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HOTEL MANAGER ATTITUDES TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FROM HOTELS IN PHUKET, THAILAND
Title
HOTEL MANAGER ATTITUDES TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FROM HOTELS IN PHUKET, THAILAND.
Creator
Saenyanupap, Sivika, Chen, Po-Ju, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
ABSTRACT This study explored the attitudes of hotel managers in Phuket, Thailand, in an attempt to identify whether their attitudes influence their utilization of environmental sustainability practices. Due to the increasing number of visitors to Phuket, Thailand, the consumption of natural resources has increased in the region, causing serious environmental problems. A sustainable way forward is needed for the tourism industry in the region in order to maintain quality of service while...
Show moreABSTRACT This study explored the attitudes of hotel managers in Phuket, Thailand, in an attempt to identify whether their attitudes influence their utilization of environmental sustainability practices. Due to the increasing number of visitors to Phuket, Thailand, the consumption of natural resources has increased in the region, causing serious environmental problems. A sustainable way forward is needed for the tourism industry in the region in order to maintain quality of service while reducing environmental damage. The data analyzed in this study came from self-administered questionnaires that surveyed hotel managers in Phuket, Thailand, with a sample of 243 respondents. Research results revealed three dimensions of hotel manager attitude toward environmental sustainability practices, including operational management, social obligation, and sustainability strategy and policy. Furthermore, three constraints on the implementation of environmental management practices were identified: lack of support, perceived difficulty, and lack of demand. The attitudes of hotel managers regarding specific factors and barriers are also presented in this study. The results of this study show that hotel managers overall possess positive attitudes toward environmental sustainability practices. Finally, the findings reveal that hotel managers' attitudes toward sustainability practices depend on their social demographics, the type of hotel they operate, their degree of ownership of the hotel, whether or not their hotel was affected by the 2004 tsunami, and the year their hotel was built. The results of this study suggest that it is necessary for hotel managers to understand the importance of environmental sustainability practices because this understanding can help motivate them in implementing sustainability practices in their hotels. Furthermore, it can guide hotel managers when deciding which environmental policies are suitable for their hotels. Lastly, the study demonstrated that in order for hotels to become more sustainable, support is needed from government or hotel associations to provide education and training for the hotel managers.
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Date Issued
2011
Identifier
CFE0003710, ucf:48821
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003710
The Relationship Between Perceived Personal Fairness, Social Fairness, Hotel Cancellation Policies and Consumer Patronage
Title
The Relationship Between Perceived Personal Fairness, Social Fairness, Hotel Cancellation Policies and Consumer Patronage.
Creator
Smith, Scott, Parsa, Haragopal, Chen, Po-Ju, Nusair, Khaldoon, Robinson, Edward, Schwartz, Zvi, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between the concepts of personal fairness and social fairness and hotel cancellation policies. These relationships will be explored using the framework of Prospect Theory in terms of consumer patronage (willingness-to-purchase and word-of-mouth).This study includes a brief history of the development of the lodging industry in the United States from inns and taverns to the modern hotel industry that is a critical sector of the...
