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Given resource constraints such as time and staffing, hotels cannot respond to all negative online reviews (NORs). Therefore, this study investigates (1) what types of NORs hotels should prioritize responding; and (2) what response strategies are more effective in handling different types of NORs to minimize the negative ramifications.

Four experiments in the context of hospitability were used to test the hypotheses.

Our findings show that NORs with implicit conclusions (e.g. “I do not believe that is a good choice, you know what I mean.”) are more dissuasive than NORs with explicit ones (e.g. “Do not buy it.”) because the former NORs are perceived as more objective than the latter NORs. More importantly, our results show that firms do not need to respond to explicit NORs. When responding to implicit NORs, firms should prioritize those related to service failures caused by external (e.g. weather, technological misfunction) rather than internal (e.g. poor management, employee skills) factors.

Our studies focus on the language styles of Chinese NORs, and future research should investigate how language styles influence dissuasion in other languages.

Our results show that NORs with implicit conclusions negatively impact consumer attitude and thus hurt performance more significantly than those with explicit conclusions. Therefore, firms should allocate limited staffing and resources to NORs with implicit conclusions. When responding to implicit NORs, firms should select NORs that can be attributed to external factors.

Our findings shed light on the importance of the language styles of NORs and provide marketers with insights into how to handle NORs. Our results reveal that consumers perceive higher objectivity of NORs when these reviews are implicit than when they are explicit. Furthermore, this study contributes to the online review literature by suggesting that firms should tailor their response strategies for NORs based on the reviewers’ language styles.

We examine how school districts in California help their high schools respond to state accountability requirements. We discovered two contrasting forms of district interventions: those aiming to increase schools’ internal coherence and those encouraging direct but narrower responses to state requirements. Drawing on interviews in six districts and eight high schools, we find that many district efforts focus on immediate responses to state requirements to raise test scores. Yet, our analysis suggests that without strong district efforts to increase internal coherence, interventions aimed at eliciting school responses will be less beneficial over time.

This study aims to compare the performance of self-service kiosks in a quick-service setting with the performance of cashiers. In particular, this study explores both internal responses and external responses between the two ordering methods with the moderating role of crowdedness.

This study develops a theoretical framework based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. A 2 × 2 field experiment was conducted in a real quick-service outlet to collect data.

The results reveal that customers reported a better experience when using self-service kiosks compared to placing orders with cashiers. However, cashiers generated more revenue for the quick-service outlet than kiosks. Significant interaction effects were found for external responses. Customers spent more time placing orders with cashiers than with kiosks in less crowded periods, while cashiers generated more sales than kiosks during busier periods.

This study enriches the hospitality and tourism literature by applying the S-O-R framework in an experimental design incorporating both internal and external responses. The findings on the interaction between ordering methods and crowdedness on external responses provide practical insights for quick-service restaurant operators to find a balance between technology and human services.

自助服务机可否超越收银员? 以刺激 – 机制 – 反应 (SOR) 模型作为理论框架的点餐体验研究

本论文在快餐环境下比较自助服务机与收银员的业绩表现差异。具体而言, 本研究从内部和外部反映两方面探索了两种不同点餐方法以及就餐环境拥挤程度作为调节变量。

本研究借用刺激 – 机制 – 反应 (SOR) 模型作为理论框架, 以快餐店为环境进行了2x2 实验。

研究结果显示, 相比较餐饮收银员, 消费者对自助服务机更加较积极的顾客反应。但是餐厅收银员会产生相对较高的销售额。针对对外反应, 研究结果呈现显著的交互作用。 消费者在相对不拥挤的环境下更愿意花时间借助自助服务机点餐, 但是收银员比自助服务机在高峰时段更能产生较高销售额。

本研究借助SOR的理论框架用实验法来研究消费者内部和外部反应, 从而进一步充实了酒店和旅游文献。基于点餐方法和拥挤程度的交互作用, 本研究结果为快餐产业实现人工和科技的平衡提供了实践意义。

自助服务机 S-O-R 理论框架 快餐厅 拥挤程度 内部反应 外部反应

研究型论文

Using data for a sample of advanced and developing countries, this paper aims to study the responses of monetary growth and the growth of government spending to external spillovers, namely, the growth of exports and imports, movement in the real effective exchange rate and the change in the oil price. The objective is to study movements in domestic policy variables in open economies that are vulnerable to trade and commodity price shocks.

