Editorial

Citation

Teare, R. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 19 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2007.04119daa.001

Editorial

It is encouraging to know that IJCHM is continuing to grow in popularity – year on year – as evidenced by the number of article downloads from the Emerald electronic database. The article download statistics reveal steady rises between 2002 (126,639 article downloads) and 2005 (220,019 article downloads) and then comes a truly spectacular increase to almost half a million article downloads (453,801) in 2006. My thanks to our readers and of course to our authors for continuing to provide interesting and engaging articles.

This issue contains eight articles, five in the main section, supported by two research in brief articles and in the viewpoint section, the first part (of a three part article series) on the development of the British public house. The second and third parts will appear in volume 19, issue numbers 6 and 7 respectively.

Lan Li, Eliza Ching-Yick Tse and Lishan Xie open with the first of two articles that profile industry features in China. They set out to investigate the demographic characteristics and career paths of general managers (GMs) working in China’s indigenous economy and budget hotel sector. They found that the majority of general managers are male, aged between 31-51 and had attended college. These characteristics are similar to the career paths of GMs working in the international hotel sector, but there are some key differences. First, GMs in China tend to possess more work and managerial experience in sectors other than hotels and second, most had prior experience in sales and marketing and human resource management, as these areas are considered to be important pre-qualifiers for a GM position in China. In the second article, Hanqin Qiu Zhang and Alison Morrison pose the question: How can the small to medium sized travel agents stay competitive in China’s travel service sector? They conducted an exploratory study and found that small businesses, often run by people with limited business and management experience tended to characterize the profile of Chinese travel agents. Furthermore, those who participated in the study had a limited understanding of the market they are serving and the products available. These factors suggest that the sustainability of these operations is threatened by growing competition, decreased market share and dwindling profit levels.

Collin Ramdeen, Jocelina Santos and Hyun Kyung Chatfield set out to measure the cost of quality in a hotel restaurant operation. Specifically, they sought to apply cost of quality (COQ) concepts using a prevention, appraisal and failure costs model. In general, the literature suggests that the COQ should be 2-4 percent of sales but their findings reveal 12-16 percent, consistent over a two-year period. In this helpful, practical paper, the authors explain how to focus on prevention activities in order to reduce failure costs. Operational issues are also addressed by Asad Mohsin who assesses customer perceptions of service quality delivered by front office, room service and an in house restaurant in Hamilton, New Zealand. There have been relatively few service quality studies of lodging operations in New Zealand and his work provides an insight on the service quality gaps that are likely to occur.

Emma Martin and Katherine Gardiner investigate the steps taken by the UK hospitality industry to comply with the age discrimination legislation introduced during 2006. They found that almost half of their respondents knew little or nothing about the legislation and their findings indicate the importance of carefully targeting the age discrimination message, especially to pubs, clubs and hotels.

Susan Ogden considers the ways in which supplier relationship contribute to success in conference and events management. She found that most venue managers value long-term supplier relationships and place importance on non-financial benefits that accrue from these relationships – especially consistency, responsiveness and flexibility in service delivery. The Research in Brief section also contains a study of the relationship between leadership and employee loyalty and dedication by Amarjit Gill and Neil Mathur. They found that high achieving managers tend to inspire greater confidence among their staff.

The Viewpoint section contains the opening part of John Pratten’s three part series on the development of the modern UK public house. Part one outlines the main physical characteristics of the British pub, its products and facilities, clientele and licensee in the late 1940s. I am grateful to John for his concise and interesting contributions over the past few years – he has continued to explore facets of the UK licensed trade sector – a large component of the UK hospitality industry that is comparatively under-researched.

Richard Teare