Linchi Kwok

Kwok, L., & Lin, M. S. (2023). Green food packages’ effects on consumers’ pre-to post-consumption evaluations of restaurant curbside pickup service. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. OnlineFirst.

Huang, Y. K., Chuang, N. K., & Kwok, L. (2023). To speak up or remain silent: the double-edged effects of trust and felt trust. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35(9), 3285-3304.

Kwok., L. (2022). Labor shortage: A critical reflection and a call for industry-academia collaboration. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 34(11), 3929-3943.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing labor shortage challenge facing the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry. This discussion about labor demand and supply suggests that such a labor shortage will not fade away soon. Hence, it calls for a more vital collaboration between the H&T industry and… Show more

Kwok., L. (2022). Labor shortage: A critical reflection and a call for industry-academia collaboration. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 34(11), 3929-3943.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing labor shortage challenge facing the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry. This discussion about labor demand and supply suggests that such a labor shortage will not fade away soon. Hence, it calls for a more vital collaboration between the H&T industry and academic programs to address this issue by proposing 32 practical suggestions and 19 questions for future research under talent acquisition, training & development, and talent retention. Show less

This study assessed internet users’ attention to hospitality companies’ COVID-19 messages on social media. We used 657 Facebook and 754 Twitter messages initiated by eight of the world’s largest hotel chains between January and mid-June 2020 for the exploratory analysis. Under the situational crisis communication theory, the analysis reveals that hotels shared five types of COVID-19 (Prevention, Reminding, Ingratiation, Victimage, and Updates) versus Non-COVID-19 messages. Descriptive analysis… Show more

This study assessed internet users’ attention to hospitality companies’ COVID-19 messages on social media. We used 657 Facebook and 754 Twitter messages initiated by eight of the world’s largest hotel chains between January and mid-June 2020 for the exploratory analysis. Under the situational crisis communication theory, the analysis reveals that hotels shared five types of COVID-19 (Prevention, Reminding, Ingratiation, Victimage, and Updates) versus Non-COVID-19 messages. Descriptive analysis and a series of t test, analysis of variance, and post hoc analyses reveal that hotels did not share any COVID-19 information until March 2020. Moreover, COVID-19 messages only accounted for about 20% of all messages, among which hotels shared Ingratiation and Updates messages most often. COVID-19 messages received more reactions, comments, and shares/retweets than Non-COVID-19 messages on both Facebook and Twitter, indicating the attention paid to the COVID-19 messages posted on a business’ social media page, which can help businesses spread the information in their networks. Specifically, Prevention, Reminding (although underused), Ingratiation, Updates, and messages with photos and videos received more attention. Such findings extend the crisis communication literature and help businesses develop effective communication strategies to engage their stakeholders on social media during the pandemic. Show less

Garcia, R.L.F., Huang, Y., & Kwok, L. (2023). Virtual interviews vs. LinkedIn profiles: Effects on human resource managers' initial hiring decisions. Tourism Management, 2023, 94, 104659.

This study examines the joint effects of technology-mediated interviews (TMIs) and LinkedIn on HR managers' hiring decisions. While more companies began using TMIs and LinkedIn to assist HR managers in their hiring decisions, the pandemic accelerated its adoption by all businesses. Moreover, when more… Show more

Garcia, R.L.F., Huang, Y., & Kwok, L. (2023). Virtual interviews vs. LinkedIn profiles: Effects on human resource managers' initial hiring decisions. Tourism Management, 2023, 94, 104659.

This study examines the joint effects of technology-mediated interviews (TMIs) and LinkedIn on HR managers' hiring decisions. While more companies began using TMIs and LinkedIn to assist HR managers in their hiring decisions, the pandemic accelerated its adoption by all businesses. Moreover, when more organizations adopt a shortened workweek, offer more flexible work schedules, and let employees continue working from home, TMIs and LinkedIn will likely remain essential for recruitment and selection purposes. Through an analysis of the field data collected from a hospitality and tourism firm, this study reveals several critical (or not-so-critical) factors from a job candidate's TMI performance and LinkedIn profile that influence HR managers' hiring decisions. The advantages and disadvantages of TMIs in HR practices are also highlighted. As this study addresses a global business issue and discusses a cross-disciplinary phenomenon, scholars in industrial psychology, management, and information technology, may also find this work relevant. Show less

Huang, Y. & Kwok., L. (2021). Consumer mistreatment and consumer-focused voice: The bright and the dark sides of felt trust. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 33(10), 3379-3399.

