Editorial

Citation

Okumus, F. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-01-2014-0037

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Volume 26, Issue 3

The third issue of IJCHM in 2014 contains eight research papers. In the first article, Sun-Young Park and Stuart Levy examine 575 US hotel frontline employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Their research findings indicate that hotel employees’ perceptions of CSR activities encompass the host community, colleagues, and customers, beyond green practices. Moreover, the perceptions of CSR activities positively and significantly influence the level of organizational identification. Accordingly, CSR activities can be a critical tool in engaging frontline employees to achieve better performance and derive more meaning in their careers, and in attracting good quality employees. In the second article, Anil Bilgihan, Cheng Peng, and Jay Kandampully explore Generation Y’s information seeking and sharing behavior with regard to information about social networking sites (SNS). Their findings demonstrate that Generation Y’s are heavy users of SNS. Consumer opinion leadership and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence affect Generation Y’s dining information seeking and sharing behavior on SNS. The study findings should raise marketers’ awareness of Generation Y consumers and highlight the importance of social media marketing.

In the third article Srikanth Beldona, Nadria Buchanan, and Brian Miller explore the relative efficacy of an e-tablet menu over the traditional paper-based menu across the parameters of order information quality, menu usability and ordering satisfaction using customer perceptions. Their research findings indicate that e-tablet menus can be significantly superior to the traditional paper-based menu across all parameters. Restaurateurs should be cognizant of customization options to significantly enhance order information quality, improve customer service and boost sales. In the next article, Andrea Ellero and Paola Pellegrini assess the performance of different widely-adopted models to forecast Italian hotel occupancy, and particularly, tested the different models for forecasting the demand in hotels located in urban areas. According to study results, models based on booking information outperform historical ones. Pick-up models achieve the best results but forecasts are in any case rather poor. From a managerial point-of-view, traditional forecasting models could be considered only as a sort of "first aid" for revenue management decisions.

The fifth article by Priyanko Guchait, Katherine Hamilton and Nan Hua examine how personality composition in teams relates to team taskwork understanding (TTU) and transactive memory systems (TMS) over time. The authors applied a longitudinal study with 27 service management teams involving 178 respondents in a restaurant setting. Their study results suggest that team mean-level conscientiousness significantly positively relates to TTU and TMS in the initial stage of team formation. On the other hand, team mean-level agreeableness has a significant positive relationship with TTU and TMS later on in the team’s lifecycle. In the following article, Dennis Reynolds, Imran Rahman, and Stacey Bradetich test a corresponding four-antecedent model of the value of diversity training from the point-of-view of hotel managers:

1. corporate engagement in diversity training;

2. participants’ perceptions of how such programs aid their peers;

3. self-analysis of participants in training; and

4. perceptions regarding the benefit of diversity training for subordinates.

According to their study findings, managers perceive themselves and the corporate executives to significantly add value to the organization through diversity training, while ethnic minority managers do not value diversity training significantly more highly than their non-minority counterparts do. This study indicates that hotel managers value diversity training and suggests the need for organizations to understand how to prioritize various organizational levels for such training.

The article by Ady Milman and Duncan Dickson analyzes hourly line-level employees’ characteristics and their perceptions of their employment experience in large US theme parks and attractions, as well as explored predictors for their retention. Their study results indicate that of the 27 employment characteristics studied, the most important include advancement opportunities, humane approach to employees, and a fun and challenging job. Importance-Performance analysis reveals that the largest gaps are recorded in the areas of pay, advancement opportunities, and a humane approach to employees. The research findings confirm that hourly employees’ retention may be predicted by employees’ level of satisfaction, better experience with pay, and better experience with employee development training classes. In the final article, Ibrahim Taylan Dortyol, Inci Varinli and Olgun Kitapci investigate tourists’ perceptions of services provided by hotels in Antalya, Turkey. Ten hotel service quality dimensions were defined by factor analysis and then the most important dimensions for each component were determined using stepwise regression analysis. Of the ten hotel service quality dimensions: "Tangibles" and "Food quality and reliability" appear to influence the customer satisfaction level the most. "Hotel employees and problem solving", "Transportation", "Food quality and reliability", "Climate and hygiene", "Level of price", "Tangibles", "Interaction with Turkish culture" and "Friendly, courteous and helpful employees" are the main dimensions which affect whether a guest will recommend a hotel. "Tangibles", "Interaction with Turkish culture", and "Level of price" are seen as the most influential dimensions in terms of customers’ intentions to revisit a hotel.

We hope that our readers find all the articles published in this issue timely, relevant and insightful.

Fevzi Okumus