Search results

This study aims to investigate the influence of image and reputation of imported fresh fruits on consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. The moderating role of familiarity with imported fruits was also assessed.

A total of 332 Taiwanese consumers who had purchased imported Korean pears participated using an online survey and were grouped based on their familiarity to Korean pears. Multi-group analysis with structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Image and reputation of imported Korean pears were identified as predictors of the satisfaction and purchase intention. Multi-group analysis results found the moderating effect of familiarity between image and satisfaction. Images were identified as predictors of the satisfaction and purchase intention of imported Korean pears for consumers with low familiarity, whereas image did not show any influence on satisfaction for consumers with high familiarity.

This study can contribute to the limited understanding of imported fresh fruit markets and provides insights into familiarity for consuming imported fresh fruits.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance (UA) on the relationships among subjective knowledge, attitude toward Korean foods and dining out behavioral intentions (BI) of foreign residents in Korea.

A total of 247 foreign residents in Korea were participated through a street intercept survey at several locations in metropolitan areas of South Korea. Subsequently, the samples were divided into two groups (a low UA group and a high UA group) for multiple group analysis to examine the moderating role of UA.

The results of structural equation modeling showed that subjective knowledge and attitude toward Korean foods significantly influenced intention to visit Korean restaurants. Furthermore, multiple group analysis results showed that UA had a significant moderating effect as a cultural dimension on the relationships between subjective knowledge and BI, as well as between attitude and BI.

This research has made the first attempt to account for UA in examining the relationships among subjective knowledge, attitude and BIs, especially for ambiguous situations where foreign residents who are new to the mainstream Korean food culture face challenges in visiting Korean restaurants.

The findings indicate that enhancing subjective knowledge about Korean foods should increase the probability of foreign residents visiting Korean restaurants, so restaurant marketers should consider subjective knowledge as they work to encourage foreign residents to try Korean foods. Furthermore, planning strategies for marketing to foreign residents should consider level of UA among foreigners.

This study first illustrates the value of considering the cultural trait of UA in examining dining out behavior at ethnic restaurants. The UA trait sheds light on how subjective knowledge helps predict attitude and dining out BI at ethnic restaurants.

Customer incivility is commonplace across service industries. Yet, there is little that is known about how uncivil customers affect employees. The purpose of this study is to examine how uncivil customer interactions affect employees’ cynicism, depersonalization and job performance.

Study 1 uses the qualitative critical incident technique to content analyze employee perceptions of customer incivility and how it affects their job performance. Study 2 uses a 2 (incivility frequency: high vs low) × 2 (co-worker support: high vs low) × 2 (service rule commitment: high vs low) quasi-experimental between-subjects design.

Results find that there is a significant interaction effect of customer incivility frequency, co-worker emotional support and service rule commitment on employee cynicism and depersonalization, which leads to decreased job performance and more harmful experiences to other customers.

The findings provide practical implications on the importance of managing customer incivility, providing co-worker support and how this affects employee attitudes and service they deliver to other customers.

The results build upon the incivility, co-worker support and service rule commitment literature, conservation of resources theory, as well as identifying key variables core to hospitality and tourism research: cynicism and depersonalization that provide important implications for actions of tourism and hospitality firms.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of accessibility, quality perception, and price perception on consumer satisfaction with imported fruit, specifically imported Asian pears. The moderating role of the country image was also assessed.

A total of 413 Americans aged over 19 years who had purchased imported Asian pears were surveyed through an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling and multiple group analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses.

Accessibility, quality perception, and price perception exhibited a significant impact on consumer satisfaction with imported Asian pears and influenced behavioral intention through satisfaction. Multiple group analysis results revealed a moderating effect of the country image on these relationships. Accessibility had a significant impact on consumer satisfaction of consumers with a high country image of Korea, whereas prices had no significant impact on them. In contrast, price was determined as a key satisfaction factor for consumers with a low country image of Korea, whereas accessibility did not have a significant impact.

This study contributes to the literature on imported fruits and provides practical implications for promoting the consumption of imported Asian pears in the US.

This paper aims to examine the underlying motivations, attitudes and behaviors of exaggerated review posters and readers by examining the effect of review valence, emotional expression and language complexity on perceived poster, website and firm trustworthiness and subsequent behavioral intentions.

This research uses a mixed-method approach using the qualitative critical incident technique (CIT) and quantitative experimental design. Study 1 uses CIT to examine exaggerated online reviews from the poster perspective where Study 2 uses CIT to examine readers’ perceptions of exaggerated reviews. Study 3 conducts a between-subjects experimental design examining the impact of valence (positive vs negative) × emotion (low vs high) × language (vague vs detailed) on trustworthiness and behavior intention.