Li, C., Kwok, L., Xie, K.L., Liu, J., & Ye, Q. (2021). Let photos speak: The effect of user-generated visual content on hotel review helpfulness. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

A picture is worth a thousand words. User-generated photos (UGPs) are increasingly
accompanying online reviews of hotels. This article draws on media richness theory
to estimate the effects of UGPs on hotel reviews’ helpfulness. Based on a sample of
1,159,590 valid reviews with 464,316… Show more

Li, C., Kwok, L., Xie, K.L., Liu, J., & Ye, Q. (2021). Let photos speak: The effect of user-generated visual content on hotel review helpfulness. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

A picture is worth a thousand words. User-generated photos (UGPs) are increasingly
accompanying online reviews of hotels. This article draws on media richness theory
to estimate the effects of UGPs on hotel reviews’ helpfulness. Based on a sample of
1,159,590 valid reviews with 464,316 photos, we utilized an integrated analytical
model incorporating both econometric analyses and image-processing techniques.
The results show that reviews accompanied by UGPs are generally rated as more
helpful than those with textual content only. Furthermore, photos showing guestroom
objects were rated as more helpful than those showing food & beverages. Finally, the
positive effects of UGPs on review helpfulness were especially prominent for hotels
with lower prices and negative reviews. This study adds new insights to the online
review literature and advances the methodological approach in analyzing unstructured
user-generated content. This study provides important implications for hotel managers
and online booking platforms regarding UGP management. Show less

Kwok, L., & Muñiz, A. (2021). Do job seekers’ social media profiles affect hospitality managers’ hiring decisions? A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. 46, 153-159.

Guided by the Big Five personality traits and relevant literature, this qualitative study reports a content analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews with the human resource and operations managers in the hospitality industry regarding what types of information on job candidates’ social media… Show more

Kwok, L., & Muñiz, A. (2021). Do job seekers’ social media profiles affect hospitality managers’ hiring decisions? A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management. 46, 153-159.

Guided by the Big Five personality traits and relevant literature, this qualitative study reports a content analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews with the human resource and operations managers in the hospitality industry regarding what types of information on job candidates’ social media profiles (SMPs) may affect their hiring decisions. The results revealed that LinkedIn was the most preferred social media site. Hiring managers expected to observe extroversion, leadership, and professionalism from the candidates’ SMPs. Additionally, they favored the posts with pictures about food, catering, and events but disliked those with inappropriate languages or content. The in-depth narrative insights reported in this study address a timely research topic in current literature and help hospitality stakeholders in the job market advance specific practical implications. Show less

Kwok, L., Tang, Y., & Yu, B. (2020). The 7 Ps marketing mix of home-sharing services: Mining travelers’ online reviews on Airbnb. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102616.

The 7 Ps model is a very useful tool in helping service firms solve managerial issues in marketing. Guided by the 7 Ps marketing mix framework, a big-data, supervised machine learning analysis was performed with 1,148,062 English reviews of 37,092 Airbnb listings in San Francisco and New York City… Show more

Kwok, L., Tang, Y., & Yu, B. (2020). The 7 Ps marketing mix of home-sharing services: Mining travelers’ online reviews on Airbnb. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102616.

The 7 Ps model is a very useful tool in helping service firms solve managerial issues in marketing. Guided by the 7 Ps marketing mix framework, a big-data, supervised machine learning analysis was performed with 1,148,062 English reviews of 37,092 Airbnb listings in San Francisco and New York City. The results disclose similar patterns in both markets, where travelers shared their experience about Service Product and Physical Evidence most often; Price and Promotion were the least mentioned elements. Furthermore, through a series of comparisons of Airbnb’s 7 Ps marketing mix among the listings managed by different types of hosts, multi-unit and single-unit hosts seem to offer similar services with a small observable difference; whereas superhosts and the ordinary hosts deliver different services. This study makes valuable methodological contributions and provides practical marketing insights for hoteliers and the hosts and webmasters on home-sharing websites. Policymakers should pay special attention to multi-unit hosts. Show less

Chuang, N.K., Lee, P.C., & Kwok, L. (2020). Assisting students with career decision-making difficulties: Can career decision-making self-efficacy and career decision-making profile help? Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 26, 100235.

