Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly

Why are a select few service firms better at what they do - year in and year out - than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal "service excellence" books fails to address this key question. In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, Banc One, Waste Management, USAA, MBNA, Intuit, British Airways, Taco Bell, Fairfield Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the Merry Maids subsidiary of ServiceMaster employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity. The strongest relationships the authors discovered are those between (1) profit and customer loyalty; (2) employee loyalty and customer loyalty; and (3) employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Moreover, these relationships are mutually reinforcing; that is, satisfied customers contribute to employee satisfaction and vice versa. Here, finally, is the foundation for a powerful strategic service vision, a model on which any manager can build more focused operations and marketing capabilities. For example, the authors demonstrate how, in Banc One's operating divisions, a direct relationship between customer loyalty measured by the "depth" of a relationship, the number of banking services a customer utilizes, and profitability led the bank to encourage existing customers to further extend the bank services they use. Taco Bell has found that their stores in the top quadrant of customer satisfaction ratings outperform their other stores on all measures. At American Express Travel Services, offices that ticket quickly and accurately are more profitable than those which don't. With hundreds of examples like these, the authors show how to manage the customer-employee "satisfaction mirror" and the customer value equation to achieve a "customer's eye view" of goods and services. They describe how companies in any service industry can (1) measure service profit chain relationships across operating units; (2) communicate the resulting self-appraisal; (3) develop a "balanced scorecard" of performance; (4) develop a recognitions and rewards system tied to established measures; (5) communicate results company-wide; (6) develop an internal "best practice" information exchange; and (7) improve overall service profit chain performance. What difference can service profit chain management make? A lot. Between 1986 and 1995, the common stock prices of the companies studied by the authors increased 147%, nearly twice as fast as the price of the stocks of their closest competitors. The proven success and high-yielding results from these high-achieving companies will make The Service Profit Chain required reading for senior, division, and business unit managers in all service companies, as well as for students of service management.

The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value (Цепочка создания прибыли в сфере услуг: как ведущие компании связывают прибыль и рост с лояльностью, удовлетворением и ценностью)

Why should hotels go green? Insights from guests experience in green hotels.

This study reviews and synthesizes the contemporary literature focusing on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the hotel industry over the period 2006-2015. The revision process ha...

Progress in Research on CSR and the Hotel Industry (2006-2015)*:

The potential of Information and Communication Technology-enhanced visitor learning experience is increasing with the advancement of new and emerging technologies in art gallery settings. However, studies on the visitor learning experience using wearable devices, and in particular, those investigating the effects of wearable augmented reality on the learning experience within cultural heritage tourism attractions are limited. Using the generic learning outcomes framework, this study aims to assess how the wearable augmented reality application enhances visitor’s learning experiences. Forty-four volunteers who were visiting an art gallery were divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group. Following their visit to the gallery, the volunteers, who had and had not used wearable computing equipment, were interviewed, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that the wearable augmented reality application helps visitors to see connections between paintings and ...

/pdf/enhancing-art-gallery-visitors-learning-experience-using-1wcksc7lz5.pdf

Enhancing art gallery visitors’ learning experience using wearable augmented reality: generic learning outcomes perspective

This study examined the factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit the cultural heritage sites (CHS) located in the Northern Badia of Jordan, and estimated expenditures for their visit to the CHS. A questionnaire was developed to collect demographic and economic information about tourists during their visit to Jordan. Three hundred tourists were included in the survey at nine different sites during the summer of 2010. A logistic regression model was employed in the analyses. Factors that affected tourism at CHS included: education, variety of sites, multiple destinations, cost, and reasons for the visit. These factors had a significant impact on tourists' willingness to travel to CHS in the Northern Badia. This study recommends improving CHS and working closely with local communities to expand training and funding.

Factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit cultural heritage sites in Jordan

This paper aims to examine the relationship between tourism service quality, tourism loyalty and tourism satisfaction expectations in hotel industry. In this paper, the service quality standard model has been used for evaluation of service quality, Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry (1985, 1988). Fornell et al. (1996) and Oh (2000) models with revision was used for evaluating the loyalty, and the instrument presented by Cauana, Money, and Berthon (2000) was used for evaluation of customer satisfaction. The focus of this research is five stars hotels in Jordan, and 322 customers of these hotels were sampled. The results of this paper demonstrate that in all aspects, customers’ expectation, are higher than their perceptions of the hotels services. In addition, this research findings show that customer satisfaction plays the role of a mediator in the effects of service quality on service loyalty. Moreover, the findings of this study provide tourism professionals in Jordan with more insight about the idea of TSQ and help them improve the quality of their services.

