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This study aims to investigate the effect of two types of environmental messages (individualized vs. collective) on consumers’ word-of-mouth intention. This study also examines the moderating effects of consumers’ social class and eco-friendly social norms on word-of-mouth intention. Based on US participants recruited from an online panel platform, Study 1 reveals that individualized messages increase word-of-mouth of high-class individuals, whereas collective messages enhance word-of-mouth of low-class individuals. Study 2 showcases that individualized messages boost word-of-mouth among consumers whose eco-friendly social norms are low. Conversely, regardless of individualized and collective messages, word-of-mouth intention is invariantly high among consumers whose eco-friendly social norms are high. Hotel managers should leverage proxies for social class, survey their customers to gauge eco-friendly social norms, and tailor environmental messages accordingly.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our indoor and outdoor leisure activities have profoundly changed. However, research on the way people negotiate leisure motivations with constraints and the relationship between leisure and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic is scant. On the basis of in-depth interviews with 32 residents in South Korea in 2020, this study reveals that they proactively overcome leisure constraints;their leisure activities are not reduced but slightly modified (e.g. watching baseball games online vs. at a ballpark) or even increased (e.g. camping). When people articulate quality of life during the pandemic, work, health, and family are more salient themes than leisure and travel. Such finding is incongruent with previous research emphasising the importance of leisure and vacations in the quality of life. This study extends the model of leisure constraints negotiation to the context of a pandemic and advances our understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of the quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Leisure Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

PurposeThis systematic review synthesizes the recent literature (2010–2020) on hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods. This study has three objectives: to clarify the definitions of emotions, affect and moods; to explain how theories are integrated into understanding hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods; and to assess how emotions, affect and moods are measured.Design/methodology/approachUsing seven major databases, the authors selected 61 peer-reviewed academic journal articles published in hospitality outlets for review. We based our study on five stages of conducting a systematic review: scoping, planning, identification, screening and eligibility.FindingsAffect is an umbrella term encompassing moods and emotions. Emotions are distinct from emotion-laden constructs, such as emotional labor and emotional intelligence. Theories on conservation of resources, emotional labor and social exchange have been most frequently used to understand hospitality employees’ emotions. However, they overlooked the dynamic nature of emotions when using these theories. Hospitality researchers often used a subset of the positive and negative affect scale and did not discuss back-translation.Practical implicationsHospitality employees’ emotions lead to far-reaching consequences in attitudes, intentions and behaviors in work and non-work domains. Effective practices (e.g. creating a supportive climate) that help evoke positive employee emotions and reduce negative employee emotions are thus desirable.Originality/valueOur findings crystallize the understanding of emotions, affect and moods of hospitality employees. We further provide a roadmap for future research on hospitality employees’ emotions. Data triangulation, cross-cultural research and mixed emotions are novel opportunities for future research.

This study aims to examine the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance on hotel employees’ behavior, as reflected in their attitude and satisfaction. Understanding emp...

The global increase in the elderly population has a direct influence on the travel, tourism, and hospitality sector because senior travelers have become major consumers. Therefore, developing a deeper understanding of senior motivations for overseas travel is required. However, the presence of theoretical and practical gaps limits the comprehension of this demographic market. Thus, this research sought to identify the underlying dimensionality and measurement of senior travel motivations and developed a scale to measure them. In addition, it validated the scale across future travel behaviors and preferences for tourism types and sites. An eight-factor structure of senior travel motivations was generated. The overall construct satisfied a series of convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity tests. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated a predictive explanatory power for profiling the future travel behavior and preference of seniors.

Olive oil tourism is an emerging form of tourism and it has recently garnered attention owing to health-related benefits of olive oil. Prior research has investigated olive oil tourists’ characteri...

