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Article
Publication date: 19 January 2023

Raksmey Sann and Pei-Chun Lai

This study aims to understand the satisfaction and needs of eastern and western travelers as hotel guest, based on their experiences as seen in guest reviews and review topics.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the satisfaction and needs of eastern and western travelers as hotel guest, based on their experiences as seen in guest reviews and review topics.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering 2,965 and 1,035 western and eastern traveler reviews, respectively, from 47 countries, obtained from TripAdvisor listed-hotel in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap city in Cambodia, this study investigates the differences in hotel guest satisfaction and needs by using topic modeling (i.e. latent Dirichlet allocation [LDA]).

Findings

The results reveal differences in the online preferences, experiences, expectations and behaviors of hotel guests from different cultural backgrounds. Though western and eastern travelers appear to place similar emphasis on service, location, room and destination. The westerners more likely focus on meal and online reservation, whereas the easterners focus on hotel facility.

Research limitations/implications

Reviews were obtained from only two cities in Cambodia, which is not an adequate representation of the diverse travelers visiting the country.

Practical implications

The comparison highlighting the similarities and dissimilarities between western and eastern traveler perspectives enable hoteliers to understand guests’ preferences and their hidden changes in (dis)satisfaction and leverage it to improve hotel service quality, increase occupancy and, thereby, maximize profits.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on hotel guests’ experiences by presenting the difference in perceptions of service experience of western and eastern travelers, through topic modeling.

Details

Consumer Behavior in Tourism and Hospitality, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2752-6666

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2020

Raksmey Sann and Pei-Chun Lai

This paper aims to shed light on differences in the patterns of online rating behavior that Chinese- and English-speaking travelers adopt when making hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to shed light on differences in the patterns of online rating behavior that Chinese- and English-speaking travelers adopt when making hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.

Design/methodology/approach

A dual analysis was conducted on 800 online reviews for eight hotel brands. The brands, which are currently operating in Bangkok City, are considered to be representative of their categories. The hotels were selected based on their abilities to meet the quantitative and qualitative requirements of the text mining strategy adopted in this study.

Findings

The results reveal that, with respect to all of the hotel service attributes (i.e. Service, Cleanliness, Room, Sleep Quality, Location, Value and Overall), the ratings offered by the English-speaking guests were higher than the Chinese-speaking travelers. Based on the qualitative analysis, the ten service attributes which had the most impact on traveler satisfaction were distinguished. These attributes were then classified into three broadly themed categories including intangible service, tangible service and staying experience. The results from the word frequency analysis also helps to clarify which features are drawing attention from travelers from different backgrounds.

Originality/value

This study contributes to tourism and hospitality literature by confirming certain differences in the online rating behavior of Chinese- and English-speaking hotel guests.

Details

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6182

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 September 2019

Xiao Hu and Chun Lai

Learning management systems (LMSs) have been embraced for their potential to create a ubiquitous learning that is free from time and space constraints. Mobile devices afford…

Abstract

Purpose

Learning management systems (LMSs) have been embraced for their potential to create a ubiquitous learning that is free from time and space constraints. Mobile devices afford enhanced mobility that enables flexible learning with LMSs. Thus, understanding students’ use of mobile devices to interact with LMSs and the influencing factors is essential. This paper aims to examine the factors that influenced students’ behavioural intention in using Web-based LMSs via mobile phones and compared the factors with those that affect students’ general acceptance of Web-based LMSs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study surveyed 356 university students and interviewed 17 students on the various factors that might affect their LMS adoption. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the survey data.

Findings

This study identified that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence and facilitating conditions were significant determinants of students’ usage intention in both contexts. However, social factors exerted greater influence on students’ behavioural intentions of mobile access than the attitudinal factors. The results also pinpointed some sociocultural and tempo-spatial factors that might have minimized the influence of perceived usefulness in the mobile context.

Originality/value

The study calls for special attention to the potential influences of sociocultural norms and tempo-spatial circumstances of mobile use in shaping the nature of learners’ voluntary mobile use of LMSs.

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2023

Raksmey Sann, Pei-Chun Lai, Shu-Yi Liaw and Chi-Ting Chen

This study aims to develop an assessment scale for university service quality (university SQ) and examine University Service Quality assessment model (UNIQUAL) of higher education…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop an assessment scale for university service quality (university SQ) and examine University Service Quality assessment model (UNIQUAL) of higher education during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies applied a mixed-method design to develop and validate the UNIQUAL scale. In-depth interviews and literature reviews were conducted to refine the initial dimensions and items of UNIQUAL in Study 1. Item analysis, EFA and CFA were then conducted to purify item refinement, scale refinement, purification and validation in Study 2. Finally, a confirmed UNIQUAL model was analyzed via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart-PLS 4.0.