The analysis evaluates correlations between the responses of the policy variables to external spillovers. Further, the analysis studies the effects of indicators of economic performance on domestic policy responses to various shifts across countries.

Higher variability of real and nominal growth increases the fiscal policy response to external spillovers with an aim to stem further variability. Monetary policies appear to be more responsive to trend price inflation with an aim to stem further inflationary pressures. Fiscal policy’s reaction to trend price inflation aims at striking a balance between countering potential inflationary pressures, as well as recessionary conditions attributed to the various spillovers.

Overall, the evidence points to the importance of trade and commodity price shifts to the design of domestic policies. Further indicators of economic performance differentiate the degree of policy responses to trade and commodity price developments with a goal to stem inflationary pressures and reduce aggregate uncertainty.

This paper is based on a benchmarking exercise involving some 164 QFD practitioners within Ford Motor Company and 27 selected external QFD companies. The predominant response “cell” was from Vehicle Centre 1, Power‐Train Systems Engineering, although there was both a US and non‐power‐train response content. The benchmarking focused on four parts: (1) criteria of success; (2) learning experience; (3) teamwork; and (4) future of QFD.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a bridge between the customer and the product (process/service) development community. The QFD technique translates customer requirements obtained from market research into product measurables using matrix diagrams and product development teamwork. Ideally this process continues throughout the product development cycle, from design to production, using a series of QFD phases, prioritising and trading off the key measurables at each step. The ideal result should be both perceived and actual improvements to quality, functional performance and reduced cost on key attributes to prompt higher customer satisfaction. Use of QFD is therefore seen as both a strategic and a tactical tool within a competitive market. The problem facing many QFD practitioners, including Ford Motor Company, is that the cost, complexity and commitment required to deliver effective QFD‐driven targets in a timely manner either exceed available resources or represent a cultural anathema.

Following a discussion of the major findings from the Ford survey on usage pattern, the results were then benchmarked with a 1991 QFD usage survey conducted by MIT with 100 US companies.

The concept of QFD was developed in the mid‐1960s in Japan, with many Japanese companies now automatically incorporating QFD as an integral part of company‐wide quality practice. In contrast, many Western companies, having used QFD only since the mid‐1980s, either have already abandoned QFD in frustration or are in the process of radically rethinking its practice within their own changing quality improvement environments.

Senior and middle management support, including the release of resources, remains a critical component of successful QFD implementation. There is also a need to integrate a more flexible and timely QFD process within the requirements of the established product development process. All this depends on well‐trained, cross‐functional and multi‐disciplined teams with unified goals and focus.

The importance of decision maker interpretations in determining organizational responses to performance downturn is underscored and incorporated into a model proposed by Ford and Baucus (1987). In this study, we adapted a Ford and Baucus model to examine 25 organizations in an area of economic downturn. Managerial perceptions of the business environment were related to internal and external organizational responses. Findings were interpreted as supporting the portion of the model dealing with active responses. Logical relationships between variables were observed. Moreover, a series of linkages was suggested. While the model shows distinct categories of responses, an important finding of this research is that firms' responses could not be characterized as falling exclusively into any one specific category as predicted by the model. Instead, we found complex networks of internal and external strategies.

Socioeconomic stress has been a major influence on organizational development during the past decade, and will continue for the foreseeable future. This treatise aims to focus on The Key and its importance for effective organizational development via leadership responses to communication challenges during the present era. It is a conceptual paper based on an actual case.

