Zibo Li, Zhengxiang Yan, Shicheng Li, Guangmin Sun, Xin Wang, Dequn Zhao, Yu Li and Xiucheng Liu
The purpose of this paper is to overcome the application limitations of other multi-variable regression based on polynomials due to the huge computation room and time cost.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to overcome the application limitations of other multi-variable regression based on polynomials due to the huge computation room and time cost.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, based on the idea of feature selection and cascaded regression, two strategies including Laguerre polynomials and manifolds optimization are proposed to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression. Laguerre polynomials were combined with the genetic algorithm to enhance the capacity of polynomials approximation and the manifolds optimization method was introduced to solve the co-related optimization problem.
Findings
Two multi-variable Laguerre polynomials regression methods are designed. Firstly, Laguerre polynomials are combined with feature selection method. Secondly, manifolds component analysis is adopted in cascaded Laguerre polynomials regression method. Two methods are brought to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression method.
Research limitations/implications
With the increasing number of variables in regression problem, the stable accuracy performance might not be kept by using manifold-based optimization method. Moreover, the methods mentioned in this paper are not suitable for the classification problem.
Originality/value
Experiments are conducted on three types of datasets to evaluate the performance of the proposed regression methods. The best accuracy was achieved by the combination of cascade, manifold optimization and Chebyshev polynomials, which implies that the manifolds optimization has stronger contribution than the genetic algorithm and Laguerre polynomials.
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Nasrin Akter and Shahedul Hasan
Halal tourism despite its increasing contributions toward the global tourism industry, remains a nascent field of research, in particular, investigations that explore the drivers…
Abstract
Purpose
Halal tourism despite its increasing contributions toward the global tourism industry, remains a nascent field of research, in particular, investigations that explore the drivers of halal tourism purchase intention of Muslim tourists are insufficient. To contribute to this end, this study aims to examine the moderating role of perceived behavioral control (PBC) on attitude, subjective norms (SN) and behavioral intention by applying the theory of planned behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is tested by using structural equation modeling based on the data collected from 306 Muslim tourists of Bangladesh.
Findings
The results reveal that PBC moderates the relationship between attitude and halal tourism intention. Halal tourism intention is also influenced by attitude and PBC but not by SN.
Research limitations/implications
Findings of the study contributed to halal tourism literature by identifying the role of perceived autonomy and capacity on halal tourism intention and by offering an understanding of the underlying psychological drivers of halal tourism choice.
Practical implications
This would help the marketer to design suitable halal tourism offerings to fulfill the unique needs of this less explored tourism market.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is perhaps the first study in the context of the Bangladesh tourism sector that focuses on customers’ halal tourism intention. The study’s findings are crucial in Islamic marketing and halal tourism.
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Ahmed M. Adel, Xin Dai, Rana S. Roshdy and Chenfeng Yan
The present research extends the existing literature of halal tourism and Muslims’ travel decision-making by applying information-seeking models and the planned behavior theory to…
Abstract
Purpose
The present research extends the existing literature of halal tourism and Muslims’ travel decision-making by applying information-seeking models and the planned behavior theory to identify the process of decision-making to travel to non-Islamic destinations. This study aims to identify the views of Muslim travelers who traveled before to non-Islamic destinations to evaluate their information search experience and how their travel decision is formed.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a sample of Muslim travelers who visited a non-Islamic destination during the past five years. Data saturation resulted in 17 interviewees from different Islamic destinations, namely, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Pakistan.
Findings
Muslim interviewees indicate the relative importance of reference groups compared to the government websites as a source of information. This study concludes some remarkable results regarding the importance of some halal marketing strategies such as halal searchability and availability, halal certification and appraisal, halal at airports and halal hotels. It presents an emergent framework that shows the factors affecting visiting a non-Islamic destination regarding halal issues for Muslim travelers.
Practical implications
It provides destinations’ official tourism managers with various strategies to brand their destinations as Muslim-friendly destinations.
Originality/value
Investigating the process of decision-making of traveling to non-Islamic destinations from Muslim travelers’ perspective is limited. Examining the role of information-seeking behavior in Muslim travelers’ decision-making is scarce.
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Congyu Zhao, Xiucheng Dong and Kangyin Dong
Mitigating the energy trilemma (ET) is of great importance for dealing with climate change and realizing carbon neutrality. To this end, effectively assessing the level of the ET…
Abstract
Purpose
Mitigating the energy trilemma (ET) is of great importance for dealing with climate change and realizing carbon neutrality. To this end, effectively assessing the level of the ET is essential. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current situation and the spatio-temporal changes of the ET in the whole of China.
Design/methodology/approach
Moreover, based on provincial-level data in China for the period 2002–2017, and by using the dynamic estimation model, we aim to determine the specific marginal impacts of smart transportation (ST) on the ET, and the possible channels through which ST works on the ET.
Findings
We thus present the following findings: (1) The performance of both ET and its three pillars is gradually improving in China. Moreover, the situation tends to vary dramatically among various regions and provinces, and the gap between the best performers and the worst is large. (2) ST plays a significant role in inhibiting the ET, a finding that remains robust after a series of tests. And (3) the ET eradication effect of ST is caused mainly by improved innovation, advanced technical efficiency, and the increasing energy scale.
Originality/value
Accordingly, we put forward some policy recommendations to help tackle ET and accelerate ST in China.
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Venkateswarlu Nalluri, Richard G. Mayopu and Long-Sheng Chen
Due to the high use of mobile devices, the market share of mobile advertisements (Ads) is significantly growing. Although mobile Ads can contact potential customers at any time…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the high use of mobile devices, the market share of mobile advertisements (Ads) is significantly growing. Although mobile Ads can contact potential customers at any time and in any location depending on their unique demands, one of the biggest problems for advertisers is how to improve customer repurchases with their Ads. The development and empirical support of customer repurchase through mobile Ads context have not been addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define and identify the key attributes of customer repurchase in a mobile Ads context.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, the set of attributes was derived from a systematic literature review and finalized by applying the Fuzzy Delphi method. To develop a hierarchical model and classify the cause/effect groups among identified key attributes, the Fuzzy mixed approach uses a combination of Fuzzy interpretive structural modeling-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory.
Findings
The findings suggest that language, type of website and social media are classified to as essential attributes for improving customer repurchase through mobile Ads.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of the current research is limited to identify and develop the hierarchical interrelationships between customer repurchase attributes that are unique to the mobile Ads business context. Additional research may be conducted for various media contexts and other products/services categories.
Originality/value
This study illustrated how multicriteria decision-making techniques could be used effectively using Fuzzy theory to explore the research area of customer repurchase in mobile Ads concept.
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Tianxiang Sheng and Chunlin Liu
Over the past few years, e‐commerce has become increasingly popular in China. Recent research has shown that it is widely accepted that customer satisfaction and loyalty for…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past few years, e‐commerce has become increasingly popular in China. Recent research has shown that it is widely accepted that customer satisfaction and loyalty for online purchases is lower than that for shopping in more traditional ways. How to maintain and increase the satisfaction and loyalty of online customers is a challenging issue for online retailers. The purpose of this paper is to try to understand what affects customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
A new conceptual model of customer satisfaction and loyalty in online purchases is developed, where four dimensions of e‐service quality – efficiency, requirement fulfillment, system accessibility, and privacy – are the four predictors from Parasuraman's E‐S‐QUAL. A partial least square estimation algorithm was then applied to analyze data from a sample of 164 online buyers from a range of backgrounds. Goods purchased include furniture, books, clothes, software, and digital products.
Findings
The results indicate that efficiency and fulfillment have positive effects on customer satisfaction, and fulfillment and privacy have positive effects on customer loyalty. However, the remaining factors have no significant effect on either customer satisfaction or customer loyalty. In addition, customer loyalty is positively affected by customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
The paper finds that the service quality must be analyzed from different aspects only to find that the requirement fulfillment has relatively great effect on customers' satisfaction and loyalty, the system accessibility has no effect on both, the efficiency has positive effect on customers' satisfaction and the privacy has positive effect on customers' loyalty. As these results are inconsistent with previous research achievements to some extent, this paper tends to provide some explanation.
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Hui Zhang, Shu Cole, Xiucheng Fan and Myungja Cho
As the hospitality industry is shifting its focus from service to experience, customers are becoming co-creators of the perceived value of a hospitality service because…
Abstract
As the hospitality industry is shifting its focus from service to experience, customers are becoming co-creators of the perceived value of a hospitality service because experiences customers obtained when consuming a hospitality service involve the participation of the customers. Thus, more research is needed to examine the relationships among consumer’s personal factors and their evaluations of hospitality services. This study developed and tested hypotheses that examined the effects of customers’ intrinsic characteristics on their evaluations of a restaurant service. Data were collected from college students in the United States (n = 220) and China (n = 254) using a scenario approach. Findings reveal that customers’ gender, personality, and cultural background had significant effects on their evaluations of a restaurant service. Specifically, female customers rated the same service higher than male customers on the reliability dimension of service quality and overall service quality; customers with personalities of extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness rated the service higher than customers with neuroticism personality on the responsiveness dimension; and customers in individualistic cultures rated the service higher than those in collectivistic cultures on most of the service evaluation measures. Implications of the study’s findings are discussed.
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Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez and María Moral-Moral
The first problem when diving into this topic is the confusion caused by a number of terms intended to designate the same concept, in addition to the lack of a shared…
Abstract
Purpose
The first problem when diving into this topic is the confusion caused by a number of terms intended to designate the same concept, in addition to the lack of a shared interpretation on what Islam requires from tourism services to secure their acceptability. This paper aims to contribute to the clarification of what halal tourism is, as it seems to be the most appropriate term to refer to practices allowed when travelling, in accordance with the Islamic law.
Design/methodology/approach
A synthesis of the current situation was carried out, based on the papers contained in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Moreover, a consultation of tourism experts was implemented to extract a number of practical implications for the promotion and development of this segment.
Findings
As the literature review suggested, halal tourism is a field of study that is still in a very early stage. In spite of this fact and the ambiguity found, halal tourism can be understood as the offer of tourist services designed to meet the needs of Muslim tourists in accordance with their religious obligations.
Practical implications
It is imperative to offer halal services (food, worship facilities, etc.) to attract this type of tourists. However, the diversity of interpretations has prevented the existence of one single certification. The lack of knowledge on this market is the main obstacle to overcome.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to clarifying the conceptualization of halal tourism. It takes a theoretical review and experts’ view as a preliminary step to study this topic in more depth.
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Zaidatul Akma Sulaiman, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Behzad Foroughi and Othman Rosly
This paper aims to investigate the impact of Shariah-compliant hotel attributes on Muslim travellers’ revisit intention.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of Shariah-compliant hotel attributes on Muslim travellers’ revisit intention.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 361 Muslim travellers who have stayed at Shariah-compliant hotels in the previous 12 months were recruited to take part in this research. The hypothesized research model was assessed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach.
Findings
The analysis revealed that Muslim travellers’ revisit intention is dependent on the halal food and beverages and the provision of Shariah-compliant facilities at the hotel, whereas the Shariah-compliant operation and interior design of hotels are not significantly associated with it. The findings also uncovered that religiosity moderates the impacts of Shariah-compliant facilities and interior design on travellers’ revisit intention.
Practical implications
Guidelines to offer services that meet Muslim travellers’ needs can be developed based on the results of this study to help Shariah-compliant hotel marketers attract and retain more customers.
Originality/value
The findings of this study have provided insights into the importance of halal attributes and practices in retaining Muslim customers at Shariah-compliant hotels.
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Manuela Pilato, Marco Platania and Hugues Séraphin
This chapter contributes to the overall tourist satisfaction to local economies using sustainable practices. The aim therefore is to analyse to what extent the characteristics of…
Abstract
This chapter contributes to the overall tourist satisfaction to local economies using sustainable practices. The aim therefore is to analyse to what extent the characteristics of a product and service can bridge the gap between locals and visitors. This chapter is based on secondary data. We find evidence for six themes which are considered to be the most theoretical issue affecting the studies on street food in tourism considered in the analysis.
Results show that street food tourism, as a new paradigm, can be a viable option while thinking the process of sustainable tourism development in emerging destinations. Our findings have clear implications for the fast growing literature on overtourism and related perverse impacts (conceptual contribution) giving also additional options to Destination Marketing Organisations' (DMOs) managers in terms of strategy to combat tourismphobia analysed in the study. Proposals for future research will also be outlined.