Environmental Uncertainty, Business Strategy, and Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of the U.S. Lodging Industry

A key premise in the normative literature is that an appropriate business strategy will favorably align an organization with its environment (Andrews, 1971; Hofer & Schendel, 1978; Porter, 1980). It is argued that the strategy that will produce the best results is dependent on existing environmental circumstances (Miles & Snow, 1978). This study investigated the tenet that, for firms in the lodging industry, there exists an optimal pattern or ’’fit’’ between the environment and the firm’s business strategy that separates the more successful operations from the less successful ones. The findings of this study indicate that a match between the state of the environment facing an organization and its business strategy is required for high performance. The results obtained provide an invaluable planning and analysis tool for all levels of management involved in charting a firm’s future

Applying Role Theory in Developing a Framework for the Management of Customer Interactions in Hospitality Businesses

The determinants of consumer satisfaction have long intrigued researchers and practitioners alike. Unfortunately, in the case of service businesses and, in particular, the situation of the actual customer service interaction, little information has been amassed. Rather, the bulk of current knowledge focusing on the service transaction has been accumulated in the domain of operational conformance to standards tied to mechanistic service procedures where the performance evidence is substantial. Thus, the nature and attributes of a positive service experience and the role the service person plays in that experience remains, for the most part, a mystery. This article is an attempt to add to the understanding of the service person’s role and its various dimensions relative to the service interaction. In order to bridge the gap between the provider of the service and the consumer of it, the service person’s instrumental role in consummating the transaction will be examined from a conceptual viewpoint adapted from a sociological perspective on role theory and human interaction, The focus of this effort will be in the application of a behavioral viewpoint to the management of service interactions in the context of hospitality businesses

Electronic Database Support Systems for Strategic Planning Activities in the Hospitality Industry

An electronic database support system for strategic planning activities can be built by providing conceptual and system specific information. The design and development of this type of system center around the information needs of strategy planners. Data that supply information on the organization\u27s internal and external environments must be originated, evaluated, collected, organized, managed, and analyzed. Strategy planners may use the resulting information to improve their decision making

Hospitality IT: What Does the Future Hold?

The impact of information technology (IT) is far-reaching and driving dramatic shifts in business paradigms. Trends suggest greater adoption of IT will continue and develop at accelerating rates. Hence, hotel operators and executives must learn how to embrace IT and capitalize on the many capabilities it has to offer while minimizing the threats. The authors attempt to provide a sense of focus and a roadmap to help hoteliers understand the issues, see the future, and find an appropriate on ramp to the information superhighway

Service Equity, Satisfaction, and Loyalty: From Transaction-Specific to Cumulative Evaluations

Perceived equity is a key psychological reaction to the value that a service company provides. Yet equity research has focused on a customer’s satisfaction with relatively well-defined service episodes or transactions. The authors argue and show that equity plays a very different role in affecting customer loyalty as one moves from transaction-specific to cumulative evaluations. Whereas equity is an important driver of transaction-specific satisfaction, equity is more of a post-satisfaction evaluation when modeling cumulative satisfaction. The research also demonstrates the superiority of cumulative evaluations toward explaining service loyalty and providing a balanced view of loyalty drivers. The results have important implications for how equity, satisfaction, and loyalty are modeled and managed in a service context