The Key is a concept that refers to the thoughts and feelings (based on attitudes) that a leader reflects in communications and interactions with his/her universe, a universe that exists both internally within an organization as well as externally to it. The case focuses on communication challenges encountered by Judith Campbell, executive vice president of Creative Innovations, Ltd, and her interaction with Jonathan Bryant, president of Bryant and Associates, Ltd, an organizational development firm. Communication challenges that had arisen primarily due to socioeconomic stress, were seven in number: tendency to rely on only logical thinking; negative responses to external influences; lack of expectations for positive results; tendency toward reliance on sensory input; actions that ignore an inclusive perspective; failure to value and trust in change; and lack of commitment to interactive relations.

Following Bryant's counsel, Campbell chose to address these communication challenges with a training seminar that focused on a paradigm of seven leadership responses related to The Key. These were: Paradoxical thinking; Controlled reflecting; Intentional focusing; Instinctive responding; Inclusive behaving; Purposeful trusting; and Relational being. The training program, as described herein, proved to be very enlightening to the participants and quite effective for the continued organizational development of the firm.

The paper reveals the results of a training program based on seven communication challenges the results of which can be used to aid in continued organizational development of a firm.

This paper aims to examine the mediating role of attitudinal loyalty in the relationship between satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions such as willingness to pay more and internal and external complaining responses. It also seeks to examine the nonlinear effects in the relationship between satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intentions.

The paper adopted the structural equation modeling approach to test the hypotheses (sample size 202). It used Marsh et al.'s unconstrained method to test latent quadratic effects in the conceptualized relationships.

The results support the fully mediating role of attitudinal loyalty in the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The paper also finds partial support for nonlinear effects in the relationship. Results support nonlinearity, and in particular diminishing sensitivity, in the link from attitudinal loyalty to willingness to pay more.

The paper adds to the existing literature by detangling the complex relationships between satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intentions such as willingness to pay more and external and internal complaining responses. In particular, this is the first study to simultaneously examine the nonlinear effects of attitudinal loyalty on multiple behavioral intentions constructs. This study also establishes the superiority of a fully mediated model, in which satisfaction affects behavioral intentions through attitudinal loyalty, over a partially mediated model.

Carries out a study which empirically examines both internal and external auditors in New Zealand to determine the extent to which 21 audit supervisory tools were used in audit practice. In addition to determining how frequently each of the supervisory techniques was used, the study tested two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that the statistical variance for the number of audit supervisory techniques used on internal audits is greater than that for external audits. The second hypothesis was that the average number of audit supervisory techniques used on external audits is greater than that for internal audits, suggesting that external audits are more closely supervised than are internal audits. Both hypotheses were supported by the study data. In addition, supervisory profiles were constructed for both internal and external audits. The profiles indicated that while external audits appear to use more supervisory techniques during the course of the audit due to greater liability and competitive pressure, internal audits are more likely to require closer supervision of the release of audit reports and audit follow‐up.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how upward accountability processes can be enabling in, or constraining to, the effective deployment of development aid funding.

The paper derives its primary insights from in-depth interviews and focus groups with non-governmental organization (NGO) fieldworkers working and delivering development aid in Northern Ghana. It analyses inductively the perspectives of fieldworkers to explain their experiences of upward accountability.

The fieldworkers’ perception of upward accountability was mainly one of external control, in response to which they enacted a skilful form of compliance accountability. This perception of control failed to stifle their initiative and intrinsic commitment to beneficiaries. The fieldworkers craved “conversations for accountability”, in which they had a voice in the development of upward accountability metrics, thereby enabling them to fulfil their sense of felt responsibility to beneficiaries. While aspects of “conversations for accountability” were emerging in fieldworker-funder interactions, it was unclear to what extent funders were committed to further advancing them. Overall, the analysis unveils how felt responsibility mediates for, and partly diminishes, the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes informed by a focus on control.

The authors examine the potential of upward accountability processes using in-depth analyses of the actual experiences of those involved in delivering NGO services at the grassroots level. The authors contribute to emerging work in this vein by enriching the authors’ understanding of local constituencies’ experiences of accountability processes more generally, especially the impact these mechanisms have on NGO operational activities. The authors also unveil the mediating role fieldworkers’ “felt responsibility” to beneficiaries’ plays in moderating the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes.