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Assesses the perceptions of service quality in China’s hotel industry, from the perspective of both international tourists and hotel managers. A questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 90 hotel managers and 270 international tourists who visited China and stayed at hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. A descriptive statistics analysis was used (paired t‐test and independent t‐test) to evaluate the service quality of China’s hotel industry from both the tourists’ and the managers’ perspectives, and to investigate the four gaps: between tourists’ expectations and their actual perceptions; between managers’ perceptions of tourists’ expectations and the actual expectations of tourists; between managers’ perceptions of a hotel’s service delivery and tourists’ actual perceptions of the service; and between managers’ perceptions of tourists’ expectations and managers’ perceptions of their hotel’s service delivery. The results showed that tourists’ perceptions of service quality provided in the hotel industry in China were consistently lower than their expectations and that managers overestimated the service delivery, compared to tourists’ perceptions of actual service quality, in the hotel industry in China. From the result of gap analysis, it might be concluded that Delivery Gap and Internal Evaluation Gap were the main reasons contributing to the service quality shortfalls in the hotel industry in China.

The current work aims to study the discrepancies that arise between the observed stimulus and the perception that managers form this reality. Individuals' bounded rationality, the complexity of the observed reality and the influence of the managers' beliefs are among the factors that give rise to these discrepancies. Thus, one can distinguish between different types of cognitive biases: simplification biases, affective influence biases, and interaction biases.

In the empirical application of this study, and using the narrative approach, this study analyses the opinions offered by CEOs of toy manufacturers about two questions: the current situation of their sector, and their firm's product portfolio.

The study reveals that managers' perceptions do not coincide with the information obtained from other bibliographic sources. Hence the results confirm the presence of biases in their opinions, which derive from simplification processes in the manager's cognitive process and from the influence of their belief schema.

The adoption of the narrative approach determines the limitations of this research. On the other hand, the information used to test the managers' opinions is also the result of a perception process, which undoubtedly entails cognitive biases.

This work examines the cognitive biases that are produced throughout the process of individual perception. Thus, the proposed model of perception stresses the factors that distort individual perception: the complexity of the stimulus and the individual's belief schema.

This research analyses the reliability of managers' opinions using a qualitative methodology that includes various information sources.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of store managers’ employee climate perceptions on frontline employee (FLE), customer and store performance outcomes in the small-store setting.

This study derives the findings from a multi-source data set acquired in partnership with a North American-based retailer that includes survey responses from 1,133 store managers, 5,591 FLEs and 16,488 customers. This paper matches survey responses to corporate records and store sales and operations data.

This study finds that store managers’ employee climate perceptions affect FLEs both directly and indirectly, through store manager social support behaviors. This paper tests the boundary conditions for these findings by examining the moderating effects of store-level FLE tenure heterogeneity and competitive intensity. Study results provide partial support for the hypothesized relationships with regard to FLE tenure heterogeneity, but not competitive intensity.

This research is subject to many of the limitations common to a survey-based study. While the use of one retailer provided opportunities to examine store-level performance data, future research would benefit by using a more expansive data set spanning several companies and industries. Moreover, as the current study was set in the small-store setting, future research should explore how store managers’ influence fluctuates depending on store size and the mechanisms through which organizational priorities flow through other management levels (e.g. department managers) in large retailers.

Study results provide managerial guidance regarding the implementation of an employee climate for the delivery of an enhanced customer experience and superior financial performance.

Although researchers have paid considerable attention to employees’ psychological and organizational climate perceptions, this study makes a unique contribution by examining the effects of store managers’ employee climate perceptions on FLE, customer and store-level outcomes.

The aim of this study is to find out the managers’ perception of employment practices and human rights for Indonesian women employee. The research was conducted by using a quantitative and qualitative approach. Data collection was gathered through a questionnaire before performing the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests that compare the managers’ perception. The samples for the research were top-, middle-, and low-level managers in Indonesian companies. Three primary managers’ perceptions concerning human rights were found. They are requirement of a particular unit to handle discrimination complaint, guarantee of rights to associate and give opinions, and workforce. There are also three primary managers’ perceptions on employment practices. They are sexual harassment, time flexibility for breastfeeding, and training for counseling facilities and employee risk anticipation. The originality of this study is empirical exploration of multilevel managers’ perception of women employment practices and human rights in Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze, for both parties of a distribution channel, to what extent each party perceives the counterpart’s use of performance measurement systems (PMS) and how this perception affects the perceiver’s own use of these systems, for either decision control or decision management.

The paper proposes a conceptual model tested at different levels using structural equations models. A case study uses survey data from 107 distributors and 91 manufacturer managers.

PMS allow evaluation by the manufacturer and daily management by distributors; both uses of PMS can be simultaneous and complementary. Results show that each party’s perception of the counterpart’s use contributes to its own use, although real uses do not significantly influence these perceptions.

The results must be interpreted with caution because the sample is small. This study calls for further data collection in real situations with larger samples, and for eliminating the influence of the distribution channel type. Further work is needed to analyze other constructs driving the relationship between real use and perception.

This study’s originality comes from the conceptual model, data set, and levels of analysis. Decoupling real use and perception, it challenges the prevailing assumption that managers accurately perceive counterpart managers’ use of PMS. Analyzing at both group and individual levels, it extends the more usual dyadic studies by recognizing that any given manager’s perception may be almost wholly formed by his/her interaction with a group of individuals.