Show moreThe objective of the study was to examine the relationships between the concepts of personal fairness and social fairness and hotel cancellation policies. These relationships will be explored using the framework of Prospect Theory in terms of consumer patronage (willingness-to-purchase and word-of-mouth).This study includes a brief history of the development of the lodging industry in the United States from inns and taverns to the modern hotel industry that is a critical sector of the hospitality and tourism economy. Current statistics are provided regarding the U.S. and Central Florida hotel industry in order to provide both a national and local economic perspective. The study also provides relevant statistics regarding U.S. domestic traveller information.The included literature review consists of concepts of mental accounting theory, economic utility theory, prospect theory, personal fairness, social fairness, and consumer patronage. The study also discusses how the lodging industry is unique in its implementation of reservation cancellation policies when compared against other industries. Research regarding merchandise return policies is also discussed here. The study was designed to investigate three separate components of both personal and social fairness. The first component investigated the effects of hotel rate price increases and discounts on personal fairness when compared against an existing reference price. The second component studied the perceptions of social fairness on three established hotel cancellation policies. The third component introduces a treatment of distributive and procedural fairness violations as a moderator to observe the effects on consumer patronage for the same three hotel cancellation policies. The data were collected from 415 hotel guests staying in Central Florida hotels near the Orlando international airport using an experimental method which provided different written scenarios regarding hotel pricing and three different hotel cancellation policies. The data was then analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's Post Hoc test to provide results that allowed the comparison of effects on each in terms of consumer patronage. The study results indicated that that price increases against established reference prices had a significant negative effect on consumer patronage whereas discounts of the same magnitude had a significant effect only in the middle range. Included smaller and large discounts did not have a significant effect on consumer patronage outside of the middle range. The study results also indicated that there was significant difference in consumer patronage between an Open cancellation policy and a 48 Hour Cancellation Policy. There is a significant difference in consumer patronage when a No Refund policy is compared against both the Open Cancellation Policy and the 48 Hour Cancellation Policy. The study results also show that a violation of either Distributive Fairness or Procedural Fairness has a significant negative effect on consumer patronage for both an Open Cancellation policy and 48 Hour Cancellation Policy. However, when Distributive Fairness or Procedural Fairness violations are introduced as a moderator, there is no significant effect on a No Refund Cancellation Policy.The study and its ensuing results are of importance to the academic community in that it provides additional scholarly support to both Prospect Theory and the theory of mental accounting and the roles that each plays in consumer behavior. From an industry practitioner perspective, the current results provide insight into hotel consumer's attitudes regarding rate increases/ discounts and the implementation of the three different hotel cancelation policies. The results can be utilized to provide justification and guidance in altering or establishing hotel cancellation policies that hotel consumers consider to be fair.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004269, ucf:49508
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004269
Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Experience in Beverage Establishments
Title
Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Experience in Beverage Establishments.
Creator
Bujisic, Milos, Nusair, Khaldoon, Sivo, Stephen, Hutchinson, Joe, Chen, Po-Ju, Mattila, Anna, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
It is estimated that there are approximately 42,000 beverage establishments in the U.S. whose annual revenue surpasses $20 billion (First Research, 2014). To facilitate discussion of beverage establishments, it is essential to recognize beverage establishments as businesses whose majority of sales come from alcoholic drinks (Moss, 2010a). In this research, beverage establishments are divided into beverage-only bars, bar/entertainment combinations, and food and beverage combinations. Even...
Show moreIt is estimated that there are approximately 42,000 beverage establishments in the U.S. whose annual revenue surpasses $20 billion (First Research, 2014). To facilitate discussion of beverage establishments, it is essential to recognize beverage establishments as businesses whose majority of sales come from alcoholic drinks (Moss, 2010a). In this research, beverage establishments are divided into beverage-only bars, bar/entertainment combinations, and food and beverage combinations. Even though they are a well-established industry, beverage establishments have received little academic attention (Moss, 2010b). For example, previous studies have given little attention to the development of the model that examines the relationships between quality attributes, convenience, perceived price fairness, customer experience, and customer loyalty in beverage establishments. However, current research in other service sectors has showed that quality, pricing and convenience have a strong effect on customer experience and behavioral intentions (Baker (&) Crompton, 2000; Cronin et al., 2000; Taylor (&) Baker, 1994; Tian-Cole, Crompton, (&) Willson, 2002; Woodside et al., 1989). Quality is tightly related to customer experience since it positively affects customer satisfaction and therefore company's profitability (Hallowell, 1996).This study has the following objectives: (1) to develop an instrument to measure the antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments; (2) to examine the relative importance of different antecedents of customer experience in different types of beverage establishments; and (3) to build a model of various antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments.This study was conducted in six phases. The first phase was the analysis of previous literature regarding quality attributes, convenience, perceived price fairness, customer experience, customer loyalty, and beverage