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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how relationship marketing practice can lead to customer satisfaction in the current practices in the hotel industry in Ghana. Globally, the hospitality industry ranks as one of the most competitive business sectors with competing organisations relying on a cocktail of strategies such as relationship marketing to stay relevant, and attract and retain customers. This paper examines how relationship marketing impacts on trust, commitment and satisfaction for customers in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

A positivist methodological framework was used for the collection of data, analysis and theoretical development in this research. The data collection questionnaire was administered to 167 guests of a 3-star hotel in the Accra Metropolis. Structural equation modelling was used to ascertain the significance of the relationship that exists between trust, commitment and customer satisfaction with respect to the relationship marketing practices of hoteliers in Ghana.

Study findings provide insight into the processes and practices of relationship marketing that is based on trust and commitment. The findings show a positive and significant relationship between trust, commitment and customer satisfaction. The study also revealed that commitment partially mediates the association between trust and customer satisfaction.

While this study is limited to a single hospitality and tourism company in Ghana, the findings can have far reaching implications for managers in the hospitality industry in Ghana, it provides a vivid illustration of the impact that customer satisfaction can have on the fortunes of business and a genuine desire to develop trust and be committed to the welfare of business clients can lead to higher customer patronage.

Trust and commitment in the hospitality industry requires innovative business practices that makes the client value all the service experience that he or she may encounter. The findings indicate that customer satisfaction is influenced by trust and commitment in the hospitality industry.

Value to the authors’ knowledge, the relationship between trust and commitment in relationship marketing and customer satisfaction concepts has not previously been investigated using structural equation modelling analysis within the Ghanaian hospitality industry. This implies that both trust and commitment are necessary to attain customer satisfaction.

The hospitality industry is one of Ghana's key economic contributors. It is an industry that has significant indigenous investment. The sector also brings in foreign exchange for Ghana. In 2019, it generated $325 m through tourist visits. This makes the hospitality industry critical for the attraction of foreign direct investments. The research was therefore aimed at examining the business environment of the hospitality industry for evidence of negative factors that can hamper its greater contribution to the attainment of Goal 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN such as guest-bullying and the incivility in hospitality occupations.

A convenience sampling method was used to select 346 samples out of the accessible 3,500 targeted population from 38 hotels in the capital city of Ghana, Accra, comprising of junior to senior employees of various departments. The questionnaires were scripted from a paper-based to digital format supported by the Opine software installed on tablets and smartphones, to enable complete adherence to all coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) safety protocols. The study used a regression to ascertain the relationships between the dependent variables and the independent variables.

The study found the “Level of Permissiveness for Guests” positively and significantly “encouraged” guests to bully staff, while “Management and Staff Laxity” negatively but significantly explained guest bullying behaviour.

The study makes the first attempt in context to shed light on workplace bullying which represents one of the main factors that can inhibit or erode any gains or attempts to foster the achievement of Goal 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN which is to create “Decent Work and Economic Growth”.

The current study aimed to examine the moderating role of perceived supervisor support in the nexus between employee empowerment and organizational commitment in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

A quantitative research design was adopted, and data were collected from 274 frontline workers from 4-star and 5-star hotels at two different waves within a 7-month interval. The data received were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V. 23.0) and SmartPLS (V.4.0), respectively.

As hypothesized in the study, employee empowerment was significantly related to organizational commitment. Furthermore, the results revealed that perceived supervisor support moderated the nexus between employee empowerment and affective and continuance commitment but did not moderate the nexus between employee empowerment and normative commitment.

Arguably, support from supervisors has been theoretically identified as a key construct in enhancing subordinates' commitment to an organization. However, less is known in the literature about the moderating role of perceived supervisory support in the nexus between employee empowerment and organizational commitment, especially in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

This study aims to examine influence of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employees’ organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), as well as the mediating role of job involvement in the Ghanaian hospitality industry.