There is good evidence that the shift in global sourcing is toward so‐called “low cost country suppliers.” Yet conditions in these countries are often not well‐known. At the same time, best practices in integrated supply dictate a multi‐faceted decision, rather than basing supplier location on a single attribute say, labor cost alone. With these issues in mind, a research project was formulated with two primary objectives. First, the authors wanted to compile the knowledge and perceptions of purchasing managers regarding low cost regions and their capabilities and to reflect the multiple factors involved in current sourcing strategies and supplier selection decisions in these low cost geographies. Second, the authors wanted to compare managers' subjective perceptions with objective data regarding attributes of sourcing locations to identify the relationship between perceptions and reality. This paper aims to explore the issues.

The authors surveyed over 100 sourcing professionals on their perceptions of various low cost sourcing alternatives. Perceptual mapping techniques were used to combine the rankings on some 12 different attributes to visualize how the various attributes relate to each other and how the low cost regions compare when rated against sourcing managers' ideal perceptions.

The research results show that procurement managers select regions for low cost sourcing based on both specific measures and individual and/or group perceptions of the region, whether these perceptions are correct or not. This paper probes these perceptions. Also the paper compares these subjective perceptions with objective data to show that cultural stereotypes may bias managers' perception of location‐specific characteristics. The paper closes with implications for procurement managers and opportunities for further research.

The authors have demonstrated that purchasing managers choose sourcing locations using multiple criteria instead of only focusing on cost. But some perceptions are biased by cultural stereotypes and do not reflect reality. This suggests that managers have to be careful when using their subjective judgment in choosing sourcing locations.

The authors believe that visual representations of alternative sourcing options have great potential to improve the efficiency of cross‐disciplinary and multi‐company teams that are increasingly responsible for global sourcing strategies. Comparing managers' perception with objective data of location attributes shows that mangers' perception may be biased by cultural stereotypes.

Managers' perceptions of exporting are shown to have a critical influence on firm export performance in this study of machine tool manufacturers in the US and Canada. Of special importance are managers' perceptions of the advantages of exporting over domestic sales, especially perceptions of export‐related growth opportunities. Perceptions of the complexities associated with exporting and managers' work experience overseas are also shown to be related to the percentage of sales a firm obtains by exporting. Possible explanations of these findings are suggested and several implications are discussed.

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how opportunity for control and firm capability interact to moderate the amount of risk that managers associate with various international entry‐mode strategies. A secondary goal is to investigate how managers perceive the need to retain control over three core functional areas (marketing, production, and R&D) when making entry‐mode decisions.

A field experiment design was implemented in a sample of US business owner/executives. Using an online data collection method, the study asked a sample of small‐business owners and managers to assess the amount of risk they associated with three modes of entering the Japanese market: non‐ownership (export), equal partnership (50/50 joint‐venture), and sole‐ownership. They were also asked how much control they needed to retain over R&D, production, and marketing for the venture to be successful.

Ownership‐provided control interacts with capability to influence managerial risk perceptions. Managers in lower‐capability firms see the least risk in the non‐ownership entry mode while those in higher‐capability firms see the least risk in the equal‐partnership entry mode. Managers believe that for a new venture in a foreign market to be successful, control should be retained over the R&D function, regardless of entry mode.

The findings appear to reconcile some of the conflicting predictions of the transaction cost and resource‐based theoretical perspectives, because it appears that international managers consider both control (internationalization theory) and capability (resource‐based theory) when judging the perceived risk of an entry strategy.

For firms that are incapable of managing in an international context, a low‐control no‐ownership entry mode is perceived as the least risky approach; for firms that have some capability for international management, then a partial‐ownership mode such as a 50/50 joint‐venture is perceived as having lower risk than no‐ownership. In non‐ownership and joint‐venture type entry modes, managers are more apt to outsource the marketing function to an agent/partner, but not R&D. In contrast, managers believe that marketing needs to be maintained in‐house when utilizing a sole‐ownership entry mode.

By illustrating the role of perceived risk in foreign‐market entry‐mode decisions and demonstrating how capabilities interact with ownership‐provided control to moderate these perceptions, the paper's findings suggest that managers' risk perceptions may mediate the effects of firm‐specific factors, and thus contributes significantly to both theory and practice.

The international purchasing function is a critical element in the multinational enterprise's (MNE's) formulation of functionally integrated international policy and strategy and the implementation of strategy. A firm should have some understanding of the markets in which it operates as a consumer or buyer, since possible changes in resource or supplier markets can affect decisions related to the firm's marketing, production, and integration strategies. The supply consideration of MNEs represents risk and opportunity and may, as a result, have a significant influence on net income flows, both in the short and long run. Davis et al provides empirical evidence for assuming that the MNE's international procurement process influences and is influenced by its technological process, R & D, and product categories.

Explores inter‐functional differences between marketing and other departments from a decision‐making perspective, with particular emphasis on managers’ perceptions of problems. Problems are differentiated along two main axes: operational‐strategic and structured‐unstructured. The concept of decision‐making context is introduced as the ratio of problem types encountered. To differentiate managers on an individual level, the construct of perception type is examined. Suggests that, by relying on certain psychological functions in preference to others, individuals will attempt to formulate and solve problems in disparate ways. Based on a survey comparing top and middle marketing managers with managers from technical areas, significant differences are found in terms of perceptions of decision‐making context. Perception type is also found to be a significant factor, explaining more variance in decision‐making context than inter‐functional differences. The implications for managerial action are explored both in terms of developing inter‐functional relations and enhancing the effectiveness of inter‐functional teams.