Abstract

     The aim of the research described in the article was to determine how and to what extent business intelligence solutions were presented in scientific articles concerning Balanced Scorecards published until 2022. The bibliometric analysis method was used in the course of the research. As a result of data analyses, the following have been determined: key phrases describing business intelligence in scientific articles concerning the Balanced Scorecard, the number of their occurrences, the structure of research, and countries in which researchers carry out scientific activity in the field of the Balanced Scorecard, which constitute the article’s contribution to science. Areas in which there are research gaps, where the practical significance of this research manifests, and what is particularly important for researchers of the Balanced Scorecard, have also been identified.

Introduction

     The reason for my interest in studying the relations between Business Intelligence (BI) and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) solutions consists in an assumption that such a relation is natural and results from the need to ensure rapid processing and presenting many different data monitored in the Balanced Scorecard, which I observed in the implementation practice of the Balanced Scorecard. This assumption seems correct since it is based on data defined and processed in a Balanced Scorecard – in the data’s large amount, varied (both qualitative and quantitative) nature, in many sources of the data’s origin in an enterprise, the required high frequency of their refreshing, the need to ensure high quality of the data itself, as well as the way the data is monitored, processed and analysed, the need to adjust the range of available results to the positions, etc.

     When launching a Balanced Scorecard, it is usually assumed to implement certain solutions in the field of business intelligence in order to analyse and illustrate the results of measuring the activities of enterprises. In balance scorecard implementations specifically, I noticed that selecting and launching business intelligence solutions supporting Balanced Scorecard in its operation remains to be launched in the second place, is launched gradually, or stops at the planning stage. In this research, I have decided to verify my doubts concerning the scope of the actual presence of business intelligence solutions in the practical service of a Balanced Scorecard. An additional argument for undertaking this task consists in my interest in learning about the practical functioning of Balanced Scorecard structures, their compliance with theoretical assumptions, their impact on accounting, management accounting, measuring results, enterprise strategies, as well as organizational and IT support solutions. I found only four articles [1] [2] [3] [4] related to bibliometric analysis of Balanced Scorecard and some of its aspects but none of it is related to business intelligence (in response for a query to Web of Science: ALL=(“balance* scorecard*”) AND ALL=(“business* intelligence*”) AND ALL=(“bibliometric*”)) but I found no article which could be comparable to this article. I am additionally motivated by that lack of research with a similar thematic scope and methodology. By this article I begin exploring this research area by recognizing the relation between a Balanced Scorecard and business intelligence.

Summary

     As a result of the research presented in the article, I obtained answers to the following research questions: 1a) In 9779 articles recognized as related to business intelligence it was identified 20,303 phrases co-occurred with the phrase “business intelligence”. After deeper analysis and establishing a bottom level of amount at least on 30 co-occurrences in the analysed articles it was found 169 phrases co-occurred with the phrase “business intelligence”

     1b) 33 phrases from among those co-occurring with the phrase “business intelligence” (approx. 20%) concern or describe organizational, technical, conceptual and software tools, phenomena and techniques related to business intelligence and these are: business intelligence, artificial intelligence, big data, business analytics, business intelligence system, cloud computing, dashboard, data analytics, data integration, data mining, data science, data visualization, data warehouse, database, decision support, deep learning, enterprise resource planning, framework, fuzzy logic, information management, information system, information technologies, internet of things, machine learning, neural network, online analytical process, olap, prediction, predictive analytics, risk management, semantic web, text mining and web mining.

Abstract

     The extant paper aims to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on marketing activities. In this respect, the study adopted Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SPSS26 and Smart PLS-3 to analyze the descriptive survey that was distributed among 200 hotel managers. The findings revealed that although the pandemic affected the technology application in the hospitality sector positively, it also has negative impacts on marketing performance. The results also illustrated the considerable effect of technology on marketing performance. Thus, by providing a comprehensive research model, the study calls on hotel managers and executives to reconsider their marketing activities.

