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Purpose Big data analytics allows researchers and industry practitioners to extract hidden patterns or discover new information and knowledge from big data. Although artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the emerging big data analytics techniques, hospitality and tourism literature has shown minimal efforts to process and analyze big hospitality data through AI. Thus, this study aims to develop and compare prediction models for review helpfulness using machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze big restaurant data. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzed 1,483,858 restaurant reviews collected from Yelp.com. After a thorough literature review, the study identified and added to the prediction model 4 attributes containing 11 key determinants of review helpfulness. Four ML algorithms, namely, multivariate linear regression, random forest, support vector machine regression and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), were used to find a better prediction model for customer decision-making. Findings By comparing the performance metrics, the current study found that XGBoost was the best model to predict review helpfulness among selected popular ML algorithms. Results revealed that attributes regarding a reviewer’s credibility were fundamental factors determining a review’s helpfulness. Review helpfulness even valued credibility over ratings or linguistic contents such as sentiment and subjectivity. Practical implications The current study helps restaurant operators to attract customers by predicting review helpfulness through ML-based predictive modeling and presenting potential helpful reviews based on critical attributes including review, reviewer, restaurant and linguistic content. Using AI, online review platforms and restaurant websites can enhance customers’ attitude and purchase decision-making by reducing information overload and search cost and highlighting the most crucial review helpfulness features and user-friendly automated search results. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to develop a prediction model of review helpfulness and reveal essential factors for helpful reviews. Furthermore, the study presents a state-of-the-art ML model that surpasses the conventional models’ prediction accuracy. The findings will improve practitioners’ marketing strategies by focusing on factors that influence customers’ decision-making.

Purpose This study aims to uncover how heuristic information cues (HIC) and systematic information cues (SIC) of online reviews influence review helpfulness and examine a moderating role of social influence in the process of assessing review helpfulness. In particular, this study conceptualizes a theoretical framework based on dual-process and social influence theory (SIT) and empirically tests the proposed hypotheses by analyzing a broad set of actual customer review data. Design/methodology/approach For 4,177,377 online reviews posted on Yelp.com from 2004 to 2018, this study used data mining and text analysis to extract independent variables. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized model. Findings The present study demonstrates that both HIC and SIC have a significant relationship with review helpfulness. Normative social influence cue (NSIC) strengthened the relationship between HIC and review helpfulness. However, the moderating effect of NSIC was not valid in the relationship between SIC and review helpfulness. Originality/value This study contributes to the extant research on review helpfulness by providing a conceptual framework underpinned by dual-process theory and SIT. The study not only identifies determinants of review helpfulness but also reveals how social influences can impact individuals’ judgment on review helpfulness. By offering a state-of-the-art analysis with a vast amount of online reviews, this study contributes to the methodological improvement of further empirical research.

With growing number of hotel brands in the market, the lodging industry is facing intense competition more than ever, and managers are realizing the importance of developing strong customer–brand relationship. As a result, the concept of brand love is gaining increased attention in hospitality literature and academics are examining various antecedents of this concept. However, among prior studies’ exploration of its antecedents, the relationship between engagement process and brand love has been relatively neglected. Hence, the present study explores the relationship among customer–brand engagement, cognitive brand loyalty, and brand love. Specifically, this study focuses on the role of cognitive engagement on the development of brand love, as the advent of online environment and social networking service has significantly changed customer’s pre- and post-purchase decision-making process. The conceptual model illustrates that cognitive engagement, which is operationalized as a second-order construct of attention and absorption, has a significant positive effect on brand love directly and indirectly via the mediation of cognitive brand loyalty. Consequently, the findings indicate that “how” customers process brand information (cognitive engagement) is equally important as “what” they process (content, e.g., quality) to evoke cognitive brand loyalty and ultimately brand love among hotel guests.

Purpose This study aims to provide an understanding of the concept of service innovation resulting from emerging technologies and suggest areas for future hospitality and tourism research. By thoroughly reviewing previous literature, this study provides the basis for improving customer service with service innovation. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the existing body of knowledge from leading hospitality, tourism and business journals by performing content analysis. Findings This study reveals the multifaceted aspects of service innovation practices using emerging technologies. Findings provide an evidence base to future studies by highlighting the role of technology in hospitality and tourism service innovation. Originality/value The major contribution of this study is the demonstration of an approach for both academic researchers and service providers how they can use the technology to improve customers’ perceived value, experience and engagement.

This research examines how organizational error management culture influences organizational commitment and employee turnover intention through employee psychological safety and perceived fairness....

This study aims to validate the underlying structures of integrated resort customers’ needs satisfaction. This work proposes a nine-item scale that captures three distinct dimensions, namely, autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs satisfaction, using a mixed method including qualitative and quantitative studies. The predictive validity of customers’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs satisfaction on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being examined in two different cultures: Asia and the United States. This study contributes to the tourism and hospitality research by providing evidence of customers’ needs satisfaction from integrated resort brand experience and its role in improving customers’ well-being using cross-cultural samples. Thus, the authors highlight the importance of tourism and hospitality brand experiences which are beneficial for individual life in terms of basic psychological needs satisfaction.

Service providers personality traits is one of important determinants to deliver proper service to customers to make them satisfied in service delivery. Despite numerous studies on personality traits and emotional labor, little empirical work has been conducted to investigate the causal effects of hotel middle managers’ personality traits on their commitment to the hospitality industry. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of hotel middle managers’ personality on two dimensions of commitments: organizational commitment and service quality commitment meditated by emotional variables: emotional labor and emotional exhaustion. The sample of this study consists of 266 department managers from full-service hotels in a metropolitan city in the Southern United States. The results confirmed the significant role of hotel middle managers’ personality traits, especially expressive personality, in organizational commitment and service quality commitment. Hotel operators should foster a work setting that consistently promotes congruent emotions via regular training and screening to reducing employees’ emotional exhaustion, increasing organizational commitment and service quality commitment, ultimately, reducing employees’ turnover intentions.

PurposeThis study aims to apply the perspective of self-determination theory to investigate the effects of needs satisfaction on customers’ emotional bond and perceived fit with the integrated resort brand.Design/methodology/approachTo provide empirical evidence, this study uses an online survey analyzed with structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results suggest how integrated resort experiences enhance the needs satisfaction for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and that customers are likely to have an attachment and compatibility with the brand. This study also documents that strong attachments and compatibility are predictive of behavioral intention.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a theoretical perspective through self-determination theory for explaining how needs satisfaction impacts customers’ brand-related attitude, which can be used to guide future studies. Insights from this research will be used to design and evaluate customers’ experience in tourism and hospitality industry.Originality/valueAlthough the concept of needs satisfaction has studied on the employees’ behavior, a scarcity of research has been offered to explain customers’ behavior. Thus, this study makes a significant contribution to the hospitality and tourism research by testing the needs satisfaction as an antecedent of customers’ brand-related behavior.

With the rise of the sharing economy, Airbnb has become the predominant example of the online peer-to-peer accommodation market in the hospitality industry. This study adopts a mixed method approach to systematically and comprehensively capture various service aspects of Airbnb. Two main studies are conducted to identify key service quality (SQ) attributes of Airbnb, verify the dimensionality of the SQ attributes, and examine the effects of these attributes on customer satisfaction (CS). The first qualitative study generated a list of SQ attributes by collecting and analyzing 16,430 online reviews. In the second study, online survey (N = 322) is conducted to identify multiple dimensions of SQ attributes and examine their asymmetric effects on CS using impact-range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis. Findings suggest that Airbnb has multiple SQ attributes associated with website, host, and facility that produce distinctive effects on CS.

The present study identifies the key antecedents and outcomes of customer brand engagement in the integrated resort context using a mixed method. A qualitative study reveals that integrated resort brand experience is multidimensional, and varying effects on brand engagement is found from a quantitative study. In particular, sensory and affective experiences all positively influence cognitive engagement. In addition, behavioral experience influences behavioral engagement, whereas intellectual brand experience positively affects cognitive and behavioral engagements with the integrated resort brand. Furthermore, the results show that brand engagements positively influence customers’ behavioral intention in the future. Hypotheses were also tested by employing multi-group structural equation modeling. Male, low-education, and low-income level customers placed more importance on sensory brand experience than female, high-education, and high-income level customers. The findings of this study can provide academicians and practitioners a guide to improve customer engagement and loyalty toward an integrated resort brand.

Recently, there is increasing interest in integrated resort based destination which is a converged location for both gaming and non-gaming travel services including lodging, eating and drinking places, entertainment, retail, and convention targeted for large market segments. This paper reviews a content analysis of integrated resort papers published in the hospitality and tourism literature over the past 26 years (1991–2017). Based on a detailed examination of the contents, a database consisting of information on (1) study expansion, (2) study locations, (3) major subject domains, and (4) research methodology was developed. A series of trends that describe the growth of integrated resort research has been identified. The findings provide the first thematic overview of the integrated resort industry derived from literature. General and academic interests are discussed, along with limitations and suggested areas for future research.

This study examined the mediating effects of perceived organizational support and affective commitment in the relationships among perceived supervisor support, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (individual and organizational), and turnover intentions. The proposed relationships were tested by conducting the same study involving restaurant employees in three different countries – India, USA, and South Korea. The mediating effects of perceived organizational support and affective commitment between perceived supervisor support and turnover intentions were found to be consistent across the three countries. However, the relationships among OCBs differed. While affective commitment was significantly related to both OCBs in the South Korean sample, affective commitment was significantly related only to OCBs towards organization in the US sample, and neither relationship was found to be significant in the Indian sample. This study helps to explain how contextual factors influence responses to eac...

This study aims to examine the moderating effects of customer personal characteristics on the satisfaction-loyalty link in order to overcome potential response bias and common-method variance in the link by using both real-life purchasing behavior data and survey in a cross-method and panel data. Two separate data collection procedures dealt with survey and customer relationship management (CRM) data. A total of 391 members of restaurant loyalty program participated in the survey. Also, additional data were gathered on restaurant CRM. Data were analyzed using SEM and multi-group analysis. This study confirmed the nonlinear relationship between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty due to the significant moderating effects of customers’ personal characteristics on subsequent stages of the link.

This study explores the underlying factors of customer value in a restaurant setting by applying machine learning-based natural language processing techniques to the analysis of a vast amount of online customer reviews. The study identifies 14 factors that reflect a holistic view of previous research on customer value. The findings suggest that the comprehensive approach incorporating cognitive and affective aspects into the experiential perspective of value gain deeper insights into the nature of customer value. Moreover, the study uniquely finds new factors that prior research has rarely investigated. This study proposes a methodological framework that enables researchers to test the quantitative measure of customer perceptions derived from unstructured online reviews. Practitioners will be able to use the findings to understand customers better and enhance service operations.

The purpose of this study was to compare the influence of two survey modes – telephone random digit dialling (RDD) and stratified sampling of an online panel – on Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI) scores and co-morbidities. An identical gambling survey was administered to 4000 South Koreans selected via random dialling of cell phone numbers and to 4330 South Korean members of an online panel. The online panelists were found to have significantly higher levels of tobacco use, drug or alcohol problems and mental health problems, higher employment status and lower happiness levels. However, even when controlling for these variables, CPGI scores for the online panel were significantly higher than those for the telephone interview. This appears to be due to higher levels of pathology among online panelists combined with potentially more valid self-reports due to enhanced anonymity.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to achieve three objectives: to investigate perceived quality of work life (QWL) need attributes among frontline employees in the lodging industry, to assess the asymmetric relationships between QWL attributes and job satisfaction (JS) and to prioritize QWL attributes for the effective management of JS. Design/methodology/approach – Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, impact range-performance analysis and impact-asymmetry analysis. Findings – Each QWL attribute showed significant and various asymmetric or linear impacts on JS or job dissatisfaction (JDS). Practical implications – Study results provided critical information for hotel managers to prioritize several attributes, such as safe work place, fair pay, empowerment and effective training, to enhance JS and reduce JDS for frontline personnel. Originality/value – This study sheds light for identifying the underlying structure of QWL and further investigate the asymmetric relationship between QWL attributes and JS/JDS using need satisfaction, self-determination and three-factor theory in the lodging industry.

This case study assesses the asymmetric relationship between the relative importance of service quality attributes and overall customer satisfaction in Korean casino settings, using impact-range performance analysis (IRPA) and impact asymmetry analysis (IAA). Results validated the rigor of IRPA and IAA over importance–performance analysis (IPA) in identifying key determining attributes of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction among various casino service quality attributes based on three-factor theory. The theoretical and practical implications of this study’s findings are included to enrich both academicians’ and casino industry professionals’ understanding of customers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards casinos, and the development of a marketing strategy.

