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This paper aims to model and test the relationships between corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate reputation (CR), word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior and customer trust (CT) within the hotel context.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 300 hotel guests. Following a two-step approach, a measurement model was estimated and then a structural model was analyzed to test six proposed hypotheses.

The research results show that CSR has a direct and positive effect on CT, CR and WOM; CSR has an indirect and positive influence on CT via CR and WOM as mediating variables; CR is a significant antecedent of WOM; and CR and WOM are positively associated with CT.

The research examines the relationship among CSR, CR, WOM and CT, thus contributing to hospitality management literature theoretically. In addition, relevant implications are provided for managers as to how to improve CT in service industries.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: which type of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication, face-to-face vs electronic, has the stronger influence on destination image and attitude?

A multidimensional model is developed with eight constructs. After the validation of measurement scales, hypotheses are contrasted through structural modeling to test the model fit and estimate the model coefficients. The model was tested empirically using a sample of 678 tourists who had experience within the online tourist community, tripadvisor.com. Tourists were required to complete a survey regarding their information search from the virtual sharing platform and face-to-face communications.

The results of this study suggest that electronic WOM (eWOM) has a more powerful effect on destination image, attitude, and travel intention rather than face-to-face WOM.

This paper is one of the first to develop and empirically test a comparative model for information search behavior, namely, face-to-face WOM vs eWOM, and destination image/attitude in the context of tourism industry.

Within a religious tourism destination, the study of business networks can be used to improve understanding of the interactions taking place within or among businesses, by exploring the informal and formal connections linking them together. Hence, the purpose of this study is to map and analyze strategic business networks operating in a religious destination.

This research explores the networks of stakeholders associated with a religious context in an intensive single case study on Al-Atabat Al-Aliyat in Iraq through qualitative analysis. Multiple methods of data collection were used to build strategic networks promoting religious tourism in the Middle-East region. Key analysis practices include content analysis and social network analysis (SNA). The identified interrelationships between stakeholders were analyzed by using UCINet, an SNA tool.

The study reveals three different types of cooperation networks in the case of Al-Atabat Al-Aliyat, namely, a 67-actor continuous network, a 69-actor non-Arbaeen network and an 89-actor Arbaeen network. The results also pinpoint the need for more collaborative activities on the different levels of cooperation in the networks.

This paper provides important guidelines on how to manage the interrelationships within tourism networks in a religious destination such as Iraq. The findings highlight the acute need for establishing strategic and effective networks of stakeholders in Al-Atabat Al-Aliyat. Non-tangible, long-term and quantitative benefits can be found for tourism businesses investing time and money in religious networks in Iraq.

The research contributes to religious tourism literature, filling the gaps about how the interrelationships among the actors involved in a business network can evolve over time and influence the success of a certain religious destination.

This study aims to contribute to the context of electronic trust (e-trust) research with an emphasis on the determination of tourists’ e-trust in hotel websites. This research used social exchange theory to elaborate how perceived attributes of a hotel website influence purchase behaviour of tourists. This area is often neglected because most studies focus on website users’ adoption or acceptance of other service industries. It is expected that trust-generating mechanisms have different impacts on the e-trust level in the hospitality services.

A comprehensive literature review identified the major antecedents and outcomes of e-trust. Data was collected from an online survey and 586 usable questionnaires were achieved. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the hypothesized model.

The results of this study demonstrated that the more tourists perceive influences positively, the more they are possibly to trust in hotel website. Findings revealed that perceptions about the attributes of hotel website, including security, privacy, usefulness, ease of use and compatibility are the main antecedents of trust in hotel website, which, in turn, lead to actual usage of the website for booking online.

This study is based on a large sample of tourists and broadens the understanding of e-trust in hotel websites by considering factors rarely discussed in prior tourism and hospitality literature.

This study aims to provide a better understanding of how information technology (IT) competency and knowledge management (KM) contribute to service supply chain (SSC) (coordination, collaboration and efficiency) practices in the hospitality industry.

Drawing on tourism businesses, this study tests the structural relationships of IT competency, KM and SSC. Structural equation modeling is performed to test the hypotheses. A survey of 494 hotels in Iran provided empirical evidence for the existence of interrelationships between multiple constructs.

The analysis demonstrated that IT competency is significantly associated with KM. Furthermore, SSC practices are found to be directly impacted by KM and IT competency.

This study unpacks the mechanism that operates between IT competency, KM and SSC and contributes to the academic research on SSC in the context of the hospitality industry.

Industrial tourists can contribute to the local sites income. Apart from large and well-known industrial units, small industrial units can also introduce their products to the market by organizing tourism tours. This study aims to analyze an industrial tourism business network established in Isfahan, a large, industrial and historic city in central of Iran, as a case study.

