Yun Ying Zhong, Xi Yu Leung, Jie Sun and Boon Peng Ng
This study aims to investigate the impacts of pandemic-related media coverage on younger hospitality and tourism employees’ ageist attitudes toward older people by applying the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impacts of pandemic-related media coverage on younger hospitality and tourism employees’ ageist attitudes toward older people by applying the media priming theory and the terror management theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes a mixed-method approach through an online survey. A total of 416 usable responses are collected from current US hospitality and tourism employees under 55 years. Qualitative data were analyzed using word cloud. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is then used to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The study’s results show that younger employees' cognitive reaction negatively affects aging anxiety and intergenerational tension, which subsequently influence their willingness to work with older people. Negative media-induced emotions are positively associated with aging anxiety, whereas positive emotions exert no significant impact. Intergenerational contact frequency moderates the effect of intergenerational tension on younger employees’ willingness to work with older people.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s findings contribute to the hospitality and tourism workforce literature by considering the priming effects of media coverage on younger employees’ attitudes toward self-aging and the older group. This study also offers managerial insights on developing effective age-inclusion interventions to reduce workplace ageism in the post-pandemic era.
Originality/value
Existing hospitality and tourism studies on older workers are scant and largely descriptive. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first study that assesses the effects of pandemic-related media coverage on workplace ageism toward older people among the current hospitality and tourism workforce.
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Dina Marie Zemke, Yun Ying Zhong and Carola Raab
Firms that serve customers in the service environment rely on a well-designed servicescape. This is particularly true in the hotel industry, where the hotel’s design is an…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms that serve customers in the service environment rely on a well-designed servicescape. This is particularly true in the hotel industry, where the hotel’s design is an important part of the product mix. However, despite design’s importance, there is no common instrument available to measure hotel design quality. The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative method, the Design Quality Indicator, to measure guests’ evaluations of hotel design quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Nearly 5,000 guests of two full-service hotel brands were surveyed soon after a hotel stay (within two weeks of check-out). The DQI’s factor structure is tested using principle components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to improve the reliability, validity and parsimony of the instrument.
Findings
The study yields a DQI instrument that is reduced from 92 to 41 measurement items, with good reliability and validity, enabling more efficient data collection and analysis.
Research limitations/implications
This study only examines guests’ assessments of two full-service hotel brands. The instrument can be used to explore design’s relationship with numerous outcome variables, such as satisfaction, loyalty, and repatronage intentions, as well as property performance outcomes.
Practical implications
The methods demonstrated can be used by hotel owners and operators to inform resource allocation decisions, particularly when planning for renovations.
Originality/value
This study provides a reliable, validated quantitative assessment of hotel design quality. It is also one of the few studies that elicits feedback about a guest’s actual hotel stay, rather than a hypothesized or simulated stay.
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Manuel Rivera, Robertico Croes and YunYing Zhong
This paper aims to examine and identify important attributes for mobile applications (apps) that might dictate tourist preferences for the apps on a small island destination…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine and identify important attributes for mobile applications (apps) that might dictate tourist preferences for the apps on a small island destination. Guided by the Task Technology Fit (TTF) theory, the study considers the tasks performed, technology characteristics and individuals’ characteristics in determining the mobile apps attribute set.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a conjoint methodology within a case study approach framework. The conjoint analysis allows for assessing preferences from different consumers regarding the objective characteristics of products or services that facilitate the optimal design of product development. Optimal product development is a challenge for destinations, as they strive to achieve and sustain optimal market positions. Mobile apps may empower destinations in this endeavor. The case study approach imparts a context-dependent knowledge that facilitates a more nuanced understanding of consumer preference of use.
Findings
The results of the conjoint analysis suggest a strategic mapping of the most important attributes including type of content information, coupons and location awareness in defining apps product development. Within each attribute, the study also identifies the significant characteristics of a mobile application that are preferred by tourists. This ranking exists irrespective of familiarity with the destination (first-time and repeat visitors).
Research limitations/implications
The implication is that revealed preferences anchored in conjoint analysis provide a powerful approach to optimize product development in a small island destination. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest that the developments of a mobile app for a destination must concentrate on fostering spending and consider the app as a new marketing channel. From a theoretical point of view, the current study highlights the usefulness of using the conjoint analysis and the TTF theory as an overarching framework in mapping a multi-attribute decision-making space that influences tourist judgment and preference of use. The conjoint method applied in the study enables researchers to clearly identify a combination of various mobile app attributes that are most influential on tourists’ choice and preference of use. The guiding framework, TTF theory, allows the conjoint product designs to go beyond the technology characteristics to include tasks performed by tourists and their individual characteristics.
