Case 1: Role of hospitality in addressing loneliness among elderly customers
Dr John Sikinioski was living and working in the UK where a growing ageing population was a social and economic concern. Dr Sikinoski could also observe the loneliness among the elderly as he was shopping or dining out. He decided to do some reading into loneliness among the elderly. There was plenty of research in the area of sociology and healthcare about the loneliness of the elderly but a dearth of studies in the area of hospitality. In particular, there appeared to be limited research investigating how social interactions and the engagement of the elderly could be facilitated by hospitality service providers and loneliness thus addressed. Dr Sikinoski therefore decided to investigate loneliness and the quality of life among the elderly. His research identified the role that the hospitality industry could play in facilitating social interactions of elderly customers with service providers, thus improving their quality of life and reducing loneliness. In particular, elderly customers could be directly involved in the production of services and products; they could spend more money and be more sociable and enhance the quality of their lives. As a result of this research, Dr Sikinoski put forward several recommendations to hospitality practitioners, including small coffee shops, restaurants and pubs. These involved developing new products and services that would involve the participation of the elderly customers and training their employees in such a way that employees could facilitate ‘co-creation’ between the elderly customers and hospitality service providers. Dr Sikinoski also shared the findings of his research with his students and informed them about the possible strategies and tactics for facilitating customer engagement and co-creation with different customer groups in different hospitality settings.
Questions
1)What has inspired and stimulated Dr Sikinoski to undertake research in this area?
2)Discuss how three principles of hospitality and tourism research have been met by Dr John Sikinoski.
3)What is(/are) the possible research question(s) of this study?
4)What is the research rationale of this study?
Case 2: Salomeeh’s research on relationship development with hospitality customers
Salomeeh has started her research investigating how hospitality organizations could develop relationships with different customer groups. In particular, her research focuses on how different cultural factors (including common nationality, ethnicity, and background between the service provider and customers) facilitate the development of trust with different customer groups. Her supervisor has asked her to do academic reading in order to establish the theoretical basis of her research. Her initial reading showed that there was plenty of research and literature on trust and trust development with customers. She also came across the literature on culture and cultural tiles (national culture, ethnicity, background) and how different cultural factors influence trust between employees and managers but not necessarily between customers and service providers. She also told her supervisor that she has not come across any research investigating trust development with customers through qualitative research enquiries, conducting interviews with restaurant owners, managers, and customers.She proposed to conduct a qualitative research enquiry through specific interviews for her research.
Questions
1)What is the research rationale of Salomeeh’s research?
2)What are the conceptual areas of this study?
3)What is the proposed data collection technique and the research sample for her research?
Case 3: Galimcan’s research investigating the entrepreneurial capability of small hospitality businesses in Kazakhstan
Galimcan’s research is investigating the innovative service capabilities of small restaurants and coffee shops in Kazakhstan. He is interested in finding out how restaurants and coffee shops in Kazakhstan could enhance their competitiveness by improving the quality of service and enhancing the customer experience through offering unique products and services. His initial review showed him that his research could benefit from different conceptual areas including entrepreneurial orientation, capability, innovation/new product development, customer orientation and customer experience. He also knows that small hospitality firms in Kazakhstan do not receive much supportfrom the government in the form of capital, subsidies, and/or training in order to be able to fulfil their ambitions. Galimcan needs to articulate his research focus further by identifying the relationships between different research areas and concepts, and relating the topic to the country context, Kazakhstan.
Questions
1)What advice could you give to Galimcan in terms of using generic management versus hospitality/tourism publications in relation to his topic?
2) What are the hospitality and tourism journals publishing academic papers on this topic?
3)Identify six relevant academic journal articles and one book in order to help with Galimcan’s research?
4)‘The fact that there is not enough research investigating the entrepreneurial capability of small hospitality firms is an advantage for Galimcan. It is also an advantage that there is not much research in the context of Kazakhstan.’ Please discuss whether these arguments are valid. Besides academic journal articles, what other sources could inform Galimcan’s research?
Case 4: Lucy’s research on the influence of our emotions and feelings towards our partners on our impulse buying behaviour
Lucy’s research is investigating consumers’ attitudes towards Valentine’s Day. She is particularly interested in finding out about consumer buying behaviours on special occasions and to what extent emotions and feelings for partners influence impulse buying behaviours. Having looked at the literature and identified publications on consumer buying decisions, Lucy has set herself a research question of: How do emotions and feelings affect impulse buying behaviour of consumers? Lucy is interested in understanding the emotions and feelings behind the commercial interactions. She has made it clear to her supervisor that she is not interested in how much people spend, how often they shop, and how many times they make purchases, even though she understands that these are also inter-related with the research question.