Data were gathered from 258 employees in some selected hotels and restaurants in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana through a survey and analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The results indicated that both leadership styles influenced employees’ OCBs positively. Furthermore, job involvement positively influenced OCB and mediated between transformational leadership and OCB but not between transactional leadership and employees’ OCBs.

The study reaffirms the importance of employees’ OCBs and recommends that hotels and restaurants must encourage their supervisors to exhibit more transformational leadership behaviours (motivational, inspirational and visionary behaviours), as well as a combination of transformational and transactional leadership behaviours which can influence their employees to go beyond formal requirements, and get more involved in their jobs to the benefit of the organisations.

This study reveals the extent to which internal motivations of employees, specifically their job involvement, causes their extra-role behaviours and influences the leaders–OCB relationships from a developing country perspective.

The study sought to assess the nexus between components of perceived justice and satisfaction, trust and loyalty with service recovery.

Survey data were gathered from a sample of 300 clients from 8 midscale hotels in Ghana. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Perceived distributive justice has no effect on customer satisfaction with service recovery. Interactional justice had the greatest effect on customer satisfaction with service recovery. No significant relationship was found between procedural justice and trust. Also, trust had a significant effect on loyalty post-service recovery.

Empirical data were taken from one service industry; thus, it is reflective of only that service industry, generalizations should be mindful of our context bounded results.

The study offers suggestions for managers to leverage the dimensions of perceived justice in order to build trust and loyalty post-service failure. Hotels should treat customers with fairness and respect at every point of contact during the service recovery process. Reward based compensation should be offered to customers to build trust.

The study is among a few to assess service recovery and its link with loyalty from a developing economy context. The study revealed that perceptions of justice with service recovery influences customer loyalty and satisfaction post-service recovery and extend the understanding of service recovery in the Ghanaian hotel sector.

Studies in hospitality and tourism have seldom investigated the role of employee commitment to building customers' attitudinal loyalty. This study examines the impact of employee commitment on customers' attitude-based loyalty. The study contributes to knowledge of how employees' affective attitude (i.e. employee commitment) impacts and mediates the relationships within this model by considering service quality attributes separately in the context of China's Greater Bay Area.

Using a quantitative approach, 664 customers visiting hotels and tourist attractions within three cities of Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai were surveyed. A convenience sampling technique was employed to administer questionnaires within these contexts. A structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS software was used to test the relationships in the proposed model.

The results suggest that while service quality attributes have a different impact on employee commitment, employee commitment plays a response-predictor-mediator role in the attitudinal loyalty framework. For instance, personal interactions and technical quality are significant predictors of employee commitment. Employee commitment influences customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Moreover, employee commitment fully mediates the relationship between technical quality and customer satisfaction and partially mediates the association between personal interaction and customer satisfaction.

Given that employee commitment could be derived from personal interaction with customers, hoteliers and destination management organizations should encourage customers through their websites to be responsive to employees by providing constructive feedback on their service delivery. Management of hotels, attractions and destinations need to motivate employees through incentives such as pay raise, bonuses, time-off and paid holidays.

The paper is inimitable in its attempt to extend the customer attitudinal loyalty debate by including employees' attitude (i.e. commitment) in the measurement of customers' attitudinal loyalty in the hospitality and tourism industry.

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the essential marketing activities in the hotel industry, the effect of CSR perception on customer's revisit intention varies depending on mediators and contexts. Thus, this study aims to examine how hotel companies can effectively influence customers' patronage behaviors by leveraging overall customers' CSR perception, trust and commitment.

For this purpose, an online survey is conducted among hotel customers in the USA. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling is utilized to analyze the collected data.

The results show that customers' perception toward CSR does not have a direct effect on customers' revisit intention. Interestingly, the authors find that customers' perception influences their revisit intention only via increasing trust and commitment. Also, trust appears to be highly critical for positive behavioral outcomes than commitment.

The limitations of the current research are that the different types of CSR activities and customers' demographics were not compared.

