Transcendent Experience,Flow and Happiness for Mountain Climbers

Mountaineering has become a popular form of adventure tourism. However, previous research has never explored the construct of transcendent experience and its effects on mountaineering. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among transcendent experience, flow and happiness. Survey data from 339 mountain climbers in Taiwan indicate that transcendent experience positively affects flow and happiness. In addition, flow mediates the effect of transcendent experience on happiness. However, the relationship between flow and hedonic enjoyment is insignificant for novices. Implications of these findings as well as future research are subsequently discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Epidemic forecasting with a new fuzzy regression equation

The traditional fuzzy regression model involves two solving processes. First, the extension principle is used to derive the membership function of extrapolated values, and then, attempts are made to include every collected value with a membership degree of at least h in the fuzzy regression interval. However, the membership function of extrapolated values is sometimes highly complex, and it is difficult to determine the h value, i.e., the degree of fit between the input values and the extrapolative fuzzy output values, when the information obtained from the collected data is insufficient. To solve this problem, we proposed a simplified fuzzy regression equation based on Carlsson and Fullér’s possibilistic mean and variance method and used it for modeling the constraints and objective function of a fuzzy regression model without determining the membership function of extrapolative values and the value of h. Finally, we demonstrated the application of our model in forecasting pneumonia mortality. Thus, we verified the effectiveness of the proposed model and confirmed the potential benefits of our approach, in which the forecasting error is very small.     

Customers’ perceptions of service quality: Do servers’ age stereotypes matter?

This study aims to explore whether various service quality conditions and age stereotypes would affect perceptions of service quality in customers of fine dining restaurants in Taiwan. This research also identifies the moderating effect of servers’ age stereotype, age in-group bias, and respondents’ age on perceived service quality. A total of 406 subjects participated in the study with 2 (scenarios of service quality: favorable vs. unfavorable) × 2 (ages of server: young vs. middle-aged) between-subjects factorial design. The results showed that the respondents’ perceived service quality of server with young appearance was better than the counterpart with middle-aged appearance on tangibles and reliability dimensions under favorable and unfavorable service quality conditions. However, the differences were not significantly affected by servers’ age stereotypes.     

Destination brand identity: scale development and validation

Destination branding has become an important trend in modern tourism. However, few studies have explored the construct of destination brand identity. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for measuring destination brand identity. We developed the initial constructs and survey questionnaire. Next, two surveys with the respective sample size of 251 and 272 were conducted. Through a rigorous instrument development process, the following five constructs were identified: destination image, destination quality, destination personality, destination awareness, and destination culture. The instrument was proven to have a good fit, reliability, and validity. The multidimensional scale provides an effective instrument for tourists to identify and differentiate a destination brand from other tourism destinations. Implications of these findings for practical applications and suggestions for future research are also provided.