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This study aims to build on the trait activation and interactionist perspective theories to investigate the effect of frontline employees’ (FLEs) willingness to take risks on hotel guest loyalty by assessing the mediating role of their innovative behaviors. It also examines whether decentralization strengthens the positive impact of willingness to take risks on innovative behavior and, subsequently, customer loyalty.

The authors collected multilevel data from various sources – hotel FLEs (n = 183), hotel operation managers (n = 46) and hotel guests/customers (n = 266) – from five-star hotels operating in Dubai. Structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro (version 3.5) were used to analyze the data.

The findings showed that willingness to take risks indirectly (via innovative behaviors) affects guest/customer loyalty positively. This effect is strengthened when the hotel is decentralized.

This study provides insight into how hotel managers can foster customer loyalty. More specifically, they can do so by establishing employees’ innovative behaviors triggered by employees’ positive personality traits and by giving employees more autonomy.

The present study addresses recent calls to investigate the positive impact of FLEs’ personality traits, attitudes and behaviors on customer loyalty.

The purpose of this research is to examine the indirect effect of perceived organizational customer orientation on frontline employees' (FLE) innovative behaviors (via perceived empowerment) as well as the contextual factor of supervisory fairness, which affects the strength of the indirect effect. Drawing on social exchange theory, the authors propose that FLEs' perceived organizational customer orientation positively affects their empowerment and indirectly affects innovative behaviors, and that effect is stronger in a high supervisory fairness condition.

Structural equation modeling of the data collected through a time-lagged survey of 184 employee–supervisor dyads provides support for the hypotheses. From the practitioners' perspective, this study highlights the mechanism through which perceived organizational customer orientation can affect the display of FLEs' innovative behaviors as well as the conditions that strengthen this process.

Perceived organizational customer orientation was positively related to employees' perceived empowerment. Empowerment was positively associated with supervisor-reported innovative behaviors. The indirect effect of perceived organizational customer orientation through employee empowerment on supervisor-reported innovative behaviors was also confirmed. Supervisory fairness significantly moderated the perceived organizational customer orientation and employee empowerment relationship. Finally, the indirect effect of customer orientation on supervisor-reported innovative behaviors through empowerment was significant for both high supervisory fairness and low supervisory fairness; however, the effect was stronger in a high fairness condition.

Service managers can benefit from these findings by improving the work environment characteristics.

This study makes an important contribution to existing research on perceived organizational customer orientation and FLEs' innovative behaviors as extant research has only examined the direct unmediated effect of customer orientation on innovative behaviors. Moreover, the authors’ moderated mediation model presents a new insight into how perceived organizational customer orientation influences FLEs' innovative behaviors and when this effect is more pronounced.

This research primarily aims to study the role of leader-member exchange (LMX) in frontline employees' (FLEs) innovative behaviors, whereby a mediating effect of employee happiness is proposed in this relationship. The moderating effect of service climate is also examined on the indirect effect of LMX on innovative behaviors through happiness.

The study used a sample of 303 FLEs working in various service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

The findings show that LMX has a positive and significant effect on FLEs' innovative behaviors and that employee happiness is an intervening variable. Service climate moderates the indirect effect of LMX on FLEs' innovative behaviors through happiness, and the effect is stronger in a low (unsupported) service climate.

The findings of this research provide prescriptive insights into the critical role of supervisory behavior in FLEs' innovative service behaviors and how positive emotions contribute to employees' willingness to innovate. Thus, these findings make a unique contribution to research in service management.

Studies examining how and when LMX can affect FLEs' innovative behaviors are limited. These findings offer new insights into the relative importance of supervisor and organizational support (service climate) in FLEs' innovative behaviors. The interaction effect of LMX and service climate has not been previously examined along with positive employee affect (happiness) and innovative behaviors.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of workplace happiness and work engagement on employee service innovative behavior from the perspective of positive psychology. The study also examines if work engagement mediates the relationship between workplace happiness and employee service innovative behavior. Finally, it investigates how co-worker socializing and the service climate of the organization moderate the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior.

The study used survey data from 321 frontline employees working in the service sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Six major hypotheses were established and examined using the SPSS Statistics V22.0 Process. The measurement model was analyzed using Amos 22.