The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis

In their dialogue entitled - The Food Service Industry Environment: Market Volatility Analysis - by Alex F. De Noble, Assistant Professor of Management, San Diego State University and Michael D. Olsen, Associate Professor and Director, Division of Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, De Noble and Olson preface the discussion by saying: “Hospitality executives, as a whole, do not believe they exist in a volatile environment and spend little time or effort in assessing how current and future activity in the environment will affect their success or failure. The authors highlight potential differences that may exist between executives\u27 perceptions and objective indicators of environmental volatility within the hospitality industry and suggest that executives change these perceptions by incorporating the assumption of a much more dynamic environment into their future strategic planning efforts. Objective, empirical evidence of the dynamic nature of the hospitality environment is presented and compared to several studies pertaining to environmental perceptions of the industry.” That weighty thesis statement presumes that hospitality executives/managers do not fully comprehend the environment in which they operate. The authors provide a contrast, which conventional wisdom would seem to support and satisfy. “Broadly speaking, the operating environment of an organization is represented by its task domain,” say the authors. “This task domain consists of such elements as a firm\u27s customers, suppliers, competitors, and regulatory groups.” These are dynamic actors and the underpinnings of change, say the authors by way of citation. “The most difficult aspect for management in this regard tends to be the development of a proper definition of the environment of their particular firm. Being able to precisely define who the customers, competitors, suppliers, and regulatory groups are within the environment of the firm is no easy task, yet is imperative if proper planning is to occur,” De Noble and Olson further contribute to support their thesis statement. The article is bloated, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, with tables both survey and empirically driven, to illustrate market volatility. One such table is the Bates and Eldredge outline; Table-6 in the article. “This comprehensive outline…should prove to be useful to most executives in expanding their perception of the environment of their firm,” say De Noble and Olson. “It is, however, only a suggested outline,” they advise. “…risk should be incorporated into every investment decision, especially in a volatile environment,” say the authors. De Noble and Olson close with an intriguing formula to gauge volatility in an environment

Restaurant Industry Risk Dimensions and their Influence on Operating Cash Flows

This paper fills a critical void by investigating underlying dimensions that influence the restaurant industry’s cash flows. First, this study develops a set of restaurant industry risk factors (constructs). Next, it is found that the three factor model accounts for 32% of the variation in restaurant industry operating cash flows. The model remains robust after conducting regression analysis with backward elimination procedure. As a result, this paper provides further support to the claim that industry effects are important determinants of explaining the variation in profits (McGahan & Porter, 1997)

Emperical Investigation of the CAPM vs. Fama-French Model: Evidence From the Lodging Industry

Proper estimation of the cost of equity continues be a challenge for business executives in their capital investment decisions. This is evidenced by the heated scholarly debate in the last two decades over the issue of what model should be used in estimating cost of equity capital. The present study empirically investigates two of the main cost of equity models in their capacity to explain the variability in the lodging stock returns. The results reveal that Fama-French model consistently outperforms the Capital Asset Pricing Model in its explanatory power of cross-sectional lodging industry portfolio returns for the examination periods of 1993-2002 and 1998-2002. In addition, the Fama-French model provides a more realistic cost of equity estimate by adjusting for size and financial distress of the lodging portfolio

Spirometry in Greenland:A cross-sectional study on patients treated with medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is globally increasing in frequency and is expected to be the third largest cause of death by 2020. Smoking is the main risk factor of developing COPD. In Greenland, more than half of the adult population are daily smokers, and COPD may be common. International guidelines recommend the usage of spirometry as a golden standard for diagnosing COPD. The current number of spirometries performed among patients treated with medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease in Greenland remains unexplored. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of patients aged 50 years or above treated with medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease and the extent to which spirometry was performed among them within 2 years. Design: An observational, cross-sectional study based on the review of data obtained from electronic medical records in Greenland was performed. The inclusion criterion was that patients must have been permanent residents aged 50 years or above who had medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease prescribed within a period of 15 months prior to data extraction. A full review of electronic patient records was done on each of the identified users of medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease. Information on age, gender, town and spirometry was registered for each patient within the period from October 2013 to October 2015. Results: The prevalence of patients treated with medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease aged 50 years or above was 7.9%. Of those, 34.8% had spirometry performed within 2 years and 50% had a forced expiratory volume (1 sec)/ forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) under 70% indicating obstructive pulmonary disease. Conclusion: The use of medication targeting obstructive pulmonary disease among patients over 50 years old is common in Greenland. About one third of the patients had a spirometry performed within 2 years. To further increase spirometry performance, it is recommended to explore possible barriers in health care professionals’ usage of spirometry in different health care settings in Greenland