The inclusion of minority groups in tourism workforce : proposition of an impression management framework through the lens of corporate social responsibility

202206 bckwNot applicableSelf-fundedPublished24 month

Market turbulence and service innovation in hospitality : examining the underlying mechanisms of employee and organizational resilience

202206 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCPublishe

A good night’s sleep matters for tourists : an empirical study for hospitality professionals

202206 bckwAccepted ManuscriptOthersThe Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityPublishe

The evolution of knowledge sharing community development : a Chinese social practice perspective

202206 bckwNot applicableOthersHong Kong Polytechnic UniversityEarly release18 month

When will the trickle-down effect of abusive supervision be alleviated? The moderating roles of power distance and traditional cultures

2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journal201804_a bcmaAccepted ManuscriptRGCPublishe

Are we paid to be creative? The effect of compensation gap on creativity in an expatriate context

Title on author's file: Are We Paid to Work or to be Creative? The Effect of Compensation Gap on Creativity in an Expatriate Context202211 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaPublishe

Development of employees’ resilience in technologically turbulent environments : probing the mechanisms of consonance–dissonance and crisis leadership

202206 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCPublishe

When my pay is lower than my expatriate colleagues : where do the hospitality managers go from here?

202206 bckwNot applicableOthersThe Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityPublished36 month

Shaping organizational culture in response to tourism seasonality : a qualitative approach

202206 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCPublishe

Does Standardized Service Fit All? Novel Service Encounters in Frontline Employee-Customer Interface

Purpose – Novel service encounter refers to creative acts undertaken by frontline employees at the customer-service interface. These acts are important sources of new ideas for service innovation but have not been systematically studied. We attempt to answer three questions about novel service encounter in this paper: First what kind of creative acts do frontline employees undertake during novel service encounter. Second, how does novel service encounter correlate with service innovation? Third, how does novel service encounter vary in different environment?Design/methodology/approach – We adopted a triangulated data collection strategy in this study to combine data from interviews, field observation, and survey. In particular, we develop a new observation template to examine creative acts undertaken by frontline employees during service encounter at the retail outlets of an apparel firm. The template is based on the service blueprint of Bitner et al. (2008), which allows us to objectively identify the service interaction episodes, the actors involved in the episodes, and the novel behavior that occurs during the interaction episodes of service encounter.Findings – The results of the participant observation provide us a rich profile of novel behavior by frontline employees during service encounter. We also found that novel service encounter correlated with service innovation adoption, and novel service encounter varied with different market environment and shop size. This paper provides initial empirical evidence of novel service encounter and highlights the use of participant observation as a useful methodology to study service encounter in a real tourist marketing setting. Practical implications – The observation template introduced in this study could be useful for tourism and hotel managers in the hospitality sector who seek to improve service encounter among frontline staff. The data collected from the observation will enable hospitality managers to identify and uncover problematic areas of what, where, and how novel behavior takes place in hospitality research and marketing. As the template divides service encounter into consecutive stages, managers can match training and resources to reduce the deficiency of frontline employees in any particular stage. Originality/value –Research on service innovation has largely followed innovation research in manufacturing to conceptualize service innovation as new products and technologies, and to measure service innovation as the adoption of new business practices. This approach, however, cannot capture novel service encounter in service marketing and retail tourist industry, which focuses on perception of ideas generated on the spot when service is consumed by international customers. Our study contributes to the literature that the adoption of new business practices in service firms is different from manufacturing organizations’ conceptualization of service innovation