Building on the counseling psychology literature, this study examined the effects of each dimension of career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) and career decision-making profile (CDMP) on hospitality students' career… Show more

Chuang, N.K., Lee, P.C., & Kwok, L. (2020). Assisting students with career decision-making difficulties: Can career decision-making self-efficacy and career decision-making profile help? Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 26, 100235.

Building on the counseling psychology literature, this study examined the effects of each dimension of career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) and career decision-making profile (CDMP) on hospitality students' career decision-making difficulties (CDD). A sequential regression analysis with 273 valid questionnaires was performed while controlling participants’ demographic background information. CDMSE and CDMP explain 27.9% and 25.6% of the variance in CDD respectively. Goal selection in CDMSE, as well as locus of control, effort invested in the process, procrastination, and speed of making the final decision in CDMP are significant predictors of CDD. Specific practical implications that assist students with CDD are discussed. Show less

Xie, K., Kwok, L., Chen, C.C., & Wu, J. (2020). To share or to access? Travelers’ choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 42, 77-87.

Accommodation-sharing services have proliferated rapidly. Under the assumption that accommodation-sharing services provide travelers unique social interactions with local hosts or their peer travelers who also visit the destination for a shared stay, this study examines how the likelihood of… Show more

Xie, K., Kwok, L., Chen, C.C., & Wu, J. (2020). To share or to access? Travelers’ choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 42, 77-87.

Accommodation-sharing services have proliferated rapidly. Under the assumption that accommodation-sharing services provide travelers unique social interactions with local hosts or their peer travelers who also visit the destination for a shared stay, this study examines how the likelihood of travelers' choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services, including to share with a host, to share with other travelers, or to share with no others (to access), is affected by a specific type of accommodation of prior stays and their frequency of visits to a destination. A series of analyses using econometric models of multinomial logistic regressions were performed, using the longitudinal data of consumer choice among the three types of accommodation-sharing services collected from a major accommodation-sharing platform in China (xiaozhu.com). Generally, travelers tend to choose the same type of accommodation-sharing services they have used in the past. Additionally, the likelihood for a traveler to choose to share with a host, compared to the other two types of accommodation services, does not diminish but grows as the traveler's frequency of visits to a destination increases. This study adds unique marketing insights to the emerging literature regarding consumer choice on the types of accommodation-sharing services.
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Xie, K.L., Kwok, L., & Heo, C.Y. (2019). Are Neighbors Friends or Foes? Assessing Airbnb Listings’ Agglomeration Effect in New York City. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 1938965519890578.

This study investigates the agglomeration effect of Airbnb listings in New York City (NYC) and answers two research questions: (a) Does agglomeration benefit or hurt the performance of individual Airbnb listings? (b) How does the effect of agglomeration vary by hosts regarding their operational… Show more

Xie, K.L., Kwok, L., & Heo, C.Y. (2019). Are Neighbors Friends or Foes? Assessing Airbnb Listings’ Agglomeration Effect in New York City. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 1938965519890578.

This study investigates the agglomeration effect of Airbnb listings in New York City (NYC) and answers two research questions: (a) Does agglomeration benefit or hurt the performance of individual Airbnb listings? (b) How does the effect of agglomeration vary by hosts regarding their operational experience (measured by their capacity and tenure on Airbnb)? A series of econometric analyses using large-scale data of Airbnb in NYC reveal that agglomeration positively affects the revenue performance of each Airbnb listing. In addition, such an effect is strengthened as host tenure spans but mitigated as host capacity expands, indicating a nonsymmetric agglomeration effect across service providers. This research contributes an important but less researched perspective to the home-sharing literature. Managerial implications on leveraging agglomeration for improved revenue performance are provided to Airbnb and its hosts, as well as the hotel chains that want to combat Airbnb’s negative impacts or have already entered the short-term residential rental market to compete head-to-head with Airbnb. Show less

