Applying a Network-Lens to Hospitality Business Research: A New Research Agenda

Hospitality businesses are first and foremost places of social interaction. This paper argues for an inclusion of network methodology into the tool kit of hospitality researchers. This methodology focuses on the interaction of people rather than applying an actor-focused view, which currently seems dominant in hospitality research. Outside the field, a solid research basis has been formed, upon which hospitality researchers can build. The paper introduces the foundations of network theory and its applicability to the study of organizations. A brief methodological introduction is provided and potential applications and research topics relevant to the hospitality field are suggested

Acceptance of teaching technology in hospitality education: impact of personality

Hospitality educators teach increasingly diverse student cohorts, operate within a challenging economic environment, but need to provide graduates with a wide range of academic and employability skills that reflect the complexity of their industry. An increase in the utilization of teaching technology in hospitality education can be seen as one response to a perceived need for the provision of more efficient and effective services to students. However, the suitability of technology-supported teaching approaches for this discipline is commented on in the literature, but not evidenced. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a better understanding of the individual personality types of hospitality students and its effect on the acceptance of a specific teaching technology, namely WebCT. Data were collected using a survey method. Two instruments, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for personality and a researcher-constructed instrument based on Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were used. In this model, the acceptance of a technology was defined in terms of the outcome of the participant’s attitude towards this technology, which itself was a combination between Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness. The final sample comprised 212 hospitality students in their first or second year of study at a university in the western region of Melbourne. This study hypothesised that individual personality characteristics of the students would have a significant influence on their acceptance of WebCT. The results supported the hypotheses across the personality constructs on the attitudinal score of the TAM. As such, personality differences could not be used to explain attitudinal differences towards WebCT within this cohort. However, the analysis of student personality types validated earlier studies on the dominance of STJ types and has implications for curriculum design and delivery. Moreover, individual characteristics influenced responses to single items of the acceptance questionnaire, indicating a need for using larger sample sizes. The usefulness of the TAM appears to have been validated by this study. Differences between the current results and those of previous studies may be explained by the mandated usage environment in which this study took place

Structure and bonding in graphite fluorosulfate derivatives

The composition of stage 1 graphite fluorosulfate is unambiguously established as C7SO3F by complete microanalysis. A structural model is proposed involving charge compensating backdonation from S03F- to graphite consistent with NMR, ESR and Raman spectral data as well as the measured interlayer separation. Electrical conductance measurements are reported for binary graphite fluoro- sulfates and acid fluorosulfates again giving evidence for two different structural types with homogeneously and heterogeneously filled interlayer spaces

Tourism and hospitality universities in Austria: what’s in the difference?

This paper reports on an exploratory study into the perceived differences of educational institutions in Austria. In this, a set of four institutions in and around Vienna, are compared on the basis of a questionnaire measuring student choice components for studying tourism and hospitality degrees. The set of institutions comprise one private university, one public university and two universities of applied sciences. The comparison of these institutions was considered of particular interest as the recent reorganisation of degree structures in Austria, according to the Bologna process (European Union's agreement on the standardization of higher education programs), is likely to reshape the educational environment in Austria