1984 research outputs found
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An Examination of Consumer Willingness to Pay for Local Products
No full textWe use data from hypothetical and nonhypothetical choice-based conjoint analysis to estimate willingness to pay for local food products. The survey was administered to three groups: consumers from a buying club with experience with local and grass-fed production markets, a random sample of Maryland residents, and shoppers at a nonspecialty Maryland supermarket. We find that random-sample and supermarket shoppers are willing to pay a premium for local products but view local and grass-fed production as substitutes. Conversely, buying-club members are less willing to pay for local production than the other groups but do not confllate local and grass-fed production
Assessing Faculty Productivity by Research Impact: Introducing Dp2 Index
No full textAssessing hospitality faculty-research output has become a subject of research in its own right. Unfortunately most of the currently available assessment instruments are limited in their ability to consider consistency, productivity, originality, and longevity of productivity in hospitality research. Thus, this article introduces a new research productivity index using secondary sources of data for evaluating faculty research productivity, based on four criteria: quantity, quality, consistency, and longevity. The proposed Dp2 index uses publicly available secondary data sources in assessing the research productivity of hospitality faculty. The proposed Dp2 index is parsimonious, effective, flexible, adaptable, and easy to implement
Deciding Whether to Offer “Early-Bird” or “Night-Owl” Specials in Restaurants: A Cross-Functional View
No full textIn a long history of capacity and demand management research in services, it has often been suggested that pricing discounts and specials can increase demand in off-peak periods. We examine this issue in the contexts of restaurants, where the practices of offering discounts to restaurant patrons for dining early or dining late—commonly known as “early-bird” and “night-owl” specials, respectively—exist throughout the world. These specials bridge marketing and operations—marketing from the goal of increasing customer demand in the off-peak periods and operations from the perspective of having to serve those customers. The effectiveness of these specials has yet to be examined. While simulation would be an ideal tool for predicting the specials’ net revenue benefits, it might be impractical for many restaurateurs, so we develop three simple “back-of-the-envelope” type calculations. Restaurateurs could use these calculations when deciding whether to offer a special. In the eight large simulation-based experiments we conducted, we find that it is important to estimate revenue cannibalization from full-fare customers. The calculations prove to be far more accurate for night-owl specials than for early-bird specials. This has important implications for decisions about offering the specials and raises a flag regarding a potential marketing-operations conflict
Asian Capital Investing in US Real Estate
Get PDFAsian capital investment in the United States real estate market is becoming increasingly popular. This article analyzes the patterns and preferences of Asian investors in the US real estate market by examining transaction history and aggregating consensus data to provide the reader an overview of the growing trend
The Mobile Revolution Is Here: Are You Ready?
Get PDFWith the rise of smartphones and tablets, travelers now have remarkable connectivity that allows them to make travel arrangements and share information before, during, and after their trips. A 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of adults in the United States owned a smartphone.1 With that rapid expansion of mobile devices, one concern is that the hospitality industry might not be ready for the level of mobile accessibility and functionality that customers expect. In that regard, an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that although most travel companies recognize that mobile is increasing in importance, they do not yet understand its full reach and impact.2 Compared to PCs, mobile use patterns, behaviors, and expectations are different, and each phase of the travel cycle requires a distinctive approach for mobile
An Evaluation of Rules for Assigning Tables to Walk-in Parties in Restaurants
Get PDFA survey of 276 restaurant and food-service managers found that, when it comes to seating walk-in guests, just over half maintain a policy of seating the party that has waited the longest. About one-fifth of the respondents seated the largest waiting party and the remainder used some combination of the two approaches. With that in mind, this paper uses an extensive simulation to evaluate the relative revenue outcomes for nine rules for assigning walk-in parties to tables in restaurants, taking into account such variables as restaurant size and matching party size to the table size. I test three variants of each of the “largest party” and “longest wait” rules, along with two rules that blend largest and longest. I also include the outcome of allowing guests to seat themselves. I found that one of the blended rule using party size and waiting time performed the best across all levels of all of the experimental factors, but among the simple rules, the longest wait approach was effective in most cases. Except in the largest of restaurants, allowing guests to seat themselves is the least efficient approach
The New Science of Service Innovation: Part 3 Select Research on Technology
No full textSelect Research on Technology from the 2014 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit
The lodging and service industries have constantly adopted technology solutions over the years, with one caveat. Hoteliers rarely have installed technology before it is sufficiently developed to actually improve operations. This strategy has given rise to the inaccurate impression that the industry is slow to adopt appropriate technology, when the opposite is the case. The Cornell Hospitality Research Summit (CHRS) held in October 2014 was organized to examine service innovation in a new light, focusing on a scientific and disciplined approach to the topic. This report is the third of four that feature expanded summaries of select research on service innovation. This report highlights innovative strategies related to data and technology, including the remarkably uneven influence of various social (and traditional) media on corporate brand value, full-service restaurant customers’ mostly favorable reaction to the introduction of tabletop technology, and the hospitality industry’s initiatives for providing services for Generation Y.
This report highlights four research presentation on technology from the summit: • “Traditional vs. Social Media: Effects on Brand Value,” by Peter O’Connor and Anatoli Colicev (page 3); • “Guests’ Reactions to Tabletop Technology in Full-service Restaurants,” by Alex Susskind, Saqib Awan, Ron Parikh, and Rajat Suri (page 6); • “Consumer Preferences for U.S. Restaurant-based Technology,” Michael White, Ben Lawrence, and Rohit Verma (page 10); • “Engaging Generation Y Customers in Technology-based Innovation,” by Ting Ting Zhang (page 13)
An Agency Perspective on Service Triads: Linking Operational and Financial Performance
No full textWe explore one prolific type of service triad, the franchise triad, involving three primary stakeholders: the franchisor, the franchisee and the customer. In this triad, franchisees use their affiliation with the franchisor’s brand to attract customers to their local outlets. In exchange for the right of assuming the identity of the brand, the franchisee pays the franchisor royalties and retains residual profits. Applying Agency Theory, this paper examines the inherent conflict of interests between a principal (i.e., franchisor) that controls and manages brand equity as a shared resource and an agent (i.e., franchisee) that retains pricing right and profits from the identity of the brand by interacting directly with customers. We empirically isolate the effect of triad structure on outlet performance by matching two unique datasets. One set of data captures operational performance in the form of aggregated online review scores and the other financial performance including average daily hotel rate and revenue per available room. We find that franchisees charge higher prices than their corporate counterparts even when controlling for operational performance. Even though franchisees charge higher prices they maintain similar financial performance in terms of revenue per available room. These results suggest that the triad structure plays a significant role in franchisees\u27 ability to free-ride on shared brand equity and have important managerial implications for effective outsourcing, contract design and performance evaluation for a wide range of service industries
An Empirical Examination of the Impacts from Termination of a Performance-Based Incentive Plan
Get PDFThis paper reports on the financial impacts from the termination of a pay for performance plan for the salesforce at a retail establishment. Using monthly panel data spanning more than eight years for 15 outlets of a major retailer, this study documents that store-level sales and operating profits decrease after the incentive plan is terminated. Individual performance data are then investigated to help identify the role of effort and selection effects in explaining the documented decrease. The analysis of the individual employee sales data reveals that virtually all of the declining store level sales can be explained by selection effects