The purpose of this research is to identify motivators (i.e. self-efficacy, perceived behavioural control and perceived benefits) and inhibitors (i.e. perceived cost and anxiety…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to identify motivators (i.e. self-efficacy, perceived behavioural control and perceived benefits) and inhibitors (i.e. perceived cost and anxiety) that affect behavioural intentions to book hotel rooms using smartphones.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising survey data collected from online consumers who have booked hotels in London, two stages of structural equation modelling were applied to estimate the proposed model.
Findings
The results of this research indicate that perceived behavioural control appears to be the core motivator for the use of smartphones to book a hotel with perceived benefits, whereas anxiety plays a negative role in leading to mobile booking behaviours. It is also identified that self-efficacy indirectly influences intentions to reserve hotel accommodation.
Practical implications
This study suggests that hospitality marketers should simplify the mobile purchasing process to enhance self-confidence in controlling the system during transactions, educate current and potential online consumers to become aware of the competitive benefits of using smartphones and create alliances with credit card companies to relieve anxiety when users are asked to provide personal or banking information.
Originality/value
In light of the substantial literature regarding the adoption of technology in terms of user experience (i.e. TAM), this study integrates two theoretical foundations of understanding consumer behaviours (i.e. a concept of consumer values and theory of planned behaviour) to assess motivators and inhibitors in behaviours related to booking hotel accommodation via smartphones.
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Xingbao (Simon) Hu, Yang Yang and Sangwon Park
Online ratings (review valence) have been found to exert a strong influence on hotel room prices. This study aims to systematically synthesize research estimating the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
Online ratings (review valence) have been found to exert a strong influence on hotel room prices. This study aims to systematically synthesize research estimating the impact of online ratings on room rates using a meta-analytical method.
Design/methodology/approach
From major academic databases, a total of 163 estimates of the effects of online ratings on room rates were coded from 22 studies across different countries through a systematic review of relevant literature. All estimates were converted into elasticity-type effect sizes, and a hierarchical linear meta-regression was used to investigate factors explaining variations in the effect sizes.
Findings
The median elasticity of online ratings on hotel room rates was estimated to be 0.851. Meta-regression results highlighted four categories of factors moderating the size of this elasticity: data characteristics, research settings, variable measures and publication outlet. Among sub-ratings, results revealed value rating and room rating to exert the largest impact on room rates, whereas staff and cleanliness ratings demonstrated non-significant impacts.
Practical implications
This study provides practical implications on the relative importance of different types of online ratings for online reputation and revenue management.
Originality/value
This study represents the first research effort to understand factors moderating the effects of online ratings on hotel room rates based on a quantitative review of the literature. Moreover, this study provides beneficial insights into the specification of empirical hedonic pricing models and data-collection strategies, such as the selection of price variables and choices of model functional forms.
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Sangwon Park and Daniel R. Fesenmaier
The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent (mean and range) of non‐response bias in online travel advertising conversion studies for 24 destinations located throughout…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent (mean and range) of non‐response bias in online travel advertising conversion studies for 24 destinations located throughout the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The method uses two weighting procedures (i.e. post stratification and propensity score weighting) to estimate the extent of non‐response bias by adjusting the estimates provided by respondents to more closely represent the total target sample.
Findings
The results of this analysis clearly indicate that the use of unweighted data to estimate advertising effectiveness may lead to substantial over estimation of conversion rates, but there is limited “bias” in the estimates of median visitor expenditures. The analyses also indicate that weighting systems have substantially different impact on the estimates of conversion rates.
Research limitations/implications
First, the likelihood to answer a survey varies substantially depending on the degree of the familiarity with the mode (i.e. paper, telephone versus internet). Second, the competition‐related variables (i.e. the number and competitiveness of alternative nearby destinations) and various aspects of the campaign (i.e. amount of investment in a location) should be considered.
Originality/value
This study of 24 different American tourism campaigns provides a useful understanding in the nature (mean and range) of impact of non‐response bias in tourism advertising conversion studies. Additionally, where there is difficulty obtaining a reference survey in the advertising study, the two weighting methods used in this study are shown to be useful for assessing the errors in response data, especially in the case of propensity score weighting, where the means to develop multivariate‐based weights is straightforward.
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Maximiliano E. Korstanje and Hugues Seraphin
An increasing number of studies claim on the decline of hospitality in the West. These works focus on the lack of tolerance or expressions against foreigners as the clear sign…
Abstract
Purpose
An increasing number of studies claim on the decline of hospitality in the West. These works focus on the lack of tolerance or expressions against foreigners as the clear sign that something is changing. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic mainly marked a type of intolerance with the foreign tourists. This book chapter brings reflection on the plot of HBO Saga Westworld to understand the ways forms of hospitality in a post-modern world.
Design/Methodology/Approach
The present book chapter is based on the technique of content analysis or film ethnography which dissects elements of films and movies. In so doing, film ethnography occupies a central position in the constellations of qualitative methods.
Findings
The present piece is a critique on what specialists dubbed as robot tourism. Westworld shows not only the cautions policymakers should have on robot tourism but also how the depersonalisation process works. Basically, Westworld speaks us of a dystopian amusing park where rich guests travel to torture and victimise humanoids (hosts) who are unable to retaliate. Westworld brings reflection on the decline or the end of hospitality, at least as we know it.
