The effects of perceived service quality on repurchase intentions and subjective well-being of Chinese tourists: The mediating role of relationship quality

The current study provides and tests an integrated model that examines two relationship quality constructs (overall customer satisfaction, customer-company identification) as mediating variables between Chinese tourists' lodging service quality perceptions and two outcomes (repurchase intentions, subjective well-being). The results of a study with domestic Chinese hotel guests (n = 451) provide support for the proposed model. Specifically, the results indicate that overall customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective well-being, respectively. Customer-company identification partially mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective wellbeing, respectively. We provide empirical validation that customers do, indeed, identify with hospitality providers, and this, in-turn, provides positive consequences for both the service provider (i.e., repurchase intentions) and the customer (i.e., subjective well-being). Managerial implications are provided, limitations noted, and future research directions suggested.     

Police culture,tourists and destinations: A study of Uttarakhand,India

The present study examines the quality of service provided by police officials at tourist sites in the Uttarakhand region, India and its impact on the level of tourists' confidence in the police. The study also investigates the role that police culture plays in determining quality of service and the effect of leader behavior in moderating the relationship between them. A survey method was used for data collection from the police officials and the onsite tourists. Data analysis was carried out using CFA and an SPSS macro named PROCESS. Results showed that police organizational culture has a direct influence on tourists' confidence in the police and police service quality partially mediates the relationship between the two; also leader behavior positively moderates between police culture and service quality. This study adds to the literature on tourists' confidence in the policing of tourist sites, police culture, leader behavior, and police service quality.     

Responding to negative online reviews: The effects of hotel responses on customer inferences of trust and concern

Our research examines the perceptions and evaluations of prospective customers toward an online negative review and any accompanying hotel response. The study explores two main issues: whether the presence (versus absence) of an organizational response to negative customer reviews affects the inferences potential consumers draw about the target business, and which aspects of responses affect their impressions. We test the effects of four variables associated with a response: source of response, voice of responder, speed of response, and action frame on two outcomes variables (i.e., customer concern and trust inferences). The provision of an online response (versus no response) enhanced inferences that potential consumers draw regarding the business's trustworthiness and the extent to which it cares about its customers. Using a human voice and a timely response yielded favorable customer inferences. Inferences did not vary with response source or action frame. Implications are drawn for effective management of negative online reviews.     

Ethical leadership and its impact on service innovative behavior: The role of LMX and job autonomy

This study examined the effect of ethical leadership on service innovative behavior of employees at small and medium sized tourist hotels in Uttarakhand, India. It has forwarded an integrated model that highlights the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' service innovative behavior while interacting through leader-member exchange and job autonomy. Using a sample of 468 customer contact employees and their 117 supervisors, hierarchical regression was conducted to establish the relationship. Findings of the study revealed that ethical leadership promoted service innovative behavior of the hotel employees mediated through leader-member exchanges. Further, it was also found that the level of service innovative behavior was commensurate to the perception of employee job autonomy. Based on the study findings, implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

When does a service guarantee work? The roles of the popularity of service guarantees and firm reputation

Despite substantial research on service guarantees in the literature, little study has examined how the popularity of service guarantees (SG) in a particular industry affects the effectiveness of SGs. Through four studies, the authors demonstrate an interactive effect between the market-level factor (the popularity of SGs) and the firm-level factor (firm reputation) in affecting consumer's responses to a travel agency's actions in (not) offering an SG. When offering SGs is popular in a given market, consumers perceive a loss from the absence of SGs, and a high-reputation agency will outperform a low-reputation agency in consumer service evaluation when neither agencies offer SGs. However, if both agencies provide guarantees, the SG offered by the high-reputation agency does not necessarily lead to greater service evaluation than that offered by the low-reputation agency. The results reverse when offering SGs is rare in the market, as consumers perceive a gain from the presence of SGs.     

Making innovation happen through building social capital and scanning environment

Both new service development and existing service improvement are critical tools for hotels to gain competitive advantages, but pursuing new services while simultaneously improving existing services is difficult for hotel managers. The success of highly proactive hotel managers has been credited to their ability to change the environment effectively, and such managers may be able to lead hotels to resolve the trade-off dilemma and deliver better services. To elucidate the contributions of proactive managers in making innovation happen, this study explored two key activities that hotels may undertake when prompted by the proactive managers, namely, environmental scanning and social capital building. The process involved in developing new services and improving current services was examined using empirical data collected from the general managers of 226 hotels in Taiwan. The results confirm that environmental scanning and social capital fully mediate the relationship between proactive personality of managers and capacity for service innovation as well as service improvement of hotels, indicating that hotel managers with a proactive personality are helpful at implementing innovation.     

Credit market frictions and political failure

We study how an excessively favorable regulatory environment for banks could arise even with a perfectly competitive credit market in a median voter world. In our occupational choice model with heterogeneous wealth endowments, market failure due to unobservability of entrepreneurial talent endogenously creates a misalignment between surplus maximizing reforms and reforms that are preferred by the median voter, who is a worker. This is in contrast to the world without market failure where the electorate unanimously vote in favor of surplus maximizing institutional reforms. This paper illustrates how market failure could lead to political failure even in the benchmark political system that is free from capture by interest groups.     

Training in service – importing and imparting customer service culture as an interactive process

Customer service culture initiatives have received renewed academic attention. Recent surveys of employee responses have highlighted the importance of training. However, its precise nature and how messages and various responses are mediated through an interactive and dynamic process have been largely neglected. In addition, employees' experience of customer service as consumers and of its contradictions has yet to be fully explored in accounting for employee responses. In an effort to develop existing knowledge and models of customer service culture, these issues are addressed by drawing on observational research. Four training programmes are examined in varied contexts, including a UK call centre and a Malaysian bank. They reveal a dynamic whereby trainers' anticipation of employee attitudes such as cynicism and the immediate reactions and dialogue of trainees help shape both the service message and subsequent responses.     

从非价格制度谈对市场经济内涵的再认识

随着市场经济的发展，环境污染、外部负效应、社会道德水平下降和贫富分化严重等市场失灵造成的社会不良现象相继出现，暴露出了一个问题，即市场经济价格机制并不是万能的。非价格制度的作用以及市场经济的进入时机与条件，都是市场经济模式运用中更广泛的内容。文章从市场经济的一般理论与特征入手，针对其内在的缺陷，引入非价格制度的概念与作用，指出非价格制度其实应作为市场经济本身的一部分来认识，从而对市场经济理论进行深入探讨。     

Web Service技术在供应链信息集成中的应用研究

随着全球化经济和现代化信息技术的飞速发展，企业已无法单独面对市场竞争，必须参与到供应链中，作为供应链的一个组成部分。供应链的不断庞大，各个企业相互之间很难交互和共享数据，于是形成一个个信息孤岛。如何进行信息交互使供应链管理发挥巨大的作用已成为人们普遍关注的热点。本文首先阐述了供应链管理的基本思想，其次分析了供应链管理中现状，在此基础上，提出了基于Web Service集成技术建立供应链信息集成系统，保持原有企业系统的独立性的基础上，在异构信息平台正确和快速的传递信息，提高供应链的运行效率。