Search results

This study aims to explore how not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) adopt service innovation and improve their employee resilience capabilities as a response to environmental changes arising from marketisation of public services.

Using a multiple case-study research design, this study involved 32 interviews with frontline employees working in a not-for-profit care-providing organisation.

This study finds that the development of absorptive capacity can facilitate service innovation adoption in NFPs and improve employee resilience in times of transition.

This study offers theoretical insights on service innovation, absorptive capacity and employee resilience in NFPs. It makes practical recommendations that will enable NFPs to help frontline employees better adopt service innovation practices in business models endorsed by the private sector.

The present study examines the effect of supervisor incivility on service employee creativity and the mediating mechanism of negative affect state on the said relationship with the aid of Affective Events Theory (AET) and Social Power Theory. Additionally, the study explores the mitigating role of core self-evaluation in the dual stage of the moderated mediation model.

Survey data were collected from 420 frontline employees working in four-star and five-star hotels across India and PROCESS macro in SPSS 23.0 was employed to test the hypotheses proposed in the study.

The study findings observe that frontline employees experiencing supervisor incivility face a negative affect state and it further diminishes service employee creativity. Also, the indirect effect gets attenuated at dual stages when frontline employees are equipped with a high level of core self-evaluation.

The study findings provide various insights to the managers to understand the deleterious effect of supervisor incivility at work and to develop interventions to manage supervisor incivility and the negative affect state among frontline hotel employees.

The present study is the first and unique attempt to investigate the role of supervisor incivility experienced by frontline hotel employees in India with reference to their creativity towards customers and mediating mechanism of negative affect state. The study adds value to the literature by establishing the role of core self-evaluation in the moderated mediation model. Further, the study also provides a unique contribution to the management of frontline hospitality employees.

Based on the resource conservation theory, this research paper aims to evaluate the positive impact of customer orientation on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of customer incivility and supervisor monitoring.

Two-wave data from 484 frontline employees in power supply business halls were analyzed. This study used AMOS 23.0, SPSS22.0 and PROCESS macro for data statistics and analysis.

Our empirical research demonstrates that customer orientation has a significant positive impact on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion. At the same time, supervisor monitoring moderates the relationship between customer orientation and emotional exhaustion. The higher the interactional or observational monitoring, the stronger customer orientation's effect on frontline employees' emotional exhaustion. Moreover, a three-way interaction model exists between customer orientation, customer incivility and supervisor monitoring.

This study yields practical implications for helping the frontline employees of service-oriented organizations alleviate multiple interpersonal workplace pressures.

Based on resource conservation theory, this paper used a novel approach to focus on customer orientation, customer incivility and supervisor monitoring as interpersonal stressors.

This study aims to test the relationship between emotional labor and service quality of the frontline employees of Chinese restaurants during the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This study further investigated the mediating role of work fatigue (WF) and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate Guanxi (SSG).

The authors used a time-lag approach to gather data from a sample of 365 frontline staff members working in Chinese restaurants. All hypotheses were tested using SPSS and AMOS.

First, restaurant frontline employees’ deep acting was associated with higher service quality, whereas surface acting leads to lower service quality. Second, WF mediated the relationship between emotional labor and service quality. Third, SSG moderated the impact of emotional labor on WF during COVID-19.

All variables measured in this study were self-reported by restaurant frontline employees, which may increase the risk of common-method bias. However, this study enriches the literature on emotional labor, WF and SSG during COVID-19.

COVID-19 has severely affected the hotel, restaurant and catering sector and especially the psychological state and the work performance of frontline employees. Restaurant managers should implement some measures to improve employees’ service quality during COVID-19.

The present findings show that restaurant frontline employees adopted various emotional labor strategies when they were faced with higher than usual job demands and the risk of infection during COVID-19.

By investigating trust in the organization as a mediator and traditionality as a moderator, this study aims to examine the effect perceived organizational exploitation poses on frontline hotel employees’ service performance.

A three-wave survey that targets 219 supervisor–subordinate dyads from four Chinese hotels was conducted to test the hypotheses. The authors used SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 21.0 to analyze the data and verify the theoretical model.

This study found that perceived organizational exploitation exerts a destructive impact on frontline hotel employees’ service performance. Trust in the organization is a full mediator of the link connecting perceived organizational exploitation to service performance. Furthermore, traditionality weakens perceived organizational exploitation’s impact on trust in the organization and subsequent service performance.

The authors’ findings remind hotels to cease exploiting their employees to avoid compromising service performance. Hotels should also endeavor to instill trust among employees toward the hotel and allocate more attention to employees with lower levels of traditionality.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore the impact of perceived organizational exploitation on frontline hotel employees’ service performance. Second, this study reveals a novel mechanism underlying the connection between perceived organizational exploitation and service performance. Finally, this study identifies frontline hotel employees’ traditionality as a vital moderator that mitigates the negative relationships among perceived organizational exploitation, trust in the organization and service performance.

This study aims to examine the influence of perceived organizational support (POS) on boundary-spanning behaviors (BSBs) among frontline employees in the hospitality industry. It also considered perceived supervisory support (PSS) as a moderating factor within a conceptual model.

Data were gathered from 651 full-time hospitality employees across 12 hotels in China. The analysis of the data used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The findings revealed that POS influences hospitality boundary spanners’ BSBs, specifically external representation (ER), internal influence (II) and service delivery (SD). In addition, PSS moderates the relationship between POS and these frontline employees’ behaviors.

