Editorial

Citation

Okumus, F. (2011), "Editorial", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 23 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2011.04123caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Volume 23, Issue 3

This issue consists of eight research papers and one book review. In the first article, Ken Butcher and Beverly Sparks investigate how small/medium hospitality firms set preferences for knowledge transfer relating to customer service improvement activities. Their sample consisted of 255 owners, managers, or owner-managers of small/medium hospitality firms in Australia. Their results found that hospitality firms are reluctant to embrace knowledge transfer activities in general and, customer service training in particular. In the second article, Ruggero Sainaghi identified Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) determinants of individual firms located in a destination. The sample of this study was composed of 72 individual firms operating in the 3-5 star range. The study findings suggested the importance of linking the identification of determinants with the local context (destination) and positioning inside the city (location). For existing firms, empirical findings indicated the relevance of a strong advantage or disadvantage in a location that might compensate for a disadvantage or advantage in its strategic positioning.

The third article, by Christopher Guilding and Kelly Cassidy, develop a typology of the organizational forms comprising the Australian condominium tourism accommodation sector. The authors collected data through 34 exploratory interviews, and based on the research findings they proposed an original hierarchical typology. Certainly the study findings will advance the capacity to provide a meaningful commentary on the nature of condominium tourism accommodation complexes and understand its key issues associated with different forms of provided services. In their empirical study, Erdogan Ekiz and Norman Au explore the possible effects of attitude towards complaining about intention to remain loyal to hotels. They also compared differences in the Chinese and American attitudes towards complaining. The results highlighted that culture affects attitude toward complaining and the general intention to stay loyal.

The next article, by Chris Ryan, Hazrina Ghazali and Asad Mohsin, examine determinants of the intention of quitting a job held by non-managerial staff in the Malaysian fast food industry. They collected data via a questionnaire from 806 respondents. Study results indicated about 20 per cent of the sample often thought about leaving their jobs, while another 20 per cent were found to be committed to their employment. The “intention to leave the job” scorers were found to be influenced by friends but also by feelings of job stress and “being burnt out”. This study has valuable theoretical and practical implications. Valentini Kalargyrou and Robert Woods investigated the training professionals’ competencies in the hospitality industry in the US. The authors conducted interviews with training professionals in order to reveal their unconscious thoughts and opinions. They found that the training competencies are imperative to the effectiveness of training and development were teamwork, inspiration-motivation, creativity, mentoring, keeping current, proactiveness, active listening, staying healthy, training measurement, consistency, and love/passion for the profession. One would claim that these competencies are essential for all managers in the hospitality industry.

In the following article, Hilary Catherine Murphy and Harry de Jongh discuss whether students adopt a “deep” approach to learning in the context of information systems and hospitality management degree programs. Their results indicate that even though there would be significant differences between two different learning measurements, “deep learning” is acquired in both contexts. Their results revealed that the constructive alignment of teaching and learning priorities are needed with resource and training implications for both educators and educational establishments. In the final article, Tracy Harkison, Jill Poulston, and Jung-Hee Ginny Kim looked at students and the industry’s expectations and assumptions of the desired attributes of hospitality employees. The authors collected data from hospitality managers and 137 graduate students. According to the research findings, students thought that knowledge and skills were important for new employees, however the industry was far more interested in personality. Moreover, students thought that they had to become good communicators, but the industry thought that showing initiative and positive attitude were more important.

We have a book review in this issue on Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Volume 4: Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and Usefulness Auditing of Destination Website which was edited by Arch G. Woodside. The edited book serves as a good reference for industrial practitioners, educators, junior researchers, students, and consumers. It presents good cases for practitioners to find out how to improve their destination websites and enhance a visitor’s experience and satisfaction.

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

Fevzi OkumusEditor-in-Chief