Customers' revisit intention is created when hotel companies provide not only CSR initiatives but also customers' perceived connection with the hotel brand.

Tourism and hospitality companies have focused on CSR activities because CSR activities are influential strategies to attract customers who want meaningful, responsible and sustainable experiences. By applying the cognitive consistency theory, the results of this study indicate that hotel companies can successfully use CSR activities to develop customers' revisit intention by enhancing their relational value.

The aim of this study is to examine the role of relational benefits and brand experience measurements on willingness to pay more (WPM), effects of word of mouth (WOM) and repurchase intention (RI) in fast-food restaurants (FFR).

Employing an online questionnaire survey with a sample size of 503 respondents, the quantitative methodology included multiple regression and factor analysis to facilitate the analyses of data.

Relational benefits and their dimensions (confidence, special treatment and social benefits) found to positively impact WPM, WOM and RI. With reference to brand experiences, the current study found that behavioural and intellectual experiences have significant and positive effects on WPM, WOM and RI. Surprisingly, no positive significance was identified between sensory experiences and WPM, WOM and RI.

The findings show that relational benefits and brand experience dimensions play an essential role in improving brand loyalty.

The current study subscribes to the concept of relationship marketing theory, suggesting that loyalty to FFRs can be enhanced by offering customers relational benefits and augmenting their brand experiences.

This study aims to assess how the provision of facilities management (FM) services influences customer satisfaction in hotels in secondary cities. This study focussed on customer satisfaction in relation to specific FM services such as cleaning, maintenance, security, internet/information technology and air conditioner servicing.

The study used a case study design. Simple random and purposive sampling methods were used to select the hotels and the respondents. The study used a survey based on the SERVQUAL model to collect data from 136 respondents. Six hotel managers were also interviewed.

There were disparities in customer satisfaction across the various hotel categories based on the assessment indicators used. Thus, customer satisfaction with FM services was not influenced by hotel ratings. On the calibre of staff handling FM activities, none of the hotels had a professional facilities manager. The hotel managers were in charge of FM activities, which affected the provision of FM services. Generally, customers in all the selected hotels were not satisfied with the quality of FM services. Specifically, the overall mean gap score was very low (−3.20), which meant that customers’ expectations far exceeded their perceptions, hence, their dissatisfaction. Tangible(s) of services were customers’ least appreciated (−1.04) dimension. This meant that hotels did not pay much attention to the physical (place) aspect of their FM activities. This should engage the attention of hospitality industry regulators and policymakers, given the current global health crisis caused by Covid-19 and its variance.

The study demonstrates customer satisfaction with FM services in hotels in secondary cities. Practically, hotels can become very competitive if they consider the findings of the study to provide effective customer-oriented FM services.

This paper aims to explore the best practices in marketing strategies for the Malaysian business event industry.

A qualitative methodology was adopted to collect primary data from semi-structured interviews. The informants included ten experts from the Malaysian business event industry. The data collected were then grouped using the ATLAS.ti (v.8) software for thematic analysis. A trustworthiness assessment was applied to increase the credibility and ensure the rigour of the qualitative findings.

The qualitative results revealed the following final themes: event marketing, the marketing plan, the 7 Ps of the marketing mix, strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis and traditional and digital marketing. Interestingly, three inductive themes were also emerged as follows: relationship marketing, unique selling points (USPs) and key opinion leaders.

This study looked at Malaysian business events and focused only on findings from the industry expert's perspective. In the future, further investigation may concentrate on other business event industry players such as destination marketing companies, airline operators, travel intermediaries, clients, suppliers, universities and the government.

The findings offer a holistic approach to increase Malaysia's competitiveness among other primary business event host destinations in the Asian-Pacific, improve its worldwide and Asian-Pacific rankings and better position the country as a preferred business event destination during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

This is the first such study to date, which has never been explored in qualitative academic research. This study has substantial implications for various business event industry stakeholders in Malaysia.