Melissa A. Baker

Eco-friendly Attitudes, Barriers to Participation, and Differences in Behavior at Green Hotels

A deeper understanding of customers’ desire for and participation in green activities can lead to organizations designing more efficient and effective green programs. This research finds that the guests’ assessment of the importance of being environmentally friendly has the greatest effect on their intention to stay in a green hotel. Second, the research identifies the following customer barriers to participation: inconvenience, perceptions of cost cutting, and decreased luxury—all of which significantly affect consumers’ intention to stay at a green hotel or pay more for a room in such a hotel. Third, the results show that customers believe that hotels should have certain green practices, but did not consider it important to stay in a hotel that actually maintains the thirteen green practices tested here. Fourth, the results find that customers behave with greater environmental responsibility at home than they do in a hotel. Among the implications of these findings is the idea that hotel managers’ communications and actions must be relevant to guests’ concerns by educating customers, increasing convenience to participate in green programs, and decreasing perceptions of cost cutting.

The frontline provider's appearance: a driver of guest perceptions.

Based on a study that compared photographs of models, hotel guests ascribe greater assurance ability to clean-shaven men, and to men and women who smile and are attractive. For unknown reasons, the facial hair effect holds for Caucasian men, but not for African-American men. This study presented photographs of Caucasian men in one set of treatment conditions, and African-American men in another set to compare the two sets of men regarding facial attractiveness, genuine smiling, and effects of facial hair. The theoretical contribution of this research is the identification of the effects of these facial attributes on assurance perceptions. The practical implications of these findings are as follows: (1) Except under special circumstances, hotel firms should not permit their employees to wear beards; (2) hotel firms should incorporate genuine smiling training in their customer service training and should evaluate frontline provider smiling with programs such as mystery shopping; and (3) within appropriate legal and ethical boundaries, hotel firms should put in place, manage, and enforce grooming policies that could influence the facial attractiveness ratings of their employees.

The Impacts of Service Provider Name, Ethnicity, and Menu Information on Perceived Authenticity and Behaviors

Tangible cues are critical indicators of customer perceptions of authenticity and behavioral intentions. Few studies examine multiple dimensions of authenticity, the influence of language in service settings, and the effects of the service provider appearance. This research addresses these gaps by presenting two between-subjects experimental design studies, the first examines the tangible cues of menu presentation (menu item name and item description), and the second examines the tangible cues of the employee (ethnicity and name). Both measure customer perceptions of food, culture, and employee authenticity, customer revisit intentions, and willingness to pay more in an ethnic restaurant. Results find that using an ethnic menu name and possessing employees of referent ethnic origin have the largest impacts on customer perceptions of authenticity. Additionally, food authenticity has the largest impact on revisit intention and culture and employee authenticity have the largest impact on willingness to pay more.

Dining in the City: Server Behaviors, Time Preferences, and the Effect of Urbanization in Restaurants

In this research the authors examine the importance of server behaviors and time expectations of restaurant patrons through analysis of consumer preferences in an urban and less urbanized market. Results indicate the dimensions of sanitation and accommodation are most important to both samples. Server responsiveness, friendliness, knowledge, time between arriving and seating, and time between receiving a menu and order taken are statistically different for these two groups. Managerial implications note that foodservice providers with multiple units across the United States may not want to use a one-size-fits-all service delivery model as the importance of server behaviors and time expectations varies by urbanization.

The evolution of services marketing, hospitality marketing and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing

Purpose This paper aims to synthesize the services marketing and hospitality marketing literature, identify a gap in hospitality specific marketing models and develop the constituency model for hospitality marketing. Design/methodology/approach This study is a research through extensive review of relevant literature in hospitality marketing and services marketing. Findings This paper presents the constituency model of hospitality marketing which conceptualizes hospitality marketing activities as being predominately either external marketing (links between management and target market segments), interactional marketing (links between frontline providers and target market segments) or internal marketing (links between management and frontline providers). According to this model, each of these three areas has planning, implementation and control functions. Research limitations/implications Builds upon the hospitality literature by presenting the constituency model. Practical implications Practitioners, marketers and academics in the field of hospitality will find this useful in guiding the future growth of hospitality marketing literature and related pedagogy. The aim of this paper is to stimulate dialogue regarding the dominant paradigm in the field. Originality/value This research examines the hospitality and services marketing and presents a new model for hospitality marketing.

