Hospitality and COVID-19: a willingness to choose e-consultation owing to unemployment and home isolation
Benchmarking: An International Journal
ISSN: 1463-5771
Article publication date: 2 December 2022
Issue publication date: 1 December 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic since COVID-19's widespread outbreak and the hospitality industry has been the hardest hit due to lockdown. Consequently, hospitality workers are suffering from the negative aspects of mental health. In the event of such a crisis, this study aims to explore the link between unemployment and home isolation to the willingness to choose electronic consultation (e-consultation) by exploiting psychological ill-being and behavioural intention (BI) with marital status as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative methodology is applied to primary data collected from 310 workers from the hospitality industry through an online survey.
Findings
Findings of this study suggest that the usage of the e-consultation service can be adopted using three levels. There are valid reasons to conclude unemployment and home isolation are linked to higher rates of psychological health behaviours, which can result in stigma, loss of self-worth and increased mortality. The adverse effect is higher for single individuals than for married people.
Originality/value
The study focussed on e-consultation, BI coupled with the Fishbein scale and a classification model for the prediction of willingness to choose e-consultation with the extension of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB).
Keywords
Citation
Behera, R.K., Bala, P.K., Panigrahi, P.K. and Rana, N.P. (2023), "Hospitality and COVID-19: a willingness to choose e-consultation owing to unemployment and home isolation", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 30 No. 10, pp. 3982-4013. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-01-2022-0025
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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