Results of the two qualitative studies (Study 1 and 2) find posters and readers use language complexity and emotions in exaggerated reviews. The results from the quantitative experimental design study (Study 3) find that language style and emotions influence customer perceptions of poster, website and firm trustworthiness, which also mediates the relationship between the qualitative aspects of review text on behavioral intentions.

The findings provide multiple practical implications on the prevalence of exaggerated online reviews and the importance of language and emotion in determining customer perceptions and behavioral intentions.

By focusing on both readers and posters in exaggerated eWOM, specific motivations, emotions and language, this research contributes to the literature of online reviews, customer misbehavior, trustworthiness, language use and value co-destruction in online environments.

This study aims to identify key factors that affected US respondents’ dining behavior at restaurants during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the lack of a prior framework or model to test customers’ perceptions of dining-out behavior during this unprecedented time, this study used a mixed-methods approach, conducting two focus group discussions to generate potential restaurant attributes, followed by a US-based survey using an online panel. Using structural equation modeling, this study tested eight developed propositions.

The findings of this study indicated that the three key factors (i.e. restaurant dining environment, communication and hygiene and contactless features) made customers feel comfortable dining in the restaurant during the pandemic. Out of these three factors, only the restaurant dining environment and communication and hygiene were essential predictors for customers’ perceived trust toward the restaurant, leading to their willingness to pay more. This study used two moderators, customers’ perceived risk and support for restaurants to examine how they affected customers’ perceived trust and willingness to pay, respectively.

This study provides both theoretical and practical implications to the current body of knowledge in customers’ dining-out behavior and the development of operational strategies for restaurants to accommodate customers’ changing dining-out behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To develop a holistic conceptual framework, this study incorporates two COVID-19-focused measurement items, perceived risk and support of the restaurant, to identify their moderating roles in the relationships among the five proposed measurement items. This study provides restaurant operators with insights into the altered dining-out behavior of their customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares them for the post pandemic environment.

During the unprecedented pandemic situation, few customers are willing to dine in restaurants. As local and national governments lifted the mandated COVID-19 protocols, restaurants opened their business slowly to cater to customers in compliance with the centers for disease control’s health and safety regulations. It is of utmost importance for restaurant operators to accommodate their customers’ needs when they dine in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a paucity of research that has examined customers’ comfort level when dining in restaurants and customers’ preferred dining environment during the pandemic.

This paper aims to review hospitality and tourism research on customer satisfaction (CS), service quality (SQ) and customer value (CV) published in several established hospitality and tourism journals over the past 15-16 years. A parallel review of research on the same topics published in several leading marketing journals is also conducted to show comparisons in research trends across the two different, but closely related, fields of study. By doing so, this paper aims to summarize lessons learned from previous research and provide suggestions for future research on the topics in the hospitality and tourism discipline.

This study reviewed 242 articles appearing in six selected hospitality and tourism journals and 71 articles in four business journals that were published on CS, SQ and CV over the period of 2000-2015. A comprehensive coding scheme was developed to sort each study by more than 50 criteria.

While research on these topics has grown constantly during the period in the hospitality and tourism field, it has declined in the general business discipline over the same period. Hospitality and tourism research relied heavily on cross-sectional data through a survey approach, whereas business studies used experimental designs more frequently. Research on CS has sustained both interest and productivity, but research on SQ and CV has dwindled over time. Another notable finding is that most studies are not grounded in strong theories, although CS studies tended to be more theory-embedded.

This study provides many useful insights into the research practice and trends of related research and suggestions for future research, especially for hospitality and tourism researchers.

This study provides an unprecedented, comprehensive review of theories, methods, discussion points, implications, limitations and conclusions of studies on CS, SQ and CV published in selected hospitality and tourism journals over the past 15 years.

Purpose – Leadership is a very large topic with a long history of scholarship. Despite this, existing theories of leadership have been mostly silent about group-level phenomena and challenges that leaders of small teams face. Our chapter begins to address this problem by specifying four functions or challenges that any theory of group leadership should address if it is to be helpful to small-group scholars looking for answers about leading teams.

Approach – In order to identify main group functions that should be managed by leaders and be developed into refined leadership theories, we review both leadership and team studies. Based on the four functions that we establish, we briefly review a selection of major leadership theories that we believe can provide the foundations for new and better group-level leadership theories.

Findings – By using two theoretical categorization (managing individual group members vs. managing group; affective/motivational vs. cognitive functions), we suggest that leaders of small groups deal with the four key leadership functions – (1) managing within-group interpersonal dynamics, (2) within-group coordination of information/resources, (3) group-level affect management, and (4) managing group boundaries for information/resources flow and group identity.

Value – This chapter provides specific group functions that groups and teams scholars can use as a foundation to develop better theory of small-group leadership.