Early warning indicators? The effect of consumer and investor sentiments on the restaurant industry

This study looks at the influence of cyclical fluctuations of the consumer confidence index (CCI) and the volatility index (VIX) as early-warning indicators of the variations in restaurant performance. The industry has traditionally focused on past data and on microeconomic influences to anticipate its future performance, a procedure that does not consider possible cyclical fluctuations in restaurant performance metrics. These fluctuations are driven by sentiments of consumers and investors. The study uses the cyclical component of the applied data, followed by unit root and cointegration testing, with subsequent application of the Limited Information Maximum Likelihood technique. The results show both indicators have an effect on restaurant performance, where VIX has an impact on the current, expected, and overall restaurant performance, while the CCI’s influence is only partial (current performance). Policy-makers and planners could benefit from anticipating features of indicators to assess and steer the future performance of the restaurant industry.     

The effects of service climate and internal service quality on frontline hotel employees’ service-oriented behaviors

When employees in a service profit chain receive quality internal services, they provide quality services to external customers, but extant research does not address what connects internal and external services. This study espouses service climate as an integral part of the service profit chain by exploring its role in linking internal service management and external service performance, and the boundary conditions in which it operates. Data collected from 538 employees of 81 department managers in 24 Chinese hotels were examined using hierarchical linear modeling. Results suggest that managers’ commitment to service quality affects service climate through empowering leadership, service climate links empowering leadership and employee service-oriented behaviors, and external departments’ internal service quality strengthens the positive effect of service climate on service-oriented behaviors. This study advances the literature by integrating service climate and internal service quality into the service profit chain, helping hospitality managers understand how to foster service-oriented behaviors.     

The effect of online restaurant menus on consumers’ purchase intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic

As COVID-19 escalated globally in 2020, mandated suspension of dine-in services was instilled to control virus transmission. Restaurants lost billions of dollars, millions experienced severe employment changes, and numerous small restaurants closed. For those remaining in business, converting to online food ordering was essential. Unique to the food ordering setting, this study extended the Stimulus-Organism-Response model to predict the purchase intentions of participants in an online food ordering context. Using structural equation modeling, this study discovered the indirect effects of the menu’s visual appeal and informativeness, and the perception of COVID-19 risks on consumer purchase intentions. This causal relationship was significantly mediated by consumers’ desire for food and their perceived convenience of online food ordering. Through providing theoretical and managerial implications for how to identify appropriate products, utilize content marketing effectively, and attract new customers, this study could assist restaurants in adapting to remaining competitive, even post COVID-19.     

The effect of employees’ verbal mimicry on tipping

van Baaren et al. (2003) found that a waitress who mimicked their patrons by repeating their order received significantly larger tips. In this study, we tried to replicate these results by testing the effect of repetition after a delay between the customer's initial order and the repetition. A waitress was instructed to mimic or not half of their customers by repeating their order verbatim when she brought the order to the table. Mimicry increased the frequency in tipping and the amount of money left by the customers.     

The impact of exploitative leadership on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance: A social exchange perspective

Based on social exchange theory, we investigate the impact of perceived exploitative leadership on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance. A three-phase analysis of 207 supervisor–subordinate dyads from three hotels in China demonstrates that exploitative leadership has a negative effect on frontline hospitality employees’ service performance. Furthermore, leader−member exchange (LMX) plays a mediating role in the relationship between exploitative leadership and employee service performance. Moderated path analyses indicate that traditionality weakens the direct influence of exploitative leadership on LMX and an indirect influence of exploitative leadership on employee service performance through reduced LMX. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

The effect of visual and auditory elements on patrons’ liquor-ordering behavior: An empirical study

This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of music and visual congruency with a type of liquor in a bar. Specifically, it examines the effect of atmospheric elements’ congruency with wine on patrons’ liquor-ordering behavior and their expenditures. As most Koreans associate wine with French culture, French auditory and visual cues were used to investigate the effect of congruency. A total of 650 receipts from two different branches of a bar were collected for four weeks. The study found that in the visual congruence condition, the ratio of wine expenditure to the total expenditure of a table and the ratio of liquor expenditure to the total expenditure of a table increased. When the auditory congruence condition was implemented, the probability of ordering wine increased. There was no interaction effect. Implications based on the findings are discussed in the final section of the study.     

