Empowerment, job satisfaction, and customer’s perception of service quality have been extensively researched in a multitude of industries. Although the service quality literature points out the importance of managing service quality from both customers’ and employees’ views, only a few studies have jointly considered an employee—customer research design. This study examined the answers from 474 restaurant contact employees and their 1,259 customers to determine the effects of empowerment and job satisfaction on customers’ perception of service quality. The uniqueness of this study is in its service quality variable used in the structural model. Whereas previous research based the service quality variable on the SERVQUAL conceptualization and measurement, this study conceptualized customers’ perceived service quality variable according to the “hierarchical approach” model and used the performance-only index for its measurement. Findings suggest that empowerment and job satisfaction have a significant impact on customers’ perception of service quality. Implications of the findings are discussed in detail.
Purpose -The internet has significantly changed the ways hotels distribute and price their products. The imminent success of online intermediaries caused financial problems for hotel chains since online travel agencies offered better prices than the hotel brand websites. The existing literature on hotel online distribution has focused on pricing strategies and room availability issues for different segments of hotels. This paper, however, aims to compare online room prices of global hotel chains across online distribution channels and their own brand websites. Design/methodology/approach -By using only the internet, 2,800 room rates were collected and analyzed. Descriptive statistics such as means and percentage were used to answer the research questions. Personal interviews with a CEO of an e-business company and an area revenue director of a global hotel chain were conducted to confirm our findings and to gain additional insights in the related issues. Findings -Descriptive statistics indicated that US properties are doing a much better job than their international partners in regards to "best rate guarantee," "rate parity," and room availability across online channels. Rate consistency still remains a problem within US properties. Research limitations/implications -A limitation of this study is the use of convenience sampling methods, sample size, and currency conversion instruments. Originality/value -Findings of this study would benefit revenue managers, general managers, hotel owners, and corporate brand managers to make decisions and to formulate new policies concerning their online distribution, revenue, and brand optimization strategies.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine why employee-level customer orientation (CO) influences the customer experience in a service setting. Design/methodology/approach -Given the dyadic nature of the study, a two-way sample design was used which integrated employee responses with customer responses. A total of 186 employees and 1,117 customers participated in the study. The data was aggregated at the employee level of analysis.Findings -The study found that job satisfaction and employee commitment mediated the relationship between employee-level CO and a customer's perception of interaction quality. Additionally, interaction quality is shown to be positively related to customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications -Although the design of the research utilized data from both customers and employees from several restaurant outlets in the USA, all the restaurants belonged to one chain (reflecting a single corporate culture), and thus it may be difficult to generalize the results. Originality/value -This study extends the CO theory by explaining how and why CO affects a customer's perceptions from an organizational behavior (OB) perspective, with job satisfaction and organizational commitment as mediators. This is important as the few studies that attempted to explain the effect of CO on customers' experience through mediating variables took a marketing perspective instead of an OB view. Practically, this research highlights the important role that human resource management may have from the interactive marketing perspective.
This study examines factors affecting the travel expenditures of visitors to Macau. Employing Tobit analysis, the study investigates the effects of socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics on total expenditure, as well as various travel expenditures across different expenditure functions. Three locations were used for data collection: the border gate with mainland China, the Macau ferry terminal and Macau International Airport. Tourists who were married, had a higher education background and household income and were in a large party tended to spend more on total travel-related expenditures. Distance to Macau turned out to be another important variable affecting tourists' travel expenditure patterns. Compared to tourists from mainland China or Hong Kong, long-haul foreign tourists to Macau spent more on lodging and shopping. Considering the high contribution margin of international long-haul tourists, Macau's tourism industry should entice more of these visitors to generate even higher revenues.
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