Deals inside: examining restaurant operators’ motives when choosing whether to offer a flash-sale

As restaurants are the primary hospitality business represented on flash-sale sites, this study examined motivations of restaurant managers when choosing whether to utilize the promotional mediums of flash-sales. Interviews were administered as a measurement instrument. Results demonstrated restaurants which have employed flash-sales are weary of the likelihood of success and believe the flash-sales brought in established customers. Non-users indicated hesitation towards adoption of flash-sales related to low profit margins per item in their operation and the percentage split of the sale price between the firm and flash-sale provider. Findings provide keen foundational insight into the flashsale phenomenon.     

Numerical methods for dynamic Bertrand oligopoly and American options under regime switching

Bertrand oligopolies are competitive markets in which a small number of firms producing similar goods use price as their strategic variable. In particular, each firm wants to determine the optimal price that maximizes its expected discounted lifetime profit. The oligopoly problem can be modeled as nonzero-sum games which can be formulated as systems of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) partial differential equations (PDEs). In this paper, we propose fully implicit, positive coefficient finite difference schemes that converge to the viscosity solution for the HJB PDE from dynamic Bertrand monopoly and the two-dimensional HJB system from dynamic Bertrand duopoly. Furthermore, we develop fast multigrid methods for solving these systems of discrete nonlinear HJB PDEs. The new multigrid methods are general and can be applied to other systems of HJB and HJB-Isaacs PDEs arising from American options under regime switching and American options with unequal lending/borrowing rates and stock borrowing fees under regime switching, respectively. We provide a theoretical analysis for the smoother, restriction and interpolation operators of the multigrid methods. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by numerical examples from the dynamic Bertrand problem and pricing American options under regime switching.     

Hospitality managers' importance perceptions of human resource practices related to employment of foreign workers in the United States

ABSTRACT

Cross-border labor mobility of hospitality employees has resulted in an increase in illegal immigrants in the workforce. The purpose of this study was to generate a list of top legal issues associated with the employment of foreign workers in the U.S. hospitality industry and to identify factors defined by the importance ratings of these issues. Snowball sampling was used to collect data from hospitality managers. Findings reveal that respondents perceive document verification to be important but may not perceive knowledge of various visa types and employment termination reporting procedures associated with employing foreign workers to be important. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Using Wellness Services to Position and Promote Brand India

As travelers seek different experiences from different destinations, it is essential for destinations to create unique travel experiences on an emotional, physical, intellectual, and even spiritual level. The purpose of this article is to present a rationale for promoting brand India as a provider of wellness services. The article also discusses international literature on destination branding and wellness tourism. The success and shortcomings of India's current tourism campaign, and opportunities and challenges that come with branding India as a wellness destination are presented.