A study on the impact of airline service delays on emotional reactions and customer behavior

This study is intended to identify the influence of service delays on emotional responses and customer behavior. For this research, a survey was conducted on airline passengers that experienced service delays. A total of 395 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling. According to the analysis results, service delays positively influenced negative emotions and negatively influenced repurchase intention. In addition, service delays positively influenced negative word-of-mouth. This study provides a basic knowledge on how airlines can develop their service strategies to make good use of the motivating effect of service delays on emotional responses and behavioral intentions.     

The negative effects of travel friction among road warrior salespeople

Dubbed as road warriors in the popular press, there is a select group of business traveling dealmakers that take at least four trips by commercial airline and stay in hotels at least thirty-five nights in a given year. These high value employees have often been subjected to cost-focused travel policies potentially to the detriment of their well-being. From a theoretical viewpoint, the boundaries of the existing sales literature are expanded to show how this unique group of salespeople, road warriors, face stressors and how these relate to major sales focused outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions). Further, this study adds an additional construct, travel friction, into the literature, yielding support for the importance of developing our understanding of this construct. Travel friction is found as a significant antecedent to both work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, through emotional exhaustion both travel friction and work-family conflict ultimately manifest in reduced job satisfaction, diminished organizational commitment, and increased attrition risk. The lack of business travel in the short-term due to the global pandemic offers corporate travel managers a unique opportunity to pause and recalibrate their travel policies to focus more on traveler well-being. Practical suggestions from travel experts that can potentially help to mitigate travel friction among road warriors are offered.     

Antecedents and outcomes of flight attendants’ job satisfaction

This paper develops and tests a comprehensive model for job satisfaction amongst flight attendants with antecedents and outcomes that are germane in the context of airlines. The antecedents are: jetlag, role overload, emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization, and the outcomes are; job performance and service recovery performance. A framework was tested using structural equation modelling. A survey was conducted of flight attendants working in Malaysia found exhaustion and personal accomplishment have a direct effect on job satisfaction; emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment affect the level of depersonalization; and role overload has a positive relationship.     

The impact of abusive supervision and co-worker support on hospitality and tourism student employees’ turnover intentions in Ecuador

Ram (2015. Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2015.1064364) posits that violence and harassment are areas of concern within the hospitality industry, and scholarly interest in abusive supervision in the workplace has grown since the last decade. This study extends Ram's (2015. Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2015.1064364) assertion by examining the effect of abusive supervision experiences on student employees’ turnover intentions in a hospitality and tourism context in a high power distance culture, Ecuador. The results showed that abusive supervision was positively related to turnover intentions, and its effect was stronger than co-worker support, with the abusive supervision–turnover intentions relationship being fully mediated by perceived organizational support (POS). In addition, co-worker emotional support was found to attenuate the negative effects of abusive supervision on POS. All in all, the findings highlight the roles of POS in explaining the relation between abusive supervision and turnover intentions and co-worker emotional support in buffering the negative effect of abusive supervision. The important role of culture is discussed.     

Investigating passengers’ intentions to use technology-based self check-in services

As more and more airlines have introduced technology-based self check-in services, it has become increasingly important to understand the factors affecting airline passengers’ attitudes toward this new form of check-in services and also their intentions, especially from Asian passengers’ perspectives. An empirical study was conducted among Taiwanese airline passengers using the technology acceptance model (TAM) as the basic research model while considering additional factors for further analysis such as external stimuli, perceived service quality, perceived behavioral control, need for service, and perceived risk. The findings revealed that attitude and external stimuli best explain passengers’ behavioral intentions to use the kiosks, whereas perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have little effect on their intentions. These findings suggest that airlines in Taiwan should persuade passengers to acquire a more positive attitude toward the new check-in kiosks and should consider implementation of incentive strategies in encouraging passengers to adopt the self check-in service.     