The influence of service orientation discrepancy between managers and employees on employees’ affective outcomes

This study attempted to relate service orientation discrepancy (SOD) between employees and managers to employees’ affective reactions [role conflict (RC), role ambiguity (RA), job satisfaction (JS), and organizational commitment (OC)] in the restaurant industry. The findings of the study indicate that there is a SOD between managers and employees; employees saw themselves as more enthusiastic and less bureaucratic than managers. When this SOD was correlated with employee outcomes such as RC, RA, JS, and OC, the results indicated that SOD had a direct effect on RC, JS and OC. SOD also had indirect effects on JS, and OC through RC and RA. RC had a direct effect on JS and an indirect effect on OC. RA had a direct effect on JS. Finally, JS had a direct effect on OC.     

The influence of service brand orientation on hotel employees’ attitude and behaviors in China

As foreign hotel brands continue to roll out their investment in China, the competitive landscape intensifies. Central to the success of these hotel brands is their ability to offer the unique features of their service offering, as reflected in the brand, in which employees play a key role. However, in the Chinese market, where the introduction of foreign hotel brands is in its initial stages, employee brand knowledge may be limited resulting in service behaviors that are inconsistent with the brand. Therefore, the adoption of a service brand orientation to guide employee attitudes and behavior is considered to be necessary. In an effort to realize productive service employees, this study examines the consequences of adopting a service brand orientation. Results suggest that a service brand orientation is imperative for positive employee brand-oriented behaviors as well as customer-oriented behaviors that are a consequence of an employee customer orientation.     

The effects of restaurant servers’ perceptions of customers’ tipping behaviors on service discrimination

Scholars have noted that the institution of tipping may encourage restaurant servers to provide discriminate service. The prospect of receiving an excellent tip from a patron, for example, is thought to encourage servers to discriminately provide excellent service. In contrast, the prospect of receiving a poor tip from a patron is thought to encourage servers to extend service that is commensurately poor. The effects of service workers’ a priori assumptions about customers’ tipping behaviors on service discrimination have however not been adequately assessed to-date. This article addresses this gap in the literature by assessing how server sensitivity to demographic tipping differences affects their proclivities to discriminately provide either excellent or poor service in response to the prospect of receiving an excellent or poor tip, respectively. Using a multilevel modeling technique (HLM), findings show that server sensitivity to demographic tipping differences is predictive of servers’ propensities to discriminately allocate excellent service but not poor service. The implications for the management of restaurant operations along with directions for future research are discussed.     

Which reviewers are honest and caring? The effect of constructive and prosocial information on the perceived credibility of online reviews

Consumers often infer review credibility based on the content of online reviews. This study explores the influences of three positive review types on consumers’ perceptions of posters’ honesty and caring and subsequently review credibility. An experiment was conducted and the participants included 931 online travel community users. The results found that compared with positive reviews that contain only complimentary information, reviews that also contain constructive or prosocial information improve subjects’ perception of posters’ honesty and caring, respectively, and that this influence is particularly significant for participants with low propensity to trust. Second, compared with hotels with high reputation, consumers have significantly reduced perceptions of reviewers’ honesty if the reviewers provide only complimentary information in positive reviews for hotels with low brand reputation rather than both complimentary and constructive information. Finally, the higher the subjects’ perception of the reviewers’ honesty and caring is, the higher the consumers’ perception of review credibility.     

The effect of regulatory focus and delay type on consumers’ reactions to delay

Previous research investigating the effect of delay type has generated mixed results. To reconcile such findings, this study maps two competing theories, the field theory and the expectancy model, on to regulatory focus, and it examines the joint effects of regulatory focus and delay type on consumers’ reactions to a service delay. We argue that the field theory is more suitable for predicting promotion-focused consumers’ responses, whereas the expectancy model is more appropriate for explaining prevention-focused customers’ responses. The results lend support to our arguments and suggest that promotion-focused consumers generate more intense negative emotions and lower service quality evaluations after a pre-process delay than after an in-process delay. On the contrary, prevention-focused consumers exhibit more intense negative emotions and lower service quality evaluations after an in-process delay than after a pre-process delay.     

The effect of COVID-19 on tourists’ intention to resume hotel consumption: The role of resilience

This study aims to better understand how one particular personal capacity—psychological resilience—may help consumers adapt to the ‘new normal’ provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic in the hotel context, which is characterized by high uncertainty. We conducted a quantitative empirical study among consumers of hotel services, which showed that their psychological resilience has a negative effect on their perceived health risk and emotional risk. This negative effect on risk helps increase tourist intention to return to consuming hotel services despite the on-going pandemic. The findings are of value to the literature and the professional sector alike, as they demonstrate both relationships jointly for the first time. The work can help hotel firms to design more effective strategies for approaching customers in the ‘new normal’.     

If memory serves: The effect of restaurant servers’ memorization and muddling of orders

The three experiments presented here examined the effectiveness of restaurant servers who memorize customers’ orders rather than writing orders down. In the experiments, participants viewed videos of simulated server-diner interactions and provided ratings of service quality and expected tip amount. Experiment 1 found no advantage to memorizing orders over writing them down. Experiment 2 found that memorized and correctly delivered entrees resulted in statistically significant increases in customers’ perceptions of service quality and in marginally higher tips. In addition, muddled (versus correct) orders resulted in lower ratings of service quality and dramatically lower anticipated tips. Experiment 3 found that memorizing and muddling complex orders had no effect on perceptions of service quality but led to significantly lower expected tips. The applied and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

The 7 Ps marketing mix of home-sharing services: Mining travelers’ online reviews on Airbnb

The 7 Ps model is a very useful tool in helping service firms solve managerial issues in marketing. Guided by the 7 Ps marketing mix framework, a big-data, supervised machine learning analysis was performed with 1,148,062 English reviews of 37,092 Airbnb listings in San Francisco and New York City. The results disclose similar patterns in both markets, where travelers shared their experience about Service Product and Physical Evidence most often; Price and Promotion were the least mentioned elements. Furthermore, through a series of comparisons of Airbnb’s 7 Ps marketing mix among the listings managed by different types of hosts, multi-unit and single-unit hosts seem to offer similar services with a small observable difference; whereas superhosts and the ordinary hosts deliver different services. This study makes valuable methodological contributions and provides practical marketing insights for hoteliers and the hosts and webmasters on home-sharing websites. Policymakers should pay special attention to multi-unit hosts.     

The benefits of and constraints to participation in seniors’ online communities

Participation in seniors' online communities is a significant trend in elders' leisure use of the Internet. Based on an online survey of 218 members of 16 communities, this study explored the experience of participation in such communities. Results identified seven psychological benefits resulting from participation, the most salient being ‘Joyfulness’, ‘Stimulation’ and ‘Companionship’. Analysis also revealed various positive impacts on members' offline social life, interests and activities, as well as instrumental contribution. Negative experiences and several constraints to participation were discovered as well. Still, the findings suggest that the communities offer various mechanisms for enhancing seniors' well-being and promoting successful ageing.     

Both angel and devil: The suppressing effect of transformational leadership on proactive employee’s career satisfaction

This paper empirically examined the effect of hotel employees’ proactive personality on career satisfaction and the suppressing moderation effect of transformational leadership on this relationship.Results of multisource and time lagged data from 75 team supervisors and 464 subordinates showed that proactive personality positively predicted career satisfaction. Moreover, the bright side of transformational leadership had direct positive moderation effect on the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction, while the dark side had indirect negative moderation effect on such relationship through its influence on LLX (i.e., leader–leader exchange). With the opposite effects of these two sides counteracting each other, the total moderation effect of transformational leadership became nonsignificant, that is, the suppressing effect happened to transformational leadership. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.     

The impact of customers’ prior online experience on future hotel usage behavior

Service experience model stipulates the importance of service experience in increasing satisfaction, price acceptance, revisit intentions, etc. It has been extensively tested and validated in hotel management studies. However, the online service experience which, in these days, precedes the physical service experience has not be considered together in most hotel service experience studies. In hotel management literature, studies on online experiences are largely segregated from physical service experience model. In this study, prior online experience model is proposed which includes online experience preceding the physical service encounter, and a survey is administered. Result indicates the strong influence of online experience as a leading construct of the service experience model in hotels. Online experience strongly conditions the customers’ perception of physical service experience and, also, provides good ground for price acceptance. Interestingly, the influence of physical service experience on price acceptance seems to be rather alleviated with online experience, indicating the important role the online experience plays in managing customer perception on hotel service experience. Hotel management needs to pay close attention to their customers’ online experience beyond simple esthetics as the online experience seems to influence all the subsequent components of hotel service model.