How the Employee Looks and Looks at You: Building Customer–Employee Rapport:

Despite the prominence of customer–employee relationships in service contexts, little empirical research examines the antecedents of rapport in relation to service providers’ attributes. Furthermore, while prior studies examine only piecemeal aspects of employee attributes, this research uses a more encompassing approach by considering multiple attributes simultaneously. The results from a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design suggest that employee eye contact and courtesy are critical components of building customer–employee rapport, and subsequently customer satisfaction, while appearance surprisingly did not affect customer–employee rapport. A significant interaction effect between employee eye contact and courtesy was found. The findings build on the rapport literature and have important managerial implications for high-contact services, such as hospitality and tourism.

Other Customer Service Failures: Emotions, Impacts, and Attributions:

While customer-to-customer interactions are frequent in hospitality and tourism settings, very little research investigates the effects of other customers and other customer-generated service failures. Using the critical incident technique, this research builds on theory and provides important managerial implications in the areas of other customers, attributions, and service failure. Results find that customers experience emotions, including anger, frustration, and sympathy. In addition, even though customers attribute that the other customers are responsible for the failure, they still formed negative perceptions and behaviors toward the firm. Third, results find that management often did nothing to recover from the failure, which further exacerbated negative perceptions and behaviors.

Customer Acceptance, Barriers, and Preferences in the U.S.

While insect consumption occurs and is accepted throughout the world, acceptance and adoption of entomophagy is particularly low in the United States. This chapter investigates the current state of customer acceptance of edible insects in the United States, potential market segments, barriers to insect consumption, and marketing initiatives to minimize risk and maximize benefits. For customer acceptance in the U.S., cultural factors play a large role in low adoption. Potential market segments include consumers that are health conscious, environmentally conscious, and seek exciting, new, and novel food experiences. The major barriers to insect consumption include cultural barriers, food neophobia, perceptions of disgust, and risk factors. Therefore, it is important to investigate the marketing initiatives that can best minimize risk and maximize benefits such as image and description marketing, education, and public policy.

Edible Insects Uses in South Korean Gastronomy: “Korean Edible Insect Laboratory” Case Study

The aim of this chapter is to explain changes in South Korean gastronomy involving edible insects. This chapter begins by exploring the past use of edible insects in the Korean diet; identifying the reasons for their decreasing portion of Koreans’ diets. Then, it investigates the current use of edible insects by using a case study from the Korean Edible Insect Laboratory (KEIL). Using this case study, this chapter highlights how to overcome consumer resistance and involve wider ranges of stakeholders in order to increase the sustainable edible insect food system. This chapter ends by projecting future changes in Korean gastronomy and the use of edible insects.

The Support of Local Underdogs: System Justification Theory Perspectives:

Despite the copious anecdotal evidence available, research only recently examines the multidimensional dynamics associated with underdog brands and their essential, complex place in the business world. This research seeks to better conceptualize, operationalize, and refine the theories and constructs surrounding underdogs. The study conducts two 2 × 2 × 2 quasi-experimental between-subjects design studies to fulfill these objectives. Study 1 is designed to confirm that brand localness needs to be separated from underdog concepts as both brand cues distinctively prompt customers’ purchase activism depending on their political orientations. Study 2 extends the system justification theory by replicating Study 1 using a different context and refining control variables to better understand other potential explanations of customer behavior toward underdog/localness brand cues. The results indicate that brand positioning status and brand localness both have main effects on intent to purchase and willingness to pay a price premium. Furthermore, results find political orientation is an important moderator in determining whether customers purchase underdog brands.