Search

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the GreenLeaders designation on hotel performance under the joint theoretical framework of environmental corporate social responsibility and social identity theory. We focus on 1,198 individual hotel properties from five major cities in Texas between 2010 and 2019. A two-way fixed-effects model is applied to model monthly revenue per available room (RevPAR) and TripAdvisor ratings for each hotel. Results show that GreenLeaders certification leads to a 6.00% increase in hotels' monthly RevPAR and a 4.25% increase in hotels' monthly average TripAdvisor rating. This impact grew over time during the research period. The findings also unveil a set of moderating variables, such as hotel class and chain affiliation. More specifically, the effect of GreenLeaders certification is larger for upscale and independent hotels. The major results are also confirmed through a robustness analysis using propensity-score-based weighting and placebo tests. Lastly, implications are provided for hoteliers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study 3307 samples of 24 vegetables and fruits from 18 regions of Henan Province, China, were collected in 2021 with the aim of assessing the levels of pesticide residues and analysing the differences between different sources in Henan Province. Thirteen kinds of pesticides were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and detection rates were compared by the chi-square test. In all samples, except ginger, pimento, edible fungi and yam, pesticide residues were detected. The detection rates of difenoconazole, acetamiprid, carbendazim, procymidone, emamectin benzoate, lambda-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin and dimethomorph in supermarkets and traditional farmers' markets were different. The difenoconazole group and the dimethomorph group were both statistically different (P < 0.05). This study showed common vegetables and fruits to contain pesticide residues in Henan Province and provided a scientific basis for their evaluation. Different sources take different regulatory measures to control pesticide residues to ensure food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how Chinese destination management organizations (DMOs) employ global social media posts to promote their destinations to international travelers and to understand the effects of post-related factors on online user engagement. Based on a review of 6014 Facebook posts over a one-year period, this study empirically investigates the engagement performance of Chinese DMOs and its relationship with three post-related factors, namely post content interactivity, post type, and post length. Interactive content and post length each exert significant and positive effects on user engagement. Furthermore, post length is more meaningful when the content is interactive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is often claimed to be one of the important industries of low-carbon cities (LCCs). This paper aims to establish a comprehensive evaluation system and to empirically investigate the coupling coordination between the tourism industry and LCCs by using the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) with panel data of Shenzhen, China. The findings revealed that the degree of coupling coordination showed an upward trend, successively developing from barely coordinated to primary coordination, good coordination, and superior coordination from 2001 to 2011. Specifically, industrial performance and the ecological environment had the greatest effect on the coupling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family travel receives growing attention from both the travel industry and academia, but they ignore a vital segment of the family holiday: nuclear families that travel with young children. This study investigated the motivations that drive this market segment to take vacations as a starting point to understand the travel behavior of family tourists, especially those with young and dependent children. By employing netnography, this study collected and analyzed 97 travel diaries from five travel blogs and one travel forum in 2015. Five motivation themes emerged, namely they are spending quality time with children, creating pleasant memories, learning and development, compensation for children, and self-compensation. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future research is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Set within the human capital framework, the focus of this exploratory study is to investigate how individual and industry attributes affect the earnings of salaried restaurant managers in the United States. Previous compensation studies in the restaurant industry have almost exclusively focused on executive compensation and its relationship to a firm's financial variables. Given the size of the industry, it is important to investigate compensation practices at various levels of its leadership. The findings show that relevant work experience, gender, education, race, and property size are significant attributes effecting restaurant managers’ compensation. Practical implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Self-efficacy influences students’ activities, effort and persistence, and it can help predict their motivation and academic performance. This study attempts to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy, preferred learning methods, and academic performance under different learning methods in a unique hospitality course setting. The results indicate that hospitality management students prefer a “learn by doing” approach instead of computer-based learning and lecturing. This study concludes that self-efficacy affects the academic performance in both lecturing and practical learning in hospitality education. However, students’ preference in terms of learning methods does not influence their academic performance. Emphasizing “learn by doing” in the hospitality higher education curriculum is recommended in addition to recruiting faculty members with extensive industry experience. Conversely, it is recommended that faculty find the means to increase students’ self-efficacy when adopting different teaching approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increased market penetration of smartphones and the emergence of high-speed wireless network technologies, the tourism industry's interest in using mobile applications as a means to enhance the tourist experience is rising. However, despite the growing number of companies and organizations that are investing in travel-related apps, there is limited academic research on consumers' intentions to adopt these technological innovations. In this study, the technology adoption model, innovation diffusion theory, and social cognitive theory are utilized to investigate the factors that could affect travel app adoption by tourists visiting rural tourism sites in China. The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and compatibility are significant antecedents of the intention to use travel apps. Further, self-efficacy indirectly influences the intention to use travel apps through the mediation of outcome expectations. The results do not support social norms as significant predictors of behavioural intention. A discussion and implications are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined learning outcomes for students who were enrolled in an introductory cooking course that used online taped videos. The study sample was composed of 206 students enrolled in online taped video classes and 184 enrolled in traditional live classes. The students in both groups received the same teaching instructions except for the demonstration delivery methods. A 2-way mixed design was used to test for significant differences in student performance between 2 instructional delivery methods (i.e., online taped video and live class demonstration) for both individual and team tasks. The results indicated that both delivery methods produced similar student performance levels when individual and team tasks were considered together. However, students taught by the online delivery method had better group performance than students taught by the traditional method. The findings suggest that the online delivery method should be utilized in culinary arts education; however, efforts to enhance group synergy could enhance group performance in educational environments that use this delivery method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hotel image has been found to be highly correlated with customer selection of hotels. The consumer's online reviews greatly impact hotel image and, in turn, customer choice of hotels. In addition, the consumers become increasingly demanding and discriminating given the superfluous development of hotels in the past decades. It becomes unprecedentedly important to monitor and assess online customer reviews so as to identify what image generates customers' positive attitudes and behaviors toward hotels. This study utilized online customer reviews to examine the image of hotels of all scales and delineate the attributes that mostly decide the customer choice of hotels and loyalty behaviors. Content analysis of textual reviews and regression analyses of customer online ratings revealed that hotel room condition, location, and staff are the most important attributes in generating the customer revisit intention and the referrals of the hotels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the nature of critical success factors (CSFs) in China's budget hotel operations and development from the perspectives of various stakeholders, including customers, industry professionals, government authorities, and hotel investors. Understanding the differences in CSFs becomes extremely important to the success of the budget hotel segment in China. Results indicated that while all five dimensions of CSFs (i.e., physical product, service quality, price, promotion, and location) were deemed important by the industry professional, government authority, and hotel investor, the sequence of importance differed substantially among these groups. By contrast, customers were primarily concerned with service quality issues, indicating service quality was still the core customer expectation in China's budget hotel market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the relationship between firm-wise financial factors and firm performance in the restaurant industry from 2000 to 2004 using panel data regression. A fixed effects model was determined to be the appropriate approach for the investigation. The model identifies debt leverage and activity as significant financial factors affecting restaurant firm performance. On the other hand, the intercept of the model was found to play an equally important role in a restaurant firm's market performance, implying that firm-wise nonfinancial factors should be examined in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manipulation of earnings by publicly traded firms is a well-known phenomenon and the subject of considerable attention in both academic and trade circles. Despite widespread attention to this topic in financial literature, it has received scant attention in the restaurant industry. This research assesses whether earnings manipulation in the publicly traded restaurant firms are being rewarded by the capital markets. We have an a priori expectation that firms that do not manipulate earnings will have higher returns. However, our results indicate a significant and positive relationship between earnings manipulation indicators and stock price increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]