Findings

The research confirms the four-factor structure of UNIQUAL, with a total of 16 items, to be a valid and reliable scale for the assessment of the service quality (SQ) of universities. Having adopted the bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) bootstrap approach to study 5,000 subsamples from 27 countries, the authors found “responsiveness” and “empathy” to be significantly associated and have positive relationships with students' satisfaction with university SQ. Furthermore, university SQ and satisfaction were mediated by “health and safety” concerns.

Practical implications

The newly developed UNIQUAL scale would be of value to educators and authorities of higher education to assess the SQ of their universities to enhance the effectiveness of student learning. The improvement in satisfaction with higher education's SQ ultimately helps in retaining both international and local students amidst concerns about traveling and studying during the pandemic.

Social implications

COVID-19 has affected the private and public sectors worldwide. Millions of students have been affected by schools being shut down and substituted with distance-learning programs. Thus, the assessment of the quality of university services has become an important support mechanism for retaining the sustainability of higher education.

Originality/value

The UNIQUAL scale provides a conceptual model and validates an assessment tool. The research hypotheses confirm the relationship between university SQ and satisfaction from the perspective of international students.

Details

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, vol. 6 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9792

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 July 2020

Xianhan Huang and Chun Lai

It is vital in today’s society that teachers are proactively involved in educational change. Given that proactive motivation is a critical driver of proactivity, this study aims…

1166

Abstract

Purpose

It is vital in today’s society that teachers are proactively involved in educational change. Given that proactive motivation is a critical driver of proactivity, this study aims to investigate how teachers’ formal and informal workplace-learning experiences were connected with their proactive motivations to implement educational change.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a qualitative case study approach to describe the relationships between teachers’ formal and informal learning activities and their different proactive motivations. The authors collected data from 17 teachers via individual interviews and open-ended questionnaire and performed analyses using a continuous inductive and deductive coding process.

Findings

The authors found that informal teacher learning can trigger three types of proactive motivation, whereas formal teacher learning is mainly connected with the can do and energised to motivations. The authors also found that formal and informal learning complement and compete with each other in shaping the can do motivation. Moreover, the authors found that informal learning played the dominant role in the reason to motivation, whereas informal and formal learning were separately connected to the energised to motivation.

Practical implications

These findings indicate that greater attention must be paid to teachers’ informal workplace-learning experiences. Specifically, teachers’ informal learning experiences should be actively integrated into their formal workplace training to enhance their proactive motivation to educational change. Moreover, teachers’ learning preferences and teaching experience should be considered in the design of teacher-training programmes.

Originality/value

Based on the proactive motivation model of Parker et al. (2010), the authors have uncovered the mechanisms of workplace learning that drive teacher proactivity. The authors have examined the relationship between teachers’ formal and informal workplace-learning and proactive teaching. The findings will assist policymakers and administrators to identify effective means of motivating teachers to engage in workplace learning.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 January 2023

George Yui-Lam Wong, Ron Chi-Wai Kwok, Shanshan Zhang, Gabriel Chun-Hei Lai, Yanyan Li and Jessica Choi-Fung Cheung

This study aims to examine the impact of information communication technology-enabled work during non-working hours (ICT-enabled WNWHs), as a source of stress, on employee…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of information communication technology-enabled work during non-working hours (ICT-enabled WNWHs), as a source of stress, on employee behavioral outcomes –in-role job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) that benefit organizations and OCBs that benefit individuals, through emotional responses – work exhaustion, nonwork exhaustion and organization-based self-esteem. As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdowns demonstrated that employees frequently engage in ICT-enabled WNWHs, studying stress induced by ICT-enabled WNWHs is essential for understanding employee adaptation to the work-from-home trend that emerged from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative survey comprising 1,178 employees in China was conducted, and the data reliability and validity were confirmed. Partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The study results empirically proved that, although ICT-enabled WNWHs had significant effects on employee behavioral outcomes, the related emotional responses were the mediators of the stress transmission mechanism that directly affected employee behavioral outcomes. Notably, work exhaustion and organization-based self-esteem partially mediate the stress transmission mechanism, while nonwork exhaustion exerts a full mediating effect.

Originality/value

This study proposes the stress transmission mechanism of ICT-enabled WNWHs and delineates emotional responses regarding the work environment attributes of ICT-enabled WNWHs, an approach rarely seen in prior IS studies. To our best knowledge, this study is the first to identify and empirically demonstrate organization-based self-esteem as one among the emotional responses to ICT-enabled WNWHs. Furthermore, it expands understanding of the holistic impacts of ICT-enabled WNWHs, which is lacking in information systems (IS) literature.

Article
Publication date: 26 January 2021

Chih-Hsuan Huang, Chun-Ting Lai, Cheng-Feng Wu, Yii-Ching Lee, Chia-Hui Yu, Hsiu-Wen Hsueh and Hsin-Hung Wu

Gender difference exists in the perception of the patient safety culture in healthcare organizations. A case from a medical center in Taiwan is presented to examine how different…

Abstract

Purpose

Gender difference exists in the perception of the patient safety culture in healthcare organizations. A case from a medical center in Taiwan is presented to examine how different genders perceive the patient safety culture in practice from 2014 to 2017.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal study using the data from 2014 to 2017 is conducted quantitatively. Mann–Whitney U test and one-way analysis of variance are employed for analyses.

Findings

The results showed that female nurses had significantly higher emotional exhaustion than male nurses in 2015 and 2016 indicating male nurses had better fatigue recovery than their female counterparts. In addition, male nurses felt a higher degree of fatigue in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2015 statistically. In contrast, female nurses felt more stressful in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2014 statistically. Female nurses had higher emotional exhaustion in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2014 and 2015 statistically.

Practical implications

To sum up, female nurses were more stressful than before, and their recovery was also relatively poor particularly in 2016 and 2017. There is a need to reduce the degree of fatigue for female nurses in this medical center through employee assistance programs, mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, building up female nurses' positive currency and setting up their appreciative inquiry. In contrast to female nurses, male nurses recovered better from fatigue. This might encourage hospital management to deploy male nurses more effectively in this medical center.

Originality/value

The results enable the hospital management to know there is a gender difference in this case hospital. More attention on female nurses is required.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 November 2018

Adrian Chun Hin Lai and Adrian Wing-Keung Law

Incineration has become increasingly important in many large cities around the world because of fast urbanization and population growth. The benefits of energy production and…

1642

Abstract

Purpose

Incineration has become increasingly important in many large cities around the world because of fast urbanization and population growth. The benefits of energy production and large reduction in the waste volume to landfills also contribute to its growing adaptation for solid waste management for these cities. At the same time, the environmental impact of the pollutant gases emitted from the incineration process is a common concern for various stakeholders which must be properly addressed. To minimize the pollutant gas emission levels, as well as maximize the energy efficiency, it is critically important to optimize the combustion performance of an incinerator freeboard which would require the development of reliable approaches based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. A critical task in the CFD modeling of an incinerator furnace requires the specification of waste characteristics along the moving grate as boundary conditions, which is not available in standard CFD packages at present. This study aims to address this gap by developing a numerical incinerator waste bed model.

Design/methodology/approach

A one-dimensional Lagrangian model for the incineration waste bed has been developed, which can be coupled to the furnace CFD model. The changes in bed mass due to drying, pyrolysis, devolatilization and char oxidation are all included in the model. The mass and concentration of gases produced in these processes through reactions are also predicted. The one-dimensional unsteady energy equations of solid and gas phases, which account for the furnace radiation, conduction, convection and heat of reactions, are solved by the control volume method.

Findings

The Lagrangian model is validated by comparing its prediction with the experimental data in the literature. The predicted waste bed height reduction, temperature profile and gas concentration are in reasonable agreement with the observations.

Originality/value

The simplicity and efficiency of the model makes it ideally suitable to be used for coupling with the computational furnace model to be developed in future (so as to optimize incinerator designs).

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02635570210439481. When citing the…

2338

Abstract

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02635570210439481. When citing the article, please cite: Jaydip M. Raol, Kai S. Koong, Lai C. Liu, Chun S. Yu, (2002), “An identification and classification of enterprise portal functions and features”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 102 Iss 7 pp. 390 - 399.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 103 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Tomás F. Espino-Rodríguez and Juan Carlos Ramírez-Fierro

The purpose of this study is to examine the levels of the main hotel outsourcing activities to identify the factors that determine the use of external suppliers for these…

1876

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the levels of the main hotel outsourcing activities to identify the factors that determine the use of external suppliers for these activities.

Design/methodology/approach

A model was developed that analyzes the relationship between competitive advantage and outsourcing and how the relationship between competitive advantage and activity performance is affected by whether an activity is outsourced or not. Moreover, the study builds a matrix called “outsourcing and competitive advantage” where each of the activities can be placed. The study was carried out with a representative sample of hotels in a tourist destination, analyzing 12 activities from different departments in the hotels.

Findings

The study results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the competitive advantage of an activity and its outcome. In addition, the findings show that the relationship between competitive advantage and activity performance is stronger when the activity is developed internally than when it is outsourced. The study supports a negative relationship between the degree of outsourcing an activity and its competitive advantage. In addition, the findings showed that a change in the way of managing the outsourcing is determined by its performance.

Practical implications

This study aims to help managers make decisions about outsourcing by considering the perspective of the competitive advantage. Each hotel can situate the activities in the matrix created and compare itself to the sector mean for a strategic positioning of the outsourcing.

Originality/value

Most studies analyze asset specificity as a key variable; however, the competitive advantage has not been used in previous studies, in spite of being a better defined variable in the literature. This study classifies the activities into core and non-core and establishes their relationship with outsourcing. It also studies how the way of managing an activity (outsourcing or in-house) moderates the relationship between competitive advantage and performance. These aspects have not been analyzed in the literature..

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 29 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

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