Introduction

     Just after the outbreak of the Covid-19 across the world, many countries set strict travel bans (tourism restrictions, border closures, etc.) to prevent further spread (Nuseira and Aljumahb, 2020). Most of the countries in the world enforced partial or complete border closures, and the travel ban impacted the majority of the world’s population. The hotel industry is among the four main pillars of tourism and traveling which has been severely influenced by this pandemic crisis (Zanker & Kock, 2020; Hemmington & Neill, 2021). Hence, The industry faced the crisis of reduced demand and high costs that threated the profitability (Polemis, 2020). Around 113 countries placed global travel bans since the outbreak of the pandemic until the first half of 2020. The World Tourism Organization has estimated a 60–80% decline in 2020 compared to the previous year, which is 15–20 times more than the case of the 2008 global financial crisis. The World Travel and Tourism Council has estimated that over 100 million jobs in hotel and tourism industries were in danger that over half of them were in Asia (International Trade Center, 4: 1). Then, after the decline of COVID-19 in 2021 and 2022, tourism tripled from January to July 2022 (+172%) compared to the same period of 2021 (UNWTO, 2022).

     On the other hand, the profitability crisis in the hotel industry made a decline in the number of workforces (Zou et al., 2020). Hotels also laid off thousands of people to reduce their costs in response to their economic crisis (Khan et al., 2021). Under such circumstances, technology and its capabilities can be a solution for hotels to implement their marketing strategies with minimal costs (Gursoy & Chi, 2020).

Conclusion

     The increasing technological developments in the contemporary world highlight the need to study the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on marketing. In other words, the need for developing marketing activities and the role of technology has become more tangible than ever before due to the recent global pandemic.

     The present paper sought to investigate the influence of using technologies on marketing performance considering the role of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marketing strategies based on digital technologies can have an overall positive impact on the marketing performance of hotels since they help users visit social media pages more often and review the comments of others. It has been revealed that new technological approaches like digital marketing could impact sales and profits and customers in a positive and profitable way (Baharuddin et al., 2022). Overall, digital marketing strategies can influence the marketing performance of hotels and increase their reservation rates given the widespread use of social media since they offer customized services to the users of digital media (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018).In this respect, the result of the present study confirmed the first hypothesis and it showed that the use of technology has a positive influence on hotels’ marketing performance.

Abstract

     Globally, tourism is currently one of the fastest-growing industries, with strong impacts on territories, from an environmental, economic and social point of view. The increase in the number of tourists who flock to destinations requires greater attention to sustainability through tools (indicators) such as strategic destination management support. This paper, through the review of 104 scientific papers, aims to analyze the structure and evolution of the evaluation and monitoring of sustainable tourism through the use of sets of indicators. In particular, the study favors the understanding of the most significant aspects of sustainable tourism that the literature suggests to analyze, evaluating how these vary in relation to the type of destination and the time period of the study. The results contribute to the understanding of the theoretical and operational aspects which, today, are considered representative of the concept of sustainable tourism, improving the sustainable management of territories.

Introduction

     Globally, tourism is currently one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. According to the recent UNWTO study for the year 2019 (UNWTO 2021), international tourism recorded the tenth consecutive year of growth. In 2019, the growth compared to 2018 was þ 6% and, compared to 2017, it was þ 7%. Europe represents almost 40% of international tourism receipts, followed by Asia and the Pacific with almost one third. It is recognized for its ability to generate an important part of gross domestic product for many economies around the world (in particular, tourism accounts for 48% of GDP in Macao—China). It employs numerous companies, about 80% of which are micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs). It generates millions of direct and indirect jobs, employing a high proportion of women and young people.

     In addition to the economic aspect, tourism has also proved to have strong impacts on the sociocultural and environmental aspects of territories (Lee and Jan 2019; Zhuang, Yao, and Li 2019; Su and Swanson 2017; Su, Hsu, and Swanson 2017; Buckley 2012; Miller et al. 2010; Boksberger and Laesser 2007; Hunter and Shaw 2007). Unfortunately, the continuous and constant growth of this sector, as studied by the UNWTO (2019), places destinations and the entire tourism sector in a situation where it excessively influences the use of local resources, causing a progressive deterioration of the destinations and compromising their competitiveness and appeal on the market (Torres-Delgado and Saarinen 2014; Torres-Delgado and Palomeque 2014).

