Search results

Service robots are increasingly prevalent in the hospitality industry. While studies have explored the concept of service robot risk awareness (SRRA) – an employee’s perception of service robots posing a threat to human labor – the impact of SRRA on robot abuse and its emotional mechanism through which it affects employees remains unclear. This research leverages emotional appraisal theory to investigate the mediating role of fear of robots in the relationship between SRRA and robot abuse. Additionally, considering the influential role of leadership in shaping emotional appraisal, this study aims to examine the moderating impact of transformational leadership.

To test the proposed model, time-lagged survey data were collected from 283 employees working under 54 leaders in 18 hotels in China. The model was analyzed using multilevel modeling in Mplus 7.3.

At the individual level, SRRA indirectly increases robot abuse through the mediation of fear of robots. However, there is a cross-level moderation: the indirect relationship is alleviated when leaders exhibit high levels of transformational leadership.

This study pioneers the concept of robot abuse in hospitality and tourism settings. It extends emotional appraisal theory by highlighting the significant mediating role played by fear of robots. Furthermore, demonstrating how transformational leadership can mitigate the effects of SRRA offers valuable insights for leadership selection and training to facilitate the successful implementation of service robots.

服务机器人在酒店业中日益普及。虽然研究已探讨了服务机器人风险意识（SRRA）的概念——即员工对服务机器人构成对人力劳动的威胁感知, 但SRRA对辱虐机器人及其对员工的情绪机制的影响仍不清楚。本研究利用情绪评估理论调查了恐惧对SRRA与机器人滥用之间关系的中介作用。此外, 考虑到领导在塑造情绪评估中的重要作用, 本研究还考察了变革型领导力的调节影响。

为了测试提出的模型, 收集了来自中国18家酒店中54位领导下的283名员工的时滞调查数据。该模型使用Mplus 7.3中的多层建模进行分析。

在个体水平上, SRRA通过恐惧对机器人的中介作用间接增加了辱虐机器人。然而, 研究发现跨层次调节变量：当领导展现出较高水平的变革型领导力时, 间接关系得到缓解。

本研究首创了服务在酒店和旅游领域的辱虐机器人行为概念。它通过突出恐惧对机器人的重要中介作用, 扩展了情绪评估理论。此外, 展示了变革型领导如何缓解SRRA的影响, 为领导选聘和培训提供了有价值的见解, 促进了服务机器人的成功实施。

Through the lens of professional identity (PID), this paper aims to examine what matters to women when reflecting on their professions in hospitality. The purpose of this examination is to understand to what extent these PIDs are shared among women in hospitality and to include women’s voices into the workforce.

An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was used. The qualitative step included 24 in-depth interviews with female middle and senior managers in hotel management in the USA. The results of the interviews informed the design of a quantitative survey completed by 330 women hospitality professionals in managerial and non-managerial positions in the USA.

The qualitative analysis derived three super-ordinate and ten sub-themes. These themes were then quantitatively measured for validity and generalization. The mixing of qualitative and quantitative data indicated the relevance of work environment, social evaluation and perception of work and demonstrating professional competence as a woman in hospitality as significant drivers in establishing women’s hospitality PIDs.

This paper is the first to address women hospitality professionals through the lens of PID. By providing a different gender perspective on hospitality PID, this paper contributes to the expansion of diversity, equity and inclusion research and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated food safety whistle-blowing scale and examine how training influences food handlers’ whistle-blowing, the mediating roles of job satisfaction and food safety self-efficacy and the moderating roles of organization type and gender.

A sample of 734 food handlers from the food service industry and 306 food handlers from the food processing industry were recruited. A two-step psychometric process was conducted to validate the scale, and a moderated mediation model was used to examine the mechanisms through which food safety training influences whistle-blowing.

The results showed that job satisfaction and self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between training and whistle-blowing. Organization type moderated the first step of the two indirect paths and gender moderated the second step, thereby supporting the mediated-moderated model.

The results indicate the influence of food safety training programs on whistle-blowing behaviors and suggest other methods of enhancing employee whistle-blowing through human resource management.

A validated scale is lacking to measure whistle-blowing in the food safety context, and little research has examined the influence of human resource practices on whistle-blowing. This study provides meaningful insights for researchers by developing and validating food safety the whistle-blowing scale, connecting training with whistle-blowing, and provides useful information for practitioners by offering the methods of enhancing whistleblowing in both the food processing and food service industry.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are typical corporate strategies that provide hospitality business competitiveness. However, some recent evidence shows that when the merged and acquired (M&Aed) restaurants have strong local characteristics, consumers feel betrayed and perceive the M&As, legitimate business activities, as immoral actions. Building upon expectancy violation theory and moral foundation theory, this study aims to examine the moderating role of locavorism on the indirect effects of preexisting relationship quality on desire for avoidance and psychological loss through brand betrayal and moral judgment.

This study used the M&A of Whataburger chain restaurant as the scenario and recruited 399 Texas Whataburger consumers. A moderated mediation model was developed to examine the mechanisms through which preexisting relationship quality on negative responses to M&A of local restaurants.

The results showed preexisting relationship quality influences desire for avoidance and psychological loss negatively through brand betrayal and moral judgment. The indirect effects of relationship quality on the desire for avoidance and psychological loss become more accentuated among locavores.

The results implied that merging and acquiring (M&Aing) companies should closely monitor consumer dialogues to promptly respond to post-M&A uncertainties when M&Aed company has a strong local identity.

The unique contribution of this study is showing why consumers have extreme negative emotions and judgment of immorality when M&A decisions are made for local hospitality brands through the lens of brand betrayal and moral foundation theory. The results can help M&Aing companies mitigate consumers’ negative responses to M&A of local restaurants.