Questions
1)What would be the ideal research philosophy to adopt in order to investigate the topic? Please explain.
2)What would be the ideal research approach to adopt in order to research the topic? Please explain.
3)What would be the ideal research strategy(/strategies) to adopt in order to investigate the topic? Please explain.
4)Could Lucy consider an experimental research design for her study? How could she use experimental research?
Case 5: Adi’s research investigating the relationship between employee motivation and commitment
Having worked in the hospitality industry for more than ten years, Adi realized that employee productivity and service quality in the hospitality industry are suffering from lack of employee motivation and commitment to jobs. He therefore decided to conduct a survey with 200 employees and investigate the relationship between employee motivation and commitment. He was particularly interested in finding out what motivates employees and how these motivational factors influence their commitment to their jobs. Adi identified different hotel properties in the city where he was studying and working. He also decided to include both budget and luxury hotels in his study according to convenience. When he was asked how he would select the employees who could potentially contribute to his study, he said he is planning to go to these hotels (budget and luxury) every evening at 8pm after he leaves his work, and select the employees randomly.
Questions
1)What are the sampling strategies proposed to be employed by Adi?
2)What are the problems associated with Adi’s sampling strategy?
3)What advice could you give Adi to help him correct his sampling strategy?
Case 6: Ahmad investigating the image of the Maldives as a destination among Chinese tourists
Ahmad, a PhD student from the Maldives, is interested in finding out why there is a growing popularity among Chinese travellers visiting the Maldives as a destination. Ahmad, from his experience of interacting with Chinese travellers visiting the Maldives, learnt that sun and sea are not the preferred tourism products of Chinese travellers. He was told many times by Chinese tourists that they prefer sightseeing and shopping as touristactivities. Given this background, he decided to investigate Chinese travellers’ perceptions of the Maldives image as a tourist destination.
Questions
1)What would be the most appropriate data collection technique(s) to use for this study? Why?
2)Do you foresee any difficulties in conducting focus group discussions with Chinese travellers travelling to the Maldives? If yes, please discuss what these difficulties might be.
3)Design a preliminary semi-structured interview schedule in order to investigate this topic.
4)Design a preliminary questionnaire in order to investigate this topic.
Case 7:Emma’s research investigating the influence of Chinese cultural values on customer satisfaction
Emma, a British PhD student who has lived in China for two years noticed that Chinese customers’ perception of service quality is very different to customers from the West. She started questioning both the applicability of Western concepts to Chinese customers as well as the validity of research instruments used by the researchers when investigating Chinese customers. Having discussed her research ideas with her supervisor and done some reading on the topic, she set her research aim as: ‘To investigate the influence of Chinese cultural values on customer satisfaction’.
Questions
You have been asked to advise Emma on articulating her research objectives and constructing her conceptual framework.
1)Formulate the research objectives of the study by considering the theoretical concepts, possible research methodology, and the possible contributions of the study.
2)Construct the conceptual framework of the study by considering the existing knowledge in the area, possible relationships between concepts, and the research gaps that this study responds to.
Case 8: Altay’s research investigating the international expansion strategies of hospitality firms
Altay’s research is investigating the international expansion strategies of hotel chains. His research access has been facilitated with the help of a gatekeeper who was the Vice President of ahotel chain, with the agreement that his data collection would be supported for the next two years. Altay was introduced to the informants by the gatekeeper during his first visit to the organization. The gatekeeper also wrote a memorandum to all the key informants who contribute to the international expansion decisions both at the corporate and country levels. One month into the data collection process, the gatekeeper had to leave the organization.
Questions
1)How did Altay’s research benefit from having a gatekeeper? What else could he do in order to facilitate research access rather than relying solely on a gatekeeper?
2)How could he maintain the research access after the departure of the gatekeeper?
