A study note on knowledge-uncertainty-based learning regarding hospitality management

A study note on knowledge-uncertainty-based learning regarding hospitality management

Issues and related key words in Hospitality Management research: a sample of academic articles, sorted in chronological order

Years of publication	Issues and knowledge gaps as recognized in hospitality management academic articles	Key words involved
Article 1 2002	“Research on bankruptcy has shown that not all firms collapse in an unforeseeable manner. Factors that trigger the bankruptcy of a business rarely erupt overnight. Troublesome signs of a company heading for business distress may occur much earlier than the time of ultimate failure. Therefore, warning signals, if any, may be used to predict bankruptcy before it actually occurs. Van Horne (1998) points out that financial ratio analysis is a popular technique for predicting firm bankruptcy. In most cases, the probability of bankruptcy is implied in a firm’s financial statements and can be estimated through financial ratio analysis. The high risk of bankruptcy has been a challenge to the US restaurant industry for years. However, despite the fact that thousands of restaurants go bankrupt year after year, especially during economic downturns, research studies in restaurant bankruptcy prediction are few. Notably, while numerous studies have developed quantitative models for predicting bankruptcy in other industries, especially manufacturing industries, not many models have been developed for analyzing and predicting bankruptcy in the restaurant industry”; Zheng Gu. “Analyzing bankruptcy in the restaurant industry: A multiple discriminant model” Hospitality Management 21 (2002) 25–42.	Bankruptcy
Article 2 2002	“The study of consumer behaviour potentially deals with all of the ways people may act in their role as consumers (Schiffman and Kanuk, 1991), but in practice tends to focus upon behaviours related to searching, buying and using products and services. Consumers may be treated as groups, typically market segments, identified by geodemographic characteristics and assumed to have common attitudes and behaviour. Alternatively individual, subjective perspectives may provide an insight into behaviour patterns. Food service marketing (and hence consumer behaviour) is often subsumed into that of generalised ‘‘hospitality’’ (e.g. Wearne and Morrison, 1996) and in some texts is amalgamated with a still more amorphous ‘‘tourism’’ (e.g. Kotler and Bowen, 1996). Both of these groupings tend to favour the hotel industry. There are no books dedicated to consumer research in the foodservice industry. Yet food service is an important industry in its own right, not least in terms of financial turnover, and although it contributes in part to both hotels and tourism, it has its own separate characteristics. Restaurants (including those in chains and those that are part of hotels), take-aways, and even contract catering, are more volatile, changeable and fashion-prone than hotels or tourist attractions”; Nick Johnsa,*, Ray Pine. “Consumer behaviour in the food service industry: a review” Hospitality Management 21 (2002) 119–134.	Consumer behavior
Article 3 2004	“Ahmed and Chon (1994) noted that most United States tourism agencies hosting Korean clientele have made few Korean- focused adaptations for these travelers. Although a Korean traveler occasionally finds someone who speaks his or her language at one hotel or another, outside of big cities, Koreans may have difficulty communicating (Ahmed and Chon, 1994). This may lead to poor service, inaccurate requests, and errors in services delivered. These travelers may end up with negative reminiscences of the United States and their trips here, all creating frustrated guests who may not return. From a similar point of view, Japanese and other travelers wish to feel appreciated by someone who understands their culture and is sensitive to their needs and expectations (Teare, 1992). Tourism providers must be able to accommodate culturally based needs in order to tap into the increasingly lucrative market of international travelers (Jafari and Way, 1994). Jafari and Way (1994) suggest that there is a gap in the tourism industry’s approach to serving the international traveler. However, no research has directly assessed customer satisfaction with hotel efforts at accommodating the international traveller”; Jin Kyeong Heo, Giri Jogaratnam*, Polly Buchanan. “Customer-focused adaptation in NewYork City hotels: exploring the perceptions of Japanese and Korean travellers” Hospitality Management 23 (2004) 39–53.	International travelers
Article 4 2004	“Since no one distribution channel is likely to dominate in the near future, hotels need to use a portfolio of channels to reach the marketplace (Middleton and Clarke, 2001). However, not all channels are equal and thus companies must carefully weigh their decisions in light of their organisational goals and performance standards (Crichton and Edgar, 1995). Some authors claim that selecting ‘‘an appropriate distribution channel is paramount to success and important if hotel firms are to grow top line revenues and control overhead, yet the number of choices facing hospitality executives is overwhelming’’ (Connolly and Olsen, 2000). Which channel (or combination of channels) should a hotel be using? Both the ever-increasing complexity of the distribution network and the rapid pace of change make this a difficult question to answer. Yet increased competition, scarcity of capital and rising distribution costs make management of electronic distribution channels essential. The question arises, therefore, of how to evaluate a hotel electronic channel of Distribution”; Peter O’Connora,*, Andrew J. Frew. “An evaluation methodology for hotel electronic channels of distribution” Hospitality Management 23 (2004) 179–199.	Distribution channel
