An Expectancy Theory Model for Hotel Employee Motivation: Examining the Moderating Role of Communication Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the role of communication satisfaction as a moderator strengthening the effect of three components of the expectancy theory (expectancy, instrumentality, valence) on work motivation in a hotel setting. High and low communication satisfaction groups respond differently to expectancy, instrumentality, valence, and work motivation. Employees who are highly satisfied with communication respond more positively toward motivation components, and they are more likely to perform well in their job when they are motivated. However, a series of confirmatory factor analyses of metric invariance indicated that there is no significant difference in the moderating effect between high and low communication satisfaction groups. Communication should be managed collectively to motivate employees. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided to better explain the process of decision-making when hotel employees are motivated.     

The moderating effect of collectivistic orientation in psychological empowerment and job satisfaction relationship

This study examines the moderating effect of collectivistic value on the relationship between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. Specifically, we propose that the multi-dimensional psychological effects of empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) on job satisfaction differ between high and low collectivistic employees. Data collected from hotel employees in Canada (n = 193) and China (n = 371) revealed that collectivistic orientation elevated (attenuated) the effect of self-determination (impact) on job satisfaction. However, no significant results were found with respect to meaning and competence. Research and practical implications for the findings as well as directions for future research are suggested.     

Industrial Loan Companies: Where Banking and Commerce Meet

Should commercial firms be prohibited from owning banking institutions? Should the United States remain the only G20 country opposed to the “mixing of banking and commerce”? These questions have assumed new urgency as the Dodd Frank Act of July 2010 imposed a moratorium on the commercial ownership of industrial loan companies (ILCs), which was the last remaining entry point for commercial firms into banking. This paper specifically examines the role of ILCs in America's financial system from its beginnings in 1910 to the present. Special attention is paid to the performance of commercially owned ILCs prior to, during and after the most recent financial crisis. The examination is based upon both survey data and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) data, which represents a database of the ILC industry that is the most comprehensive one available to date. The paper also reviews the laws and regulations regarding the mixing of banking and commerce, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of allowing commercial ownership of banks.     

Are investors always compensated for information risk? Evidence from Chinese reverse-merger firms

Using a data sample of 93 Chinese reverse-merger (CRM) firms listed in the U.S. over the period from 2000 to 2011, we find supporting evidence of poorer financial reporting quality exhibited by CRM firms relative to their respective US counterparts. Our main result indicates that while poor financial reporting quality induces information risk/asymmetry, higher (lower) information risk fails to be associated with higher (lower) expected returns. In contrast with prior studies that document information risk as non-diversifiable and a priced risk factor, the value relevance of the CRM firms’ financial reporting quality, in terms of information asymmetry-based premiums, is found to be remote.

     

The Effects of Different Teaching Approaches in Introductory Financial Accounting

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to examine the effect of the two different teaching approaches in the first accounting course on student performance in a subsequent finance course. The study compares 128 accounting and finance students who took introductory financial accounting by either a user approach or a traditional preparer approach to examine their academic performance on a subsequent finance course. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the finance course grade between students who took the traditional introductory accounting course and students who were taught under the user approach. These findings support the argument that the user approach has no impact on subsequent finance course grade and either method can be used to teach introductory financial accounting. Three factors were found to affect subsequent performance in an introductory finance course: GPA prior to taking the finance course, grades in macroeconomics, and statistics.     

The influences of internal service quality and job standardization on job satisfaction with supports as mediators: flight attendants at branch workplace

Service organizations commonly achieve job satisfaction through internal service quality (ISQ), job standardization, and enhanced customer orientation. However, unlike employees working at headquarters, branch employees do not have access to timely responses and organizational support. This study, using flight attendants working offsite as research samples, looked at how workplace supervisor and co-worker support mediate ISQ and job standardization that contribute to job satisfaction. The results indicated that ISQ and job standardization in branch offices may, directly or indirectly, affect job satisfaction through support from supervisors and co-workers, which strengthened customer orientation. ISQ had a higher impact on supervisor support than on co-worker support, and job standardization had a higher impact on co-worker support than on supervisor support. Based on these findings, a customer-oriented model was established for the branches, and a number of suggestions on theory and managerial implementation were proposed.     

