Improving frontline service employees' innovative behavior using conflict management in the hospitality industry: The mediating role of engagement

Conflict within an organization is inescapable. However when frontline hotel employees can overcome conflicts their levels of engagement can increase and innovative behavior may emerge. The purpose of this study was to verify that the conflict management, as perceived by frontline employees, significantly affects their levels of engagement and innovative behavior. The results support this notion. Further, in the sample of 383, those employees expressing a high level of engagement were more likely to engage in innovative behavior. Also, employee engagement fully mediated the relationship between conflict management climate and innovative behavior. These findings have important implications for managing conflict management in the hospitality industry. Finally, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

The role of customer behavior in forming perceived value at restaurants: A multidimensional approach

With the increasing involvement of customers at restaurants, their behaviors have become an indispensable part in formation of perceptions of value. To examine such a subtle and complicated process, this study applies a multi-layer/multi-dimension approach to examine how customer behavior predicts perceived value, which in turn leads to satisfaction. Particularly, customer behavior, assessed with a hierarchical framework, includes two dimensions: participation behavior (with four sub-dimensions: information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, personal interaction) and citizenship behavior (with four sub-dimensions: feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance). Customer perceived value consists of three dimensions: economic, individual, and relational values. Data collected from 514 respondents reflect those with dining experience at restaurants. The results show that a customer’s perception of value gains greater impact from citizenship behavior than participation behavior. The findings of the study contribute to the evolving knowledge of customer behavior and offer industry practitioners’ effective marketing strategies to maximize customer value.     

Becoming an ambidextrous hotel: The role of customer orientation

Because competitive pressure in the hotel industry continues to increase, hotels have to develop service innovation (i.e., exploration) and service improvement (i.e., exploitation) capacities to become ambidextrous for continually creating customer value. In this study, a theory of the effect of customer orientation on service innovation and service improvement, which facilitates service quality and results in better market performance, was developed and investigated. By analyzing the data provided by senior executives and department managers from 126 hotels in Taiwan, both service innovation and service improvement were revealed to partially mediate the relationship between customer orientation and market performance. The results imply that customer orientation affects the market performance of a hotel through the development of service capabilities, and that customer orientation can transform a hotel into an ambidextrous hotel by concurrently developing service innovation and service improvement capacities.     

Innovative behavior motivations among frontline employees: The mediating role of knowledge management

Labor-intensive industries face challenges when designing innovative, customer-oriented service strategies at the employee level, since service is mainly produced and delivered to customers not by technology or machines but by human resources. In other words, the role of frontline employees is particularly critical in customers’ belief formation of whether a service company is innovative or not. Therefore, this study was conducted to formulate and investigate the psychological process of frontline employees’ innovative behaviors. To achieve the purpose, this study collected data from frontline employees in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. This study contributes to the motivation literature in human resources management by adapting and considering a marketing approach based on three aspects of motivation: global, contextual, and situational. This study also examined whether motivation factors may increase knowledge-management capabilities and subsequently stimulate innovative behaviors, which are critical to the successful implementation of service improvements among frontline employees.     

The work values and job involvement of Post-80s employees in the hospitality and tourism industry: empirical evidence from Macau

The purpose of this research was to examine the work values (WV) and the job involvement (JI) of the younger workforce in a Chinese society. Specifically, the study explores the case of Macau, which has transformed from a sleepy enclave to a gambling mecca. The findings from 384 full-time Chinese employees revealed four WV factors considered important to them. The Post-80s value the social environment and freedom. WV are significantly positively correlated with JI and vary significantly across demographic variables. Intrinsic WV have prediction power towards JI. The lack of research on the younger generation particularly in this popular tourism destination contribute to a better understanding and management of the workforce. It also highlights that traditional Chinese managerial practice might not be able to cope with the new expectations and work habits of the younger workers.     

Driving employees to serve customers beyond their roles in the Vietnamese hospitality industry: The roles of paternalistic leadership and discretionary HR practices

Our research primarily seeks to assess how paternalistic leadership behaviors – authoritarianism, benevolence, and morality – influence extra-role customer service via employee work engagement as a mediator. The data for our research model were gleaned from four- or five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. To test the hypotheses of the research model, structural equation modelling was employed. Our research findings cast light on the mediation mechanism of employee work engagement for the positive relationships between benevolence and morality components of paternalistic leadership and extra-role customer service behavior, as well as for the negative relationship between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service behavior. Additionally, benevolent and moral behaviors were found to attenuate this negative association between authoritarian behavior and extra-role customer service. Discretionary HR practices were proved to play the moderating role for the relationships between the three paternalistic leadership behaviors and employee work engagement in that discretionary HR practices fortified the positive link between benevolent or moral behavior and work engagement and alleviated the negative link between authoritarian behavior and work engagement.     

