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This study aims to review published articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism for the period of 2000-2015 to provide a comprehensive updated review, as well as to offer implications for academic researchers and industry practitioners.

Content analysis was adopted by this study to review retrieved articles on website evaluation in hospitality and tourism. Articles were then analyzed from consumers’ perspective, suppliers’ perspective, and both consumers and suppliers’ perspectives using a systematic approach.

Major findings of this study showed that a majority of articles focused on either hospitality or tourism. Moreover, most of the articles generally discussed user interface, marketing effectiveness and website quality. However, these articles did not discuss in detail the implications of website evaluation and ignore the connections between suppliers and consumers to some extent.

This study can be used as a reference for academic researchers to extend previous frameworks and for industry practitioners to reconstruct the traditional organizational chart and implementing e-strategic management strategies, including m-marketing.

This study updates website evaluation development in hospitality and tourism in the new millennium. The findings of this study provide significant implications for hospitality and tourism researchers and practitioners to encourage supplier-consumer engagement.

The authors empirically examine purchasing strategy typologies based on strategic intent (i.e. competitive priorities) and practices used to achieve these priorities. The authors further investigate the implementation conditions of such strategies based on perceived uncertainty and strategic purchasing.

The authors utilize case study data from 11 international service and manufacturing firms with global supply chains. Each company was profiled based on the level of perceived environmental uncertainty, the characteristics of strategic purchasing, the use of relevant purchasing practices and its ability to create value through purchasing.

The study findings show that four purchasing strategy types exist: Purchasing Rationalization, Supply Base Optimization, Purchasing as a Service and World-Class Supply Base Management. Lower levels of perceived environmental uncertainty favor the adoption of rationalization strategies (i.e. Purchasing Rationalization and Supply Base Optimization), while increased uncertainty leads companies to switch to relationship-focused strategies (i.e. Purchasing as a Service and World-Class Supply Base Management). Further, that specific components of strategic purchasing (i.e. strategic planning, maturity, status and report level) enable the successful implementation of different strategy types.

This research contributes to the existing literature by outlining the different types of purchasing strategies and the external and internal factors that need to be considered to achieve strategic alignment and value creation in purchasing, and by classifying purchasing strategy types at the functional level based on empirical evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the core elements and their constitutive activities of innovation of high-technology enterprises (HTEs) in the context of China to embrace effective management processes for dealing with standards setting.

The basic methodology of the empirical investigation is a single case study of ZTE Corporation (ZTE), a leading Chinese manufacturer in the telecommunication industry. Interviews were conducted from November 2008 to July 2009 with ZTE’s managers and senior R&D employees, as well as with R&D personnel from ZTE’s partners. Interviews were carried out face to face or by emails and supplemented by telephone calls and online communications. Secondary data provide complementary information.

The key to innovation for HTEs pursuing dominant positions in high-technology industries is standardization-oriented innovation. To deal with special requirements raised by the peculiarities of standardization for HTEs’ innovation management, HTEs need to emphasize three core elements in innovation, i.e. strategic innovation planning, internal R&D practices and external co-operative innovation, and focus on their key component activities. Moreover, through the case study of ZTE, three enabling factors for standardization-oriented innovation – intellectual property rights (IPR) management, market focus and co-operation along industry chains – are identified.

This paper is an attempt to understand and configure key innovation activities within a standards setting. It proposes a model for innovation management of HTEs in the Chinese economy, with three critical elements and their key constitutive activities being highlighted and three enabling factors being identified.

The purpose of the research was to examine the effect of strategic orientation on organizational innovativeness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, in order to highlight the constructive role of strategic orientation, the study also observes the intervening role of strategic alignment and moderating role of strategic flexibility.

Data were collected from 209 owner/managers of SMEs through self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, correlation and hierarchical regression were used for testing the study hypotheses.

Results revealed that strategic orientation is positively related to SMEs innovativeness. Strategic alignment mediates between the strategic orientation and innovativeness link. Furthermore, the findings also established that the association between strategic orientation and strategic alignment is stronger when SMEs are strategically flexible.