Article 5 2005	“During the last decade, the term ‘‘market orientation’’ has received much attention in the marketing and strategic management literature (Day and Wensley, 1988; Greenley, 1995; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Kumar et al., 1998; Narver and Slater, 1990; Ruekert, 1992; Wong and Saunders, 1993). It has often been assumed that market orientation is positively related to business performance. Despite the importance of market orientation to business success, systematic inquiries to gain a deeper understanding of the construct have only recently begun, following the pioneering work of Kohli and Jaworski (1990) and Narver and Slater (1990). Subsequently, a number of empirical studies have attempted to assess the association of market orientation with profitability (e.g., Bhuian, 1997; Greenley, 1995; Raju et al., 1995; Ruekert, 1992), market share (e.g., Deshpande et al., 1993; Pelham and Wilson, 1996), new product success (e.g., Appiah-Adu, 1997; Atuahene-Gima, 1995), and customer satisfaction (e.g., Gray et al., 1998). What is noteworthy is that although research on market orientation is abundant, most of the past studies mainly focused on manufacturing sectors”; Leo Y.M. Sina,_, Alan C.B. Tsea, Vincent C.S. Heungb, Frederick H.K. Yim. “An analysis of the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the hotel industry” Hospitality Management 24 (2005) 555–577.	Market orientation
Article 6 2005	“The ability of a firm to find or create a position in a market is at the core of strategy development. It is widely believed that differentiation allows a firm to fully exploit its competitive advantage, and hence to achieve a high level of return. But how different should the strategies of a firm be if the firm wants to outperform its competitors? Are the findings in mainstream strategy studies relevant to the hospitality industry? Hoskisson et al. (1999) found that there is a movement from industry-level to firm level studies in strategy research. Porter’s structural analysis, based on industrial organization (IO) economics, asserted that the ability of a firm to gain competitive advantage depends mainly on how well it positions and differentiates itself in an industry (Porter, 1980). The mobility barriers in the industry are crucial factors that delineate the differences among firms and account for their differences in performance (Caves and Porter, 1977). More recently, differentiation in some attributes among firms has been suggested to be the crucial factor that accounts for intra-industry variations in firm performance (Rumelt, 1991). For example, firm heterogeneity in conduct has been emphasized (Hatten and Schendel, 1977)”; Ping-Kwong Yeunga, Chung-Ming Lau. “Competitive actions and firm performance of hotels in Hong Kong” Hospitality Management 24 (2005) 611–633.	Differentiation
Article 7 2009	“Franchising is a major expansion strategy for hospitality firms, especially hotels and restaurants. With its advantage of lower monitoring costs in managing geographically dispersed units, franchising has frequently been selected as a strategy to expand chains (Norton, 1988; Roh and Kwag, 1997). In the global market, franchising adds value by enhancing the understandings of local culture, customs, and values (Contractor and Kundu, 1998). When considering franchising as one of two main types of operations (i.e., owning and franchising) in the restaurant industry, a mix of owning and franchising can allow a restaurant firm to diversify. According to the diversification theory, as a firm becomes well-diversified, the firm’s risk will decrease. This will in turn lead to a reduction in the cost of capital, and subsequently give a boost to the firm’s value. Also, restaurant firms that are well-diversified in terms of franchising and owning may have a greater ability to manage and increase their income levels in a more stable manner, by taking advantage of both operation types: owning and franchising. The owning mode maximizes the restaurant company’s profit, especially when the economy is booming, whereas the franchising mode provides stable franchise revenue through royalties and other fees received by its franchisees on a regular basis for the long contract period, usually 15–20 years (Andrew et al., 2007; Morrison and Macmillan, 2000). Results of franchising– owning diversification and its consequent financial performance may help restaurant executive officers and financial managers to make sound strategic decisions on firm expansion and resource allocation for value maximization. Restaurant industry financial analysts and investors can also benefit from the findings, but whether or not the explanations regarding the financial rewards of diversification hold in the restaurant industry is an empirical question. Moreover, the particular types of relationships that exist between the degree of franchising that is employed as a part of a diversification strategy and the firm’s financial performance deserves extra attention”; Yoon Koh a,1, Seoki Lee a,*, Soyoung Boo. “Does franchising help restaurant firm value?” International Journal of Hospitality Management 28 (2009) 289–296.	Franchising