Service quality and non-salary mechanism for airline companies in Taiwan

Based on the affective events theory (AET), this study demonstrates how family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP) and psychological detachment predict strain symptoms (the need for recovery and emotional exhaustion) and how the strain symptoms influence service quality. With data collected by convenience sampling from 206 airline employees, our results show that FSOP negatively influence strain symptoms, while psychological detachment mediates the relation between FSOP and the need for recovery. Although the need for recovery has no significant relation with service quality, emotional exhaustion does have a significantly negative association with service quality. Our contributions are more comprehensive for the literature on human resources, organizational behavior, and airline transportation. Moreover, based on the theory, our research fills the gap between FSOP and service quality by adding the strain symptoms as important mediation variables. The results can also be put to practical use on employment policies, such as retaining excellent employees in an organization and increasing an organization's competition advantages. The results may also apply to human resource management (HRM) and present that improvement in service quality is the most important competitive ability for the airline industry.     

Predicting tourists' behavioural intentions at the destination level

Using structural equation modelling, the formative model was tested on a sample of 703 tourists who visited six coastal destinations in Montenegro. It relies on the complex relationships between five constructs – perceived quality of a destination's offerings, tourist satisfaction, perceived equity, perceived benefits and behavioural intentions – simultaneously incorporating the emotional and rational self-regulatory mechanisms. The empirical results supported the hypothesised relationships. The group of eight tourist destination attributes affects perceived quality of a destination's offerings that positively and directly relate to perceived benefits, behavioural intentions and tourist satisfaction, whereas satisfaction is also determined by equity perceptions. Additionally, perceived quality of a destination's offerings also relates indirectly to tourist behavioural intentions, through perceived benefits and tourist satisfaction, while satisfaction also mediates the interaction between perceived equity and tourist intended behaviour. These research results contribute to a deeper understanding of which behavioural processes, and with what strength, lead to the increase in tourist loyalty at the destination level, and ultimately provide better insights into the predictors of behavioural intentions.     

Job satisfaction,organizational commitment,and flight attendants’ turnover intentions: A note

This study looks at the effects of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and individual factors on flight attendants’ turnover intentions. It makes use of samples of the attendants from a Taiwanese airline company. From the results of a logistic regression analysis, two aspects of organizational commitment (i.e. normative commitment and continuance commitment) as well as job-itself satisfaction were found significantly negative impact on flight attendants’ turnover intentions. In addition, wage and martial status were found to be significant predictors of turnover intentions.     

A model of wine tourist behaviour: a festival approach

The study constructs a temporal model of wine tourist behaviour on the basis of the social psychologist' theory of consumer attitudes and related concepts with regard to past behaviour, satisfaction, perceived value and behavioural intentions. More importantly, this study added two dimensions to this model by proposing that satisfaction and perceived value had an impact on the attendees' intentions (i) to visit a local winery and (ii) to buy local wine products. Using a path analysis approach and data collected from the attendees at a regional wine festival, the study examined the above relationships. The results of this path analysis can be summarised as: (i) past behaviour influenced the intention to revisit and the level of perceived value, but had no effect on the level of satisfaction; (ii) perceived value strongly affected the level of satisfaction; (iii) satisfaction had a strong impact on future intentions to revisit and also an effect on intentions to visit local wineries and to buy local wine products; and (iv) perceived value affected the intentions to revisit the festival and to visit local wineries but did not influence the intentions to buy local wines. It is believed that the results of the present study will be useful to organisers of wine festivals and/or wine tourism developers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Outcomes of job crafting among flight attendants

Underpinned by Job Demands-Resources theory, our study proposes and tests a conceptual model that examines the outcomes of job crafting among flight attendants. Specifically, our study links job crafting, as manifested by increasing structural job resources, increasing social job resources, and increasing challenging job demands, to quitting intentions and service recovery performance through work engagement. Our study used a time-lagged design and multiple sources of data. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that job crafting fosters flight attendants' work engagement and service recovery performance. As hypothesized, work engagement alleviates quitting intentions. Consistent with our prediction, work engagement mediates the influence of job crafting on quitting intentions. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, the empirical data do not lend any support to the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between job crafting and service recovery performance.     

