Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research current issue

A World Ranking of the Top 100 Hospitality and Tourism Programs

Severt, D. E., Tesone, D. V., Bottorff, T. J., Carpenter, M. L. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

The article provides an analysis of scholarly contributions to 11 hospitality and tourism refereed journals for the years 2002 to 2006. It presents the top 100 programs as ranked by instances of publications across 11 journals for a recent 5-year period. For the 5-year period, results indicate The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the top position based on sums of instances, authors, and articles. Second, the researchers updated, modified, and extended a previous study published by the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research for similar information for the years 1992 to 2001. Following the update, an additional 15-year aggregate snapshot of research output for top producing institutions provided a top 18 over the last 15-year period. Next, researchers provide an updated analysis by contribution and world region among the specific journals with results indicating a large growth in the number of articles produced in Asia going from 6% of all publications over the earlier 10-year period from 1992 through 2001 to nearly 15% of published articles over the past 5-year period from 2002 through 2006. The article concludes with suggestions for the extension of similar studies and provides implications for hospitality and tourism educators.

Dining for Safety: Consumer Perceptions of Food Safety and Eating Out

Knight, A. J., Worosz, M. R., Todd, E. C. D. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

This study investigates whether perceptions about food safety are related to how often consumers eat at restaurants. More specifically, it examines how the following affect the frequency of eating at restaurants: (a) concern about food safety issues, (b) food safety performance of restaurants, (c) how often consumers think about food safety, (d) the belief of having had food poisoning, (e) knowledge about food safety, and (f) sociodemographic variables. Using data from a nationwide telephone survey conducted with 1,014 randomly selected U.S. adults, the results indicated that perceptions of food safety do influence how often consumers eat at restaurants. Concern about food safety issues, thinking about food safety, and having experienced food poisoning were related to frequency of dining out. When comparing those who eat at restaurants rarely, occasionally, and often, most of the significant differences were between those who eat at restaurants rarely and those who dine out occasionally or often.

The Roles of the Physical Environment, Price Perception, and Customer Satisfaction in Determining Customer Loyalty in the Restaurant Industry

Han, H., Ryu, K. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

This research aims to examine the relationships among three components of the physical environment (i.e., décor and artifacts, spatial layout, and ambient conditions), price perception, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the restaurant industry. A total of 279 cases from a survey were used to assess overall fit of the proposed model and test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The three factors of the physical environment strongly influenced how customers perceived price, and this price perception, in turn, enhanced customer satisfaction level and directly/indirectly influenced customer loyalty. Décor and artifacts were the most significant predictors of price perception among the three components of the physical environment. Furthermore, both price perception and customer satisfaction played significant partial/complete mediating roles in the proposed model. The paper provides potential ways for restaurateurs to increase customer loyalty by improving their understanding of the roles of physical environment, price perception, and customer satisfaction.

Activity-Based Costing in the Hospitality Industry: Evidence From Greece

Pavlatos, O., Paggios, I. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

The purpose of this article is to provide some empirical evidence of the current general trends regarding the practical consideration, adoption, and use of activity-based costing (ABC) in the hospitality industry. To this end, a survey was conducted with 85 firms of the Greek hotel sector with the use of questionnaires. Results showed that the adoption rate of an ABC system could be considered rather satisfactory. For the hotels that have adopted ABC, the survey showed that they apply it throughout all the core areas of management accounting, especially in pricing decisions and customer’s profitability analysis. The nonusers reported that the main reason for rejecting it is the satisfaction of the existing cost accounting system and the high cost of an ABC implementation.

Country Club Members' Perceptions of Value, Image Congruence, and Switching Costs: an Exploratory Study of Country Club Members' Loyalty

Back, K.-J., Lee, J.-S. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships among perceived value, member satisfaction, switching costs, and member loyalty in the country club industry. In particular, this study sought to ascertain the mediating role of member satisfaction in the relationships centered on value—loyalty and image congruence—loyalty and the moderating role of switching costs in the member satisfaction—loyalty relationship. The results revealed a significant mediating effect of member satisfaction, whereas switching costs did not play a significant moderating role in the member satisfaction—loyalty relationship. Findings from this study will enhance understanding of how to cultivate club member loyalty.

The Use of Acceptable Customer Waiting Times for Capacity Management in a Multistage Restaurant

Hwang, J., Lambert, C. U. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT

This study took an integrated approach to restaurant capacity management by capturing major types of capacity and multiple stages of service and incorporating customers’ expectations. A simulation was used to measure the current restaurant’s performance in meeting the waiting time standards and to identify the threshold requirements of resources to meet the different levels of customer expectations of waiting times. The results showed that the current restaurant needed to adjust capacity levels to meet the customer service standards, and more than one combination of multiresource thresholds existed because the threshold level of each resource varied with the other types of resources.

Research Conferences

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:48:43 PDT