Prakash K. Chathoth

Strategic management research in hospitality and tourism: past, present and future.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to review the hospitality and tourism strategy literature to identify trends related to key topical areas of research. The study objectives include identifying hospitality and tourism strategy challenges; presenting a synthesis of frequent strategy topics; and identifying opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach – Earlier studies in the hospitality strategy literature were reviewed and synthesized to identify trends, gaps and opportunities. Findings – Hospitality strategy research continues to improve and extend the boundaries of strategic thought in the hospitality literature. In assessing the literature from 1980 to 2013, it was apparent that the literature was following the mainstream trend of combining theoretical perspectives to some degree as well as applying more process-based concepts to hospitality strategy research. There were several challenges for propelling hospitality strategy research forward; these included the educational infras...

Core Curricular Issues in Hospitality and Tourism Education - Present Structure and Future Directions

In this study, the authors examine the current structure of core curricula across 44 hospitality and tourism management schools in the United States from an organizational ecology perspective and propose a structure for programs to consider from the context of environmental forces that are driving change, so as to streamline core course offerings across programs. The authors posit that such an approach would standardize the quality of education and improve the output of hospitality and tourism management programs while providing a framework for hospitality and tourism educators to consider during curriculum formulation and revision.

An Interactional Approach to Organizations’ Success in Socializing Their Intern Newcomers: The Role of General Self-Efficacy and Organizational Socialization Inventory

Using an interactionist approach, this study examined the effects of the general self-efficacy (GSE) and the organizational socialization inventory (OSI) domains, as well as the GSE × OSI domains on tourism and hospitality organizations’ success—newcomer perceived general job satisfaction (GJS) and intent to return (ITR)—in socializing their intern newcomers. The sample included 352 senior tourism and hospitality undergraduates from two institutions of higher education in tourism and hospitality in China’s Hainan Island who just experienced organizational socialization in their respective placement organizations. Results indicated that intern newcomers’ GJS and ITR can be significantly predicted by GSE and all OSI domains, respectively; that GJS can be incrementally explained by all the interactions between GSE and the four OSI domains, except for the GSE × OSI_training; and that ITR can be incrementally explained by the interactions of GSE × OSI_training and GSE × OSI_future prospect. The study’s findings as well as their theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the context of organizational socialization research, GSE-related social cognitive career theory and core self-evaluation theory, and human resource development practices in tourism and hospitality organizations.

Strategic Management in Hospitality and Tourism

In Chapter 1, we introduced the topic of strategic management, with discussions on the historical origins of strategy and the writings of classic authors. We also discussed the dominant strategic management schools of thought. We believe that the first chapter is particularly important for the reader in terms of providing a foundation for discussions and debates in the following chapters.

The effects of festival impacts on support intentions based on residents’ ratings of festival performance and satisfaction: a new integrative approach

Festivals can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism. It is therefore necessary to examine the impacts of festival tourism as well as their consequences in order to manage their relevance to the local community. The lack of a multiple mediation approach, however, has hampered research on the psycho-social process through which festival impacts (perceived benefits, costs, and affective impact) influence resident support. We propose a new integrative approach in which resident-rated festival performance and satisfaction are putative mediators that transmit the effects of the three festival impacts to support for future festivals. The theoretical foundations of this integrative approach or model are jointly built on social exchange theory, the affective theory of social exchange, and the theory of reasoned action. The integrative model was successfully validated using eight sample festivals within China, which included 353 observations with 10,000 bootstraps. The empirical findings reveal that 14 out of the 17 hypotheses received empirical support in this study, and it thereby contributes significantly to new understanding in the literature.

Managerial Perceptions of Information Technology and their Impact from a Transaction Cost Perspective

ABSTRACT This article addresses the questions of how hotel managers perceive the impact of information technology (IT) on hotel service operations, particularly transaction costs, and whether its impact on these costs affects the decision-making framework. A multiple case study approach using a two-stage interview process was adopted. This comprised a closed, fixed-response questionnaire administered to a group of managers followed by a standardized, open-ended interview intended to capture both objective and subjective views. Although the managers objectively identified a positive impact for IT, their subjective views indicated that this impact is only superficial. This gap points to the existence of bounded rationality in managerial decision making about state-of-the-art IT systems.

Career Choice Goals: The Contribution of Vocational Interests, Contextual Support, and Contextual Barrier

Based on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) (Lent & Brown, 2006; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000), this study empirically investigated the influences of vocational interests, environmental support, and barrier on career choice intentions to working in hospitality and tourism organizations among the fourth‐year undergraduate tourism and hospitality college (UTHC) students in Hainan Island of China. Three hundred and ten fourth‐year UTHC students from two institutions of tourism higher education on the island formed the sample group. Following SCCT theory, blocks of the vocational interests, contextual supports, and contextual barriers were, sequentially, entered into a hierarchical regression predicting the level of career choice goals. With the addition of each block, R2 rose, significantly, from 0.354, to 0.386, and to 0.410 for the total sample. Also, briefly discussed are the studys findings as well as their implications from a tourism and hospitality human resources management perspective. 基于社会认知职业选择理论(简称“SCCT”理论)(Lent & Brown, 2006; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000)，本研究提出了大学生职业兴趣和环境支持与环境障碍对其职业选择目标的直接影响模型。然后，以中国海南岛两所高等院校310名旅游管理专业四年级本科生(简称“UTHC”学生)为例，对该模型进行了实证检验。在研究方法上，本研究采用层级多元回归分析法，依次将职业兴趣类、环境支持类和环境障碍类自变量进入回归模型建立线性回归方程，对职业选择目标(因变量)之变异的解释力指标R2分别显著性地从 35.4%，增加到38.64%，再增加到 41.0%。据此，SCCT 理论和本研究所提出的相应的研究假设，得到了支持性的验证。最后，本文就这些研究假设成立的原因以及上述研究发现对如何有效开发和管理好旅游业潜在的UTHC人力资源的问题，也进行了简要的探讨。

Testing and Developing the Environment Risk Construct in Hospitality Strategy Research

The study of environment risk as a construct in strategy research has been mostly conducted in the context of events that occur in the environment of enterprises. Moreover, prior studies in hospitality strategy research have captured managers’ perceptions of their environment and its impact on firm business strategy, organizational structure, and performance. In this study, the authors develop an approach to model environment events by measuring the risk factors using indicators of a ratio scale and by testing the risk effects on the firm vis-à-vis corporate strategies, capital structure, and performance. The dimensions of the environment risk construct and their measures are developed and then tested with regard to their relationship to the performance of the firm.The results of this research suggest that proxies of environment risk account for a significant variation in the firm’s strategy and its performance.

Lodging industry competitive strategies: Developing a multidimensional causal empirical model to test the relationship between strategy and performance

Abstract Over the past two decades, hospitality strategy researchers have made several attempts to develop models aimed at capturing the competitive strategies of hospitality firms. These efforts, although comprehensive in their own respect, were unable to verify the applicability of models proposed by Porter (1980) and Miles and Snow (1978) to the hospitality industry. The objective of this article is to develop a multidimensional causal model for the lodging industry, primarily using Porter (1980, 1985), that addresses the complexity and multivariate nature of relationships making up the strategy construct. This model, once tested, will provide lodging strategic business unit managers an overall strategic orientation as well as a resource allocation decision framework for their firms.

International Expansion Strategy of Foodservice Firms: An Exploratory Study

This article delves into international expansion strategy formation and evolution in the field of hospitality, responding to calls for more theoretical research on the subject. The article reviews the literature and develops propositions regarding how internationalization strategy, in terms of both its content and process of formation, is affected by existing competitive strategy and time horizon after foreign market entry. The practical applications of the propositions are illustrated with three case studies of Hong Kong foodservice firms. The findings support the thesis that foodservice firms tend to formulate a global strategy at the outset of foreign market entry using a top-down approach.