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The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of electronic distribution systems (EDS) in Korean hotels and investigate the differences between large and small and medium (S&M) hotels.

This is a qualitative and explorative study. An in‐depth interview was conducted of seven large hotels and nine S&M hotels.

Regardless of size, the surveyed hotels received, on average, more reservations through offline systems than online. It was found that large hotels showed less variation in the use of EDS than S&M hotels. While there was no distinct difference in the overall use of EDS, in terms of average, the highest percentage of hotel EDS use was demonstrated by S&M hotels. Regarding specific components and distribution flows, large hotels overall employed a variety of distribution channels, often implemented in multi‐faceted systems. S&M hotels, in most cases, adopted simpler distribution flows, i.e. hotel web sites and online travel agencies. This difference seems to be the result of the affiliation of primarily large hotels with huge hotel corporations.

An emphasis has been placed on the current use of an EDS within S&M hotels, given their greater competitive challenge with regards to their larger counterparts.

Meaningful implications are made that building an extensive and effective information system appropriate to the size and type of the hotel's operations is especially needed by S&M hotels.

The paper addresses EDS issues specifically for S&M hotels.

The purpose of this paper is to explore career strategies used by Greek hotel managers in order to advance their careers successfully.

Using a case study sample of 65 hotel general managers working in deluxe hotels in Greece, data on career strategies were collected using a postal questionnaire.

It is revealed that the managers use a range of different strategies in order to advance their careers. The most commonly used are in relation to career opportunities, skills, mobility, interpersonal relations and handling diverse situations. The least commonly used ones relate to family contacts, job search techniques and pay.

The strategies are discussed in terms of recruitment, training and retention of managers in the hotel industry.

This paper builds on the knowledge of careers strategies used for career success.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a benchmarking framework to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the hotel industry, in a multi‐period context, with consideration of perishable traits and carry‐over activities. The sustained high performers in the case study are identified and their business strategies are discussed.

The dynamic DEA (data envelopment analysis) approach is used to identify the multi‐period sustained high performers. The super‐efficiency DEA approach is employed to conduct a thorough ranking under an input‐output‐consumption structure. The supplementary analysis is further implemented to help elucidate the benchmarking results.

In total, nine out of 80 international tourist hotels in Taiwan during 2006‐2010 are identified as the sustained high performers. These hotels have diverged business strategies in terms of employees (intensive versus economical labor forces), products (room versus F&B (food and beverage) services), prices (extremely expensive versus very inexpensive room rates), guests (business versus tourism guests), and others (e.g. location advantages).

This study contributes to benchmarking literature and to hotel industry in several aspects. Compared with conventional single‐period benchmarking in efficiency aspect only, the proposed multi‐period benchmarking framework under input‐production‐consumption structure can take into account the carry‐over activities, account for perishable traits, provide more robust results, and add more useful information to facilitate the hotel managers to ameliorate the efficiency and effectiveness. The proposed framework should be readily applied to other service industries (e.g. transport).

Global business travel spending reached a record breaking $1.2tn in 2015 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016) and the average Indian traveling is now at a phenomenal high for both business and leisure travel. In this context, the paper aims to investigate how the top hotels in India are addressing the issue of human resource shortages and training and how they are preparing for the future when the market, the customer profile and employee expectations are undergoing a major change. In essence, brand loyalty could be minimal and competition intense.

This paper adopts a case study approach and reviews how participating hotels are addressing their talent attraction and retention issues and differentiating their people management processes.

The processes used by top hotel companies provide an overview as to how they manage people and how they will need to innovate to assess progress of the measures and initiatives they are taking. They will also have to be more global in their approach.

The findings will be of interest to managers who are responsible for hiring and managing employees. The study also has implications for policymakers and higher education institutions in relation to managing skill shortages that exist in the hotel industry.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the recognition of sexual harassment (SH); to describe the relationships among SH, employees’ burnout, customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors (COBSB); and to verify the moderating effect of employees’ psychological safety (PS), all within deluxe hotels in South Korea.

Prior to verifying the hypotheses, reliability and confirmatory factor analysis were managed, and correlation analysis was used to confirm the directionality between the hypotheses. The hypotheses were analyzed using a structural equation model and multi-group analysis was used to analyze the moderating effect.

Perceived SH was significantly related to employees’ burnout and COBSB. Also, the employees’ burnout was significantly related to COBSB. The moderating effect was significant; low PS greatly increased relative to the effects of SH on COBSB.

All types of companies consider unethical behaviors, such as SH in the workplace, as crucial problems that degrade the individual quality of life, and some firms have devised active measures to prevent and relieve damages. Companies should implement employee-centered policies that enable employees, the victims, to formally report and testify to what they have suffered from without revenge from their assailants. All the factors that contribute to the institutional control of SH within the working environment should be taken into consideration, and strict standards should be applied on a company level by criminalizing such behaviors. Employees should be trained on how to effectively cope with diverse types of SH.