Originality/value
This study is the first to apply a conjoint analysis within the TTF theoretical framework in the context of a small island destination when assessing tourists’ use preferences toward mobile applications, while at the same time investigating whether any differences exist between first-time and repeat visitors. The study demonstrates that complementing the nature of the task (traveling) with context-specific interface and interactive features is an important area of inquiry that can benefit from adopting conjoint analysis.
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Ying Chen, Yun-Kyoung Kim, Zhiqiang Liu, Guofeng Wang and Guozhen Zhao
Guided by social exchange theory and signaling theory, this chapter investigates the relationship between individual perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS), union…
Abstract
Guided by social exchange theory and signaling theory, this chapter investigates the relationship between individual perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS), union instrumentality, and employees’ turnover intention. The results obtained from a multilevel and multisource sample of more than 1,300 employees in 37 multinational corporation based in China show that, in contrast to our hypothesis, union instrumentality is not directly related to turnover intention; rather, the results from the post hoc mediation analysis show that union instrumentality is indirectly and negatively related to turnover intention through affective organizational commitment. Consistent with our hypothesis, the results of our analysis show that union instrumentality serves as an important contingent factor in the relationship between HPWS and employee turnover intention. The relationship between HPWS and turnover intention becomes positive when employee union instrumentality is low.
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Yong‐Ming Tang, Yun Chen, Wen‐Zhong Yang, Xiao‐Shuang Yin, Ying Liu and Jin‐Tang Wang
The aim of this paper is to investigate inhibition of copper corrosion by 3,5‐bis(2‐thienyl)‐4‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole (2‐TAT) in 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO4.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate inhibition of copper corrosion by 3,5‐bis(2‐thienyl)‐4‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole (2‐TAT) in 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO4.
Design/methodology/approach
Potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance measurements were carried out on copper in 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO4 containing various concentrations of 2‐TAT, and the effects of temperature were also investigated.
Findings
As an efficient inhibitor, 2‐TAT behaves better in 1 M HCl than in 0.5 M H2SO4. 2‐TAT can be classified as cathodic‐type corrosion inhibitor in 1 M HCl and acts as relatively mixed type in 0.5 M H2SO4. Activation energies in the presence and absence of 2‐TAT were obtained by measuring the temperature independence of corrosion current. Adsorption of the inhibitor on the copper surface was found to obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm.
Practical implications
This inhibitor could have application in industries where hydrochloric acid solutions are used to remove scale and salts from copper surfaces and may render dismantling unnecessary.
Originality/value
The results from this paper showed that 2‐TAT could be considered as a suitable inhibitor for copper in acidic media.
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Haibo Xue, Xin Zhao, Pokachev Nikolay and Jiayi Qin
Family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve is the most important and most ritualized feast for families in China. It is the time for the entire family to reunite. Families gather…
Abstract
Purpose
Family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve is the most important and most ritualized feast for families in China. It is the time for the entire family to reunite. Families gather together to reflect their past and talk about the future. Through the lens of consumer culture theories, this study explores how Chinese consumers construct family identity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on constant comparative analysis of primary data including in-depth interviews and participant observation, and secondary data including historical archives, cultural tracing, documentary reports and essays, the authors deconstruct the consumption rituals of family dinner on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. The authors focus on four aspects, including participants, place, time and related activities, and analyze Chinese consumers' ritual experiences.
Findings
The authors’ findings show how young consumers construct and strengthen individual self-identity, relational identity and family identity in various ways through consumption and ritual practices during Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.
Originality/value
The study of family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve helps the authors understand contemporary consumer culture in three aspects. First, it helps the authors understand the relationship between consumption and culture. Second, the study shows the changes and continuities of consumption rituals. Third, the research highlights the experience of “home” among contemporary Chinese consumers.