/pdf/the-mediation-of-tourists-satisfaction-on-the-relationship-eva8hwbqvr.pdf

The Mediation of Tourists Satisfaction on the Relationship between Tourism Service Quality and Tourists Loyalty: Five Stars Hotel in Jordanian Environment

This study aims to investigate the influence of the stakeholder's approach on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) adopted by hotels. This study uses Edward Freeman's stakeholder theory (1984). The stakeholder theory explains organisational management and business ethics that deals with values and morals in management and organisation. The research questions involve both aspects of internal and external CSR. The main concerns are primary and secondary stakeholders, which are based on Carroll's three-domain approach, as well as factors that influence CSR practices in hotels within each stakeholders group. Two five-star hotels in Jordan were chosen for the case studies and the data were analysed through both within-case and cross-case analysis. The main aim of the case analysis is to thoroughly describe and understand the practices through supervision and investigation. On the other hand, the cross-case helps the researcher make comparison between cases and determine how the policy and overall policies can be modified. This study illustrates the influence of integrating the stakeholder theory into CSR practices by employing a specific group of stakeholders. The findings suggest that the hotels are encouraging new methods to implement both internal and external aspects of CSR. Nonetheless, the stakeholders want the hotels' business model to be economical and ethical. There are many factors that influence CSR practices within each stakeholders group in the hotels with regards to the availability of services offered. Finally, this study reveals that the stakeholders' relationship with the CSR approach supports the stakeholder theory.

Stakeholders approach in influencing corporate social responsibility: a case study at two hotels in Jordan

Environmental degradation due to overgrazing and the inconsistent assignment of property rights to herding populations has severely affected global rangeland productivity. A political barrier exists to rehabilitating these rangelands, as environmental protection schemes are often cast as “anti-jobs.” These problems are continually felt in Jordan, one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. This study aims to provide a case study in contrast with the perception that there is, necessarily, a “land vs. jobs” trade-off. The study focuses on the efforts of the Royal Botanical Garden (RBG) to improve the profitability of 5 herding families in Tell Ar-Rumman, Jordan. The RBG implemented numerous programs, including veterinary care, training, and at-cost high-grade pharmaceutical sales. They also supplemented feed, created managed grazing protocols, and introduced profitability accounting measures. Analyses of the five herders’ incomes pre- and post-intervention indicate significant net gains. Improvements on herder’s net income of 89%-400% were observed. Keywords : Jordan, Rangeland, Economic Development, Sustainable Development

/pdf/economic-development-and-biodiversity-gain-with-local-nxe7i5ccp4.pdf

Economic Development and Biodiversity Gain with Local Community Cooperation

Jordan is a country rich with history, both modern and ancient, and its ancient past is best reflected by the thousands of archaeological sites peppered within its borders. Tourists travel from all over the world to visit Jordan and see its antiquities first-hand, contributing significantly to the ever-important Jordanian tourism industry. The interaction between tourism and archaeology is such that the two subjects share a department at the University of Jordan and a ministry in the Jordanian government. This study explores the political relationship between tourism and archaeology through the lens of Jordan’s largest tourist attraction, the ancient city of Petra. In particular, the study asks how archaeologists and tourism experts evaluate the management plans of Petra, whether these two groups find themselves in conflict or not, and whether the relationship between tourism and archaeology has squandered the many attempts at implementing a management plan at the Petra site. This study used both qualitative data in the form of interviews with academics, businesspeople, and government officials, and quantitative data in the form of a survey of faculty at the University of Jordan.  The result revealed that respondents are split between those who think tourism and archaeology are destined to clash, and those who think that archaeology should adapt to the needs of tourism.

/pdf/the-sustainable-management-of-cultural-heritage-sites-5clodr51jh.pdf

Ismaiel Abuamoud

Papers

Factors affecting the willingness of tourists to visit cultural heritage sites in Jordan

The Mediation of Tourists Satisfaction on the Relationship between Tourism Service Quality and Tourists Loyalty: Five Stars Hotel in Jordanian Environment

Stakeholders approach in influencing corporate social responsibility: a case study at two hotels in Jordan

Economic Development and Biodiversity Gain with Local Community Cooperation

The Sustainable Management of Cultural Heritage Sites: Tourism and the Politics of Archaeology at Petra