Influence of brand relationship on customer attitude toward integrated resort brands: a cognitive,affective, and conative perspective

ABSTRACT

Despite the significance of understanding customer behavior in the integrated resort setting, only limited research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, this study aims to identify and assess the antecedents of integrated resort brand loyalty from the perspective of Oliver’s cognitive, affective, and conative theory of attitudinal brand loyalty model. . A total of 443 respondents who had experienced integrated resorts participated and completed a survey questionnaire. A positive relationship was observed between two-way communication and brand attitude, emotional exchange and brand attitude, brand partner quality and brand attitude, and brand attitude and behavioral intention toward integrated resort brand. Results revealed the association between cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions and integrated resort brand value. This notion suggests that integrated resort brands carry a high awareness of relationship, and the brand will invoke an emotional value in customers. Therefore, integrated resorts should consider customer–brand relational aspects to achieve long-term success for the integrated resort brand.     

The effect of dynamic integrated resort experience on Croatian customer behavior

This paper aims to gain knowledge on customers’ experience toward integrated resorts in Croatia. Customer perception toward integrated resorts was collected via face‐to‐face survey. The multidimensional experiential values and behaviors of 354 customers were studied. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Croatian customers are engaged with the integrated resort experience. This engagement influences their satisfaction and behavioral intention. Specifically, customers with high playfulness and service expectations tend to engage positive behavioral intention toward the integrated resort brand. This paper offers the first insight into the relationship between experiential value and behavioral intention in the integrated resort setting.     

Unraveling the dynamic and contingency mechanism between service experience and customer engagement with luxury hotel brands

This study unravels the dynamic and contingency mechanism between service experience and customer engagement with luxury hotel brands by investigating a multi-step model linking these two variables, in which emotional attachment and relational quality constructs (i.e., brand satisfaction, brand trust, and brand commitment) act as a bridge, while customer involvement acts as a moderator. Based on a self-administered survey dataset of 249 international tourists who are customers of luxury hotel brands, partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that all proposed hypotheses are supported. As such, this study discovers and clarifies the nature and dynamic mechanism underpinning the co-creation and reciprocation process of customer engagement with luxury hotels. In particular, the positive service experience is found to contribute to customer engagement via emotional attachment and relational marketing. Furthermore, the moderating role of customer involvement in the luxury hotel setting is confirmed.     

Linking AI quality performance and customer engagement: The moderating effect of AI preference

Drawing upon affordance theory, this study positions artificial intelligence (AI) as a commercial service in examining its influence on customer engagement in the hotel context. In particular, we seek to understand linkages between customer perceptions of AI service quality, AI customer satisfaction and engagement. Given the multiplicity of services offered by service organisations, customers’ preference for AI service is modelled as a moderator of customer perceptions and attitudes towards AI. Data was collected from a sample of hotel customers in Australia who had previously used AI tools or services. Our results reveal a significant chain effect between AI service indicators, service quality perceptions, AI satisfaction and customer engagement. AI preference has a significant moderation effect on information quality and satisfaction. These findings provide new insights into the consumer services literature and have important implications for marketing practitioners.     

Quality of virtual reality and its impacts on behavioral intention

Although virtual reality (VR) has received growing attention and been adopted as customer engagement and marketing tools in the hospitality and tourism industry, little research has been conducted in quality assessment of VR and its impact on customers’ psychological acceptance. Building upon the DeLone and McLean’s IS success model, this study identifies the quality factors of VR and examines their impacts on customers’ behavioral intention. This study develops a quality-driven VR framework and tests the proposed hypotheses assessing customers’ behavioral intentions. For the empirical analysis, this study recruits potential U.S. customers and asks them to browse a VR-based destination website and then to answer the online survey related to VR applications. The collected responses are analyzed by PLS-SEM. Findings suggest that content quality, system quality, and vividness positively influence customers’ attitude and telepresence, leading to their positive behavioral intention to visit the destination.     

Gambling motivation among tourists in Macau's casino resorts

The number of tourists visiting casino resorts has risen in recent years. Tourists often view gambling as a leisure activity option that they can participate in during their holiday. This study aims to investigate the motives that influence tourists’ gambling intention. A list of potential motives is derived from the extensive tourism literature, and a sample including 462 respondents was collected in Macau. The survey results indicate that benefits, learning, pleasure, costing, and socialization are all motives for tourists to engage in recreational gambling. However, adventure, relaxation, prestige, and winning are not influencing factors among tourists who gamble during their trip. The study also explores the moderating roles of gender, age, and educational level on the relationship between different motives and gambling intention. Understanding the motives for why tourists gamble is useful for integrated resort operators to formulate marketing strategies for attracting tourists.     

Understanding the dimensions of customer relationships in the hotel and restaurant industries

The purposes of this research were, first, to examine the dimensionality of hospitality customer relationships and, second, to develop a multi-dimensional customer relationship scale validated with both antecedent measures of marketing effectiveness and effect measures of financial performance. While hospitality marketing research has frequently focused on the relationships between various marketing actions and different dimensions of customer relationships, there is a lack of research examining customer relationships as a multi-dimensional construct. For both the hotel and restaurant industries, scale development procedures with confirmatory factor analyses were used to identify the dimensions of customer relationships: engagement, motivation, commitment, cross-buying, word of mouth, and defection. The nomological validity of these dimensions was tested using the antecedent of service quality and the effect of customer lifetime financial value. The paper concludes by articulating, first, the theoretical and practical applications of the proposed scale and, second, an agenda for future research.     

A new dualistic approach to brand attitude: The role of passion among integrated resort customers

Integrated resorts have recently become a very popular destination for tourists. However, there is a lack of knowledge about general customers’ behavior in the integrated resort setting. Thus, this study focused on the perceptions, emotions, and behavioral intentions of recreational customers who had previously visited an integrated resort. The authors examine the structural relationship among the cognitive (i.e., passion and motivation), affective (i.e., affective attitude), and conative intention outcome of general integrated resort customers. Structural equation modeling analysis of 401 survey participants showed that the link between extrinsic motivation and obsessive passion reduced affective attitude. By contrast, the association of intrinsic motivation and harmonious passion promoted affective attitude. The conative intention outcome of customers is directly influenced by intrinsic motivation and affective attitude. This study contributes to academic and practical implications in the integrated resort brand marketing by focusing on recreational customers’ behavior.     

Measuring tourist judgment on service quality

This study measures tourist judgments on service quality in alpine ski resorts. An attribute based method was employed in order to estimate weighting schemes both for quality judgments across different tourism activity domains and different quality dimensions within winter resorts and to quantify an overall quality measure. A linear regression and Sirgy's congruity model of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction were adopted. The results indicate that there exists a linear relationship between the overall quality measure and the partial judgments of each domain/dimension. This allows deciphering the relevance of different domains of tourism activity and quality dimensions within the process of making quality judgments.     

Innovativeness and customer value co-creation behaviors: Mediating role of customer engagement

Customer value co-creation behaviors play a crucial part in determining customer satisfaction. However, few restaurant literatures have examined how innovativeness influences customer value co-creation behaviors. This research examined the influence of innovativeness on customer value co-creation behaviors to clarify the mediating effect of customer engagement. Survey data from 501 customers demonstrated that innovativeness and customer engagement are positively related to customer value co-creation behaviors. Moreover, customer engagement mediates the association between innovativeness and customer value co-creation behaviors. This research extends current knowledge on customer co-creation and examines the associations among innovativeness, customer engagement, and customer value co-creation behaviors. Research implications suggest strategic directions for restaurant managers in terms of innovative practices and customer relationship management.     

Antecedents and consequences of hotel customers’ psychological ownership

This study aims to broaden the current knowledge on the antecedents and consequences of customers’ psychological ownership (CPO) from new perspectives in the hotel context. Specifically, this study investigates how self-image congruity and functional congruity affect CPO through impression in memory based on self-congruity theory and also examines two types of customer engagement—customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing engagement—as new CPO outcomes. Using survey data collected from 433 Chinese hotel customers, this study finds that self-image congruity positively predicts CPO partially through impression in memory, whereas functional congruity positively influences CPO fully through impression in memory. Moreover, the findings indicate that CPO significantly drives customers’ social influence engagement and knowledge-sharing engagement. This study contributes theoretically to the CPO literature by further developing its linkages with congruity perceptions and customer engagement. Practical implications of the findings can help hotel managers effectively promote CPO and customer engagement.     

Aesthetics of hotel photos and its impact on consumer engagement: A computer vision approach

Visual content has been an essential marketing approach to exerting enjoyable virtual experiences and inducing consumer engagement. However, despite the widespread acknowledgment of the importance of visual content, how would the exerted aesthetic perception affect consumer engagement is still unexplored. Adopting a deep convolutional neural network model, this study quantifies the aesthetics of thumbnail images and managerial photos of hotels and thereby explores the impact of hotel photo aesthetics on consumer engagement. Aesthetically enjoyable photos are shown effective not only to encourage more consumers to engage in word-of-mouth discussions but also to promote consumer ratings. Such impact is also significantly moderated by hotel price. This study illustrates a viable approach to probing the perceived aesthetics of visual content in the hospitality field, and the uncovered significant role of aesthetics highlights the necessity of further attention to the cognitive perceptions of visual marketing content in both theoretical research and practical management.     

Customers’ Perceptions of Employee Engagement: Fortifying the Service–Profit Chain

This study investigated the three dimensions of employee engagement: dedication, energy, and absorption from the customer’s perspective. The service–profit chain (SPC) and employee behavior that promotes customer satisfaction and loyalty were examined. The results revealed that certain aspects of employee engagement are more readily perceived by consumers and more likely to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty. Findings showed that energy and dedication combined were most likely to foster feelings of satisfaction and loyalty among hospitality patrons. From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to the literature by enhancing the SPC, revealing new insight into employee engagement, and linking employee engagement to positive consumer outcomes. Hospitality industry professionals may find that employee engagement benefits the customers’ perceptions of the establishment, ultimately increasing profitability. This study utilizes the SPC in the hospitality context and proposes a new link in the chain: employee engagement.     

Situational and personal factors influencing hospitality employee engagement in value co-creation

This study explores the situational and personal factors affecting hospitality employees’ engagement in the co-creation of value. The concept of value co-creation emerged from the general co-creation literature, and little research has assessed how situational and personal factors enhance our understanding of value creation. To explore these underlying factors, a qualitative study involving in-depth and focus group interviews was conducted at three luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Macao. The research findings indicate five situational factors and five personal factors impact cocreated value for hotel guests in the luxury sector. Insights are provided into the potential use of these factors to better manage employee engagement and the customer experience to facilitate value co-creation. The implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

The mechanism of tourism slogans on travel intention based on Unique Selling Proposition (USP) theory

Tourism slogan is an important part of destination branding and marketing. This study uncovers the mechanism of tourism slogans on travel intention based on USP theory. Study 1 utilizes a content analysis to quantify China’s 5A-class tourist resorts’ slogans by applying USP (Unique Selling Proposition) criteria. Study 2 tests a moderated mediation model to explain the mechanism of tourism slogans’ effectiveness measured by these USP levels. Results show that slogans’ USP levels have a significant positive effect on travel intention through mental imagery, and this relation is moderated by fantasy proneness. Findings provide useful insights for practice and future research.     

Generating socially responsible events at ski resorts

This study examines how ski resorts can manage events that are sustainable, while also balancing the needs of consumers and local workers. Using a mixed-method approach, quantitative results (from 710 ski tourists) highlight the influence of community-centric Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Orientation towards Sporting Events (OSE) on the involvement and satisfaction of visitors in sponsorship-linked events within Iranian ski resorts. Qualitative results (from 38 local resort workers) suggest local resort workers desire community engagement, personal well-being, and rejuvenation. The implications this has for hospitality development are discussed alongside the theoretical implications for future research exploring community-based CSR and Event Social Responsibility (ESR).     

Factors affecting the knowledge sharing attitude of hotel service personnel

The accumulation and sharing of knowledge is an important managerial approach to attracting customers and increasing customer satisfaction. However, knowledge sharing is not an automatic behavior. The primary purpose of this study is to understand the organizational and personal factors motivating employees to share knowledge. Personnel in international tourist hotels in Taipei who provide front-line services for travelers were surveyed. This study shows that internal marketing and organizational culture influence knowledge-sharing attitudes and perceived behavioral control. In addition, perceived behavioral control influences the relations among internal marketing, organizational culture, and knowledge-sharing attitudes. This research suggests that to develop knowledge-sharing attitudes among personnel that benefit customer service, it is important for managers to model supportive attitudes, give actual support in forms such as bonuses and resources, and develop a culture that encourages personnel to attempt innovation.     

Exploring the efficacy of youth sport camps to build customer relationships

Professional sport teams strive to cultivate a large, loyal fan base. Relationship marketing is well suited for developing loyal customers. Professional sport teams provide youth sport camps mostly for added revenue streams and marketing extensions. However, research neglects to investigate which relationship factors may help build or reignite long-term fan development. This exploratory study examined the efficacy of these camps on factors theorised for developing long-term customer loyalty. Parents of camp participants were evaluated because they may appeal to teams interested in short- and long-term results. Using repeated measures MANOVA, matched pre- and post-camp data were collected from 70 parents of participants from four different NBA teams’ youth sport camps around the United States. Data analysis revealed the camps were effective in enhancing team identification, attitudes toward the team, and team satisfaction. Results suggest that youth sport camps assist in building customer relationships with parents. Further, the benefits of relationship marketing efforts may extend beyond primary participants via the familial socialisation process. The three aforementioned precursors to fan loyalty showed significant increases after parents’ experience with the teams’ youth sport camp. These findings highlight a possible marketing platform that can serve both short- and long-term objectives for professional basketball teams.     

Physical attractiveness of service employees and customer engagement in tourism industry

As the importance of customer engagement gains more and more recognition, it is critical to study customer engagement strategy in the intensely competitive tourism industry. Answering the call for research on antecedents of tourists' customer engagement in the tourism industry, we consider the role of employees' physical attractiveness. We adopt a mixed-methods approach; using interviews and three scenario-based experiments, we explore, hypothesize, and test the relationship between employees' physical attractiveness and customer engagement of tourists. The results show that (1) physical attractiveness of employees affects tourists' customer engagement, that (2) the main effect of physical attractiveness is mediated by the desire for social interaction, and that (3) the main effect is moderated by tourism service characteristics (i.e., tourism service expertise).     

High-performance work practices and hotel employee performance: The mediation of work engagement

This study proposes and tests a research model that investigates whether work engagement functions as a mediator of the effects of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on job performance and extra-role customer service. These relationships were assessed through LISREL 8.30 using structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were obtained from full-time frontline hotel employees and their managers in the Poiana Brasov region in Romania. The results suggest that work engagement acts as a full mediator of the effects of HPWPs on job performance and extra-role customer service. Specifically, HPWPs, as manifested by frontline employees’ appraisal of training, empowerment, and rewards, enhance work engagement. Such HPWPs in turn trigger job performance and extra-role customer service. Implications of the results are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.