Exploring the antecedents of intentions to leave the job: The case of luxury hotel staff

The aim of this study is to assess the antecedents of employee’ intentions to resign from their jobs in luxury hotels in India. Two aspects are considered in this context: firstly, the employees’ enthusiasm for the profession and organisation, the nature of the work and its impact on social and family life. Secondly, their level of satisfaction with the job in terms of organisational loyalty, relationship with supervisors, job security, earnings and additional benefits. A theoretical model (see Fig. 1) and seven hypotheses are tested to indicate whether the employees’ level of agreement with statements about the job and their level of satisfaction with the job will impact their intentions to quit. The study further examines if any current employees intend to leave their job. The term luxury hotel is used to represent 5 star and 4 star hotels of India.Findings from the analyses of 884 responses suggest that, when considering intentions to resign from the job, a negative relationship is found between professional and organisational enthusiasm and perceptions about the work being stimulating. No support was found for a positive relationship between the extent work impacted social and family life and the intention to quit. However, results supported the notion that the employee's organisational loyalty has a negative effect on his/her intention to resign from the job. Our findings contradict several other studies in that they suggest the employee's intention to resign from the job increases as job security and earnings improve. The study is distinctive as it explores intentions luxury hotel employees in India to leave their jobs; three is little evidence in the wider literature of similar attempts in the context of the Indian hotel industry. The outcomes have implications for both theory and practice as this is the first such major study in the context of the hotel industry in India where there is a population of over a billion people and an expanding hotel industry.     

试论奢侈品消费的隐忧——警惕奢侈品消费降低国民整体幸福感

中国成为奢侈品消费大国,一方面是件好事,说明在世界经济低迷的情况下,中国的经济发展依然势头正旺;另一方面,少部分人对奢侈品消费的炫耀、跟风和攀比,以及媒体对奢侈品消费的过度宣传,会降低国民整体的幸福感。财富按照其自然可评估性可以分为两类,自然可评估性高的财富的增长能够提高人们的幸福感;自然可评估性低的财富的增加不一定提高人们的幸福感,而且会降低社会整体幸福感。     

Managing heritage brands: A study of the sacralization of heritage stores in the luxury industry

We investigate the concept of the heritage store, that is, the locations that lies at the heart of a brand׳s identity and history. Based on store observations and interviews with managers and sales personnel in the luxury industry, we analyze the characteristics of heritage stores and their role in the management of heritage brands. We show how managers sacralize a store׳s heritage to nurture the value proposition of the brand. Our analysis yields new insights into retailing, introducing the concept of the heritage store and emphasizing its sacralizalization. We outline the implications for retail marketing in developing and maintaining the sacralization of heritage stores.     

国际奢侈品牌中国高端消费市场进入模式分析

本文选择3个具有典型意义的国际奢侈品牌,以交易成本理论和市场进入理论为框架,采用多案例研究方法,从品牌管理、分销零售和财务运营3个核心方面对国际奢侈品牌中国高端消费市场成功进入模式进行分析,提出奢侈品牌市场进入理论,其具体包括3种模式:(1)全直营模式;(2)直营和代理并存模式;(3)全代理模式。通过对其他多个国际奢侈品牌案例进行的确认性研究,验证了以上典型模式分类和奢侈品牌市场进入理论。基于研究发现,结论部分对中国品牌管理提出了适合中国国情的建议。     

How Rousseau read Hume’s Political Discourses: hints of unexpected agreement in their views of money and luxury

Despite mounting scholarship on the Rousseau–Smith connection, the possibility of overlap between the Humean and Rousseauian views of commercial society has not been explored. This is due to opposing views held by these two thinkers on this issue. However, Rousseau in the Confessions recorded a brief, but shrewd impressions on Hume’s Political Discourses, which he held before meeting Hume. In these comments, Rousseau, unlike his other French contemporaries, noted some republican aspects lurking in Hume’s political and economic essays. Moreover, after his two Discourses, Rousseau composed several other important works in which he revealed his more ‘mature’ economic arguments. Careful readings of these textual clues indicate that, in striking parallel with Hume, Rousseau conducts a thought experiment on the drastic change in the quantity of money and elaborates on the significance of industry and a certain type of luxury. Our purpose here is not to prove that Hume’s Political Discourses directly influenced Rousseau’s later writings, but to measure the extent to which Rousseau could share the Scot’s economic ideas by considering that the former may well have read the latter.     