Conclusions

     The study reports a critical analysis of the main results concerning sustainable tourism analyzed through the use of indicators. The extensive bibliography available on this topic has been analyzed in relation to specific aspects: (a) descriptive aspects of each 22 S. Marinello et al. paper, collection methods and type of work; (b) type of destination; (c) dimensions of sustainability; (d) indicators considered; (e) sustainability issues and their temporal evolution and with respect to the type of environment analyzed.

Abstract

     This study tests the positive effects of empowering leadership (ELSH) under boundary conditions in the hospitality industry. We propose the existence of an interactive process through which ELSH behaviors interact with employees’ personality type to condition their engagement, which in turn influences their extra-role service behavior. We use data from 294 employees and structural equation modeling. The results show that the interaction of ELSH with employees’ independent and interdependent personality is negatively related to their engagement. This decrease in engagement is then reflected in decreased extra-role service behaviors due to the positive relationship between engagement and extra-role service. These findings suggest that self-construal is a significant boundary condition capable of changing the positive relationship between ELSH and engagement to a negative one. Not considering this relationship when establishing a leadership strategy such as ELSH in the hospitality context could render efforts to achieve the goal of high-quality service ineffective.

Introduction

     The battle for customers in the hospitality sector has been intensifying in recent years. The proliferation of digital lodging platforms, such as Airbnb, requires hotels to focus on what makes them unique relative to alternatives: professional service available to guests 24/7 that can adapt to their needs (Huertas-Valdivia et al., 2021). This effort to customize service focuses the industry’s interest on frontline employees’ capability to solve problems with autonomy and adapt their roles to provide personalized service (Jha and Nair, 2008, Zhu et al., 2019). Extra-role service includes a set of proactive employee behaviors, beyond the obligations of employees’ roles, that enable hotels to deliver guests service that aligns with their expectations (Garg and Dhar, 2016, Karatepe, 2015, Karatepe et al., 2013, Kim et al., 2009). Extra-role service is by definition a discretionary employee behavior (Bettencourt and Brown, 1997); that is, it is not specified as an in-role task or linked to formal compensation systems (Garg and Dhar, 2016). This combination (which is essential to being competitive but merely discretionary) justifies the industry’s interest in determining what underlies employees’ intention whether or not to engage in extra-role service (Huertas-Valdivia et al., 2018). Some authors have indicated that employee engagement sets in motion a process of internal motivation that makes employees willing to become involved in extra-role service (e.g., Karatepe, 2013a; Kim and Koo, 2017; Zhu et al., 2019). Achieving more engaged employees has thus been presented as a way to attain extra-role service (Orlowski et al., 2021).

Conclusions

     Research is currently identifying ELSH as a style that can solve some problems in the hospitality work environment. Our study tests the relationships among ELSH, engagement, and extra-role service under boundary conditions present in the work environment (the employee’s type of self-construal). Our analysis provides evidence of an interactive process in which leadership style and the employee’s personality shapes hotel service. Drawing on SCT, we find that the employee’s personality type acts as a boundary condition that determines the results of the process by which ELSH influences hotel employees’ engagement. We thus confirm that the interaction of ELSH with independent and interdependent employees’ self-construal becomes an obstacle to achieving engaged employees and, by extension, to reaping the benefits of ELSH’s positive influence on extra-role service. Our study ultimately warns of the need to consider employees’ personality profile before establishing ELSH as the means to promote increased engagement and extra-role service behaviors in hotels.

Abstract

     This study proposes a novel theoretical model on the negative effect of the perceived cognitive threat and fear of COVID-19 on full board hotel booking intentions, which includes the moderating effects of perceived coping efficacy and present-hedonism orientation. The model was tested with a representative online sample (N = 400) of the Spanish population older than 35 years. The results confirmed negative effects of threat and fear of COVID-19 on hotel booking intentions, as well as a negative moderating effect of perceived coping efficacy on the influence of fear of COVID-19. However, coping efficacy did not moderate the effect of perceived cognitive threat on hotel booking intentions. The present-hedonism orientation positively affected full board hotel booking intentions, but did not, however, reduce the negative effect of threat or fear on those intentions. The findings provide new insights for hospitality managers that can contribute to accelerate the recovery of the hospitality industry.

Introduction

     Health crises, such as outbreaks generated by infectious diseases, can have a significant negative impact on tourism (Pine and McKercher, 2004, Sánchez-Cañizares et al., 2020). In comparison to other pandemics, the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented consequences on the tourism industry across the globe (Kock et al., 2020, Pillai et al., 2021). Health measures taken by governments to minimize the spread of the virus, such as lockdowns or quarantining, or people’s decisions to avoid public spaces for fear of contagion, have had unfortunate impacts on the hospitality industry (Gursoy and Chi., 2020). The hospitality sector has been globally one of the most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Rather, 2021, Sánchez-Cañizares et al., 2020, Yu et al., 2020). The present study focuses on Spain, which was the world’s second most-visited nation in the year before the pandemic started and is one of the European countries that has been strongly affected by the pandemic in terms of number of contagions and mortality rate (Hernández-López et al., 2021). Also, by 2020, the profitability of the Spanish hospitality industry had decreased 66% in comparison to the previous year (Statista, 2020). According to EY (2020), hospitality is one of the most important sectors in Spain due to its contribution to the country’s economy, representing 6.2% of the gross domestic product, which is a higher proportion than in most European countries. All-inclusive full board hotels are particularly popular in Spain. In 2019, almost 84 million foreign tourists visiting Spain stayed in a full board hotel (INE, 2020). These hotels are mainly used by leisure travelers for vacations, and they often include entertainment activities.

Results

     The correlations of all variables are shown in Table 2. The results confirmed a significant negative relationship between perceived threat from COVID-19 and booking intention (r = −0.44, p < .01), and a significant negative relationship between perceived fear of COVID-19 and booking intention (r = −0.33, p < .01). The results also confirmed a significant positive relationship between fear and threat (r = 0.57, p < .01), a significant positive relationship between perceived coping efficacy and booking intention (r = 0.18, p < .01), and a significant positive relationship between present-hedonism orientation and booking intention (r = 0.25, p < .01).

Abstract

     Although franchise and management contracts constitute the dominant way of organizing business-to-business relationships within hotel chains, no study has compared their relative performance. This paper aims to explain their differences and assess their impact on online scores, currently a key performance indicator in the hotel industry. We argue that franchises are less effective than management contracts for operating upscale hotels due to the relative advantages that the latter have in transferring and enforcing tacit knowledge, typically embedded in skilled staff and very relevant in such quality-tier hotels. Conversely, franchising is better for large hotels because, first, its incentive structure better addresses managerial shirking (typically more severe as hotel size increases) and, second, it offers advantages when the standardization of business procedures is key to success (as is true for large establishments). Our empirical findings broadly support these arguments in a dataset of 467 Spanish hotels, also providing evidence that no single organizational solution fits all situations.

Introduction

     Like the tourism industry, the hotel sector has grown significantly in recent decades. According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals rose worldwide from 686 million in 2000 to 1461 million in 2019.1 This growth has facilitated hotel firm specialization, driving companies to focus on fewer supply chain stages (Stigler, 1951). A clear example is the move by the world’s leading hotel groups to divest properties (i.e., real estate business) and specialize in hotel operations and brand management (Blal & Bianchi, 2019).

     This tendency has resulted in the so-called asset-light and fee-oriented (ALFO) strategy (Li & Singal, 2019; Sohn, Tang and Jang, 2013, Sohn, Tang and Jang, 2014), which relies critically on the development of effective business-to-business relationships between hoteliers. Started years ago by US market leaders, such as Marriot and Hilton, the ALFO strategy is currently a dominant industry trend (Balyozyan, Perret, & Martin, 2017; Mercier, 2020). Its aim is to grow by developing brands and business concepts and then incorporating affiliated hotels that pay a fee for their use. However, this affiliation means that several independent firms must cooperate by contributing the assets that are necessary to offer a full lodging service.

Conclusion, managerial implications, and limitations

     In sum, this work shows that differences in performance exist between the two main business-to-business organizational solutions that constitute the ALFO strategy, so one size does not fit all (i.e., solutions are contingent on organizational problems). Management contracts prove more effective than franchising in upscale hotels. We argue that this is because transferring tacit knowledge within the organization (as management contracts do) is less costly than transferring it between companies (as franchising does). Conversely, we also find that franchise agreements outperform management contracts for operating large hotels in terms of online scores, arguably because they provide high-powered incentives to prevent managerial shirking and facilitate the standardization and codification of business procedures.

     The theoretical implication of this work is that to explain the choice of the business-to-business relationship, it is necessary to understand not only the problem we want to solve (the replication of a business concept without large capital investments) but also the comparative advantages of the organizational solutions applied (i.e., management contract vs. franchising). Hua et al. (2020) have recently shown that management contracts provide value, and we qualify this by stating that part of this added value is because they guarantee the transfer of tacit knowledge better than a franchise contract does. Overall, a deeper analysis of governance choice is necessary to disentangle the still fuzzy category of so-called hybrid governance solutions (Williamson, 1991). Studies comparing extreme governance mechanisms (i.e., hierarchy and market) with specific hybrid solutions are relatively frequent. However, the delimitation of hybrids and their differences have been much less studied (Cuypers et al., 2021). In this sense, these results help advance understanding of the two leading hybrid solutions of the hotel industry (ALFO).

Abstract

     In the COVID-19 pandemic, the employee realized the importance of a healthy workplace. A healthy workplace provides natural protection against respiratory disease and reduces exposure to viruses. Therefore, the current COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call to understand the importance of building design and a dress rehearsal for future challenges because building-based prevention and control measures have become one of the most significant ways of fighting against the epidemic. This study investigates the role of hotel building design in employee health and performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study covered the LEED-certified hotel building in India. The formulated Hypothesis was tested empirically by the structural equation modeling (SEM) for determining the potential of the hotel building design. It was obtained from the study that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel building design of the hospitality industry had a more significant influence on employee performance, followed by employee health.

Introduction

     In India, the hospitality industry was growing faster than the economy and expected 492.21 billion U.S. Dollar contributions in India’s GDP in 2028. As of 2019, the hospitality industry created 4.2 crore jobs in India which were 8.1% of total employment in the country. However, this one epidemic has changed the whole scenario. The COVID-19 poses a significant threat to India’s travel and tourism industry (Confederation of Indian Industry, 2020, Kaushal and Srivastava, 2021). Due to COVID-19, there is a severe drop in domestic and international travelers. The hospitality industry is currently operating at 10–15% occupancy. As a result, a cumulative drop of 30–50% in income per available room throughout the financial year 2022 and a loss of 14.5 million jobs in the Indian hospitality industry are reported (IANS, 2020, UNWTO, 2020).

     The COVID-19 virus can spread readily and cause severe disease to people with existing health problems (Yu et al., 2021, Aguiar-Quintana et al., 2021, Sönmez et al., 2020, Torales et al., 2020, Guan et al., 2020, Guo et al., 2020). COVID-19 affects the individual’s mental health (e.g., mental depression and stress) and physical health (e.g., asthma and other respiratory problems). Every country is trying hard to find a treatment for COVID-19, but no one can now succeed. The only source is to find alternative strategies and prevention methods to control the spreading of the virus. As the hospitality sector gradually recovering, the COVID-19 crisis continues to have a profound impact on how hospitality businesses function (Rivera, 2020). The hospitality industry needs to make significant changes to its workplace and operations in the COVID-19 business environment to ensure employee health and performance (Gursoy and Chi, 2020, Yu et al., 2020, Gössling et al., 2020). The hospitality industry is expected to shift its focus to develop healthy and safe building designs to prevent the COVID-19 virus and any other upcoming pandemics for the sustainable growth of the hospitality industry.

Conclusion

     The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives and is offering an opportunity to change how we design our buildings and working spaces. A comfortable and healthy building is an important contributor to mental and physical health. This study presents a need of changes in the sustainability requirements for buildings design that can be proper sanitization system to weaken the possibility of getting infected, new touchless technologies, sufficient spaces for better mental health, proper waste management system, are just a few solutions that can improve health and safety protection in our building.

     The building design is a fascinating and emerging concept, but its relationship with employees’ health and performance during COVID-19 is not well acknowledged yet in the field of the tourism and hospitality sector. Building designers and architects need to make bold decisions to provide safe and healthy to end-users. Building design is becoming an increasingly important part of making our environment and employee greener and healthier for a better future.