Purpose Online reviews are perceived as credible and trustworthy across various business sectors; thus, they influence customers’ purchase decisions. However, the potential role of customer online reviews as feedback for employee performance and employee reactions to customer reviews remain largely unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this study proposes that employee characteristics, namely, self-efficacy (Study 1) and moral identity (Study 2), moderate the effect of the valence of customer reviews on hospitality employees’ helping behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a scenario-based, quasi-experimental design in two studies. They recruited a total of 215 frontline employees at independent casual dining restaurants in Istanbul, Turkey (Study 1) and 226 US residents who have worked in the restaurant industry for more than six months (Study 2). Multiple linear regressions via PROCESS and moderation analysis via Johnson–Neyman technique were used. Findings Study 1 demonstrates that when employees’ self-efficacy is low, positive (vs negative) customer reviews enhance employees’ helping behavior. By contrast, when employees’ self-efficacy is high, their helping behavior is invariantly high regardless of the valence of customer reviews. Study 2 reveals that when employees’ moral identity is low, their helping behavior decreases in the presence of negative (vs positive) customer reviews. Conversely, when employees’ moral identity is high, their helping behavior is similarly high regardless of the valence of customer reviews. Practical implications Hospitality managers may need to develop training programs to enhance their employees’ self-efficacy and moral identity. They may also provide necessary organizational support to induce their employees’ self-efficacy and moral identity, given that such psychological resources help buffer the dampening effect of negative reviews on helping behavior. Last, hospitality managers may consider incorporating customer reviews as part of employee performance feedback. Originality/value This study advances the understanding of employees’ responses to customer reviews, with the performance appraisal feedback framework as fresh theoretical lens. This study is among the first to demonstrate the relationship between the valence of customer reviews and subsequent helping behavior of employees toward customers. It also contributes to the emerging literature that identifies boundary conditions for employees’ responses to customer reviews.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues. Design/methodology/approach In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on a restaurant menu were manipulated and solo consumers’ sense of power was measured. Findings Low-power individuals exhibited more favorable attitudes toward the menu with a popularity cue at a crowded restaurant. High-power individuals’ attitudes toward the menu were equally favorable across the two promotional cues and crowding levels. Practical implications Restaurant managers might want to leverage popularity cues on the menu during peak hours to appeal to solo diners. After diners indicate their dining type (alone vs with others) in kiosks and tablets, restaurants can tailor promotional cues accordingly. Restaurants can also embed more popularity cues in dinner (vs lunch) menus because dinner is more hedonic and social in nature. Originality/value This study contributes to the crowding literature by examining promotional cues on the menu and sense of power as moderators of consumer responses to crowding. This study further adds to the solo consumption literature by extending the notion of power and social crowding to ethnic dining contexts.

Customer complaints play an important role in firm performance as complaints enable service recovery and provide feedback for new product development. This study is among the first to investigate t...

Social exclusion is pervasive in our daily lives. Prior research has documented the impact of social exclusion on product choices, information processing, prosocial behavior and switching behavior. However, there is limited research on how gender moderates the impact of social exclusion on consumer attitudes towards a company. Drawing from previous research demonstrating gender as a proxy for agentic-communal orientation, we show that the effect of social exclusion on negative emotions and sense of control is more pronounced among females (vs. males). We further demonstrate that negative emotions and sense of control are the underlying mechanisms for the impact of social exclusion among females. Hospitality practitioners may want to minimize instances that might make consumers feel socially excluded, and this is particularly true for female consumers.

Prior research demonstrates that status demotion in the loyalty reward program heightens negative emotions, particularly when demotion is due to changes in company policies. In this research, we argue that such negative emotions are likely to spillover to evaluations of post-demotion promotions. We further argue that such spillover effects should be attenuated among individuals high in need for status. Study 1 examines the joint effect of the cause of demotion and customers’ need for status on loyalty. In study 2, we investigate the impact of exclusivity cues in post-demotion promotions and show that exclusive promotions diminish the negative impact of policy-based demotions on post-promotion loyalty among individuals high (vs. low) in need for status. Travel and tourism companies might want to consider using geographical location as a proxy for need for status or priming status-seeking via exclusive promotions (“elevate your travel experience”) to alleviate demoted customers’ negative emotions.

PurposeThough social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person’s initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.FindingsResults indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers’ perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors’ understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.