The significance of brand concept has been increasingly recognized in the MICE industry due to its ability to create a compelling competitive edge. Complementing the major limitation of a study on attendee-based brand equity [Lee, J. S., & Back, K. J. (2008). Attendee-based brand equity. Tourism Management, 29(2), 331–344], this study reexamines attendee-based brand equity by additionally sampling regional CHRIE conferences (RCs) and comparing the data with I-CHRIE's annual conference (IC) in the context of our theoretical model. This research not only increases the theoretical validity of the previous model of attendee-based brand equity, but also explores brand equity as captured through the differential brand knowledge effect by comparing IC and RCs.

Relying on Aaker's (1996) dimensions of brand personality, this study investigated the relationships between brand personality and its antecedents and consequences in the upper-upscale business hotel segment. Two dimensions of brand personality––competence and sophistication––were confirmed. User imagery was found to be the strongest predictor of brand personality, while trust had the significant mediating effect on the relationship between brand personality and loyalty. The theoretical and practical implications of this study's findings are included to assist both academicians and practitioners in the lodging industry in enriching their understanding of customers' perceptions of and attitudes toward hotel brand.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to overview empirical research on gambling impacts, theories employed to these gambling impact studies and methodology of gambling impacts.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive review of literature on several gaming and tourism journals is presented.FindingsThe paper summarizes theories associated with gaming research, gaming impact variables and methodological perspectives in gaming research.Practical implicationsThe overview of residents' perception provides policy makers to take appropriate actions, minimizing negative impact and maximizing positive impact of gaming industry.Originality/valueThe paper is the most comprehensive review of both theories and methodologies of journal articles dealing with residents' perception toward gambling development from early 1980s through 2009.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of restaurant brand personality on customer's emotions (positive and negative), customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty using structural equation models. The study also explores the applicability of the five-factor model of brand personality scales to the restaurant industry. Empirical data were gathered from 475 diners at five properties of a chain restaurant via survey questionnaires. This study confirms five brand personality dimensions in the restaurant industry. Also, the study findings suggest that customers' emotions play the dominant role in explaining satisfaction and brand loyalty. Marketers would gain much by continuously monitoring restaurant customers' perceptions of restaurant brand personality.

The authors investigated the relationship between image congruence and consumption emotions and the possible influence of this relationship on customer loyalty in the lodging industry. Overall fit of the proposed model and research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that their model, which links image congruence, consumption emotions, and customer loyalty, was generally supported, whereas the linkage between social image congruence and consumption emotions was not significant. Findings in this study integrate recent work of image congruence into the growing body of research on the role of consumption emotions in forming customer loyalty in the lodging industry.

In designing the marketing and management of association meetings, associations are increasingly concerned with attendee behaviors. This study investigated CHRIE conference attendee behaviors from the perspective of brand equity defined as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” [Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1–22]. Structural equation analyses indicated that professional education, staff service, site selection, and social networking were positively related to brand satisfaction, whereas brand awareness was negatively associated with it. Positive relationships existed on each path for brand satisfaction–UEBV (updated expectation of brand value), UEBV–brand trust, brand satisfaction–brand trust, and brand trust–attitudinal brand loyalty. Professional education was the strongest brand association to predict brand satisfaction, and UEBV served as a partial mediator on the brand satisfaction–brand trust path. The findings suggested significant implications for practitioners and academics.

The objectives of this study were to revise the Consumption Emotion Set to be applicable in the lodging industry, specifically by excluding emotion descriptors unlikely to be experienced by hotel guests and by uncovering underlying dimensions of consumption emotions and to identify key emotion factors that have significant effects on customer satisfaction. The reliability, item-to-correlations, and factor structures indicated that seven factors and the 38-emotion item scale were statistically robust and showed the applicability of scale to the lodging industry. While there was no significant relationship between “worrisome” factor and satisfaction, six of the seven factors were found to be key determinants of satisfaction.

This study addressed the impact of positive and negative consumption emotions on customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. A total of 248 cases were used to test the hypotheses using a series of multiple regression analyses. Generally, the findings were consistent with the literature. Two dimensions (positive and negative) of consumption emotions were confirmed in this study using a confirmatory factor analysis. Positive and negative consumption emotions showed significant effects on customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. Customer satisfaction was a significant determinant of repeat visit intentions. Customer satisfaction appeared to be a full mediator in the relationship between positive and negative consumption emotions of customers and their repeat visit intentions. Negative emotion had a greater influence on customer satisfaction and customer repeat visit intentions than positive emotion, so the loss aversion of the prospect theory was empirically supported in its explana...

