Market Orientation and Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Travel Agencies in Taiwan

This paper reports the results of a study that found evidence to support the importance of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the relationship between market orientation and financial performance. The performance of travel agencies in Taiwan was examined with data collected through a questionnaire survey completed by the managers of 292 travel agencies in Taiwan. Analysis using structural equation modelling revealed that market orientation influences the financial performance of travel agencies indirectly through customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Neglecting customer satisfaction may negate any improvements in the level of performance that have been gained by adopting a market orientation. It was found that market orientation does not affect financial performance unless the two mediators, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, are applied concurrently.     

Total quality management, market orientation and hotel performance: The moderating effects of external environmental factors

With the market competition of hotel industry being heated, it is critical that hotels have a breadth of resource and more flexible forms to meet the needs of a changing marketplace. In the past, the relation of total quality management (TQM), market orientation, and performance are equivocal. These mixed results may be due to some factors or not to include the environmental factors. This study adopts the Input-Processing-Output (IPO) concept model to construct all variables research model. The research surveyed samples of 588 and used Structural Equation Model and discriminate analysis for analysis and testing. The results show that TQM positively affects hotel performance. Market orientation positively affects hotel performance. Market orientation has the mediating effect between TQM and hotel performance. External environment factors truly play a moderator between TQM, market orientation and hotel performance, especially when external environment factors greater changes are going to help to build relationship with customer, to enhance hotel performance and further to gain chance of hotel's survival.     

An Investigation of Market Orientation (MO) and Tourism Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (SMEs) Performance in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature

This paper aims to build a structured literature review of the field of market orientation and its impact on tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance in developing countries. This literature review will present a comprehensive survey of market orientation (MO) published articles to facilitate good understanding of MO. It serves as an archive and aims to help the scholars and practitioners to explore, analyse, and develop a clear understanding about the different research points and methodologies implemented in previous studies related to MO and its impact on tourism SMEs’ performance. The paper systematically reviews and categorizes the published literature implementing a three-stage methodology, and thereafter analyzes and reviews this literature methodologically. The review covered many areas and identified some factors that drive/hinder market-oriented activities within tourism SMEs. Furthermore, suggestions have been made to understand more thoroughly how market orientation influences tourism SMEs performance in developing economies. A research gap in the area of market orientation and tourism SMEs performance in developing countries was identified. The study provides great benefits for owner-managers, government policy makers, scholars, and educators by clarifying the concept of market orientation and its relationship with performance in the context of tourism SMEs.     

DOES BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT MATTER TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MARKET ORIENTATION?

Developing a market orientation is one of the key issues in market‐orientation research. In this study, based on a survey of top managers from 143 Chinese hotels and 72 travel services—two tourism sectors with distinctly different business environments—we explore the effects of environmental conditions on the development of market orientation. In particular we examine whether environmental conditions have a direct impact on the level of market orientation or whether they moderate the relationship between market orientation and its antecedents. We find that the effectiveness of top management emphasis varies under different environmental conditions but that the impact of other antecedents is not influenced by environmental conditions.     

Enhancing customer loyalty in tourism services: the role of customer-company identification and customer participation

Travel agencies are high-contact service organizations and customer orientation plays a critical role in their success. However, not all the academic research on the effect of customer orientation on service performance has been positive. This research examines the effect of customer orientation on customer loyalty through two mediators: customer satisfaction and customer-company identification. The study also investigates how customer participation moderates the relationships between two mediators and customer loyalty. The findings are as follows: (1) customer orientation has significantly positive impacts on customer satisfaction and customer-company identification as well as on customer loyalty; (2) two mediators have significantly positive impacts on customer loyalty; and (3) customer participation moderates the relationships between the two mediators and customer loyalty. The research results indicate that customer-company identification can be used as an additional way to enhance customer loyalty. Important theoretical and managerial implications for travel agencies are also provided in this research.     

Hotel property performance: The role of strategic management accounting

In the current study, we contend that to enhance their competitiveness and performance, hotel properties need to develop and implement internal policies and procedures such as strategic management accounting that are consistent with their business strategies and account for changing competitive demands. We employ a sample composed of 80 hotel properties to investigate the key precursor of hotel property strategic management accounting use and its impact on hotel property customer and financial performance. The results highlight that market orientation business strategy is a key determinant of hotel property strategic management accounting use and illuminate the mediating influence of hotel property strategic management accounting use and hotel property customer performance on the relationship between hotel property market orientation business strategy use and hotel property financial performance. Recommendations are provided for both researchers and hotel managers concerning their future study of, or use of, strategic management accounting.     

Workplace ostracism and proactive customer service performance: A conservation of resources perspective

This study tests the impact of workplace ostracism on hospitality employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP). Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we investigate the effects of two sequential mediators (i.e. job tension and customer orientation) and the moderating effect of need for affiliation. Using a time-lagged research design and the data from 16 hotels in China, we find that workplace ostracism positively influences job tension; job tension decreases customer orientation, which in turn undermines employees’ PCSP. Moreover, we find that need for affiliation exacerbates the effect of workplace ostracism on job tension such that the effect is stronger when employees’ need for affiliation is high rather than low. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications subsequently.     