Kwok, L., & Huang, Y.K. (2019). Green attributes of restaurants: Do consumers, owners, and managers think alike? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 83, 28-32.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to assess and compare the perceived importance of various green attributes of restaurants among consumers, owners, and managers and (b) to explore if these three stakeholders have different expectations about consumers’ patronage intentions. A series of quantitative analyses… Show more

Kwok, L., & Huang, Y.K. (2019). Green attributes of restaurants: Do consumers, owners, and managers think alike? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 83, 28-32.

The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to assess and compare the perceived importance of various green attributes of restaurants among consumers, owners, and managers and (b) to explore if these three stakeholders have different expectations about consumers’ patronage intentions. A series of quantitative analyses, such as a repeated-measures ANOVA, a chi-square, and a one-way MANOVA were performed with 563 usable questionnaires (368 consumers, 115 restaurant managers, and 80 owners). The results reveal that owners and managers generally value green attributes more than consumers. The most valued attributes also vary among the three stakeholders. Additionally, owners and managers, compared to consumers, are more optimistic about consumers’ willingness to make extra efforts to patronize a green restaurant and the degree of extra efforts to which consumers would be committed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Show less

Karen L. Xie, Linchi Kwok, Jiang Wu, (2019) "Are consumers loyal to home-sharing services?: Impacts of host attributes and frequency of past stays", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2017-0552

Purpose
Buyers (renters) and sellers (hosts) on peer-to-peer (P2P) room-sharing websites make purchasing/selling decisions based on each other’s demographic information published in the cyber marketplace. Nevertheless, how this reciprocal selection based on the similarities between renters and hosts may lead to a successful P2P transaction of such services has not yet been discussed. Building on the similarity–attraction paradigm, this study assessed the similarity effects between renters… Show more

Purpose
Buyers (renters) and sellers (hosts) on peer-to-peer (P2P) room-sharing websites make purchasing/selling decisions based on each other’s demographic information published in the cyber marketplace. Nevertheless, how this reciprocal selection based on the similarities between renters and hosts may lead to a successful P2P transaction of such services has not yet been discussed. Building on the similarity–attraction paradigm, this study assessed the similarity effects between renters and hosts on the likelihood of a P2P room-sharing transaction.

Design/methodology/approach
A logistical regression model was employed in analysis, using a large-scale, granular online observational data set collected from Xiaozhu.com, a primary home-sharing platform in China.

Findings
Renter–host similarities in age and education significantly affect the likelihood of a P2P room-sharing transaction. As the number of listings managed by a host increases, the effect of age similarity decreases. While a renter’s experience with a room-sharing website negatively moderates the similarity effect of age, it is a factor positively moderating the similarity effect of education.

Research limitations/implications
Other possible host–renter similarities were not analyzed due to the limitation of the data source. The reciprocal selection process for room-sharing services was acknowledged by integrating buyers’ and sellers’ data into one analysis.

Practical implications
Implications are advanced for the stakeholders of room-sharing business, including entrepreneurs running a room-sharing website, operators of short-term residential rentals and hoteliers.

Originality/value
This study represents a first attempt to research the buyer–seller similarity effects on the likelihood of a P2P transaction in sharing economy. Show less

Kwok, L., & Xie, K.L. (2018). Pricing strategies on Airbnb: Are multi-unit hosts revenue pros? International Journal of Hospitality Management, in-press.

This study examined the effects of pricing strategies, including price positioning and dynamic pricing, on an Airbnb listing’s revenue with a particular interest on the performance difference between multi-unit and single-unit hosts. A series of econometric analyses were performed using a dataset of 320,243 listings managed by 216,058… Show more

Kwok, L., & Xie, K.L. (2018). Pricing strategies on Airbnb: Are multi-unit hosts revenue pros? International Journal of Hospitality Management, in-press.