The objectives of this study were two-fold. First, this study examined the underlying relationship among impact factors, benefits, and support level in a longitudinal pattern based on the social exchange theory. Second, this longitudinal study sought to explore the changing attitudes of residents toward casino development over a 4-year period, using a structural equation model. The results of the study show that residents had significantly different perceptions about the casino before and after its development. Although the residents changed their perceptions before and after the casino opened, they tended to maintain these perceptions for 2 years post-opening. The casino's positive economic impact was consistently cited as the most significant factor in predicting perceived benefit. Also, the benefit factor was found to be the most important factor in affecting residents’ support level, which was consistent with the social exchange theory.

Training has been found to link with improving job satisfaction and employee intention to stay. The purposes of this research were to investigate the expectations and perceptions of training quality between hotel managers and employees, and to suggest implications for improving training quality and increasing training satisfaction, job satisfaction, and intention to stay among employees in the hotel industry. The conceptual model of this study was developed based on SERVQUAL and the ServiceProfit Chain model. T-test showed that employees perceived low training quality, which suggested employees were not satisfied with training quality and that training quality needed improvement. Results of regression analysis showed that training was positively related to training satisfaction and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction led positively to intention to stay. The indirect effect of training quality on intention to stay was mediated by job satisfaction. This study suggests more understanding of the impor...

This empirical article explores the effects of image congruence on customers’ postpurchasing behaviors, focusing specifically on customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the lodging industry. Key findings indicate that social and ideal social image congruence has significant direct effects on customer satisfaction and indirect effects on attitudinal brand loyalty. The proposed model is tested following a systematic approach to mediation analysis as part of a structural equation modeling. Furthermore, the article discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings as well as future research ideas.

The growing importance of the convention and meeting sector provided the impetus for this review of research directions and the structure of the convention and meeting field. A total of 137 convention articles published in major hospitality and tourism journals from 1990 to 2003 were collected and content-analyzed for research method and subject. Specifically, articles were categorized based on (a) nature of article, (b) research design, (c) statistical technique, (d) research focus, and (e) functional area. Findings suggest that while descriptive research dominated, more sophisticated quantitative research techniques, such as multi-variate analysis, were extensively used, particularly after 2000. Thematic review of articles reveals that associations' site selection processes, destination marketing, and the economic impact of convention activities have drawn enormous attention from researchers over the 14-year period. Discussion issues and suggestions for future research in the field of conventio...

PurposeProposes to review convention and meeting management articles published in the hospitality and tourism literature.Design/methodology/approachUses content analysis of 147 articles published in hospitality and tourism journals for the 14 years from 1990 to 2003.FindingsIdentifies five core research themes, i.e. economic impact of conventions, site selection, meeting participation processes, destination marketing, and advances in technology.Originality/valueOffers the first thematic view of convention and meeting management issues, derived from the literature.

While most of the previous research on residents’ perceptions was conducted in the form of snapshots taken at a particular time, or after tourism development, this paper aims to explore any significant differences in these perceptions between pre- and post-development of casinos. The survey for this study was developed to examine the underlying relationships among impact, benefit, and support variables based on social exchange theory, using a structural equation model. The results show that positive economic impact was most significant in determining the benefit level, which was further enhanced after the casino opened. Respondents perceived positive social impacts to be most significant both before and after casino development.

Communication, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction have been popular topics in hospitality and business research. The most widely used business communication satisfaction questionnaire, the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ), has not been used in the hospitality industry. This article presents a factor-analytic study of the CSQ in a lodging setting. After the factor analysis, the article will then discuss the findings of communication satisfaction as they compare to findings in other business-related studies.

In order to promote foodservice for the elderly, foodservice managers in Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) must identify the main factors to enhance the satisfaction and behavioral intentions with food service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between relationship quality (consisting of trust, commitment, and satisfaction) and communication in the formation of elderly's behavioral intentions with food services at CCRCs. A survey was administered to residents in two CCRCs and a total of 327 residents participated. A tested structural equation model exhibited good model fit and explanatory power of the study construct. Satisfaction directly influenced word-of-mouth and service quality has an influence on commitment. Commitment was a significant determinant of behavioral intentions to eat more often in the dining room. Also, communication showed positive association with trust. The results provided strong evidence for the importance of satisfaction and communication as a consequence of relationship marketing efforts. Suggestions for future research to better understand the elderly' behavioral intention judgments were given.