Analyzing the influence of firm-wide integrated marketing communication on market performance in the hospitality industry

Over the last decade, scholars have recently emphasized the need for tourism marketers to orchestrate the wide range communication activities and forms via the adoption of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). However, prior research has almost neglected the role of IMC in hospitality management. This paper adopts a broad organizational approach conceiving IMC as a concept that involves the whole organizational entity and aims to analyze the effects of IMC on market performance, in terms of superior sales and financial results, greater brand advantage and customer-related outcomes for those businesses providing lodging services. To pursue this research purpose, a survey has been conducted among corporate-level senior managers of lodging businesses operating in Spain. The findings provided further and more compelling empirical proof of the positive influence of IMC on market performance, responding to the call for more rigorous empirical research to demonstrate the beneficial effects of firm-wide IMC on market performance.     

The influence of volunteer motivation on satisfaction,attitudes, and support for a mega-event

Although there are numerous studies on volunteering in tourism, little research has been done on volunteer support for mega-events. This study develops a theoretical model investigating the relationship between volunteer motivation and support for the Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea through mediating effects of satisfaction and attitudes toward volunteering and the Expo venue. An onsite survey of 489 volunteers at the Yeosu Expo was conducted. The structural equation model reveals that patriotism and intrinsic motivations significantly influence volunteer satisfaction, which in turn exerts a significant effect on attitudes toward volunteering and the Expo venue. Also, volunteer attitudes toward volunteering significantly influence volunteer attitudes toward the Expo venue, which in turn have a significant effect on support for the Expo. The study suggests that patriotism and intrinsic motivations can leverage support for mega-events through enhancing mediators of satisfaction and attitudes.     

Market orientation and business performance: Evidence from franchising industry

This paper examines the relationships between top management factors, franchisor market orientation, competitive strategy, and business performance within the context of Korean franchisor companies. 156 food-service franchise firms provide the basis for this empirical investigation. Findings show that top management factors such as management emphasis and risk aversion can lead to market orientation. Franchisor market orientation was found to lead differentiation and cost strategies, which, in turn, increase financial and non-financial business performance. Also, market orientation directly increases financial and non-financial business performance. The context of the franchise industry differs from other industries, and this paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers in the franchise industry.     

The effects of festival impacts on support intentions based on residents’ ratings of festival performance and satisfaction: a new integrative approach

Festivals can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism. It is therefore necessary to examine the impacts of festival tourism as well as their consequences in order to manage their relevance to the local community. The lack of a multiple mediation approach, however, has hampered research on the psycho-social process through which festival impacts (perceived benefits, costs, and affective impact) influence resident support. We propose a new integrative approach in which resident-rated festival performance and satisfaction are putative mediators that transmit the effects of the three festival impacts to support for future festivals. The theoretical foundations of this integrative approach or model are jointly built on social exchange theory, the affective theory of social exchange, and the theory of reasoned action. The integrative model was successfully validated using eight sample festivals within China, which included 353 observations with 10,000 bootstraps. The empirical findings reveal that 14 out of the 17 hypotheses received empirical support in this study, and it thereby contributes significantly to new understanding in the literature.     

QUALITY MARKET ORIENTATION: Tourist Agencies’ Perceived Effects

This paper analyzes the effects of market orientation from two perspectives. First, its direct influences on tourist agencies’ perceived performance, and its indirect ones on performance through the perceived value of market information. Second, direct effects on the perceived service quality offered by the firm and indirect influences derived from the utilization of quality measurement systems are analyzed. Hypothesized relationships are tested in an empirical study of tourist managers. Research findings confirm the proposed relationships, except the influence of using quality measurement systems on service. A positive direct influence between perceived service quality and performance is also analyzed and confirmed.     

如何提高饭店业一线员工的服务补救绩效:模型与实证

文章应用巴顾兹(Bagozzi)的态度模型,采用结构方程建模方法,构建并验证了基于饭店业一线员工感知视角的服务补救绩效预测模型。实证结果表明:(1)一线员工对授权、培训、奖励以及对饭店进行顾客抱怨管理的感知正向影响其工作满意度;(2)顾客抱怨管理和授权不仅通过一线员工情感变量(工作满意和情感承诺)的中介作用间接正向影响服务补救绩效,还能够直接预测服务补救绩效;(3)一线员工的情感变量是解释员工培训和奖励正向影响其服务补救绩效的完全中介变量;(4)工作满意直接正向影响一线员工的情感承诺,而在工作满意和服务补救绩效之间的间接正向影响关系中,情感承诺变量起到了全部中介效应。文章最后总结了对服务补救理论和饭店业管理实践的贡献。     

The effect of idiosyncratic price movements on short- and long-run performance of hotels

