodology to evaluate the impact of blockchain implementation on shareholder value.
Findings
The results show that blockchain implementation has a positive impact on shareholder value, and this impact will be moderated by business diversification, SC concentration and environmental complexity. In addition, environmental complexity exerts a moderating effect on SC concentration. In the post hoc analysis, the authors further explore the impact of blockchain implementation on long-term operational performance.
Originality/value
This is the first research empirically examining the effect of blockchain implementation on shareholder value varying from internal and external complexity from the CASs perspective. This paper provides evidence of the different effects of blockchain implementation on short- and long-term performance. It adds to the interdisciplinary research of information systems (IS) and operations management (OM).
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