Understanding customer behavior in name-brand Korean coffee shops: The role of self-congruity and functional congruity

During the past decade, an increasing number of coffee-shop customers in Korea prefer to patronize name-brand coffee shops. This study applied image congruity theory to explain the Korean preference phenomena. The authors investigated the impacts of image congruities (self-congruity and functional congruity) on customer attitude and repurchase intention, and identified the moderating effect of prior visit experience. The survey sample is 401 customers who visited the 13 name-brand coffee shops in the city of Seoul's Myeong-dong commercial district. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the validity of the conceptual model. The results revealed that both self-congruity and functional congruity are the antecedents of customer attitude and repurchase intention. Furthermore, functional congruity has more impact on customer attitude among experienced customers than among those with less visit experience. The marketers of name-brand coffee shops in Korea are advised to design the strategies of brand positioning and marketing segmentation from a new angle. Further studies can be further conducted among customers in boarder geographical areas, including small cities and rural areas in Korea.     

The role of language in the online evaluation of hospitality service encounters: An empirical study

In an increasingly global travel market, hospitality services encounters involve growing interactions between providers and customers often belonging to different nationalities and cultures and speaking different languages. Extant hospitality management literature has explored the influence of language on service evaluations mostly in offline settings. This study innovatively captures the effect of the language used in online hotel reviews on online consumer ratings in two distinctively different destinations located in culturally different countries: Italy and Russia. Based on almost half a million Booking.com online reviews written by hotel guests in Moscow and Rome, we illuminate if and to what extent domestic vs. foreign language use affects online customer satisfaction. We find that the use of domestic language exerts a positive impact on online ratings in both countries. Implications for hospitality practitioners and managers, developers and managers of online review platforms, and customers of hotel services are discussed.     

The impact of information technology on hotel operations,service management and transaction costs: A conceptual framework for full-service hotel firms

This paper develops a conceptual framework that describes the impact of information technology (IT) on service management and transaction costs in full service hotel firms. It details how IT would help such firms to lower operations-related transaction costs. Further, the underpinnings of how IT would impact service management in full service hotel firms is discussed more specifically from a customer satisfaction point of view while focusing on two aspects, i.e. managing customer delight and the customer's role as a co-producer. Propositions are developed and a discussion on the impact of IT on firm profitability from a transaction cost perspective ensues while concluding with managerial implications.     

The missing link in building customer brand identification: The role of brand attractiveness

The brand management literature has long acknowledged the strategic importance of managing brand identity. However, prior empirical research has largely ignored brand attractiveness in building such identity in the eyes of consumers. Focusing on the airline industry, this study investigates the role of brand attractiveness in fostering customer brand identification. The empirical testing of the conceptual model suggests that brand prestige, brand distinctiveness, and memorable brand experiences have a significant indirect effect on customer brand identification through brand attractiveness, while brand social benefits contributes directly to such identification. The results also challenge prior empirical findings by providing strong support for the need to include brand attractiveness in cultivating identification. When brand attractiveness is incorporated in the model, the effects of brand prestige, brand distinctiveness, and memorable brand experiences became non-significant in predicting customer brand identification. The findings highlight the importance of projecting a brand identity that is attractive to target consumers in order to achieve customer brand identification.     

Green human resource practices and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: the roles of collective green crafting and environmentally specific servant leadership

Green behavior among employees can contribute to the green performance of organizations. Regardless of the salience of human resource (HR) practices in translating organizational strategy into employee behaviors, this role of green HR practices in shaping employee green behavior has been under-explored. Through surveys of the participants from tour operators in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, our study seeks to investigate how green HR practices impact organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) at team and individual levels as well as the mechanisms underlying such effects. The results demonstrated the positive relationships between green HR practices and collective as well as individual OCBE. Collective green crafting was found to mediate these relationships. Besides, environmentally specific servant leadership served as a moderator to strengthen the effects of green HR practices on collective green crafting as well as OCBE at team and individual levels. We anticipate our research to solicit further investigations into mechanisms underlying the nexus between green HR practices and employee green behavior. Discussion on the implications for tourism practitioners is presented.     

Ethical leadership and its impact on service innovative behavior: The role of LMX and job autonomy

This study examined the effect of ethical leadership on service innovative behavior of employees at small and medium sized tourist hotels in Uttarakhand, India. It has forwarded an integrated model that highlights the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' service innovative behavior while interacting through leader-member exchange and job autonomy. Using a sample of 468 customer contact employees and their 117 supervisors, hierarchical regression was conducted to establish the relationship. Findings of the study revealed that ethical leadership promoted service innovative behavior of the hotel employees mediated through leader-member exchanges. Further, it was also found that the level of service innovative behavior was commensurate to the perception of employee job autonomy. Based on the study findings, implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

A conceptual framework of the service delivery system design for hospitality firms in the (post-)viral world: The role of service robots

This study aims to develop a conceptual framework of the service delivery system design for hospitality firms in the (post-)viral world. Several theoretical approaches such as resource-based view, value chain analysis, stakeholder theory, PESTEL analysis, positioning strategy, and service delivery system design were adopted. The paper identified three service delivery system designs (robotic, human-based, and mixed) and analyses their requirements, advantages, disadvantages, and potential target markets. According to the suggested model, hospitality firms need first to explore the expectations of tourists. Then comes the analysis phase (based on a holistic perspective, and consisting of RBV, Value chain, Stakeholder, and PESTEL analyses), which helps hospitality firms to identify how they should differentiate and position themselves in the market. Following, companies decide on what kind of service delivery system they should offer to their target customers, and position themselves in the market according to the chosen system.