Originality/Value
Just after 9/11 some critical voices alerted Western hospitality was in decline. This chapter goes on in the same direction. Westworld brings the problems of free choice, the liberty as well as hospitality into the foreground.
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S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh, Rob Law, Dimitrios Buhalis and Cihan Cobanoglu
Yuhan Luo and Mingwei Lin
The purpose of this paper is to make an overview of 474 publications and 512 patents of FTL from 1987 to 2020 in order to provide a conclusive and comprehensive analysis for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make an overview of 474 publications and 512 patents of FTL from 1987 to 2020 in order to provide a conclusive and comprehensive analysis for researchers in this field, as well as a preliminary knowledge of FTL for interested researchers.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the FTL algorithms are classified and its functions are introduced in detail. Secondly, the structures of the publications are analyzed in terms of the fundamental information and the publication of the most productive countries/regions, institutions and authors. After that, co-citation networks of institutions, authors and papers illustrated by VOS Viewer are given to show the relationship among those and the most influential of them is further analyzed. Then, the characteristics of the patent are analyzed based on the basic information and classification of the patent and the most productive inventors. In order to obtain research hotspots and trends in this field, the time-line review and citation burst detection of keywords carried out by Cite Space are made to be visual. Finally, based on the above analysis, it draws some other important conclusions and the development trend of this field.
Findings
The research on FTL algorithm is still the top priority in the future, and how to improve the performance of SSD in the era of big data is one of the research hotspots.
Research limitations/implications
This paper makes a comprehensive analysis of FTL with the method of bibliometrics, and it is valuable for researchers can quickly grasp the hotspots in this area.
Originality/value
This article draws the structural characteristics of the publications in this field and summarizes the research hotspots and trends in this field in recent years, aiming to inspire new ideas for researchers.
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Khaldoon Nusair, Irfan Butt and S.R. Nikhashemi
While the importance of social media will continue to grow, the purpose of this study is to provide a retrospective systematic literature review of the social media research…
Abstract
Purpose
While the importance of social media will continue to grow, the purpose of this study is to provide a retrospective systematic literature review of the social media research published in major hospitality and tourism journals over a specific time period.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducted a bibliometric analysis to review the literature of 439 social media articles published in 51 hospitality and tourism journals over a 15-year time span (2002-2016).
Findings
Ulrike Gretzel authored the highest fractional citations. The results indicated that social media-related research was mostly published in top-tier journals. The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management was amongst the four leading journals in terms of the percentage of published social media articles. While inter-country social media research collaborations were relatively modest, interestingly, inter-country collaborations have been steadily increasing in the past five years. Another finding indicated that social media research in hospitality and tourism journals has been predominantly quantitative. The results revealed six new areas within the consumer behaviour research theme, namely, eWOM, service recovery, customer satisfaction, brand/destination image and service quality. Finally, it is important to note that four new trends in social media research appeared between 2011 and 2016, namely, big data, netnography, Travel 2.0 and Web 2.0.
Research limitations/implications
While this study made significant contributions to the social media literature, some limitations do exist. For example, the current research excluded publications from major conferences, books, book chapters and dissertations. Additionally, it is not within the scope of this paper to take into account issues related to self-citations.
Practical implications
The results obtained from analysis contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social media research progress in hospitality and tourism. For example, evaluating the performance of individual scholars helps educational institutions to compete in the global university ranking system. Additionally, to compete for funding opportunities on the topic of social media, institutions can use citation counts to demonstrate their competitiveness. Furthermore, due to the expected future growth in the number of social media platforms, practitioners need to understand motivating factors and tourists’ needs in different countries, target market segments, age groups and cultures to create highly engaging communities around their brands.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the sample of this study synthesized the largest selection of social media articles published in hospitality and tourism journals. This is the first study to apply the fractional score at the author level, the adjusted appearance score at the university level and the average citation score at the journal and inter-country levels in the analysis. In addition, prevalent research orientations and research trends in social media made significant contributions to existing literature.
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Kyung-Min Kim, Benjamin Nobi, Sangwon Lee and Chad Milewicz
This research investigates three major research questions. First, how does brand alliance type, defined by a partner's location and brand quality, affect consumers' emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates three major research questions. First, how does brand alliance type, defined by a partner's location and brand quality, affect consumers' emotional value perceptions of higher education brand alliances for dual-degree programs? Second, does perceived brand fit mediate the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions? Third, do individual differences in world-mindedness moderate the influence of brand alliance type on emotional value perceptions?
Design/methodology/approach
In total, two experiments are performed. Experiment one examines the effect of brand alliance type, at varying combinations of partner brand quality and partner location (domestic or foreign), on consumers' emotional value perceptions. Experiment two examines the moderating role of world-mindedness in the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions.
Findings
Results provide evidence that consumers' perception of brand fit mediates the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions of the alliance. Results also indicate that world-mindedness moderates the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions.
Originality/value
This research extends the previous literature on higher education dual-degree brand alliances and introduces world-mindedness as an important consumer-based characteristic to consider in this line of research. It answers calls for more research on higher education branding and calls for research into the potential mediating role and importance of brand fit. It provides several theoretical and managerial implications relevant to the higher education brand alliances, particularly in dual-degree programs.