This study examined the effects of pricing strategies, including price positioning and dynamic pricing, on an Airbnb listing’s revenue with a particular interest on the performance difference between multi-unit and single-unit hosts. A series of econometric analyses were performed using a dataset of 320,243 listings managed by 216,058 hosts in 10 major U.S. markets across a longitudinal period from October 2014 to July 2017. The results suggest while price positioning and dynamic pricing have positive impacts on an Airbnb listing’s revenue performance, a multi-listing host performs better than a single-listing host in driving a listing’s revenue, through (a) positioning a listing at a higher price than the average listing price in a neighborhood and (b) adopting less dynamic pricing strategies. Our study fills the void of pricing research in room-sharing economy literature and generates important insights about the pricing strategies and the consequent performance outcome between two different host types. Show less

Oggionni, T. and Kwok, L. (2018). A qualitative inquiry of DMO services to hotels: How valuable are they perceived? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.11.003

Highlights
• Examines how hotels and DMOs value the DMO services offered.
• Analyzes and triangulates two sets of data collected from in-depth interviews.
• Assesses different perceptions of DMOs and hotels on DMO services.
• Advances a two-dimensional… Show more

Oggionni, T. and Kwok, L. (2018). A qualitative inquiry of DMO services to hotels: How valuable are they perceived? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.11.003

Highlights
• Examines how hotels and DMOs value the DMO services offered.
• Analyzes and triangulates two sets of data collected from in-depth interviews.
• Assesses different perceptions of DMOs and hotels on DMO services.
• Advances a two-dimensional classification matrix of DMO services.
• Makes recommendations under each of the service areas provided by DMOs. Show less

This study was designed to assess consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth behavioral intentions toward various types of business-to-consumer messages on Facebook, as well as their intentions toward the hospitality companies that initiate the messages. The results suggested that marketing messages (vs. conversational messages) evoke stronger electronic word-of-mouth behavioral intentions toward the messages as well as the companies that initiated the messages. Strong electronic word-of-mouth… Show more

This study was designed to assess consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth behavioral intentions toward various types of business-to-consumer messages on Facebook, as well as their intentions toward the hospitality companies that initiate the messages. The results suggested that marketing messages (vs. conversational messages) evoke stronger electronic word-of-mouth behavioral intentions toward the messages as well as the companies that initiated the messages. Strong electronic word-of-mouth behavioral intentions toward the messages were found to be predictive of higher electronic word-of-mouth intentions toward the companies that initiated the messages. Gender had no moderating effect on such relationships. The findings provide implications for hospitality managers to develop specific business-to-consumer strategies to engage with Facebook users. Show less

Xie, K.L. & Kwok, L. (2017). The impact of Airbnb’s price penetration on hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 67, 174-184.

This study examined the relationship between the price positioning of Airbnb listings, measured in price difference between a hotel property and the nearby Airbnb listings as well as price dispersion among these Airbnb listings, and the performance of nearby hotels. An exploratory analysis using field data points collected from the… Show more

Xie, K.L. & Kwok, L. (2017). The impact of Airbnb’s price penetration on hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 67, 174-184.

This study examined the relationship between the price positioning of Airbnb listings, measured in price difference between a hotel property and the nearby Airbnb listings as well as price dispersion among these Airbnb listings, and the performance of nearby hotels. An exploratory analysis using field data points collected from the Airbnb listings and their hotel counterparts in the metropolitan area of Austin, Texas between Quarter 3, 2008 (debut of Airbnb in Austin) and Quarter 2, 2011 reveals intriguing findings. The entry of Airbnb listings was penetrative to local hotels. However, the price positioning of Airbnb, manifested in higher average price as compared to nearby hotels, as well as larger price dispersion among individual listings, significantly mitigated such penetration. Important theoretical contributions and practical implications for hotels are discussed. Show less

This study assesses the moderating effect of hotel class on managerial responses’ influence on hotel performance through the lens of data analytics. A panel data model was applied to analyze 7,979 managerial responses and 51,801 online reviews on TripAdvisor, which were matched with the financial performance data (revenue per available room [RevPAR]) for 2,652 hotels in 427 cities in Texas over 26 consecutive quarters from 2005 to 2011. The results suggest that even though all hotels will be… Show more