Logistics and supply chain management in luxury fashion retail: Empirical investigation of Italian firms

The Italian industry of fashion goods is a business worth 67.6€ billion in 2006 (Il Sole 24ore, January 10, 2007), of which about 26€ billion is due to the luxury segment. Marketing gurus state that “consumers everywhere at every income level want more luxury” [Danziger, P.N., 2005. Let them Eat the Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses as well as the Classes. Dearborn Trade Publishing, Chicago]: therefore, companies should move brands towards a higher positioning and add more valuable features to products and services, but this cannot be obtained only by means of marketing efforts. Which is the role of operations and supply chain management in luxury fashion companies’ success? This paper presents the results of the exploratory stage of a research project ongoing at Politecnico di Milano and dealing with supply chain management in the luxury fashion industry. In total, 12 Italian luxury fashion retailers have been studied in order to describe the main features of operations and supply chain strategies in the luxury fashion segment and to identify their role with respect to the relevant critical success factors.     

Uniqueness and luxury: A moderated mediation approach

Luxury consumption has become a worldwide phenomenon. Irrespective of consumers’ need for uniqueness being considered as an important psychological factor impacting luxury consumption intention, research seldom investigates the impact of CNFU dimensions on luxury consumption. This study investigates how CNFU dimensions (i.e. creative choice counter-conformity, unpopular choice counter-conformity and avoidance of similarity) drive luxury consumption intention in light of the mediating role of social comparison and the moderating role of materialism. Four hundred twenty-eight surveys completed by high-income consumers in India were used for analysis. The findings showed that social comparison mediates the effects of creative choice counter conformity and avoidance of similarity on luxury consumption. Materialism moderates these mediation effects. This study contributes to the luxury consumption literature by explaining how the interplay of psychological and social factor affects luxury purchase intention among the people driven by different uniqueness dimensions. Practically, the findings will be useful to the retailers and marketers of fashion luxury items and brands.     

Role of consumption values in the luxury brand experience: Moderating effects of category and the generation gap

This study examined how the consumption values of luxury brands lead to their patronage. We examined the effects of functional, symbolic, experiential, and zero-moment-of-truth (ZMOT) values on patronage intention through the emotional response process of flow and compatibility using the stimulus–organism–response framework. Furthermore, latent mean analysis of the moderating effects of different groups was conducted. The findings demonstrate that experiential, functional, symbolic, and ZMOT values influence emotional reactions to luxury brand experiences, and these reactions vary among groups. Marketers should increase the value of the luxurious consumption experience and create different values for various consumer groups and categories to expand luxury brands.     

To survive or to thrive? China’s luxury hotel restaurants entering O2O food delivery platforms amid the COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19 presents luxury hotels with an unenviable task of maneuvering to secure survival. One of the contingency measures of China’s five-star hotels is to salvage revenues by entering online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platforms. However, both opportunities and risks will ensue. Study 1 has content analyzed customer reviews on the largest O2O food delivery platform in China to probe the key factors of concern. The results show that taste, freshness, and brand credibility remain salient, as in dine-in experiences, while packaging and delivery quality emerge as a result of the integration of the O2O platform, and hygiene due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, interaction quality between restaurant staff and customers still plays significant roles with the online channel. Study 2 has further deepened the understanding of luxury restaurants’ O2O services through semi-structured interviews with F&B professionals. The results have paved the way for hotel operators to employ tactics on O2O platforms.     

Do price promotions drive consumer spending on luxury hotel services? The moderating roles of room price and user-generated content

Price promotion, as price information, and user-generated content (UGC), as non-price information, play an important role in generating luxury hotel revenue. This study empirically investigates how price promotion influences actual consumer spending on luxury hotel services except room price, by considering the contingency role of room price and volume and valence of UGC. Combined data of daily settlements and Tripadvisor customer reviews of a regional luxury hotel chain are used for the analyses. The results indicate that, overall, price promotion negatively influences consumer spending on luxury hotel services and its negative effect is strengthened when the room is higher priced or the valence of UGC is high. Furthermore, a larger volume of intrinsic attribute-related UGC–amenity and location–with price promotion leads to more consumer spending than a larger volume of extrinsic attribute-related UGC–food and staff. The findings provide hotel managers with important insights into pricing and UGC management.