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This study aims to critically review the emerging technological developments and digitalization efforts in the hospitality and tourism (HT) industry and discuss the implications of digitalization on various stakeholders (e.g. consumers, employees, companies and operators) with reference to value creation.

This paper is a conceptual, critical reflection paper. Thus, the study reflects the authors’ assessment and reflection of the current digitalization efforts in the HT industry with a particular interest in value creation.

The study suggests that digitalization is still in its infancy state in terms of adoption and value creation in the HT industry. Yet, there are various opportunities for all stakeholders to benefit from existing and emerging digitalization applications.

This study can be used by industry professionals and scholarly researchers as a reflection of past and current digitalization efforts in the HT industry. Moreover, the study offers directions regarding the future digitalization movement in the HT industry and how such a movement might create important value propositions for various stakeholders.

The study is uniquely positioned as a critical reflection paper on the digitalization effort of the HT industry and offers new practical insights regarding how digitalization could create value for industry stakeholders as it finds more application areas. In this regard, it differs from prior review studies that focused solely on the use of new and emerging technologies in HT operations.

All-inclusive (AI) packages and meal plans have been an essential component of leisure tourism and received a corresponding attention from the literature, particularly in the case of package tours. However, the existing body of research focuses on the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of tourists, thereby neglecting the supply-side perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and costs of AI systems from the perspective of hoteliers.

Data were collected through 27 semi-structured interviews with lodging professionals through purposive sampling. This study adopted a qualitative research design and used thematic content analysis to explore the benefits and costs of AI system.

The thematic content analysis produced two main themes as facility-related factors and destination-related factors, which further classified as benefits and costs for the hotels and destinations.

This study extends current knowledge by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits and costs of AI systems based on the hoteliers’ point of view, which reflects the supply-side perspective. The findings also offer valuable implications for industry practitioners and destinations to assess and manage the benefits and costs of the system.

This study aims to examine the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and idiosyncratic risk in the restaurant industry. The study also explores whether brand diversification magnifies the risk reduction effect of CSR in the restaurant industry.

The study uses an unbalanced panel of 274 firm-year observations for 43 restaurant firms over the period 1995–2015. Models are estimated via fixed effect regression with robust standard errors.

The study finds that CSR involvement reduces idiosyncratic risk and this risk reduction is intensified when restaurant firms operate a portfolio of brands.

The study’s findings are limited to restaurant industry, therefore, generalization of the findings to other industries requires delicate care. Brand diversification is a simple brand count due to a lack of brand sales data.

CSR activities are not cost burden for restaurant firms. Indeed, CSR could be a viable strategy to reduce the volatility in future expected cash flows, hence the idiosyncratic risk. This risk reduction could help owners/managers access to capital with lower cost. Moreover, the study suggests that CSR practices should not be implemented in isolation from firm marketing strategy such as portfolio of brands.

Although prior hospitality research puts forth some evidence using systematic risk as the measure of firm risk, this measure may not best suit the purpose in CSR context given that CSR is a direct, firm-specific strategy. Hence, the current study provides both new evidence with firm-specific, idiosyncratic risk and introduces an important contingency situation when the risk reduction effect of CSR would become more profound for restaurant firms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the link between top management team (TMT) gender diversity and firm risk-taking in hospitality companies. The study also links female leadership to risk-taking. Finally, this study examines the moderating effects of TMT incentive pay and TMT age on the relationship between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking.

This study uses an unbalanced data set of 81 hospitality firms and 888 firm-year observations over the period of 1992–2020. The study uses fixed-effects regression estimation for primary analyses and addresses potential endogeneity concerns via two-stage least square regression with firm fixed-effects instrumental variable regression. Risk-taking is measured by total firm risk (i.e. the annualized volatility of daily stock returns). Main results are supported with alternative measures of firm risk and estimation methods.

The study finds that increasing TMT gender diversity leads to a reduction in firm risk-taking in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the study finds that hospitality firms led by a female CEO experience lower firm risk compared to firms led by a male CEO. Finally, the study finds evidence that the relationship between TMT gender diversity and firm risk is contingent on the level of incentive pay awarded to TMT members and the age of TMT members. Increasing incentive pay and aging executive teams decrease the risk reduction effect of TMT gender diversity.

The findings of this study recommend that firm risk-taking in the hospitality industry is related to gender diversity in TMTs. Hence, the board of directors should pay attention to gender composition for executive positions for risk management. Moreover, the results also suggest that care should be exercised when using incentive pay to align the interests of managers and shareholders. Finally, the board of directors needs to consider both gender diversity and age of the TMT members for TMT composition to manage executives’ risk-taking behavior.

This study fills a research gap in the hospitality literature by providing empirical evidence for the link between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking. Additionally, the study introduces incentive pay and age of TMT as contingency factors for the link between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of other customers in explaining customers’ relation with a brand. A conceptual model, which incorporates other customers along with atmospherics, food quality and service quality, is proposed to better understand how customers form their brand preference for fine dining restaurants.

A quantitative research methodology, using structural equation modeling, was adopted to understand the role of other customers along with other restaurant attributes. Data were collected from the customers of fine dining restaurants resulting in 324 usable surveys.

The findings supported the sequential link for: restaurant experience attributes – brand relationship and brand preference. While all restaurant attributes except other customers explain the satisfaction of customers, only service quality and other customers played a significant role in forming the brand image in the minds of restaurant guests. Overall, this study acknowledged the importance of both other customers and employees in fine dining restaurants’ branding.

The results suggest that customers in servicescape have a significant role in creating a successful brand image for restaurants. Moreover, service quality is also key to achieve a unique image, thereby suggesting that employees could be a source of differentiation and competitive advantage by managing their brand related behaviors.

This research was one of the first to study the role of other customers in restaurant service experience along with other attributes to assess customers’ brand relation and brand preference for fine dining restaurants.

This study aims to understand the effect of brand citizenship behaviors of hospitality employees on customers’ relation with the brand. A model, which links employee behaviors to customers’ evaluation of brand performance, brand trust and brand commitment, is proposed to provide further insight into how customers form their relation with a brand.

Data were collected from both customer-contact employees and passengers of a corporate airline company. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model by using both employee and customer data in the same research model.

The results showed that even brand citizenship behaviors of employees did not affect brand commitment of customers directly; these behaviors explain customers’ commitment to a brand through influencing perceived brand performance of customers and their trust toward a brand. Overall, this study provided support for the impact of employees’ brand-related behaviors on consumers’ relation with the brand.

The results suggest that hospitality employees contribute to the brand success through their behaviors. This helps organizations to enhance brand-related behaviors of their employees to ensure long-term relationships not only with customers but also with their employees in a labor-intensive and high customer contact industry.

This research was one of the first to analyze the effects of employees’ brand supporting behaviors on consumers by using both employee and consumer data in the same research model within the hospitality context.