Participants were managers and experts of organizations operated in the Industrial Tourism Network in Isfahan city. A sample of 30 participates was selected through purposive and snowball sampling approaches. Data was analyzed by qualitative content analysis and social network analysis using UCINET software.

Twenty-eight organizations participated in the Industrial Tourism Business Network of Isfahan. Macro indices of the network revealed that: density is relatively low; most of the relationships among network member organizations are reciprocal; transitivity is relatively weak indicating low network stability against environmental player; clustering is low, indicating a relatively low tendency of members to form different clusters. Micro indices indicated that in-degree and out-degree centralizations are low; overall centralization is poor. In addition, six actors were in the center and 22 actors were in the peripheral. Finally, the number of interactions of central organizations was triple than the peripheral organizations.

Limitations of this study include: The data obtained in this study only reflected the relationships among the actors studied during a specific period of time; this paper only focused on actors engaged in an industrial tourism network. Therefore, the sample might involve some bias. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the role of networking in tourism destinations, particularly industrial sites.

According to the results, the authors may be able to advise firms operating in the tourism industry, particularly actors operate in industrial tourism, regarding how to increase their collaboration with both internal and external environment to achieve better performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has addressed an industrial tourism business network.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how total quality management (TQM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the context of the hotel industry.

Drawing from the hospitality literature, the relationships among TQM, CSR and EO were hypothesized and tested. Based on the valid responses collected from a survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling approach was used to examine the research model.

The results indicate that TQM positively affects CSR. Furthermore, CSR was a significant antecedent of EO.

The combination of a developing country context and the significance of TQM, CSR and EO in hotel industry enhance the contextual contribution of the paper.

Restaurants with limited promotion budgets depend mainly on word of mouth (WOM) among customers. WOM seems particularly important to the marketing of services. This is because services are experiential in nature and difficult to assess before purchase. In the restaurants context there is little research on WOM. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that may influence tourists’ WOM about restaurants implying on the critical role of relationship quality.

A comprehensive literature review is conducted to identify the major factors influencing WOM in the context of restaurant industry. The study utilizes self-administered questionnaire survey and the target population are the customers who have referred to the restaurants of Tehran, Iran. A convenience sampling approach was utilized to collect a sample of 326 customers. A structural equation modeling procedure is applied to the examination of the antecedents of WOM.

The paper found that food quality, personal interaction quality, physical environment quality, and perceived value influence WOM behavior of customer in an indirect way through relationship quality.

This research conjectured that an understanding of factors that influence the tourist to talk each other about a given restaurant are worthy of additional research. Consequently, the study helps to understand how these factors can provide alternative sources of marketing to attract the long-term economic sustainability of restaurant industry in Iran.

To the authors’ knowledge, this research will be the first attempt to explore influential factors on WOM in restaurant industry focusing on the critical role of relationship quality. It is expected that researchers will find this research a contribution to the WOM literature, particularly in restaurant industry.

The exploration of performance determinants in social enterprises has gained increasing relevance among researchers and practitioners, particularly in rural tourism. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the contributions of transformational leadership and social entrepreneurship to the performance of social enterprises in the context of rural tourism. Further, the mediating roles of social capital, creativity and social value were investigated.

Data were gathered through a survey of 168 employees of social enterprises operating in the rural tourism setting. Eight surveyors were sent out to conduct the survey. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS 18.0.

The results of the SEM suggested that transformational leadership is positively associated with social value, social capital and performance of social enterprise. In addition, social entrepreneurship had a significant influence on social value, social capital and performance of social enterprise. Creativity and social value predicts the performance of social enterprise. Further, social capital was found to have a positive relationship with creativity. Finally, the mediating roles of social capital, creativity and social value were also confirmed. The findings thus highlight the power of the social value creation and social capital in the social enterprises operating in the rural destinations.

The findings assert that social entrepreneurship and transformational leadership are key sources of social value creation, social capital and creativity in rural tourism context indicating the need for additional efforts on this kind of entrepreneurial activity. The findings can motivate policymakers to promote social entrepreneurship in rural tourism destinations as a means of stimulating bottom-up social capital and social value creation.

This study is among the first to examine the hypothesized relationships focusing on tourism social enterprises.

Current models of organizational excellence are appropriate for the private organizations. It is evident that if an appropriate model is not adopted, the process of excellence in the organizations fails and some dimensions of the organization get affected by unpredictable damages. This research aims to identify an appropriate excellence model for public organizations.

First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the excellence criteria and models. Second, the models were through an expert-oriented questionnaire, analyzed by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique. Participants were experts in the two domains of excellence models and public sector management. A sample of 15 experts was selected using purposive sampling. In order to emphasize on reliability, 10 questionnaires were adopted for analysis.

The findings showed that the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model is the most appropriate model for excellence measurement in the public organizations based on the five selected indices.

The identification of a model for measuring organizational excellence for public sector can significantly contribute to existing literature on excellence measurement.