establishments. The second phase was a development of mixed methodology research design. The third phase was the data collection based on interviews with management of beverage establishments, customer focus groups, and a survey of customers of beverage establishments. The fourth phase was a pilot study that involved a refinement of the study instrument. The fifth phase was a main quantitative study based on the survey design. The results from each qualitative and quantitative phase of the study were integrated and analyzed.The results from the instrument development part of the study identified the following eleven antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments: (1) service quality, (2) product quality, (3) physical environment design, (4) physical environment layout, (5) music quality, (6) social environment, (7) information convenience, (8) location convenience, (9) parking convenience, (10) entrance fee fairness, and (11) perceived price fairness. Additionally, the second instrument development study was used to recognize different customer experiential state dimensions. The factor structure included two customer experiential states: (1) the affective experiential state and (2) the cognitive experiential state.A comprehensive theoretical model that integrates different dimensions of antecedents of customer experience, customer experiential states, customer loyalty and the moderating affect of the type of the beverage establishment was developed. One of the most important findings of the study is the relationship between the social environment and the affective experiential state. The results of the study indicate that the majority of other antecedents of customer experience did not have a significant effect on two experiential states or that effect was relatively weak. However, social environment was the strongest predictor of customers' positive emotions and therefore customer loyalty and behavioral intentions. Finally, the study results confirmed Oliver's (1997) theory of customer loyalty by providing support for the sequential relationship between cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty. This study has several important theoretical contributions. Different antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments were recognized and an instrument that measures these dimensions was developed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scale specifically developed to measure experience in beverage establishments. Additionally, the importance of each of the antecedent of customer experience was examined in regards to their effect on customer experience. Additionally, an instrument that measures cognitive and affective experiential states was developed and was a foundation for the study model. Finally, this study integrates different customer experience and customer loyalty dimensions into a comprehensive theoretical model that could be applied and retested in other service settings.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFE0005309, ucf:50532
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005309
Acculturation and workplace inclusion among immigrant restaurant workers: a study of organizational behavior in hospitality
Title
Acculturation and workplace inclusion among immigrant restaurant workers: a study of organizational behavior in hospitality.
Creator
Lefrid, Mohammed, Okumus, Fevzi, Murphy, Kevin, Singh, Dipendra, Jahani, Shiva, Chen, Po-Ju, Guchait, Priyanko, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Immigrants employed in hospitality organizations experience various psychological challenges as they adapt to the cultures of their organizations and the society at large. This dissertation aims to investigate how acculturation and workplace inclusion of immigrant restaurant workers affect their levels of job satisfactions, subjective well-being, work engagement, organizational attachment, and turnover intention. This study followed a cross-sectional research design to explore immigrant...
Show moreImmigrants employed in hospitality organizations experience various psychological challenges as they adapt to the cultures of their organizations and the society at large. This dissertation aims to investigate how acculturation and workplace inclusion of immigrant restaurant workers affect their levels of job satisfactions, subjective well-being, work engagement, organizational attachment, and turnover intention. This study followed a cross-sectional research design to explore immigrant restaurant employees' attitudes towards their acculturation process and perceptions of their work experiences in the United States. This study was developed by using scales from the existing literature and a back-to-back translation method by native speakers of Spanish and Haitian Creole languages. The participants of this study were 279 immigrants, who are restaurants employees in the United States. Data were simultaneously collected in three different ways. The questionnaire adopted for this study was distributed at multiple restaurants, including stand-alone and hotel foodservice outlets, in the Southeastern region of the USA. Also, a link to the survey questionnaire was forwarded to other participants via email and social media to individuals who qualify as immigrant restaurant workers. In addition, the data collection the process involved using Amazon Turk, until the required sample size for this study was met. Both SPSS version 24 and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) were utilized to analyze the collected data for this study. This study's results indicate that acculturation and workplace inclusion positively influence subjective well-being and job satisfaction amongst immigrant restaurant workers. Meanwhile, work engagement, organizational, and turnover intention are directly influenced by job satisfaction.The findings of this study advance the knowledge of acculturation and workplace inclusion in both the hospitality discipline and the mainstream human resources literature. While there are very few studies on acculturation and workplace inclusion in the hospitality and tourism literature, no prior research was conducted on immigrants working in the food and beverage sector. Also, no previous studies investigated both the effect of acculturation and workplace inclusion on immigrant employees in a simultaneous manner. Hence this study adds to both the hospitality and organizational behavior body of knowledge. It also provides new insights on how to improve these employees' subjective well-being, job satisfaction, work engagement, organizational attachment, and reduce the chances of quitting their hospitality jobs.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFE0007829, ucf:52823
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007829