Norzuwana Sumarjan

Incongruent Quality Management Perceptions Between Malaysian Hotel Managers and Employees

Purpose – Using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria, the purpose of this study is to compare perceptions of Malaysian hotel quality managers (HQMs) and employees on leadership and workforce practices.Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methods approach was used. Questionnaires were distributed to 35 HQMs and 576 employees of three‐, four‐, and five‐star hotels. Interviews were conducted with HQMs. Descriptive statistics, t‐test, and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. All interviews were transcribed, hand coded, and analyzed for themes.Findings – Compared to hotel employees, HQMs had higher scores for all leadership and workforce items. Comparing managers’ perceptions revealed a statistically significant difference between three‐ and four‐star with five‐star hotels on developing explicit quality policies and measurable objectives. For employees, there were statistically significant differences for most of the questionnaire items between three‐ and four‐star with ...

An Investigation of Brand Experience on Brand Attachment, Knowledge, and Trust in the Lodging Industry

ABSTRACT With the increase of tourists to many destinations, the local lodging industry sector is facing intense challenges. The reassurance of name-brand accommodation helps travelers feel more at ease in a new environment and guarantee them a positive lodging experience. This study examines how travelers’ experiences with name-brand hotels influence their attachment to, knowledge of, and trust in brand names. Specifically, brand experience was identified as a holistic concept, incorporating sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual aspects. The results show the significant, positive relationships between brand experience and brand-related variables (brand knowledge, brand attachment, and brand trust). This study provides a foundation for future research investigating tourists’ lodging choices and suggests strategies for hotel brand managers.

Movie Touring: The Influence of Film on Viewers’ Travel Intention

Screen tourism has played a significant role in expanding the number of tourists hoping to visit destination(s) portrayed in films and TV series. Therefore, identifying the drivers of screen tourism and understanding their effects on the tourism industry is crucial for destination managers. However, studies on-screen tourism, particularly in Malaysia, are limited and scarce. This study thus attends to a gap within screen tourism to identify potential factors that encourage viewers’ visitation to a film location(s). In order to achieve this, the relationship between screen tourism and travel intention has been investigated. Using a quantitative research design with a structured questionnaire, the researchers distributed 300 online questionnaires, acquiring 176 usable responses. The respondents consist of Malaysian viewers who watched films that feature a particular destination within a 6-month period. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to confirm the proposed hypotheses. Place, performance, and personality were identified as the pull factors of screen tourism. This study confirmed past empirical evidence supporting the effects of the 3P Pull Factor theory on viewers’ travel intentions. Additionally, it was found that the respondents were aware of the linkage between tourism and the film industry, which further supports the significant role that films play in influencing viewers’ travel intentions.

The managerial competencies required by Indonesia’s leading hotel groups: A preliminary investigation

This study investigates contents from the websites of leading hotel groups in Indonesia which specify the competencies that are required by star hotels for potential managerial level recruits. This preliminary investiga-tion identified a list of competencies that are expected by hotels and incorporated them into Sandwiths competency domain model with a view to determining the essential competencies. The results showed that leader-ship and interpersonal competencies were deemed as the most expected competencies at both junior and senior management levels. The identified competencies may be used as a basis for providing a better understanding of hotel manager competencies as a foundation for improving hospitality curricula in Indonesia.

Tourism development and local community empowerment

The purpose of the study is to describe the Gen Z perception towards the effect of green hotel practices on service quality. To attain the goal, a purposive judgment sampling was used where twenty students from the hospitality management study program have been selected as the participants of a Focus Group Discussions (FGD). The result of the study shows favorable findings towards the green hotel practices, from the students who could be the potential future customer group or as the potential future employees group. This result may motivate the hotel industry to communicate more intensively their green hotel concept implementation to their stakeholders.

Tour operators’ information and communication technology adoption in Malaysia

The major shift in the international travel industry business strategies is attributable to the progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Conversely, the capability of Tour Operators to remain in the travel industry, regardless of the fast changes in ICT, has become a current debateable issue. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the type of ICT adoption patterns among Tour Operators in the Central Region of Malaysia. Descriptive research designs were employed using questionnaire as the data collection method. Predefined questionnaires were distributed to Tour Operators through random sampling, via online surveys and face-to-face, located in Wilayah Persekutuan and Selangor, Malaysia. SPSS software application assists in data analysis process. The result reveals the types of ICTs adopted by Tour Operators in the Central Region of Malaysia according to the five categories of ICT adoption.

The relationship between green practice and green trust of five-star hotel segment

The importance of education of sustainability became more prominent in higher learning institutions of developed nations in the form of research and policy setting since the publication of the United Nations’ Decade for Education for Sustainable Development report. On the other hand, this movement has yet to advance as effectively in developing and emerging countries. In line with the crucial need to expand the understanding of environmental studies in higher learning institution in Malaysia, this conceptual paper proposes to gauge students’ grasp on sustainability issues by employing the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI) as measurement scale. This instrument was designed to evaluate the psychological tendency in favour or disfavour towards the conservation of the natural environment, constructed on two factors: preservation and utilization. The findings will provide insight into theoretical knowledge discussion and practical recommendations in actions that can be undertaken to promote sustainability on campus.

Unlocking tourist shopping preferences on souvenir attributes

Food service business in Surabaya has experienced a significant growth. As such, it is essential for the management to take into account factors that influence consumers’ behavioural intentions. The over¬arching aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three major dining experience aspects, namely: food quality, service quality, and physical dining environment on consumer perceived value and behavioural inten¬tions. In total, 3096 samples were approached at 25 restaurants and cafes to participate in the questionnaire-based survey. The result showed that the quality of food was found to be the major antecedent that significantly influenced consumer perceived value when they went dining-out at the restaurants and cafes. Further, con-sumer perceived value was proven to have a positive significant effect on consumers’ behavioural intentions.

Revisited Diffusion Theory: A Conceptual Framework for International Printing Standard Adoption in Malaysia

This paper discusses on international adoption of printing standards (PS) and its relation to business performance by focusing on commercial printing companies in the category of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The current trend in the printing industry recalled the importance of trust and confidence among clients in order to achieve quality printing products. However, there are many commercial printing companies which are facing problems to meet customers’ demands, especially in achieving desired printing color on printed products. At the same time, most researchers agreed that by adopting the international printing standard, they are able to provide benefits to the printers through the improvement of quality and productivity. This study will revisit and discuss the theory of diffusion of innovation, which stated the five perceived attributes such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability in order to determine the rate of adoption and whether the organization would adopt or reject the innovation. At the end of this paper, we suggested a research framework to initiate the development of understanding and implementation of quality management through adoption of international printing standardization practices. Quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to collect data, where a survey through a close-ended questionnaire will be conducted among production employees. On the other hand, tools for investigation of the five influencing factors, the benefits and challenges of adopting the standard, and the strategies to implement PS were conducted by interviews with professionals in the same field. For future studies, it is expected that the understanding of innovation among SMEs based on this framework will bring better strategies on their recourse toward business performance.