Abstract

     The importance of the risk to tourism and hospitality operations from pandemic-related crises has increased. Therefore, the current study offers a literature review targeting tourism and hospitality stakeholders’ perceptions of past diseases and has three objectives: (1) Explore major topics from previous research on infectious diseases using topic modeling; (2) compare non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 crises; (3) investigate research topics in the tourism and hospitality industries. To meet our research objectives, we reviewed published pandemic-related articles in the tourism and hospitality literature since the year 2000. Based on the results, we first identified nine key topics related to infectious diseases (i.e., policy, human resources, branding, resilience, technology, global or community change, risk perception, disease impact, and lifestyle). Second, we suggest the application of different topic weights in non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 research. Third, we found that it is appropriate to apply different topic weights in tourism and hospitality research.

Introduction

     For some decades, the tourism and hospitality industries have been sensitive to and affected by external and internal factors, such as uncertainty, challenges, crises, and pandemics. An unexpected crisis (e.g., natural, financial, and health) can threaten tourism demand and harm the performance of hospitality-related companies. Chief among these may be pandemics and disease outbreaks that play significant roles in social and economic change. Compared with other industries, tourism and hospitality are particularly vulnerable to disasters and crises (Chen et al., 2021, Chen et al., 2021), with the tourism sector acknowledged as being one of the most easily affected by crises, disasters, and pandemics (Gössling et al., 2020, Yu et al., 2020).

     Previous studies have concentrated on crisis-related research within hospitality and tourism context (Zenker and Kock, 2020). Most of these studies investigated crisis impacts and recoveries, with a focus on risk perception in the tourism industry (Bulin and Tenie, 2020, da Silva Lopes et al., 2021). In the tourism and hospitality contexts, existing studies have focused on disaster, crisis, and risk perception/impact/management/communication/recovery over the past decade (Bulin and Tenie, 2020, Wut et al., 2021). Health-related crisis events, decision-making, perceived risk, resilience, crisis prevention and preparedness, and the role of digital media are other prominent themes (Butler, 2020). In addition, health-related crises, the role of social media type, and extending and investigating the type of crisis/disaster/risk are the most prominent trends in the literature (Wut et al., 2021).

Results

3.1. Description of health-crisis literature

     Table 2 summarizes the inspected articles categorized by journal, disease type, and industry. More studies were found in the tourism field than in the hospitality field. The International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM) had the highest number of COVID-19-related publications, followed by Current Issues in Tourism (CIT) and Tourism Geographies (TG). All three of these journals launched special issues regarding COVID-19, making their prominence unsurprising. Consistent with the focuses of the journals, most articles published in the IJHM fell within the hospitality context. Tourism-based articles outnumbered hospitality-context articles in both CIT and TG.

Abstract

     This paper leverages natural language processing, spatial analysis, and statistical analysis to examine the relationship between restaurants’ safety violations and COVID-19 cases. We used location-based consumers’ complaints data during the early stage of business reopening in Florida, USA. First, statistical analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between restaurants’ safety violations and COVID-19 transmission. Second, a neural network-based deep learning model was developed to perform topic modeling based on consumers’ complaints. Third, spatial modeling of the complaints’ geographic distributions was performed to identify the hotspots of consumers’ complaints and COVID-19 cases. The results reveal a positive relationship between consumers’ complaints about restaurants’ safety violations and COVID-19 cases. In particular, consumers’ complaints about personal protection measures had the highest correlation with COVID-19 cases, followed by environmental safety measures. Our analytical methods and findings shed light on customers’ behavioral shifts and hospitality businesses’ adaptive practices during a pandemic.

Introduction

     The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly impacted the hospitality industry. Business closures, lockdowns, businesses’ capacity control, and travel restrictions have caused an immediate downturn in the hospitality market with potential long-term consequences (Baum and Hai, 2020, Huang et al., 2020). In the United States, most states mandated stay-at-home orders during the first week of April 2020 and allowed businesses to reopen in late April or early May 2020. Immediately after reopening, May and June of 2020 witnessed an upsurge in COVID-19 cases (New York Times, 2020). It was found that 25% of the COVID-19 cases were linked to visits to bars and restaurants (Foster & Mundell, 2020). The ongoing outbreaks have pressured many states such as Florida to reclose bars and restaurants for another short period to curb the fast transition of the disease (Siemaszko, 2020).