Efficiency tests of foreign exchange markets for four Asian Countries

This paper uses the traditional variance ratio test of Lo and MacKinlay (1988, 1989), the non-parametric-based variance ratio test of Wright (2000) and the multiple-variance ratio test of Chow and Denning (1993), to re-examine the validity of the weak form efficient market hypothesis for foreign exchange markets in four floating-rate markets in neighboring Asian economies (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines). The results show that the random walk patterns of the exchange rate return series cannot be rejected, with the one exception of Taiwan, where inefficiency is shown to be most prominent. We therefore conclude that the foreign exchange markets of Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are weak form efficient, while the foreign exchange market of Taiwan is inefficient.     

The impacts of country characteristics upon the value of information technology as measured by productive efficiency

Based on the theory of production, this paper investigates information technology (IT) contribution at a country level by linking it to the complementarity/substitutability phenomena created by the joint presence of IT and the five selected national characteristics. It negates the relationship between IT value and productivity based on a comprehensive panel data set from 25 countries over the period 1997-2006, when the individual analytical method is applied and productive efficiency is used as the performance criterion. The IT productivity paradox is re-examined under the one-equation stochastic frontier production model, while the influence of the five national characteristics is tested under the two-equation stochastic frontier production model. The findings include the following: (i) The IT productivity paradox occurs in not only middle-income (developing) countries but also high-income (developed) countries. (ii) Eastern European countries gain more productive efficiency than the G7 countries when IT is considered as a production factor. (iii) Different national characteristics have impacts on a country's output and productive efficiency. (iv) The chosen national characteristics present both complementarity and substitutability phenomena in association with IT investment, however, the joint presence of national savings and IT creates the substitutability phenomenon across different frontiers. (v) In linking cross-country differences in the IT investments to stages of economic development, our complimentary qualitative analysis tends to conclude that the investments in IT in the advanced developed countries (e.g., G7) and some of the newly developed or emerging economies are likely needed to keep the pace with other competitors and maintain their status of economic development; and the IT investments in the Eastern European countries are necessary to reach the competitive level as well as to raise their economic-development level. (vi) An important policy implication is that policy makers must carefully utilize national characteristics while formulating IT investment strategies.     

Deconstructing the internal structure of perceived authenticity for heritage tourism

Abstract

Although modern society is more inclined to view authenticity from a postmodernist perspective, few quantitative studies on heritage tourism explored existential authenticity in detail. This study deconstructs authenticity into three components – object-related, intra-personal, and inter-personal – and then constructs a complete model by exploring each component’s internal structures, asking to what extent travel motivation is an antecedent and loyalty, a consequence. Data were obtained from 1,088 valid survey questionnaires distributed in Pingxi, Taiwan. Study findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the items used to measure the construct of authenticity. Regarding the internal structure of authenticity, intra-personal authenticity plays a mediating role between object-related authenticity and inter-personal authenticity, and this inter-personal authenticity may be the final value that tourists perceive. Compared with recent related studies, this model more comprehensively explains the degree of variation in loyalty, reflecting its importance for heritage tourism management and marketing. If a destination remains authentic, tourists are willing make a return visit. Authenticity may enable tourism managers to strike a balance between preservation and development when achieving the long-term goal of sustainable development.     

Residential Mortgage Lending and Borrower Risk: The Relationship Between Mortgage Spreads and Individual Characteristics

The mortgage banking environment in Hong Kong is quite different from that in the United States. For example, the secondary mortgage market and mortgage insurance only started after 1997. Using a large data set on mortgages, we examine empirically how mortgage rates in this market vary with various individual borrower, property, and loan characteristics. We find that mortgage rates in Hong Kong do vary with individual characteristics, which suggests credit sorting according to both prepayment risk and default risk, as a higher mortgage rate is found to be related to either higher collateral (a lower loan-to-value ratio) or slower prepayment. The empirical results suggest that lenders in Hong Kong can observe the risk type of individual borrowers to a certain extent and charge a corresponding mortgage spread. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the sorting-by-observed-risk paradigm as in Berger and Udell (1990).