Workplace happiness and work engagement are found to be important factors affecting employee service innovative behavior. Workplace happiness influences employee service innovative behavior directly and indirectly through work engagement. Both service climate and co-worker socializing play a significant moderating role in the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior among frontline employees. Interestingly, service climate erodes this relationship while co-worker socializing enhances it.

This study provides guidelines for managers and practitioners in the service industry to promote frontline employee service innovative behavior. Specifically, the findings provide guidance for decision-makers on how to use workplace happiness to trigger the innovative service behaviors of frontline employees, taking into consideration the conditional role of service climate and co-worker socializing.

The literature on factors affecting the service innovative behavior of frontline employees in the service sector from the perspective of positive psychology is limited, especially in the context of the UAE. The data, framework and outcomes of this research address this gap and contribute to the current body of knowledge. Specifically, the study contributes to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in the field of positive psychology by validating the applicability of the theory in a wider organizational context.

Using employee voice to advocate for customers' requirements, improves hospitality service. Organizations must understand what motivates or deters employee customer-oriented voice behaviour (COVB) to achieve its goals and enhance performance. This research investigates the predictors and outcomes of COVB of front-line employees (FLEs) in the hotel industry.

The study used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to steer the article search, screening, and inclusion. The research identified the extant studies conducted in both, high/low power distance countries that met the search criteria using the databases of SCOPUS, Web of Science, EBSCOHost and through snowballing of references.

The content analysis of 55 selected studies identified four themes that explain FLEs’ COVB in the hospitality industry. These four themes include customer-related, employee-related, organizational and leadership factors. Moreover, it was found that theoretical frameworks of the most of published studies are dominated by social exchange and conservation resource theories.

This study suggests hospitality firms to develop management strategies to foster FLEs COVB especially long-term personality trainings for FLEs is suggested for innovative and novel ideas.

This is the first study, as per our knowledge, on the hospitality industry that has been conducted to analyse and synthesize the literature related to FLEs’ COVB.

This study aims to investigate the potential positive correlation between inclusive leadership and hotel frontline employees’ (FLEs) customer stewardship (CS) behavior, using the conservation of resource theory as its foundation. It hypothesizes that role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) acts as a mediating factor in this relationship, with employee conscientiousness serving as a significant moderating variable.

A time-lagged survey design was used, spanning over three rounds to collect data from 348 hotel FLEs and 42 managers. The analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling in Mplus version 8.6.

The study revealed a positive association between inclusive leadership and FLE CS, both directly and indirectly through RBSE. The results also showed that FLE conscientiousness moderated the direct link between inclusive leadership and RBSE, as well as the indirect link between inclusive leadership and FLE CS.

The evidence suggests that inclusive leadership behaviors among hospitality managers may elevate FLE CS behaviors, implying significant benefits for the success of hospitality organizations. Managers should focus on enhancing FLEs’ RBSE to further improve CS behaviors. In addition, by considering FLE conscientiousness, managers can craft targeted strategies to maximize the impact of inclusive leadership on CS behaviors.

This research contributes to the limited body of knowledge on the precursors of CS behavior by explaining both direct and indirect connections with inclusive leadership. Furthermore, it broadens the understanding of the conditions under which leadership most effectively shapes such behaviors.

This study aims to address two relatively unexplored issues in banking service literature. The first relates to the impact of co-creation behaviors of frontline employees (FLEs) on their well-being. The second is the impact of FLEs' adaptability on their performance of co-creation behaviors and their well-being in the workplace.

A structural model was built and tested using survey data collected from 366 FLEs offering financial consulting services to customers at banks.

FLE co-creation behaviors have positive impacts on FLEs’ well-being, including well-being in the workplace (job satisfaction) and general well-being (quality of life). Moreover, FLEs with a high level of interpersonal and service-offering adaptability perform co-creation behaviors better than those with lower adaptability and have higher job satisfaction. Between service-offering adaptability and interpersonal adaptability, the former has stronger effects than the latter.

The findings suggest that banks develop and enhance FLEs’ adaptability and co-creation behaviors to enhance their well-being and customer value.