     The restaurant industry is one of the most affected industries amid amid a the COVID-19 pandemic (Huang et al., 2021, Gössling et al., 2020). Fears and worries about catching the COVID-19 disease were amplified in food and beverage establishments due to the high-contact nature (Chen & Eyoun, 2021). As the economy reopened, restaurants needed to redesign their business operations to offer consumers higher safety and security standards using flexible service and payment mechanisms. For example, contactless menus, mobile payment systems, on-site sanitizers, routine sanitization practices, and screening diners were implemented by food and beverage establishments to encourage customers to dine out (Dube et al., 2020). Despite growing research on restaurants’ adaptive strategies in such swiftly changing environments, a general halo of uncertainty still lingers about how to enhance restaurants’ quality of service and consumers’ satisfaction while reducing COVID-19 transmission.

Discussion and conclusion

     This research utilized multiple models and approaches to investigate customers’ complaints about restaurants’ safety violations and their correlation with COVID-19 transmission during the pandemic. Thematic analysis and natural language processing modeling were adopted to assess the types of violations. Of the six types of complaints about restaurants, employees’ personal protection (e.g., wearing masks and gloves) and restaurants’ environmental safety (e.g., social distancing) were customers’ major concerns. Statistical analysis confirmed the positive relationship between complaints about restaurants’ violations and the COVID-19 cases. In addition, spatial analysis was performed to identify the hotspots of COVID-19 cases and restaurants’ safety violations at the county level. The findings were consistent with Lee et al.’s (2019) study, suggesting that higher occurrences of food safety violations can be found at tourist destinations. The findings also confirmed the results from Yang et al. (2020), which showed that fast-food restaurants overall receive fewer complaints regarding safety violations than indoor dining services due to the flexibility of food delivery options.

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

3. Methodology

4. Results

5. Conclusions and implications

Author statement

Acknowledgement

References

Abstract

Hotel interns’ satisfaction with the internship may play a significant role in determining their intention to develop a career in the hospitality industry. Factors that affect hotel interns’ satisfaction and career intention are thus important to be identified in linking hospitality education to industry human resource needs. This study aims to identify the key factors that affect job satisfaction and career intention of hotel interns in China. Data were collected through a survey on hospitality management students in three Chinese universities. Factor analysis identified seven factors that influence students’ satisfaction with internship experience and their career intention; these include internship achievements, mentorship and assessment, interpersonal relationships, compensation, hotel features, hotel internship programming, and curriculum requirements. Regression results indicated that internship achievements, curriculum requirements, hotel internship programming, and mentorship and assessment significantly influenced interns’ satisfaction with internship experience, while curriculum requirements, interpersonal relationships, and internship achievements significantly affected career intention. The study provides empirical insights to guide hotel internship program design and practices.

1. Introduction

Hospitality management emerges as a tertiary degree study program attracting a significant number of students in colleges and universities across the globe. Due to the practice-oriented nature of careers in the hospitality industry, hotel internship has become an important part of curriculum design in higher degree hospitality programs (Chen, Shen, & Gosling, 2018). Internships allow students to undergo comprehensive training, master applied knowledge, acquire analytical and problem-solving skills, and develop a practical process to apply knowledge into the workplace (Collins, 2002; Jiang & Tribe, 2009). In addition, internships also prepare students to enter the job market by cultivating students’ work attitude and professional cognition (Dickerson, 2009; Zopiatis, 2007), thus improving their employability.

Hospitality management is a degree program offered in many Chinese universities. With the boom of the hospitality industry in China, hospitality management has become a popular subject area of higher learning in colleges and universities. By the end of 2017, around one thousand Chinese higher learning institutes had established hospitality management as a degree program, and the number of enrollment majoring in hospitality had reached nearly 60,000 (CNTA, 2018). Over the years, hospitality management programs in China’s universities have trained many hotel professionals for the industry, making a major contribution to the industry’s development through providing the talent needed. Despite the booming growth of hospitality management programs and number of students enrolled in these programs in China, there has been a notable “disequilibrium of supply and demand” between the hospitality education sector and the industry (Wu, 2004, p. 22). While there are increasing numbers of students majoring in hospitality and tourism degrees in China, few of these graduates eventually commit their careers in the hospitality and tourism industry (Song & Wang, 2008). Hotel internship provides trial experiences of working in the hospitality industry and has become an integrative component of a higher degree hospitality management program in China. Therefore, it is important to seek solutions to manage these internship programs to better meet the industry talent needs.

Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Findings

3.1. Phase 1: pre-event and early symptom

3.2. Phase 2: emergency

3.3. Phase 3: crisis

3.4. Phase 4: recovery

3.5. Phase 5: resolutions

4. Toward a refined pandemic crisis management framework for the hotel sector

5. Conclusion & future research

References

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has long-lasting impacts that require the hotel sector to revise, innovate and transform their businesses. However, the literature related to this area remains vastly under-developed. Based on 219 articles collected from global news media and an integrated crisis management framework, this research note map out “strategic responses” from the hotel sector and suggest implications for hotels to address the evolving pandemic situation. Three modifications were proposed to refine and further develop a pandemic crisis management framework.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the hotel sector with a projected loss outweighing all previous crises combined, including the 9/11 terrorism attack, 2008 recession or SARS epidemic (Oxford Economics, 2020). The average revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) fell by nearly 90 % in the second quarter of 2020 and is forecasted to continuously decline due to travel bans and tourists’ fear of being stranded (Courtney, 2020). There is thus an urgent need for practical guiding frameworks that could assist the hotel sector in becoming more resilient during and after the pandemic.

Although there exists a growing body of literature on crisis management, the current models tend to suggest a “one size fits all” approach, often overlooking the fact that crises vary largely in duration, scale and impacts (Speakman and Sharpley, 2012). Besides being more tourism-focused (as opposed to hospitality-focused), these models are also mainly conceptual, rarely tested empirically and do not propose practical strategies to address specific crisis such as a global pandemic (Ritchie and Jiang, 2019). This research note, therefore, seeks to initiate discussions towards the development of a more practical and refined pandemic crisis management framework for the hotel sector. Utilizing global news media sources, strategic responses of hotels are collected, analyzed and mapped out via an integrated strategic crisis management model (Ritchie, 2004; Wang and Ritchie, 2011). The note thus also makes practical contributions by identifying “strategic responses” that have been adopted by the hotel sector in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Literature review and hypotheses

3. Research method

4. Analysis and results

5. Discussion and conclusions

Funding details

Declaration of Competing Interest

Appendix A. Direct effects

References

Abstract

This study analyzes the influence of quality management practices on organizational ambidexterity and on performance, and the mediating role of ambidexterity in the relationship between quality management practices and performance in the hotel industry. The paper uses Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis based on data from 365 Spanish hotels. The results show that quality management practices favor the development of organizational ambidexterity, that is, they help balance exploitation and exploration activities, and this contributes to improving hotel performance. Moreover, ambidexterity acts as a partial mediator between quality management practices and hotel performance. These findings imply that quality management practices can create an appropriate organizational context to simultaneously develop both service improvements (exploitative innovations) and service innovations (explorative innovations). This paper contributes to theory by developing new knowledge regarding quality management as a facilitator of ambidexterity, and the mediating role of ambidexterity in the relationship between quality management and hotel performance.

1. Introduction

Organizational ambidexterity refers to a firm’s ability to develop both the exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties (March, 1991). Exploitation of current resources and capabilities is needed to increase competitiveness in the current market, whereas exploration prepares for dealing with future needs (Asif and De Vries, 2015). Both activities are essential for organizations to achieve long-term performance (Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996). Nevertheless, the literature on organizational ambidexterity points out that the activities of exploration and exploitation compete for scarce resources and create paradoxical challenges, because they require substantially different structures, processes, strategies, capabilities, and cultures (Backström, 2017; He and Wong, 2004). Consequently, it could be difficult for organizations to reach a high degree of exploration and exploitation simultaneously (Asif and De Vries, 2015).