This paper aims to explain the relationships among employees’ positive psychological capital (PPC) (hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism), job satisfaction (JS) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in deluxe hotels. This study also seeks to analyze the effect of JS on the employees’ OCBs. In an era of global competition when the speed of change is increasing, companies’ competitiveness depends on how well they adapt. To respond flexibly to changes, knowing how to use intangible resources is crucial.

This study was administered to 324 deluxe hotel employees using a self-administered questionnaire. Following Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach, confirmatory factor analysis was first undertaken to assess the overall fit of the three-factor model, structural equation model which was used to examine the hypothesized relationships between the constructs.

The findings showed that employees’ hope and optimism among PPC have a significant effect on their JS; their hope and resilience affect OCBs. Employees’ satisfaction was positively associated with their OCBs.

It was verified that PPC was an important performance factor that could improve hotel employees’ attitudes and organization’s effectiveness. Employees with high PPC were high in satisfaction with job, positively helped coworkers or superiors, and had high possibility of doing devotional action for organization. Accordingly, there will be a need of forming favorable working atmosphere so that employees can perform job with positive psychology, and of seeking diverse support programs such as counseling program or leisure activity.

Most previous studies have examined PPC mainly in general industries; however, this study focused on hotels as a hospitality industry. This study will have significance as the initial research of having considered that the hotel employees’ PPC formation has significant influence upon the JS and OCBs. It is predicted that positive psychology of hotel employees in a job situation leads to various efforts to develop their organization and their own development, thereby creating performance and strengthening management power.

Tourism & Hospitality

Post graduate

The South African-based Sun International Group (SI) develops, operates and manages hotels, resorts and casinos. In its mission statement, SI describes itself as a “leisure group offering superior gaming, hotel and entertainment experiences”. In 1984, SI was listed in the travel and leisure sector on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. SI is looking for growth opportunities.

Strategic options analysis to create new market spaces. Practical application of blue ocean thinking frameworks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This paper examines the development of customer-based brand equity through communication consistency in a luxury hotel segment. Communication consistency is considered as a basic principle of the integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach.

The empirical research was conducted among 223 guests during their stay in five-star deluxe luxury hotels in a Mediterranean country. Data are analyzed through the PLS technique and impact-asymmetry analysis.

Communication consistency is found to have a strong positive impact on all brand equity dimensions, especially on brand trust, brand image and perceived quality. The impact-asymmetry analysis further revealed negatively asymmetric relationships between communication consistency and six out of seven brand equity dimensions, except for affective commitment.

Some restrictions related to the measurement scales should be mitigated in future research.

Communication consistency is confirmed as a core management practice in luxury hotel business. Marketing professionals operating in this industry are therefore confronted with increasing challenges of efficient management of IMC.

This work addresses several research calls from the most recent marketing and hospitality literature. The analysis of the impact of communication consistency has extended our knowledge on the potential of IMC in creation of a strong brand. Obtained insights into the shape of the relationship between communication consistency and seven different brand equity dimensions help to better understand the process of brand equity building in a luxury hotel setting.

The present case study discusses the multi-branded strategy of hotels by the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) in 2012. The brand architecture of the group in 2012 consisted of four brands, namely Taj, Vivanta, Gateway and Ginger. However such brand architecture posed quite a few challenges for the group such as positioning, sustain the different brands and avoiding brand dilution since both The Gateway and Vivanta had a tag “by Taj” which could erode the premium associations of the parent brand.

The case is based on secondary research and has been developed using published information collected from online and offline sources. Wherever required, written permission has been obtained from the copyright holders (Exhibits VII-IX). Direct quotes have been properly cited from original sources.

This case could be a part of the Marketing Management course in an undergraduate Program in Business Management. The specific topics which could be facilitated through this case are Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning. The case could also be a part of a Brand Management course in the same program for specialized subjects where it could illustrate the concept of Brand Architecture. In case of an Executive Education Program, this case can be used to facilitate issues in Marketing as well as Brand Management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between sense of calling and career satisfaction of hotel frontline employees and to analyze the mediation role of knowledge sharing with organizational members given the rapidly growing academic interest in the meaning of work.

Based on a survey of 357 frontline employees in 12 super-deluxe hotels in Korea, this study performed confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis to test the hypothesis of causal relationships in the research model.

Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this study shows that sense of calling has a positive and significant effect on the career satisfaction of hotel frontline employees and that the relationship was mediated by active participation in knowledge sharing with supervisors and coworkers.

The research result highlights the significance of service providers’ calling orientation on career satisfaction and their pursuit of skills and knowledge for higher personal development and performance to achieve career success.

Based on SDT, this study deepens our understanding on the process of how calling orientation leads to career satisfaction and knowledge sharing behavior in organizations.