Prior research on FLEs' co-creation mainly focuses on customer-related transformative outcomes, leaving their own well-being less examined. This study fills this gap by providing evidence to suggest that although active co-creation behaviors require FLEs to have more skills and put in more effort, they do bring about transformative impacts in terms of better job satisfaction and quality of life. Additionally, a high level of adaptability helps FLEs to comfortably perform their co-creation behavior, thereby reducing stress and improving well-being.

The purpose of this study is to explore the capacity of frontline employees (FLEs) to provide insights into customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) and its management in service organisations.

This exploratory study used focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews with FLEs to investigate their experiences and reflections in dealing with CCI in a complex service setting in the UK.

FLEs are able to recall CCI encounters, both positive (PCCI) and negative (NCCI), with ease. They are capable of conceptualising and exploring complex nuances surrounding CCI encounters. FLEs can distinguish levels of seriousness of negative CCI and variations in customer sensitivity to CCI. FLEs vary in their comfort in intervening in negative CCI situations. Whilst FLEs draw on skills imparted in an employee-customer interaction context, they would benefit from CCI-specific training. Propositions are advanced for further empirical testing.

The authors studied FLE views on CCI in a customer-centric service organisation in the UK. Future research should further address the FLE perspective on CCI in less service-driven organisations and in other countries. A wide range of themes for further research are proposed.

The insights presented will assist service managers to assess the CCI context of their own organisation and develop strategies and guidelines to support FLEs in detecting, understanding and responding to CCI encounters.

The paper highlights and discusses the complexity of intervening in negative CCI encounters in socially inclusive service environments.

Based on FLE-derived perceptions of CCI, the paper contributes conceptually to CCI knowledge by identifying the existence of “concealed CCI”, distinguishing between gradual and sudden CCI intervention contexts and exploring the human resource development consequences of this distinction, with original implications for service management. The study also contributes to extending the scope of research into triadic service interactions.

This paper aims to explore the role of ethical climate as an antecedent of polychronicity, then in turn the effect of polychronicity on frontline employees’ service innovative behaviours (SIBE) and error strain and the moderating role of organization mission fulfilment in these relationships in a hotel job context in Penang, Malaysia.

In the current study, the data were collected from 312 frontline employees in the survey premises. A partial least square approach of the structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM) was used to test the associations among study variables.

The study findings reveal that ethical climate had positive impact on polychronicity. Significantly, polychronicity made positive influence on SIBEs and negative influence on error strain. Organization mission fulfilment was found to boost the influence of ethical climate on polychronicity. Finally, while organization mission fulfilment was found to boost the positive influence of polychronicity on SIBEs, on the other hand, buffers the negative impact of polychronicity on error strain.

The present study procures implications for practitioners in terms of establishing ethical climate in work environment and maximizing the frontline employees’ SIBEs while minimizing error strain. In addition, this research procures valuable implications to apply efficient managerial tools and improve job results in the lodging industry context of Peninsular Malaysia.

This study by investigating the untested associations such as the influence of polychronicity on frontline employees’ SIBEs and error strain contributes to the related literature.

Big data analytics (BDA) helps service providers with customer insights and competitive information. It also empowers customers with insights about the relative merits of competing services. The purpose of this paper is to address the research question, “How does big data analytics enable frontline employees (FLEs) in effective service delivery?”

The research develops schemas to visualise service contexts that potentially benefit from BDA, based on the literature drawn from BDA and FLEs streams.

The business drivers for BDA and its level of maturity vary across firms. The primary thrust for BDA is to gain customer insights, resource optimisation and efficient operations. Innovative FLEs operating in knowledge intensive and customisable settings may realise greater value co-creation.

There exists a considerable knowledge gap in enabling the FLEs with BDA tools. Managers need to train, orient and empower FLEs to collaborate and create value with customer interactions. Service-dominant logic posits that skill asymmetry is the reason for service. So, providers need to enhance skill levels of FLEs continually. Providers also need to focus on market sensing and customer linking abilities of FLEs.

Both firms and customers need to be aware of privacy and ethical concerns associated with BDA.

Knitting the BDA and FLEs research streams, the paper analyses the impact of BDA on service. The research by developing service typology portrays its interplay with the typologies of FLEs and BDA. The framework portrays the service contexts in which BD has major impact. Looking further into the future, the discussion raises prominent questions for the discipline.