This study offers practical strategies for hospitality professionals to enhance frontline employees’ BSBs and foster supportive workplaces that drive employee excellence. These strategies encompass cultivating a supportive organizational culture, implementing supportive measures, fostering a sense of belonging among employees and ensuring supervisors’ well-being and competence in supporting their teams during daily interactions. These actions effectively motivate customer-contact employees to excel in their performance.

Fostering a helpful attitude in frontline employees is crucial for service firms’ success. Hospitality organizations must provide support to achieve this. Few studies have explored how organizational support contributes positively to the BSBs of customer-contact employees. This study goes beyond oversimplification and delves into the nuanced interplay between perceived support (POS and PSS) and hospitality frontline employees’ BSBs, focusing on ER, II and SD. The moderated mediating model enhances the understanding of support dynamics in the organizational context.

This study aims to develop a measurement scale for employee aesthetic labor (AL) in hospitality from the perspectives of frontline employees of international tourist hotels and airlines.

The authors utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods to develop the AL scale. Participants were frontline employees of international tourist hotels and airlines in Taiwan. The authors’ analysis incorporated both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to examine the results.

A four-factor, 21-item hospitality AL scale with satisfactory validity and reliability was created. The four AL factors are appropriate voice and response, pleasant appearance, corporate aesthetic image delivery and polite and elegant demeanor.

The developed AL scale can serve as a useful tool for the hospitality industry in terms of employee recruitment and training to align with the corporation's aesthetic image and reduce the potential burden of AL on employees.

Based on dramaturgical theory, this study focuses on the AL practices that are performed during service encounters with customers. It is potentially the first AL scale to be constructed using rigorous scale development procedures.

The present study aims to explore the linkages among transformational leadership, workplace spirituality and frontline employee (FLE) service recovery performance in the aviation service industry. The resilience of individuals was taken as a mediator for the associations between transformational leadership as well as workplace spirituality and frontline employee's service recovery performance. The hypothesized research model was examined by integrating the principles of COR theory and the SDT perspective on psychological needs.

The research model was evaluated via partial least squares (PLS). In particular, SmartPLS 3.0 software was utilized to examine anticipated correlations through a poll of 371 air service provider frontline employees.

Results demonstrated that transformational leadership had a positive impact on both service recovery performance and spirituality in the workplace. The positive connection between workplace spirituality and service recovery performance was also supported. Further, the mediating role of an employee's resilience in these relationships was established. The paper provides a significant contribution with both theoretical and practical implications.

The present research also provides some practical implications for the aviation industry. Since the aviation industry is a high-contact service industry, aviation frontline employees play a crucial role in service recovery strategies. Thus, air service providers need to provide these employees with ample resources to effectively handle service failures. Moreover, the service recovery performance of air service providers may benefit from the hiring of managers with strong transformational leadership styles. Therefore, these providers should take leadership style into account when recruiting, promoting and training supervisors. Managers should, among other activities, implement transformational leadership approaches, such as inspiring and motivating, establishing a supportive organizational climate, paying attention to employees' needs and engaging in active listening.

The current study contributes to the stream of research on SRP and the role of transformational leadership, workplace spirituality and resilience in service recovery in particular. Furthermore, by integrating the COR and SDT theories, the current study gives more real-world proof of the importance of leadership for organizations.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) management, by revisiting three older services marketing models: the servuction model, the services marketing triangle and the services marketing pyramid.

Noting the lack of theoretical frameworks of CCI management, this study adopts a problematization approach to identify foundational services marketing models, question their underlying assumptions, develop an alternative conceptual framework and evaluate its adequacy for CCI management, on the basis of a systematic literature review and content analyses.

By revisiting the assumptions underlying three relevant models in the light of the present-day, technology-infused service environment, this study proposes a four-triangle CCI management framework encompassing four specific modes of CCI management: managerial decisions by the firm; frontline employees; the design of the physical environment; and technology. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the triadic relationships involving the focal customer, other customers and the four modes of CCI management. Building on these findings, this study concludes with an extensive research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first scholarly effort in services marketing literature to provide a comprehensive, theoretically grounded framework of CCI management. With its basis in foundational models, the new framework is well-suited to address future challenges to service marketplaces too.

This study examines the impact of customer value creation on hotel performance. Customer value is seen as a multi-phase and multi-party process that combines hotel and tourist perspectives while also integrating the participation of frontline employees. The study also investigates financial performance (FP) and customer-based performance (CBP).

Data were collected from Morocco through multiple-informant design surveys to explore three perspectives related to three actors involved in the process, that is, the managers, the employees and the tourists. The hypotheses were tested with SmartPLS4.

The findings reveal that customer value positively and significantly impacts not only the FP of hotels but also the CBP. The results highlight a sequential relationship in which each actor drives the subsequent phase to definitively enhance the hotel's performance. The results further show significant mediation effects in the customer value sequence. Moreover, the results show a significant and positive effect of CBP on FP.

Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed and future important researches are drawn from the study limitations.

Managers must be aware that frontline employees and guests are crucial for creating customer value, which enables to improve their performance. The results highlight that hotels should motivate and involve frontline employees in value propositions (VP) development. Furthermore, the guests are the final arbiters of value who drive hotels' performance. Moreover, for additional FP, managers are required both to deliver superior value and create loyal customers.

This study mostly confirms previous findings and highlights a sequential relationship among three phases involving three actors of customer value. However, it reveals more reasonable and robust results in the mediation effect of the value offering (VO) between the VP and the perceived value-in-use (PVI). This study is also the first to provide evidence on the mediation effect of the PVI between the VO and the CBP.