It is a common belief that businesses performance should not be evaluated by immediate fiscal returns, but rather based on an extended time horizon. While the literature implies that pricing decisions may exert lagged as well as contemporaneous effects on performance, a limited number of empirical studies have focused on such effects. The current study investigates effects of idiosyncratic price movements on short-run and long-run hotel performance, where idiosyncratic price movements refer to the changes in individual hotels’ room rates unexplained by price competition, product differentiation, and market conditions. By analyzing spatial panel data from the Houston lodging market between 2005 and 2014, we find that idiosyncratic price movements enhance hotel performance in the short-run and that adverse effects followed in the long-run. Findings of the study and implications for practitioners are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

Effect of customer orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on innovativeness: Evidence from the hotel industry in Switzerland

While researchers have explored the relationship between customer orientation, entrepreneurship and innovativeness with business performance in different organizations, few such studies exist on the hotel industry. This current work investigates the potential influences of these variables on hotel industry performance. Data for this study was collected through personal questionnaires collected from 156 hotel managers and owners from German and French speaking cantons located in Switzerland in order to examine the interrelation between innovativeness, customer orientation, entrepreneurship and service business performance dimensions (i.e., profit goal achievement, sales goal achievement and ROI achievement). The findings support aspects of prior research, but also provide some new insights by exploring customer orientation and innovativeness simultaneously and revealing how these factors impact upon the performance of the Swiss hotel industry. In the light of existing literature, limitations and future research directions are subsequently addressed.     

Tour guide performance and sustainable visitor behavior at cultural heritage sites

Abstract

Using structural equation modeling, this study investigates how tour guide performance influences visitors’ sustainable behavior at cultural heritage sites by examining the mediating effects of visitor experience and satisfaction. The structural model was tested on a sample of 390 visitors at Petra Archaeological Park in Jordan. Tour guide performance was found to have a significant direct and indirect effects in enhancing visitor sustainable behavior. Moreover, the findings showed that visitor experience and satisfaction significantly mediates the relationship between tour guide performance and visitor sustainable behavior. This research contributes to our understanding of the tour guide role in maximizing visitors’ appreciation and enjoyment, and minimizing their negative impacts on heritage sites. Managerial implications are discussed in light of the empirical findings.     

Customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the hotel industry: Evidence from Australia

Increasingly competitive environments have focused hotel managers’ attention on gaining competitive advantage by maximising the potential of their customer base. This paper provides the results of a study of the use and antecedents of customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the Australian hotel industry. The findings of a survey of 165 Australian hotel managers provide evidence that large, highly market orientated hotels with a decentralised structure use more customer focused accounting and marketing practices. Additionally, support was also found for a significant positive relationship between market orientation and a prospector-type strategy, as well as market orientation and both financial and non-financial performance.     

The impact of regulation and ownership structure on market orientation in the tourism industry in China

The nature of market orientation and its impact on business performance and other related outcomes have been extensively researched in a range of service contexts including tourism. In contrast, our understanding of the factors that influence market orientation is still limited. This paper reports on a study that contributes to our understanding of the determinants of market orientation within the tourism sector by focusing specifically on the role played by two strategically important variables, namely government regulation and ownership structure. The study analyses two national samples of hotels and travel services in the rapidly growing tourism industry in China. The hotel sector has been open to foreign investment for two decades and has a diversified ownership structure, whereas the travel services sector has been dominated by government owned firms and relatively closed to foreign investment. The results of the survey suggest that of the two new antecedents, only government regulation has a significant role to play in driving market orientation. Internally, access to appropriate managerial and marketing capabilities was identified as a significant predictor of the development of market orientation.     

工作家庭冲突对饭店女性员工顾客导向影响实证分析

工作家庭冲突对员工工作和家庭行为都具有显著的影响。针对高星级饭店女性员工的实证调查表明,家庭对工作的干扰和工作对家庭的干扰都会导致员工出现情绪衰竭和情感疏远的倾向,进而削弱员工的顾客导向。因此,饭店管理者需要从设计弹性管理策略和系统构建家庭支持方案入手,缓和员工工作和家庭之间的冲突,目的在于同时提升员工的工作绩效和主观幸福感。     

In-Flight Service Performance and Passenger Loyalty: A Cross-National (China/Korea) Study of Travelers Using Low-Cost Carriers

While a moderate amount of empirical research has been conducted on passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline industry, there has been no research on the impacts of in-flight core- and encounter-service performance, perceived value, satisfaction, trust, or cultural influences on passenger loyalty. This study looked at these impacts in cross-national field research involving China and Korea. A survey was conducted on international flights between Busan and Qingdao. A total of 346 cases were used in data analysis. Results of the structural model showed that the proposed theoretical relationships were all significant; in-flight encounter-service performance was prominent, and value, satisfaction, and trust had a significant mediating impact. In addition, findings from the metric invariance revealed that the strength of the relationships, particularly among service performances, value, and satisfaction in the proposed model, significantly differed across Chinese and Korean passenger groups. The authors highlight key practical and research implications.