Behavioral intentions of public transit passengers—The roles of service quality,perceived value,satisfaction and involvement

Understanding the behavioral intentions of public transit passengers is important, because customer loyalty is seen as a prime determinant of long-term financial performance. This study highlights such behavioral intentions and explores the relationships between passenger behavioral intentions and the various factors that affect them. Apart from the factors recognized by past studies, such as service quality, perceived value, and satisfaction, this study addresses the importance of the involvement of public transit services in passenger behavioral intentions. By using passenger survey data from the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT), a newly operating public transit system in Taiwan, we apply the structural equation modeling technique to analyze the conceptualized relationship model. The findings reveal that all causal relationships are statistically significant. Managerial implications are discussed.     

A Structural Model for Examining how Destination Image,Perceived Value,and Service Quality Affect Destination Loyalty: a Case Study of Orlando

The primary objectives of this study were to investigate and develop a theoretical relationship among destination image, service quality and perceived value and to empirically test the constructs that are likely to affect tourist satisfaction, which in turn influence revisit intentions and word‐of‐mouth referrals. The results of empirical study indicated that destination image influences service quality and perceived value. In addition, the findings revealed that perceived value has a significant effect on satisfaction and loyalty. These research findings contribute to an extant knowledge in this domain, specifically focused on a family‐oriented destination where it was not studied yet with these relationships. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How airline service quality determines the quantity of repurchase intention - Mediate and moderate effects of brand quality and perceived value

Drawing on an integrated framework of service quality theory, this study develops and demonstrates a mediation-moderation model of airline service quality that influences the repurchase intentions of passengers. This model associates service quality with individual behavioral and perception—brand awareness and perceived values and examines the buffering role of brand attractiveness and experience in the decision-making processes. In a sample of 451 passengers, somewhat as expected, airline service quality enhances the positive effect of repurchase intention on airline company service because it fosters a positive link between brand awareness and perceived value. Unsurprisingly, brand attractiveness and memorable brand experiences are found to strengthen the positive effect of brand awareness and perceived value. Several alternative models were used to check the robustness of our findings. Patterns of moderated mediation modeling for theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.     

Exploring the impact of metaverse tourism experiences on actual visit intentions: An integrated model of presence,the Technology Acceptance Model,and the Theory of Planned Behavior

This study seeks to understand the impact of tourist experience of the metaverse on users' actual visit intentions by proposing an integration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), using the construct of Presence. We developed a questionnaire-based experiment in which 478 responses were collected via an online survey to achieve the objectives of the study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the proposed constructs. The results indicate that presence is positively associated with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude, respectively. In addition to the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude, six other hypotheses within the model that merged TAM and TPB were statistically supported. Furthermore, the implications and recommendations based on the results are valuable contributions to the development of metaverse tourism.     

Exploring heterogeneity among backpackers in hostels

This study’s goal was to validate the core dimensions of hostel service quality and to test whether each dimension has a different impact on behavioural intentions across guest segments defined by age, gender and nationality. This research targeted guests staying at Lisbon hostels (N?=?313). Both covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) and variance-based SEM were used to meet this study’s exploratory and confirmatory objectives. The results confirm that service quality in this sector is a multidimensional construct comprising four core dimensions: quality of staff, social atmosphere, hostel tangibles and city connection. These four aspects are relevant when explaining levels of satisfaction, recommendation and revisiting intentions. Moreover, these dimensions allow the identification of differences across market segments in regards to responses to marketing outcomes, thus providing useful insights into how best to meet guests’ needs.     

The influence of tourists' emotional experiences on destination loyalty from the perspective of community economy

Community research has been a significant topic in various fields over time. This study (a) constructs a structural equation model for hypothetical community relationships between six factors: tourist interaction, positive emotional experience, general emotional experience, tourists' subjective well-being, tourist satisfaction, and tourist destination loyalty, and (b) examines the impact of tourists' emotional experiences on their destination loyalty by taking community members as the main survey objects. The results show that tourist emotional experiences have a positive impact on tourists' loyalty. Finally, taking Guilin's evolution into a world-class tourism city as an example, we propose suggestions on the development of community tourism.     