Organizational innovativeness is of vital importance for SMEs strength, especially in the context of developing economies. Although researchers have acknowledged several antecedents of SMEs innovativeness, however, it is still unclear how strategic orientation influences organizational innovativeness. Moreover, the study focuses on another important element of strategic alignment through the integration of goals and strategies to achieve innovativeness.

The purpose of this paper is to reduce impact on profit and supply risk, for strategic part by defining appropriate purchasing strategies using Kraljic portfolio model (KPM) approach.

A five-step approach of KPM is used to identify strategic parts. The attributes affecting impact on profit and supply risk are then identified. A structured questionnaire is prepared for each attribute. Likert scale having weights from 1 to 5 is used to select method of measurement for each response. The overall score of attributes for dimensions “supply risk” and “impact on profit” interpret the position of the part, i.e., “strategic part,” “leverage part,” “bottleneck part” or “non-critical part” in the Kraljic matrix. The part having highest impact on profit and supply risk is to be considered as strategic part for defining the purchasing strategies.

This paper outlines a practical solution to the problem of designing/defining purchasing strategies for development of supplier. Impact on profit is reduced by cost reduction and quality improvement whereas supply risk reduced by improving delivery time and suppliers profile.

The proposed methodology is applied to a boiler industry to identify the strategic parts and focus on strategic suppliers, which are fewer in number but having larger impact on profit and supply risk. The “Body” part of ball valve assembly of the boiler is considered for the study. However, it can be extended for selecting and evaluating of suppliers strategy for other parts of the boiler. Not only boiler industry sector but also other companies also benefit from the results of this study by implementing the purchasing strategies as formulated in the KPM.

The Kraljic matrix has been largely used in many different industries like automobile, manufacturing, construction, oil and gas, etc., as an efficient tool for developing differentiated purchasing strategies. However, its application on parts procured by boiler industry is unknown, as well as the lack of systematical approach on criteria prioritization which is one of the key issues of the methodology. This work explores the output usefulness and its applicability on ball valve assembly projects.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of innovative HR practices as an important mechanism through which strategic flexibility affects firm performance as well as the role of female leadership in this relationship.

Data were gathered from a sample of 113 firms in China. The authors collected information on organizational strategy, HR practices, CEO information, corporate social responsibility and other firm characteristics in terms of firm age, location, and financial performance. Conditional procedural analysis was conducted to test the model.

The authors found strong evidence in support of the mediation relationship in which organizations with a strong focus on strategic flexibility are more likely to adopt Innovative HR Practices. Furthermore, the authors found that the extent to which firms have adopted innovative HR practices has a strong effect on employee productivity. In addition, the authors found that female leadership enhances strategic flexibility-performance relationship.

Information on strategic flexibility, HR practices and firm performance was collected at the same time. Future studies based on panel data would be helpful to establish the causal relationships in the model.

The authors’ findings suggest that practitioners should put more emphasis on developing innovative HR practices, as they are required by strategic flexibility.

Firms pursuing strategic flexibility should feel more confident when appointing a female CEO, because the results show that female leadership may enhance the positive impact of strategic flexibility on firm performance.

This research study is the first empirical examination of the mediating influence of innovative HR practices on the relationship between strategic flexibility and firm performance. The study also shows that female leadership benefits an organization in implementing strategic flexibility. The results are of value to researchers, human resource management managers, employees, and executives who are seeking to develop practices that are flexible and innovative in order to stay competitive in dynamic environments.

A paradigm shift was observed a couple of decades back when the relationship marketing took over the transactional marketing. Concepts such as customer lifetime value came into existence. Customer lifetime value is nothing but the aggregate income which an organisation can expect from a customer as long as the customer remains a client. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) took the centre stage as the organisations are transformed into customer-centric organisations. The implementation of CRM earmarked the collection of customer data that enabled the personalisation of products. Business use cases emerged with differential pricing models and loyalty programs contributing to the profitability of the organisations. The different types of CRM, i.e. Strategic CRM, Operational CRM, Analytical CRM and Collaborative CRM, contributed further to the organisation to generate value for the customers as well as for the organisation. Innovations in the digital technologies supported the business use cases with the help of real-time data. The usage of real-time analytics delivered unmatched customer experience resulting in a higher degree of customer satisfaction and customer retention. Customer retention as we know is directly related to the longevity of an organisation, while customer acquisition is expensive. Researchers in this chapter have attempted to unleash the importance of CRM simultaneously presenting the impact of digital technologies on CRM. Readers could be greatly benefitted from this research as practical use cases are discussed, while academicians can cascade this information further.