Case 9:Mayram’s qualitative study
Mayram’sresearch aimed to investigate how different factors influence franchisees’ perceptions of trust development with franchisors. Mayram’s review of the franchising literature has identified role performance demonstrated in the forms of expertise and support to the franchisees, idiosyncratic investments such as brand reputation, being partner oriented and adaptable, and the social exchanges evidenced as social interactions and friendship as the key antecedents of trust development. Two dimensions of trust have been identified as the focus of the study, namely credibility and benevolence. Credibility is the belief that a partner will fulfil promised role obligations by being competent, consistent and reliable. Benevolence refers to the belief that one partner will protect the welfare and interests of the other and avoid taking any actions that would prove harmful to the partner. Mayram’s exploratory qualitative study has responded to three research questions:
1)How does role performance affect the franchisees’ perceptions of trust (credibility and/or benevolence) in the franchisor–franchisee relationship?
2)How do idiosyncratic investments influence franchisees’ perceptions of trust (credibility and/or benevolence) in the franchisor–franchisee relationship?
3)How does social exchange influence the franchisees’ perceptions of trust (credibility and/or benevolence) in the franchisor–franchisee relationship?
Mayram has also developed a conceptual framework for her study. This conceptual model proposes that there is a relationship between the different antecedents and the dimensions of trust. However, it is unclear how different antecedents of trust contribute to the development of different dimensions of trust.
Figure 1: Trust development in partnerships
Questions
1)Develop a coding schema for the deductive approach to qualitative data analysis.
2)Develop an analysis matrix for the deductive approach to qualitative data analysis.
3)Please use the coding schema and the analysis matrix to analyze the following narratives. Please identify the main categories and group the data.
Trust between franchiser and franchisee has been identified as essential for the long-term survival of partnerships. It was stated that trust between partners leads to ‘satisfaction’and ‘mutual financial return’and, as one franchisee put it: ‘Creates a win–win situation’. Franchisees judge franchisers as ‘trustworthy’ when they are credible, they possess competence, and they demonstrate benevolence in the partnership. The findings of the study revealed that the infrastructure of the franchise system is perceived as one of the antecedents of trust among franchisees. Strong infrastructure encompasses factors such as the expertise of the franchiser and the support and training provided to the franchisees. When investigated further to identify the kind of support and training needed during the partnership, it became apparent that franchisees expect to be educated about the products and services of the system, operations and day to day management, and marketing and promotion activities. One of the franchisees highlighted the importance of expertise-sharing and provision of support:
Before I did not know about this industry, now I have more knowledge on the branded product and cleaning procedure. Some special items like shoes, suits, I had to learn from them. We also cooperate because of the technological support they offer. The professionals are also provided. They provide practical production and cleaning know-how.
Another informant highlighted the importance of knowledge flow from franchiser to franchisee: ‘In buying a franchise, the most important thing is to learn the style of operations. It should not be you finding it out yourself. You buy a business, but there is someone to help you look over it’.
Another franchisee highlighted the specifics of the expertise and training support: ‘They [franchisors] can provide more professional comments when they are here, say the taste, so that we can improve, as their instructors are more familiar with the products and they will tell staff how to operate. The have their power to train their staff. They know how to communicate with the customers, how to sell a specific product, how to keep the equipment in good condition so that you can save money on maintenance.
Besides role performance, identified as the expertise and the provision of support to the franchisees, brand reputation was mentioned by franchisees as a main antecedent of trust in franchisors. This was well captured in one of the statements of a franchisee who emphasized the importance of trust in franchise partnerships:
we trust the power of the system. There are over ninety stores in Hong Kong, so it must be mature. Because this system is perfect and many stores are operating well, you trust him and start to build a closer relationship.
One Turkish franchisee also stated: ‘Brand reputation is a very important trust factor. Brand reputation represents the strength of the infrastructure of the franchise partner and consistency in standards’. Brand reputation is seen as the ‘insurance’ of the existing system, representing the quality of products and services as perceived by consumers and other franchisees.
There was also a widespread belief among the informants that, besides the brand reputation and expertise and support of franchisors, social interactions between them and the franchisors play an important role in trust development. Informal and social activities take place in the format of taking franchisees to different places for sightseeing and dining out. All these activities enhance friendship and lead to the development of emotional bonds and trust. In particular, it became apparent that friendship constitutes a strong foundation for trust. One franchisee stated: ‘We value friendship more than anything else. We see friendship as a strong sign of sincerity in business transactions’. The importance of friendship and emotional ties was also well captured in one of the statements of a franchisee: ‘We focus on feelings and daily activities, but foreigners care about the spirit in the contract. Aside from the working relationship we are also friends – that is quite good’.Another also highlighted the importance of friendship: ‘We tried to make friends with each other. I have spent a lot of time communicating with franchisers, and they also did come over to attend our presentation’.