The impact of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioral intentions using passenger satisfaction as a mediator

This research study measures the perception of airline service quality based on data collected from Pakistan International Airline (PIA) passengers using SERVQUAL. It investigates the impact of service quality dimensions on passenger's behavioral intentions in presence of mediator (passenger satisfaction). The data is collected through an adopted SERVQUAL instrument from the respondents in the domestic and International waiting lounges of PIA. The data is analysed using reliability statistics, correlation analysis and through hierarchal regression analysis. A systematic random sampling technique is used to analyze the study sample and PROCESS macros was used to run mediation analysis. The results reveals that passenger's satisfaction mediates the relationship between airline service quality and behavioral intentions. Practically, PIA should not only improve on Service Quality but should build up quality consciousness among on ground and inflight employees; pay attention to reliable factors and establish customer goodwill through enhanced services; regard reliability factors and enhance employee accomplishment. Implications of these results for management policy and practice are highlighted as guidelines. PIA managers can now better understand the importance of service quality and its long-term benefits in the form of customer loyalty.     

Professional Development Barriers and Benefits in a Tourism Knowledge Economy

This study investigates small to medium tourism enterprise (SMTE) owner–managers' intentions to seek professional development. SMTEs in a regional tourism destination were surveyed, and an exploratory factor analysis identified barriers to, and benefits of, professional development factors. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict SMTE owner–manager's intention to pursue professional development based on perceived benefits of and barriers to training factors, education level and business size. ‘Staff performance benefits’ and ‘time/cost barriers’ of owner–manager's intention to seek professional development opportunities for staff. ‘Business performance benefits’ predicted owner–manager's intentions to seek professional develop for themselves. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling information use,image, and perceived risk with intentions to travel to East Asia

This research empirically tested a tourism behaviour model explaining tourists' intentions to vacation for the first time in selected countries extending image research by Baloglu and McCleary [(1999). U.S. international pleasure travelers’ images of four Mediterranean destinations: A comparison of visitors and nonvisitors. Journal of Travel Research, 38(2), 144–152; A model of destination image formation. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(4), 868–897] and more recently Kaplanidou and Vogt [(2007). The interrelationship between sport event and destination image and sport tourists’ behaviors. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 12(3–4), 183–206]. Key factors that remain untested in modelling international travel propensity were identified as: information sources, cognitive and affective destination image, and perceived risk. On-site surveys were conducted in two US metropolitan areas with a purposive convenience sample. Data were analysed with structural equation modelling for three destination countries (China, Japan, and South Korea) so that positioning strategies were illustrated through empirical evidence. Modelling results supported previous research showing that stronger positive cognitive and affective destination images and lower perceived risks for vacationing in a destination positively influenced intentions to travel to the countries of interest. Of greater interest are findings on information usage influencing cognitively held images, particularly cultural experiences, but information use was found not to directly influence the affective component of image. Intent to travel to each of the three countries was heightened by different factors – for China it was affective image, for Japan cognitive image, and South Korea a reduction in perceived risks. Destination marketers can use this model to understand the use of information sources, in general or specific types, to influence cognitive images held and perceived risks associated with a foreign country, and to ultimately modify affective image and intent to visit a destination for the potential first-time visitors.     

In-flight physical surroundings: quality,satisfaction, and traveller loyalty in the emerging low-cost flight market

The purpose of our research was to investigate the relationships among overall service quality, customer satisfaction, and behavioural intentions by considering the moderating impact of in-flight ambient conditions (air quality, temperature, odour, and noise) in the low-cost airline industry. A survey was conducted on international flights. Results of the structural equation modelling from a sample of 402 passengers indicated that quality and satisfaction are significant drivers of intentions; and satisfaction acted as a significant mediators. Additionally, supporting the moderating impact of ambience, findings from the tests for metric invariance revealed that the effect of satisfaction on intentions was stronger for the high air quality, temperature, odour, and noise groups than for the low groups; and the strength of the relationship between quality and intentions was greater in the high noise group than in the low noise group. Our results will help practitioners/researchers develop effective strategies/theories for passenger satisfaction and retention.