Manisha Singal

The Link between Firm Financial Performance and Investment in Sustainability Initiatives

While sustainability initiatives by firms are increasingly encouraged by customers, investors, and the government, the economics of sustainable decisions remains in question. The study described in this paper examines the link between sustainability and economic performance for the hospitality industry, as compared with other businesses. Using data spanning 1991 through 2011 from MSCI’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Indices and credit ratings from Standard and Poor’s representing 16,325 firm-years, the analysis finds that hospitality firms on average invest more in environmental programs than do businesses in other industries; that hospitality firms have significantly fewer environmental concerns; that strong financial performance leads to increased investments; and that going green, in turn, pays off in future periods, creating a virtuous cycle. One implication is that hospitality firms should go forward confidently in establishing their sustainability programs, as it appears that customers support the effort financially.

The Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC) and Its Effect on the Quality-of-Life (QOL) of Destination Community

This chapter examines the connection between tourism area life cycle (TALC) and its effects on the quality-of-life (QOL) of destination communities. We posit that as destinations go through structural changes over time, the extent to which the dynamics of change affect the QOL of the resident community varies with the stages of the life cycle. The chapter consists of four major sections. After a brief introduction, the first section presents the concept of TALC and describes the development phases and the indicators that help understand tourism area development. The second section provides a brief discussion on the impact of tourism on the community in relation to TALC, which is then followed by the third section which focuses on the adjustment to change and maintaining the QOL of the community. Section four reviews related literature to support the relation between TALC and QOL of communities. The chapter ends with delineating critical issues for future research, outlining some of the difficulties moving forward, and formulating relevant policy implications that may help the researchers and destination management organizations to further examine the issues that may surround TALC and QOL connections.

Corporate social orientation in Japan and the USA: a cross‐cultural comparison

Purpose – The primary goal of this study is to conduct an empirical comparison of corporate social orientation (CSO) values held by US and Japanese students. The study also aims to test the stability of CSO with an exploratory assessment of the impact of international exposure on these values.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 806 respondents were surveyed in the USA and Japan regarding their expectations of business organizations, their demographic attributes, and their level of international exposure. The survey results were compared using descriptive statistics, MANOVA and ANOVA.Findings – The results support the assertion that CSO varies across individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Statistically significant differences were found between US and Japanese respondents in the relative ratings allocated to the four dimensions of CSO (economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations). Results also indicate that CSO is a fairly stable set of values. International exposure was not found t...

Is Diversity Management Related to Financial Performance in Family Firms

Policies and practices designed to foster diversity in organizations are now well integrated into a firm’s corporate strategy. In this article, we examine the role diversity management policies play in the financial performance of family firms, based on the premise that family firms have unique goals and governance structures that may affect the adoption of such policies. Using a longitudinal data set covering 952 publicly listed firms and multidimensional measures for diversity and financial performance, our empirical analyses suggest that family firms underperform nonfamily firms on diversity performance indicators. Interestingly, however, we find that the weaker diversity management practices of family firms may contribute to their robust financial performance.

Socially Responsible Customers and the Evaluation of Service Quality

Customers, increasingly, seem concerned about social and environmental issues that often affect their buying behavior and attitudes toward the quality of goods and services purchased. Despite this trend, there exists little empirical research regarding how socially responsible consumers evaluate services and service quality. In this study, we investigate the role that consumer attitudes toward social responsibility play in evaluating service quality. The results of factor analysis show that social responsibility is a salient dimension of service quality and that high socially responsible customers use the concept of social responsibility more pronouncedly than others when evaluating service quality. Our study contributes to the current literature on the evaluation of service quality by a growing customer segment and outlines implications for managers and for future research.

Does Franchising Alleviate Restaurants’ Vulnerability to Economic Conditions?

Although the implications of adopting a franchising strategy in the restaurant industry have been examined in previous literature, the role of franchising has mostly been viewed as a means of growth, without much attention paid to its role in reducing risk via alleviating earnings volatility. In this study, we examine whether, and to what extent, franchising in restaurant firms can reduce earnings volatility occurring due to fluctuating economic conditions. Our longitudinal analysis of publicly traded restaurant firms from 1994 to 2012 shows that, during changes in economic conditions, firms adopting a high degree of franchising face lower earnings volatility than firms that adopt a restricted degree of franchising. Our article contributes to the literature on restaurant franchising as a risk-management strategy while providing avenues for future research.

Firm Performance in the Hospitality Industry: Do CEO Attributes and Compensation Matter?:

Past research has shown mixed results regarding the role CEO compensation plays in influencing firm financial performance in the hospitality industry. To explore this relationship further, we concomitantly examine the role of compensation and CEO attributes like education, age, tenure, functional background, and gender on firm financial performance. Our analyses are based on secondary and hand-collected data from a large and comprehensive sample of U.S. publicly traded hospitality firms. The results from panel data analyses show that CEO cash compensation is positively related to return on assets, while equity compensation is unrelated to firm performance. We further find that when CEO compensation and attributes are jointly examined, CEO compensation has a relatively lower impact on firm performance than CEO attributes do. The results imply that the hospitality industry may want to reconsider its compensation practices in order to better align the interests of managers and shareholders and motivate managers to maximize firm value.

Cultural context orientation and recruitment message strategy: Evidence from hospitality students in the United States and Taiwan

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate and empirically test cross-cultural differences in preferences for employer communication. Using context orientation as a cultural dimension with respect to recruitment messages from employers, data were collected and analyzed from 350 college students as potential job seekers, from the United States and Taiwan. The findings suggest that individuals with a low-context orientation pay more attention to explicitly coded messages, while high-context orientated individuals are more aware of information that is internalized in the person or in the physical context. Implications and recommendations for hospitality recruitment message strategy and practice are outlined.