This study assesses the moderating effect of hotel class on managerial responses’ influence on hotel performance through the lens of data analytics. A panel data model was applied to analyze 7,979 managerial responses and 51,801 online reviews on TripAdvisor, which were matched with the financial performance data (revenue per available room [RevPAR]) for 2,652 hotels in 427 cities in Texas over 26 consecutive quarters from 2005 to 2011. The results suggest that even though all hotels will be able to observe an increase of RevPAR as they post more managerial responses to online reviews, above-average and luxury hotels in particular benefit from managerial responses in longer length and provided by frontline managers, whereas full-service, mid-market economy, and budget traveler hotels benefit from executives’ responses. In addition, the speed of responses is important for full-service and above-average hotels, and conciseness of responses is critical to budget traveler hotels. This study provided important yet specific implications on how hotels can benefit from different types of managerial response strategies according to their product characteristics (hotel class). It also adds to hospitality and online review literature with new theoretical perspectives on the varying effect of managerial responses on business performance specific to the lodging industry context. Show less

Purpose
The purposes of this study are to synthesize the current research findings reported in major hospitality and tourism journals and to discuss the knowledge gaps where additional research endeavors are needed.

Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review approach was adopted to analyze 67 research articles about online reviews that were published between January 2000 and July 2015 in seven major hospitality and tourism journals.

Findings
This study presents a… Show more

Purpose
The purposes of this study are to synthesize the current research findings reported in major hospitality and tourism journals and to discuss the knowledge gaps where additional research endeavors are needed.

Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review approach was adopted to analyze 67 research articles about online reviews that were published between January 2000 and July 2015 in seven major hospitality and tourism journals.

Findings
This study presents a thematic framework of online review research, which was advanced by integrating the interactions among quantitative evaluation features, verbal evaluation features, reputation features and social features of online reviews with important outcomes of consumer decision-making and business performance. The thematic framework helps researchers identify the areas in extant hospitality literature of online reviews and point out possible directions for future studies.

Practical implications
Practitioners can gain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationships among the key influential factors in online reviews, as presented in the thematic framework of online review research. Accordingly, managers will be able to develop effective strategies to leverage the positive impacts of online reviews to the business outcomes.

Originality/value
This systematic review synthesizes the findings reported in most recent publications (January 2000-July 2015; also including “Online First” articles) in seven major hospitality and tourism journals and develops an integrated research framework, anchoring on four meta-research questions and showing the dynamic relationships among the key players/factors/themes in online review research. This framework provides a visual diagram to practitioners for a better understanding of the relevant literature and assists researchers in developing new research questions for future studies. Show less

Kwok, L., Huang, Y.K., and Hu, L. (2016). Green attributes of restaurants: What really matters to consumers? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 107-117.

This study examined which of a restaurant's green attributes consumers deem most important and how consumers’ attitudes toward various green attributes affect their behavioral intentions. Demographic effects on consumers’ preferences for green attributes and behavioral intentions were also assessed. A quantitative… Show more

Kwok, L., Huang, Y.K., and Hu, L. (2016). Green attributes of restaurants: What really matters to consumers? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 107-117.

This study examined which of a restaurant's green attributes consumers deem most important and how consumers’ attitudes toward various green attributes affect their behavioral intentions. Demographic effects on consumers’ preferences for green attributes and behavioral intentions were also assessed. A quantitative analysis of 382 usable questionnaires revealed that although consumers generally perceived environment-focused attributes to be most important, those who valued food- and administration-focused attributes were more likely to pay more, wait longer, and/or travel farther to dine at a green restaurant. Women tended to rate higher than men in all three categories of green attributes. Consumers in a family with at least one child valued food-focused attributes more than those living in a household without children. Younger consumers were more willing to pay more, wait longer, and/or travel farther to dine at a green restaurant. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed. Show less

Purpose
This study is designed to examine the factors contributing to the helpfulness of online hotel reviews and to measure the impact of manager response on the helpfulness of online hotel reviews.

Design/methodology/approach
This investigation employed a linear regression model that drew upon 56,284 consumer reviews and 10,797 manager responses from 1,405 hotels on TripAdvisor.com for analysis.

