Radesh Palakurthi

Online distribution strategies and competition: are the global hotel companies getting it right?

Purpose – The internet has significantly changed the ways hotels distribute and price their products. The imminent success of online intermediaries caused financial problems for hotel chains since online travel agencies offered better prices than the hotel brand websites. The existing literature on hotel online distribution has focused on pricing strategies and room availability issues for different segments of hotels. This paper, however, aims to compare online room prices of global hotel chains across online distribution channels and their own brand websites.Design/methodology/approach – By using only the internet, 2,800 room rates were collected and analyzed. Descriptive statistics such as means and percentage were used to answer the research questions. Personal interviews with a CEO of an e‐business company and an area revenue director of a global hotel chain were conducted to confirm our findings and to gain additional insights in the related issues.Findings – Descriptive statistics indicated that US...

Applying customer equity to the convention industry

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the value a convention center provides its customers, the brand the center offers, and the importance of the customer/business relationship. Value, brand, and relationship equity (RE) are components of customer equity (CE).Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with meeting planners related to their experiences with top‐tier convention centers in the USA.Findings – Meeting planners confirmed value equity (VE) as the most important in the customer to business exchange. RE followed with brand equity (BE) as the least important of the three. Meeting planners identified the sub‐drivers of VE as location, quality and price received from the convention center. BE sub‐drivers included: reputation and the awareness of the convention center. RE sub‐drivers included: the interactions, responsiveness, and special treatment received from the convention center personnel. A CE model is presented.Practical implications – The application of the CE model...

The influence of demographic factors on consumer attitudes and intentions to use RFID technologies in the US hotel industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, education, income) on consumer attitudes and their intentions to use radio frequency identification (RFID) in the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative research methodology was used in this study. The methods used for this study are both descriptive and causal modeling tests. This research study used web‐survey method for collecting and analyzing data. The measurement model was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis using the maximum likelihood method and structural equation modeling was used to estimate the parameters of the structural model.Findings – The results indicate that there are few differences in consumer attitudes and intentions in terms of the demographic factors. It can be concluded that consumer differences can be associated with consumer attitudes that are determined by age. The results for demographic factors, gender, income, and education levels indicate no differ...

Navigating through tourism options: an island perspective

Purpose – Sustainable tourism demands a positivistic and holistic look at the true costs and benefits of the industry to host communities. To aid leaders in starting the process, the article proposes a tourism options navigation model looking at varying number of visitors, their average daily spend and leakages, on the socio‐economic, cultural and environmental landscape of island communities. The article aims to identify various tourism options, their expected effects and potential strategies to mitigating negative outcomes and to later apply the model to the case of the rural parish of St Thomas, Jamaica.Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objectives outlined a comprehensive review of related literature was conducted. The researcher interviewed six of Jamaicas national tourism leaders and analyzed their responses.Findings – It was posited that by employing strategies that impact the number of visitors to the area, their average daily spend and industry‐related economic import leakages, leaders...

Cultural influences on strategic behavior of hotel executives: masculinity and femininity.

As more hotel companies progressively internationalize their operations, the composition of their top management teams becomes more diversified. This necessitates the understanding of whether variations in strategic behavior and philosophy among these executives exist, which can be partially explained by differences in their national cultures. This article investigated the potential influence of masculinity on strategic behaviors by comparing hotel executives from three countries, the U.S., Thailand and Turkey. The findings indicated that executives associated with masculine cultures tended to use less involvement of others and less rationality in strategy development than their counterparts from feminine cultures. No differences were found regarding emphasis on content of strategic goals and openness to strategic change. Managerial implications and directions for future research are presented.

Elements that Influence the Implementation of Crisis Preparedness Measures by Meeting Planners

The purpose of this study was to analyse the adoption of crisis preparedness measures by meeting planners. The study sought to determine how the adoption of crisis preparedness measures relates to meeting planner characteristics and identify the elements that influence their adoption (or lack of adoption) of these measures. A survey of professional meeting planners identified significant differences in the frequency of use of some key core crisis preparedness measures. Additionally, 10 categories of elements influencing the adoption of or failure to adopt crisis preparedness measures were identified. The findings of this study should be of interest to meeting organizers and professionals who want to make their meetings more crisis prepared rather than crisis prone.

Individualism-collectivism insights into the strategic behavior of hotel managers.

This study investigated the potential influence of the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism on the approaches toward business strategy development. A total of 207 responses from hotel top executives from the United States, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey were analyzed quantitatively. The results demonstrated that differences between executives from cultures with varied degrees of emphasis on individualism were significant regarding openness to strategic change, strategy evaluation time horizons, involvement of others in the strategy development efforts, and criteria for strategy performance evaluation. The findings concerning the focus of strategic objectives and formality of strategic control were mixed. Implications of the findings for the international hotel companies are discussed, and limitations of the present study and venues for future research are provided.

Core Crisis Preparedness Measures Implemented by Meeting Planners

Prior research has indicated that less than half of professional meeting planners prepare a risk management plan for their meetings (Kline & Smith, 2006). This could be in part because of inadequate previous research identifying what meeting planners should be doing in order to be crisis prepared. The purpose of this study was to fill that empirical void by determining the crisis preparedness measures that meeting planners should adopt as well as the frequency that they are actually implemented. A total of 40 crisis preparedness measures were determined by a literature review and refined by a Delphi panel of experts. The adoption practice of these measures was assessed utilizing a survey of meeting planners and a factor analysis identified the five core crisis preparedness measures. The findings demonstrated the lack of consistent crisis preparedness by meeting planners and a need for further research into the reasons for the deficits.

An investigation of systematic risk determinants in the casino industry.

This study examined financial measures that constitute determinants of systematic risk in the casino industry. Multiple regression analysis, one-way ANOVA, and independent sample t-tests were conducted to analyze the measures. Leverage and liquidity were positively related to systematic risk yet growth rate was negatively related. Furthermore, it was confirmed that different sectors of the casino industry had different level of risk. Findings suggest that casino managers in different sectors of the casino industry should use different financial strategies to reduce risk. Casino investors should also understand the unique financial characteristics of different sectors of the casino industry. Finally, casino managers should focus on developing well-planned customer activities, such as gaming tournaments or special events, to protect casinos from experiencing high-risk seasons.

Show Managers´Perceptions of Customer Equity in the Convention Industry

Using relevant marketing and convention literature as justification, this study explores and further defines customer equity factors in a business‐to‐business context (i.e., the show manager to a convention center) from the show managers perspective. A factor analysis revealed that relationship equity explained more of the variance in the data, followed by value equity and then brand equity. Nine factors (five were classified as value, three as brand, and one as relationship) were revealed and then further used to identify any dominant drivers of customer equity considering intention to rebook by the show manager. The study results further supported location as the primary driver for intention to rebook with personal connection, ease in booking process, and easy move in and move out noted as important drivers to rebooking. From the convention center and show manager viewpoint, this output can be used to better define and hence enhance the value strategy, brand strategy, and relationship strategy offered to show managers by convention centers. For researchers, the study indicates some direct avenues for future research (e.g., further refinement the scales of brand, value, and relationship equity for the convention industry).