Article 8 2009	“Exactly how the restaurant industry provides high quality lodging and food experiences has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners (Davis and Vollmann, 1990; Dube´ et al., 1994; Jensen and Hansen, 2007). Once consumers are satisfied with a service and its associated products, they become more likely to re-purchase or shop, which then increases company profits (Gupta et al., 2007; Heskett et al., 2004). Scholars have explored many different perspectives of how customer satisfaction is achieved by meeting customer needs. For instance, Sulek and Hensley (2004), in a survey of 239 service staff in a full-service restaurant in the southeastern United States, found that food quality, restaurant atmosphere and fairness and efficiency of seating procedures significantly influence customer satisfaction. Additionally, service quality, personnel response, food price and convenience directly influence customer satisfaction with their meal experience (Dube´ et al., 1994; Robson, 1999; Sulek and Hensley, 2004). Marketing scholars have also postulated that customer service encounters instill good customer impressions of a company (e.g., Grove et al., 1998)”; Cedric Hsi-Jui Wua, Rong-Da Liang. “Effect of experiential value on customer satisfaction with service encounters in luxury-hotel restaurants” International Journal of Hospitality Management 28 (2009) 586–593.	Lodging and food experiences
Article 9 2013	“Hospitality organisations have realised that their future survival and growth depend upon creating and offering unique and memorable positive experiences for their customers (Walls et al., 2011). Consumer expectations from a shopping trip, restaurant meal, or hotel stay are continuously changing, and hospitality organisations strive to anticipate and respond to these expectations. However, the ability to anticipate such changing expectations so that organisations can create and offer unique service and product experiences is a challenging task that requires a systematic and strategic approach to cooperating closely with customers (Vargo et al., 2008). There are two key approaches in the literature – co-production and co-creation – which could be adopted by organisations in their attempts to respond to customer expectations”; Prakash Chathotha, Levent Altinayb, Robert James Harringtonc, Fevzi Okumusd, Eric S.W. Chan. “Co-production versus co-creation: A process based continuum in the hotel service context” International Journal of Hospitality Management 32 (2013) 11–20.	Customer expectations
Article 10 2013	“Majority of research on employee unionization being conducted in developed countries having predominantly individualistic societies, their findings may not have similar implication in collectivist societies like Pakistan. Recent events in different organizations including the hospitality industry have necessitated identification of antecedents of unionization in a cultural perspective. A recent strike by union of aviation hospitality staff (including air hostesses and flight stewards) along with their colleagues caused closure of all the airports in Pakistan causing a loss of billions of rupees. Armed personnel were deputed to take control of airports, still for days flights were canceled causing havoc for passengers. These events have raised a number of concerns in the minds of people about legitimacy of such acts by employee unions. The causes of such acts by unionized aviation hospitality employees in underdeveloped countries have received little attention in the extant literature”; Sajid Bashira,∗, Misbah Nasirb. “Breach of psychological contract, organizational cynicism and union commitment: A study of hospitality industry in Pakistan” International Journal of Hospitality Management 34 (2013) 61– 65.	Employee unionization
Article 11 2017	“The first problem we face is, in the absence of enough building data, how to develop a simple hotel energy benchmarking model for temporary use in order to achieve the comparison and ranking of energy performance for hotels in peer group and thus provide useful information to support macro energy saving planning and management. The second problem we face is that, in the past, the traditional energy use intensity (EUI), expressed in unit of build-ing energy use per gross floor area per annum (kWh/m2/annum),is usually used as the energy consumption indicator of hotel buildings. However, hotels in operation period differ from not only the hotels in construction period but also the other non-profit public buildings (such as schools, libraries). It will be insufficient to use the traditional EUI as energy consumption indicator for the hotels in operation period. For example, let’s consider two hotels A, B of the same type, star rating and gross floor area”; Zhen-Ru Tenga,b,∗, Chun-You Wua, Zhi-Zheng Xuc. “New energy benchmarking model for budget hotels” International Journal of Hospitality Management 67 (2017) 62–71.	Energy performance
Article 12 2019	“With increased competition and market saturation, internationalization continues to be one of the most crucial yet risky strategies for hotel firms. A hotel firm such as Starwood currently operates in more than 100 countries and earns over 50% of its revenue from its overseas locations (IBISWorld, 2017). Several hotel firms have also expanded into emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Mexico (IBISWorld, 2015). The sales potential in some of these markets, however, remains uncertain (Euromonitor, 2015). Hotel executives are finding it increasingly challenging to develop successful internationalization strategies and to select the next international destination (Oates, 2016). The literature has provided several potential solutions to the problem of expanding into uncertain international markets. There is still an ongoing debate as to whether firms actually realize higher performance in international markets”; Linda Wooa, A. George Assafb,⁎, Alexander Josiassenc,d, Florian Kockd. “Internationalization and hotel performance: Agglomeration-related Moderators” International Journal of Hospitality Management 82 (2019) 48–58.	Internationalization