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Gui Ying Yang and Thao Lê
One of the main strengths of qualitative research is to focus on ideas, concepts and meanings involving individuals and groups of people in their own discourse. Instead of testing…
Abstract
One of the main strengths of qualitative research is to focus on ideas, concepts and meanings involving individuals and groups of people in their own discourse. Instead of testing a narrow hypothesis or making a generalisation about a population on certain issues under investigation, qualitative research attempts to present different insights which can only be unearthed by direct and personal engagement with research participants (Brannen, 1992). This engagement should take place in a natural social context where real life takes place. However, conducting qualitative research in China can pose a huge challenge for both Chinese and international researchers. This paper examines some problems (ethics, linguistics, etc) of using qualitative research methods and tools such as interviews, participant observation, and Critical Discourse Analysis in China.
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The purpose of this paper is to bridge the understanding of apparent dichotomies such as East and West, philosophy and social sciences, and antiquity and modernity, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bridge the understanding of apparent dichotomies such as East and West, philosophy and social sciences, and antiquity and modernity, and to continue the vibrant expansion of competitive dynamics study into the realm of East-West theoretical fusion.
Design/methodology/approach
The author looks to classical Chinese philosophy to discover the origins and nature of competitive dynamics. The paper develops the premise that the foundational thrusts of this contemporary Western management topic spring from ancient Eastern conceptions of duality, relativity, and time.
Findings
Research inroads are made along two paths. First, the paper traces the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of competitive dynamics to Eastern thinking. Then by bridging what have customarily been perceived as fundamentally different paradigms, it reveals, in a new light, empirical findings in this strategy subfield.
Research limitations/implications
Linking Western management science, and specifically the study of competitive dynamics, to classical Eastern philosophy raises new research questions in the areas of international management and management education as well as competitive dynamics. In the latter, the paper suggests opportunities for exploring connections between traditional Chinese concepts and contemporary organizational and competition research issues, including competitive and cooperative relationships at the industry level. Future research may also investigate the fundamental differences and similarities between Eastern and Western philosophies, and their implications for competitive strategies.
Originality/value
From a relatively obscure corner of business academia, competitive dynamics now occupies a distinct place in strategic management research and is a topic of intense interest to scholars in a variety of disciplines. The usual view is that competitive dynamics fits squarely in the spectrum of social sciences, an organically home-grown area of Western study. This paper examines the topic from a distinctly different angle – through the lens of ancient Eastern philosophy – to discern deeper a deeper meaning and wider application.
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The goal of this chapter is to respond to the theoretical inquiries by scholars who are interested in how the public–private partnership (PPP) models adapt to China’s context…
Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to respond to the theoretical inquiries by scholars who are interested in how the public–private partnership (PPP) models adapt to China’s context where political power dictates economic strategies. We also want to provide suggestions to policy designers who aim to promote a sustainable investment environment for domestic and international investors. We review the literature that explains the upside and downside of PPP projects in contemporary China. (1) We classify the trajectory of PPP evolution into four phases, i.e., emergence, growth, recession and revival. (2) We note that private companies take a disadvantageous position in the partnership compared with governments and state-owned enterprises because of a lack of specialized legislation, unequal competition between private companies and state-owned enterprises and the opposition from the civic society. (3) We identify political risks as the most influential risks. Political risks also lead to the misallocation of other risks between public and private parties that contributes to the high failure rate of China’s PPP projects. Based on these findings, we recommend governments to draft specialized legislation, stabilize the political environment and provide favourable subsidies to local governments to limit the risks involved in PPP projects. We also advise private enterprises and state-owned enterprises to focus on negotiating over task and risk division with governments when they make decisions to participate in PPP projects. This full review of studies on PPP development in China provides reliable recommendations to scholars, governments and enterprises.
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In modern China, sports and nationalism always have close connection, and nationalism is the important reason for the promotion of Chinese sports. However, the relationship…
Abstract
In modern China, sports and nationalism always have close connection, and nationalism is the important reason for the promotion of Chinese sports. However, the relationship between Chinese sports and nationalism in globalised China could be much more examined by academics, as well as its influencing factors. This chapter selects the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the context and representative three Chinese sports heroes in the period of globalisation to study. The findings show that in some extent, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and three Chinese sports heroes represent the national image of China in the globalised world, also bearing the burden of washing away historical humiliation and pursuing national glory. Furthermore, it is manifested that China have a complex nationalism in the process of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. Under the influence of mass media, market economy and sports professionalisation, nationalism still exists in Chinese sports, but people gradually start to reflect on the ‘Juguo Tizhi’, the traditional Chinese sports system and the concept of ‘winning glory for the nation’. The relationship between Chinese nationalism and sports shows the important implications of rapid Chinese sports development.