An overwhelming majority of consumers read online reviews prior to making purchase decisions, and such reviews often contain both positive and negative evaluations about a company or a brand. However, there is scant research examining how reviewer expertise and dialecticism (i.e., understanding of contradictory information) simultaneously influence the impact of review valence (i.e., either univalent positive/negative or mixed) on consumers’ attitude certainty and decision comfort. The study findings indicate that when reviews are written by non-experts, high dialectical thinkers exhibit similar levels of attitude certainty across univalent and mixed review conditions. Conversely, low dialectical thinkers exhibit higher levels of attitude certainty in the univalent (vs. mixed) review condition. Such an interaction between review valence and dialectical thinking is attenuated when reviews are written by experts. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Are rational (emotional) advertising appeals more congruent with healthy (indulgent) products? Prior research shows inconsistent results on the congruency effect between appeal type and product category. This study sheds light on this topic by examining the moderating effect of two psychological states (i.e., feelings of uncertainty and powerlessness) caused by Covid-19 on the relative effectiveness of rational vs. emotional appeals in the context of food advertisements. The results suggest that people with low levels of uncertainty respond more favorably to rational (vs. emotional) appeals of a healthy food item, and this effect is attenuated among people with high levels of uncertainty. On the other hand, powerful people find emotional (vs. rational) appeals of an indulgent food item more attractive, and this effect is attenuated among powerless people. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Travel companies execute loyalty reward programs to enhance customer retention and loyalty. However, research examining customer loyalty in a cross-cultural setting is scant. To bridge that gap, this study examines the joint effects of reward type (luck-based vs. loyalty-based) and culture (Western vs. East Asian) on behavioral loyalty in the airline context. In this study, South Koreans showed significantly higher levels of behavioral loyalty when the reward was framed as a “lucky draw.” On the other hand, Americans did not differ in their behavioral loyalty across the two types of rewards. Moreover, self-construal accounts for the relationship between culture and behavioral loyalty. The findings of this study indicate that practitioners in the travel industry can leverage their target customers’ cultural orientation when designing their loyalty reward program.

When presenting employees’ laudable performance, shall restaurant managers emphasize effort or talent of their employees as the source of such performance? This study is proposed to answer this question. We suggest that diners’ responses to employees’ effort vs. talent hinge on diners’ need to belong and restaurant type. Study 1 shows that diners’ need to belong moderates their responses to effort- vs. talent-focused messages. Study 2 finds that restaurant type (casual vs. fine dining) moderates diners’ responses to effort- vs. talent-focused messages. Diners’ perceptions of fit with employees (Study 1) and persuasiveness of a message (Study 2) are mechanisms underlying the proposed moderating effects. Restaurant managers may benefit from tailoring their messages conveying employee performance on the basis of diners’ need to belong and restaurant type.

Prior research demonstrates that consumers are more likely to donate when asked to round up their total bill to the next whole dollar (vs. donate a flat-dollar amount). However, there is scant research demonstrating boundary conditions for the effectiveness of round-up donations. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by suggesting crowding level of a service establishment as a boundary condition. Study 1 demonstrates that round-up (vs. flat-dollar) donations decrease perceived pain of donation, thereby increasing donation likelihood. Study 2 shows that round-up (vs. flat-dollar) donations decrease pain of donation in a crowded environment. Conversely, such differences in pain of donation are not observed in a non-crowded environment. The present study contributes to the nascent literature on round-up donations and provides insight to cause-related marketing managers concerning how to design donation messages.

Research shows that offering monetary compensation is effective in restoring customers’ equity perceptions following a service failure. However, little is known about loyalty reward program members’ responses to various types of recovery options. This study fills this important void by investigating two types of compensation: a discount coupon (in dollars) and bonus reward points (in miles) in the airline context. This study further investigates the boundary effect of controllability of a service failure. Our findings show that, when the flight delay is perceived as highly controllable by the airline company (i.e., scheduling error by flight crews, repatronage intention was higher in the 50-dollar discount vs. 2500 bonus miles condition. Conversely, repatronage intention did not differ between the two compensation options when the flight delay was perceived as uncontrollable i.e., inclement weather. Our findings help hospitality and tourism firms leverage service recovery initiatives for loyalty reward program members.

Temple stays are emerging global cultural attractions that provide tourists with unique experiences and influence perceptions of value and satisfaction. This study examines the influence of escape, entertainment, esthetic, and educational experiences on perceptions of functional and emotional values as well as tourist satisfaction with temple stays. The results of the study show that escape and entertainment experiences are important predictors of both functional and emotional values. Esthetic experience influences emotional value, whereas educational experience affects functional value. Both functional and emotional values influence tourist satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed.