A well-being hospitality brand image and its impact on consumer ::experiences and reactions towards the brand

A holistic lifestyle enhances and improves physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Well-being is associated with numerous benefits in different domains such as health, family, and work. Against this background, some hospitality brands have shown interest in incorporating well-being in their offers. Considering that individuals put a higher importance on a holistic lifestyle and have clear expectations that brands should contribute to that, the current paper investigates the impact of a well-being brand image on consumer reactions toward the brand and studies whether integrating well-being into hospitality brand offering enhances guests’ experience and subjective well-being

Not all luxury brands should worry about brand extension authenticity ::the effect of parent brand authenticity on consumer reactions toward the extension

Although the benefits of a brand extension are numerous, companies should carefully pick their extension strategies. Extant literature indicates that both fit and brand extension authenticity (BEA) are important in determining the success of a brand extension. A brand may be able to stretch successfully into more distant categories (such as luxury consumer goods into hospitality), provided that BEA is high. In the current paper, we test and confirm that high BEA is not mandatory for all types of parent luxury brands. More specifically, we find that high BEA is not important for luxury parent brands perceived as authentic. Since consumers are expecting consistency in every action authentic brands undertake, they will not additionally search for a proof of the legitimacy of the brand extension. Interestingly, we also find that for luxury brands perceived low in authenticity, consumer reactions towards the extension are positive only when BEA is low

Mindfulness as a tool for hoteliers in enhancing well-being guest experiences

The struggle of individuals to balance work and personal life and the high levels of stress in today’s society lead to an increased search for well-being. Consumers are now looking for companies that can assist them in their pursuit of well-being, resulting in the emergence of such offerings in various sectors, particularly tourism and hospitality. Hotels are increasingly prioritizing the enhancement of guest well-being experiences. In this article, we propose that socio-cognitive mindfulness, which refers to actively processing information within one's surrounding context, could be used by hotels, especially those in the luxury segment, to improve perceived guest well- being and overall guest experience. Four propositions are provided and implications for research and practice are discussed

Service robots with extended AI knowledge such as ChatGPT ::the user point of view about ethical issues in a service delivery context

The constant advancements in the field of technology and specifically in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining attention from researchers and practitioners (Lu et al., 2020). Despite potential benefits, many customers remain uncomfortable with using robots (Lu et al., 2020). According to academic literature, customers may have mixed feelings toward AI robotic device usage, especially in the service context (Lin et al., 2020). This is not surprising considering that technological advancements induce fear and lack of trust at the beginning (Etemad-Sajadi et al., 2022). The current research aims to examine user perceptions of robots with extended AI knowledge. More specifically, the empirical study will look at participants’ assessment of four ethical items – trust and safety, autonomy, privacy and data protection, and replacement, with the goal to understand better which one/s is important for the customer’s intention to use a service robot, which to our knowledge is the first academic research to do so

Enhancing marketing students’ employability with a real case challenge

The volatility of economy, the changing consumer behavior, and the emerging technologies created marketing challenges. Students are moresatisfied if they perceive their learning experience provides them skills for employability. This article explains the process of incorporating Facebook Ads campaign into a senior/MBA level digital marketing course. The justification to select Facebook Ads over Google Ads, the introduction of Facebook Ads terminology, the planning and organization of this learning experience were explained. The article also presented students’ assessment of this learning experience. This article concluded with the authors’ reflections and suggestions to academics for implementing similar activities in a marketing course

Using Facebook ads campaigns to enhance marketing students’ employability

The volatility of economy, the changing consumer behavior, and the emerging technologies created marketing challenges. Students are more satisfied if they perceive their learning experience provides them skills for employability. This article explains the process of incorporating Facebook Ads campaign into a senior/MBA level digital marketing course. The justification to select Facebook Ads over Google Ads, the introduction of Facebook Ads terminology, the planning and organization of this learning experience were explained. The article also presented students’ assessment of this learning experience. This article concluded with the authors’ reflections and suggestions to academics for implementing similar activities in a marketing course

Instilling the core tenets of hospitality in healthcare services ::the role of service assurance and social presence

The rising elderly population around the globe together with an improved life expectancy is driving demand for effective healthcare. As healthcare technologies become increasingly innovative, various types of connected devices have been developed in order to provide high-quality healthcare services. The research question of this study is whether the presence of such devices and perceived assurance affect the satisfaction of the health service recipient. This study focuses on homecare services for elderly people and explores the effect of social presence by machines vs. humans and service assurance by machines vs. humans on customer satisfaction. This study found that using connected devices does not significantly impact customer satisfaction with the healthcare service provider. The findings of this study highlight the importance of perceived service assurance levels as well as social presence delivered by humans for homecare services

How often do you think about your relationship with nature ? ::the measurement of environmental identity salience and its relationship with proenvironmental behaviors

Extant research finds that environmental identity is an important motivational factor for proenvironmental behavior. However, studies typically focus on investigating the effects of the strength of this identity. Based on insights from identity research, we theorize that the influence of individuals’ environmental identity on their proenvironmental behavior may depend on other identity dimensions as well. We argue that the frequency of activation of environmental identity in relevant life domains—environmental identity salience—may predict proenvironmental behavior beyond what environmental identity strength can explain. To test our theorizing, we propose a parsimonious measure of environmental identity salience. In four empirical studies, we establish that the new measure has sound psychometric properties in terms of internal consistency and discriminant validity with regard to measures of environmental identity strength. Importantly, our measure of environmental identity salience reliably predicts a range of self-reported and actual proenvironmental behaviors beyond the effects of environmental identity strength. In line with theoretical predictions, our data suggests that environmental identity salience and strength are related but distinct constructs. We conclude that investigating the nature and effects of environmental identity salience leads to a fruitful path to a more comprehensive understanding of proenvironmental behavior. The proposed new measure may serve as a helpful tool in this endeavor