Findings
The helpfulness of online hotel reviews is negatively affected by… Show more

Purpose
This study is designed to examine the factors contributing to the helpfulness of online hotel reviews and to measure the impact of manager response on the helpfulness of online hotel reviews.

Design/methodology/approach
This investigation employed a linear regression model that drew upon 56,284 consumer reviews and 10,797 manager responses from 1,405 hotels on TripAdvisor.com for analysis.

Findings
The helpfulness of online hotel reviews is negatively affected by rating and number of sentences in a review, but positively affected by manager response and reviewer experience in terms of reviewer status, years of membership, and number of cities visited. Manager response moderates the influence of reviewer experience on the helpfulness of online hotel reviews.

Research limitations/implications
Using the data from hotels in five major cities in Texas, the results may not be necesarily generalized to other markets, but the important role that manager response plays in online reviews is assessed with big data analysis.

Practical implications
The results suggest hospitality managers should strategically identify opinion leaders among reviewers, and proactively influence the helpfulness of the reviews by providing manager response. Additionally, this study makes recommendations to webmasters of social media platforms in terms of advancing the algorithm of featuring the most helpful online reviews.

Originality/value
This study is at the frontier of research to explain how hotel managers can proactively identify opinion leaders among consumers and use manager response to influence the helpfulness of consumer reviews. Additionally, the results also provide new insights to the influence of reviewer demographic background on the helpfulness of online reviews. Lastly, this study analyzed a large data set on a scale that was not available in traditional guest survey studies, responding to the call for big data applications in the hospitality industry. Show less

Kwok, L., Zhang, F., Huang, Y., Yu, B., Maharabhushanam, P., & Rangan, K. (2015). Documenting business-to-consumer (B2C) communications on Facebook: What have changed among restaurants and consumers? Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, special issue on social media, 7(3), 283-294.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to document how restaurant’s B2C communication strategies evolved on Facebook over time and how consumers’ reactions to a variety of Facebook messages changed over… Show more

Kwok, L., Zhang, F., Huang, Y., Yu, B., Maharabhushanam, P., & Rangan, K. (2015). Documenting business-to-consumer (B2C) communications on Facebook: What have changed among restaurants and consumers? Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, special issue on social media, 7(3), 283-294.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to document how restaurant’s B2C communication strategies evolved on Facebook over time and how consumers’ reactions to a variety of Facebook messages changed over time.

Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzed 2,463 Facebook messages posted by seven quick-service restaurant chains and three casual-dining restaurant chains in the fourth quarter of 2010, 2012, and 2014. ANOVA and post-hoc t test were used to compare the differences among four media types (photo, status update, video, and hyperlink) in terms of their usage by companies and Facebook users’ reactions to these messages (measured by number of “Likes,” number of comments, and number of shares).

Findings
Over the three periods of time under observation, there is a substantial decrease of status updates by restaurants and a dramatic increase of photo updates. Photo remained as the most “popular” media type, receiving most “Likes,” comments, and shares from consumers. Video was not considered “popular” in 2010 but experienced a slight increase in usage and slowly emerged in 2012 and 2014 as another “popular” media, which no longer had statistical difference with photo in number of comments and shares.

Research limitations/implications
Some limitations include an under representable sample and its longitudinal design, but the findings provide additional insight to current literature in social media.

Practical implications
A series of suggestions were advanced from the findings to help hospitality managers better engage Facebook users.

Originality/value
This is probably the first time-series or longitudinal-like analysis in social media research and yields meaningful findings. Show less

Huang, Y., & Kwok, L. (2013). Information sources for trust judgments in managerial relationships over time: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management. 14(2), 140-160.

