Measuring the experience of hospitality: Scale development and validation

This paper identifies what customers experience as hospitality and subsequently presents a novel and compact assessment scale for measuring customers’ experience of hospitality at any kind of service organization. The Experience of Hospitality Scale (EH-Scale) takes a broader perspective compared to existing scales, which predominantly measure hospitable behavior of service employees and are specifically developed for organizations in the hospitality industry. A thorough approach containing two qualitative and two quantitative studies resulted in the thirteen-item EH-Scale. The scale measures three experiential factors of hospitality: the experience of inviting (open, inviting, freedom), the experience of care (servitude, empathy and acknowledgement), and the experience of comfort (feeling at ease, relaxed and comfortable).     

A balanced scorecard approach to establish a performance evaluation and relationship model for hot spring hotels based on a hybrid MCDM model combining DEMATEL and ANP

The balanced scorecard approach is an effective technique for performance evaluation. For more accurately reflecting the dependence and feedback problems of each factor in real world situations, here a new model is developed using a balanced scorecard approach for evaluating the performance of hot spring hotel. A DANP hybrid MCDM model is adopted to solve the dependence and feedback problems, while establishing a performance evaluation and relationship model. An empirical case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid MCDM model. Based on this study, the perspective between ‘learning and growth’, ‘enterprise's internal processes’, and ‘customer’, all aim for solid financial performance as the ultimate goal, and report a positive influence. This effective performance evaluation model developed by applying the hybrid MCDM enables business managers to understand the appropriate actions and achieve a competitive advantage.     

Wellness hotel: Conceptualization,scale development,and validation

This study defines the notion of a wellness hotel, generates a wellness amenity inventory list, and develops the Scale of Wellness Hotel Amenities (SWHA) to measure the level of wellness provided by hotels. The result reveals a 16-item measurement scale consisting of three dimensions: environmental wellness, physical wellness, and mind wellness. Incorporating qualitative and quantitative design and utilizing multi-source samples, we conducted five studies to demonstrate the face, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the SWHA. This study fills an important research gap since no measurement scale is currently available to measure the wellness level of hotels. With an in-depth examination of customers’ perception of wellness hotels, this study provides a tool to identify wellness amenities that customers demand and to evaluate the performance of wellness hotels. The contributions, implications, and limitations of this study are discussed, as well as the recommendations for future studies.     

Balanced scorecard in the hospitality and tourism industry: Past,present and future

After its introduction in 1992, the balanced scorecard (BSC) has attracted considerable interest from both scholars and practitioners. This is evidenced by the increasing number of publications addressing BSC and the large number of professional events devoted to it. However, there is little research on BSC in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study aims to contribute towards filling this significant gap through studying 106 top-ranked journal articles on BSC, of which 37 belong to the hospitality and tourism industry. In so doing, the study highlights the research focus that has been placed so far on BSC and examines its trends and the relationships amongst its perspectives. It also provides valuable input to identify gaps currently impeding BSC development in the hospitality and tourism industry, recommends future research opportunities intended to improve understanding and practice of BSC along with building up on emerging research topics like sustainable tourism and new tourism management.     

Benchmarking CVB website performance: Spatial and structural patterns

This study evaluated 967 U.S. CVB websites using a modified Balanced Scorecard (mBSC) approach which assesses website performance with respect to overall technical functionality, customer friendliness and usability, effectiveness of marketing the destination, and information content. Spatial maps were constructed for these four dimensions and overall CVB website performance using ArcMap v.9.2 GIS software. A structural pattern of CVB website performance was obtained using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). It was concluded that CVB websites primarily need improvement in marketing the destination product. The analysis revealed significant differences in website performance between members and non-members of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) as well as regional differences. Study implications for destination marketing organizations and CVB website designers are discussed.     

Pushing forward high-performance work systems in the hotel industry: A procedural-justice climate to promote higher unit-level outcomes

In this study, we examine how the high-performance work system (HPWS) can be used to promote positive employee behavior leading to higher organizational service performance in the hotel industry. Specifically, we suggest that the collective organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of employees links the HPWS to organizational service performance, and a stronger procedural-justice climate of a hotel strengthens the relationship between the HPWS and the collective OCB. Using multi-source data drawn from 5290 employees across 180 independent franchise hotels in North America and customer feedback on each surveyed hotel, we found that the collective OCB mediates the relationship between the HPWS and organizational service performance, and when hotels have a stronger procedural-justice climate, the mediating effect is more salient. The implications of these findings for tourism researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Corporate social responsibility in international hotel chains and its effects on local employees: Scale development and empirical testing in China

This study aims to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of international hotel chains operating in China and their effects on local Chinese employees. As CSR practices vary across countries and contexts, this study developed a scale of CSR metrics, which was based on CSR reports published by international hotel chains in China and a comprehensive literature review. Subsequently, the proposed model, which depicts the relationships between CSR practices and local employee work metrics, was tested with a PLS-SEM. Multiple phases of qualitative and quantitative investigations of 2451 local Chinese employees of international hotel chains allowed for validating a formative construct of CSR with four dimensions: environment protection, employee wellness, business ethics, and customer wellness. The PLS-SEM results confirmed the significant effects of CSR practices of international hotel chains in China on local Chinese employee engagement, commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are presented.