The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight how gamification is transforming recruitment, retention and training to resolve employee engagement challenges in the ever-changing workplace. In collaborating with game industry experts and designers, the authors taught students team leadership skills by demonstrating how to design and play their own original cooperative strategy games. In doing so, students learn what gamification is and how it can be used to train our multigenerational workforce; how designing board games teaches team leadership skills (e.g. communication, conflict management, power, decision-making); and how to develop cooperative strategy game elements (player characters, roles and actions) that motivate engaging gameplay with successful learning outcomes.

In this paper, the authors discuss the practical implications of a three-phase semester-long experiential learning experience, where game design demonstrates to students how employees can work collaboratively together in teams. Students’ developed storylines (i.e. strategic objectives) including motivation challenges, social media communication breakdowns, sabotage, global sustainability and other real-world challenges. In Phase 1, students learn about how companies are using gamification in training high-performing teams. In Phase 2, students play a cooperative strategy game Forbidden Island with their student teams. In Phase 3, students design (and play) their original cooperative strategy game, instructions booklet and build a facilitation guide.

Approximately, 400 students developed 48 original cooperative strategy games that can be used to teach team leadership skills. These student teams designed cooperative strategy board games – in which the entire team either wins or loses based on their control of valued resources and player actions as key decision-making points. The data and feedback indicate that the learning experience helped them practically consider team interdependence in making effective decisions, and in creating creative self-efficacy, resilience and self-confidence in their own leadership voice. In this manuscript, the authors focus on providing an overview and implementation plan for our semester-long experiential learning exercise.

This experiential exercise was implemented from 2019 to 2023 in different learning modalities (face-to-face, hybrid, 100% synchronous online learning) and during challenging times (prepandemic, pandemic and postpandemic learning environments). These varying experiences provided them with a challenge to persevere and learn about their own interpersonal skills and resilience in a creative engaging way with limited resources. Students developed 26 original games during 100% synchronous remote learning due to COVID. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other business school is working with gaming industry experts and game designers to teach team leadership to this degree during pre- and postpandemic environments.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of strategic integration of knowledge management (KM ) and customer relationship management (CRM). The integration is a strategic issue that has strong ramifications in the long‐term competitiveness of organizations. It is not limited to CRM; the concept can also be applied to supply chain management (SCM), product development management (PDM), eterprise resource planning (ERP) and retail network management (RNM) that offer different perspectives into knowledge management adoption.

Through literature review and establishing new perspectives with examples, the components of knowledge management, customer relationship management, and strategic planning are amalgamated.

Findings include crucial details in the various components of knowledge management, customer relationship management, and strategic planning, i.e. strategic planning process, value formula, intellectual capital measure, different levels of CRM and their core competencies.

Although the strategic integration of knowledge management and customer relationship management is highly conceptual, a case example has been provided where the concept is applied. The same concept could also be applied to other industries that focus on customer service.

The concept of strategic integration of knowledge management and customer relationship management is new. There are other areas, yet to be explored in terms of additional integration such as SCM, PDM, ERP, and RNM. The concept of integration would be useful for future research as well as for KM and CRM practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretically sound and empirically tested classification system composed of purchasing strategic categories as a basis for purchasing portfolio models.

An international, cross‐industry survey has been designed to assess the characteristics and corresponding strategies of the purchasing categories.

The paper operationalises the constructs derived from previous scientific contributions related to purchasing portfolio management and transaction cost economics (TCE) to empirically test the purchasing portfolio. In total, four different types of strategic categories have been identified, and distinctive competitive priorities have been found.

Managers might be able to identify different types of purchasing strategic categories, whose characteristics drive specific purchasing strategies. Longitudinal data and more extensive tests of the characteristics of each category might contribute to improving the proposed research framework.

The research overcomes some of the classical limits of purchasing portfolio models, including the absence of a theoretical and empirical basis. In particular, TCE is used to support and expand traditional purchasing portfolio approaches, and a broad empirical base is used to test such an approach.