As a method of determining what types of social media messages work best for hospitality firms, this study examined what types of messages gained the most clicks of “Like” and comments on Facebook. An analysis of the number of likes and comments regarding nine hundred and eighty-two Facebook messages from ten restaurant chains and two independent operators revealed clear patterns. The more popular keywords involved information about the restaurant (e.g., menu descriptions) and the less popular… Show more

As a method of determining what types of social media messages work best for hospitality firms, this study examined what types of messages gained the most clicks of “Like” and comments on Facebook. An analysis of the number of likes and comments regarding nine hundred and eighty-two Facebook messages from ten restaurant chains and two independent operators revealed clear patterns. The more popular keywords involved information about the restaurant (e.g., menu descriptions) and the less popular messages were those that contained marketing-related words (including “winner” and “check”). Dividing the messages into four media types, namely, status (text only), link (containing a URL), video (embedding a video), and photo (showing photos), revealed that photo and status receive more likes and comments than the other two categories. Social media messages can also be categorized into two message types: sales and marketing (about two-thirds of the messages in this study) and conversational messages. Based on number of likes and comments, conversational messages are endorsed by more Facebook users. Finally, cross-effects of media type and message type affect the number of comments a message received. Although these results do not expressly assess Facebook users’ reactions, the guidelines developed here should help managers improve their use of Facebook, as well as provide groundwork for developing a defined typology of Facebook messages and an automatic text classifier with the machine learning techniques. Show less

Kwok, L. (2012). Exploratory-triangulation design in mixed methods studies: A case of examining graduating seniors who meet hospitality recruiters’ selection criteria. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 13(3), 125-138

This study used an exploratory mixed methods approach to identify the characteristics possessed by hospitality graduating seniors who receive job offers. Quantitative analyses reveal that: (a) seniors who receive job offers are different from those who do not in relevant work/internship experience, perceived person-organization and person-job fit, leadership/career preparedness, professionalism, and interview behaviors and (b) student characteristics have various effects on recruiters’ hiring… Show more

This study used an exploratory mixed methods approach to identify the characteristics possessed by hospitality graduating seniors who receive job offers. Quantitative analyses reveal that: (a) seniors who receive job offers are different from those who do not in relevant work/internship experience, perceived person-organization and person-job fit, leadership/career preparedness, professionalism, and interview behaviors and (b) student characteristics have various effects on recruiters’ hiring decisions in different hospitality segments. Suggestions are provided to help students better prepare for a hospitality career and hospitality programs better educate students for employments. Future research is advocated to address the limitations. Show less

The purpose of this study was to assess the criteria employed by hospitality recruiters to select entry-level managers among hospitality graduating seniors. This paper introduces the Factors Influencing Hospitality Recruiters’ Hiring Decisions (FIHRHD) Model based on researchers’ review of recruitment and hospitality literature. The FIHRHD Model guided the qualitative inquiry of 14 in-depth interviews with 22 purposefully selected recruiters/managers, who represented 14 companies… Show more

The purpose of this study was to assess the criteria employed by hospitality recruiters to select entry-level managers among hospitality graduating seniors. This paper introduces the Factors Influencing Hospitality Recruiters’ Hiring Decisions (FIHRHD) Model based on researchers’ review of recruitment and hospitality literature. The FIHRHD Model guided the qualitative inquiry of 14 in-depth interviews with 22 purposefully selected recruiters/managers, who represented 14 companies from five hospitality industry segments. The data were analyzed with the content analysis techniques of phenomenology qualitative research and revealed that leadership, relevant job experience, person-organization and person-job fit, and personality are the most influential factors in recruiters’ hiring decisions. Show less

Popularity of social marketing messages indicates the effectiveness of the corresponding marketing strategies. This research aims to discover the characteristics of social marketing messages that contribute to different level of popularity. Using messages posted by a sample of restaurants on Facebook as a case study, we measured the message popularity by the number of “likes” voted by fans, and examined the relationship between the message popularity and two properties of the messages: (1)… Show more

Popularity of social marketing messages indicates the effectiveness of the corresponding marketing strategies. This research aims to discover the characteristics of social marketing messages that contribute to different level of popularity. Using messages posted by a sample of restaurants on Facebook as a case study, we measured the message popularity by the number of “likes” voted by fans, and examined the relationship between the message popularity and two properties of the messages: (1) content, and (2) media type. Combining a number of text mining and statistics methods, we have discovered some interesting patterns correlated to “more popular” and “less popular” social marketing messages. This work lays foundation for building computational models to predict the popularity of social marketing messages in the future. Show less