Metin Kozak | Kadir Has University (original) (raw)

Papers by Metin Kozak

Social Science Research Network, 2022

Journal of Services Marketing

Purpose This study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researc... more Purpose This study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researchers hypothesize that engaging content, the quality of information and source credibility have a significant effect on the consumers’ utilitarian motivations to continue using them in the future. Design/methodology/approach A structured survey questionnaire was used to gather data from 1,287 online users, who were members of two popular social media groups. The methodology relied on a partial least squares approach to analyze the causal relationships within an extended information adoption model (IAM). Findings The findings reveal that the research participants perceive the utility of interactive travel websites and are willing to continue using them, particularly the responsive ones. The research participants suggest that these sites are easy to use, capture their attention and offer them useful information on various tourism services. The results also indicate that they appreciate thei...

Technology in Society

Highlights • Social network services enable synchronous communications, concurrent engagement and... more Highlights • Social network services enable synchronous communications, concurrent engagement and facilitate real-time conversations. • This research explores the content attractiveness and interactive capabilities of social media groups. • A composite-based structural equations modelling approach confirms the reliability and validity of this study. • Interactive social media groups affect the subscribers' intentions to revisit them as well as their social facilitation behaviors.

SSRN Electronic Journal

Purpose: Customers are increasingly utilizing mobile applications (apps) to compare prices of tra... more Purpose: Customers are increasingly utilizing mobile applications (apps) to compare prices of travel and hospitality services and to purchase their itineraries, tours and stays. This study explores key factors influencing the individuals' perceptions about the usefulness of travel apps and sheds light on the causal paths predicting the individuals' dispositions to utilize them. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative data was gathered from 1,320 subscribers of social media groups. They were analyzed through a composite-based partial least squares (PLS) approach. Findings: The results indicate that information quality, source credibility and the functionality of travel apps are significantly affecting the individuals' perceptions about their usefulness as well as their intentions to use them. They also confirm that there are highly significant indirect effects within the proposed model. Practical implications: This study suggests that there is scope for the travel service providers to enhance the quality and functionality of their mobile apps, in order to improve their consumers' perceptions about the utility of these ubiquitous service technologies. Theoretical implications: The study integrates information quality and source credibility factors with a functionality construct. It examines their effects on the technology acceptance model (TAM)'s perceived usefulness and behavioral intentions. Originality: This contribution incorporates a functionality construct in an information technology adoption model to shed light on the individuals' dispositions to avail themselves of online content and/or to adopt interactive innovations. In this case, it implies that certain functionality features of travel apps 2 including their responsiveness and technical capabilities can trigger users to increase their engagement with these mobile technologies on a habitual basis.

Journal of Services Marketing, 2022

This study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researchers hyp... more This study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researchers hypothesize that engaging content, the quality of information and source credibility has a significant effect on the consumers' utilitarian motivations to continue using them in the future. Design/methodology/approach: A structured survey questionnaire was used to gather data from 1,287 online users, who were members of two popular social media groups. The methodology relied on a partial least squares (PLS) approach to analyze the causal relationships within an extended information adoption model. Findings: The findings reveal that the research participants perceive the utility of interactive travel websites and are willing to continue using them, particularly the responsive ones. The research participants suggest that these sites are easy-to-use, capture their attention, and offer them useful information on various tourism services. The results also indicate that they appreciate their source credibility (in terms of their trustworthiness and expertise of their curators) as well as their quality content. Research limitations/Implications: This study integrates key measures from the information adoption model (IAM) with a perceived interactivity construct, to better understand the individuals' acceptance and use of interactive websites. Practical implications: This research implies that service businesses ought to have engaging websites that respond to consumer queries, in a timely manner. Hence, they should offer a seamless experience to their visitors to encourage loyal behaviors and revisit intentions to their online domains. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, there are no other studies that incorporated an interactive engagement construct with key constructs from IAM and from the technology acceptance model (TAM). This contribution underlines the importance of measuring the individuals' perceptions about the engagement capabilities of interactive media when investigating information and/or technology adoption.

Türkiye son 20 yılda turizm alanında hızlı bir gelişme kaydetmiş, turist sayısı ve turizm geliri ... more Türkiye son 20 yılda turizm alanında hızlı bir gelişme kaydetmiş, turist sayısı ve turizm geliri bakımından dünyada ilk on ülke içerisinde yer almayı başarmıştır. Benzer şekilde iç turizmde de büyük bir canlanma görülmüş ve Akdeniz ve Ege sahillerinde çok sayıda ikinci konut inşa edilmiştir. Günümüzde üç milyonu bulan ikinci konutlar, turizmin sezonluk özelliği düşünüldüğünde, yılın önemli bir kısmında atıl durumda olan bir milli servet olarak göze çarpmaktadır. İkinci konutların kullanım sürelerinin arttırılarak turizmde alternatif gelir oluşturma arayışları uzun yıllardır sürmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ikinci konut sahiplerinin, konutlarının turizme açılması ile ilgili önerilen işletme modellerine yönelik görüş ve önerilerini ortaya koymaktır. Araştırma sonuçları, beş alternatif işletme modelinin ikinci konutların turizm sektörüne kazandırılmasında kullanılabileceğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu modeller; aracısız pazarlama modeli, ikinci konut işletmeciliğine has işletmecilik model...

Public Health Nutrition

Objective: This study seeks to empirically investigate how the changing eating habits affect heal... more Objective: This study seeks to empirically investigate how the changing eating habits affect health habits within three countries with entirely different cultures and diets to understand to what extent the pandemic may be responsible for these changes. Design: Specifically, a questionnaire was conducted in China, Portugal and Turkey in early 2021. A series of statistical analyses were performed to identify how changes in individuals’ eating habits have influenced their diets, considering the pandemic context and the varying cultural contexts where this research was performed. Setting: A structured questionnaire form was developed and uploaded to an online platform with unique links for automatic distribution to respondents in each country. Data for the main survey were gathered between 3 January and 1 February 2021. Participants: Using snowball sampling, the authors leveraged their social networks by asking friends and colleagues to distribute the survey to potentially interested in...

European Journal of Management and Business Economics

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the most efficient hotel system and why efficiency varies ac... more PurposeThis paper aims to understand the most efficient hotel system and why efficiency varies across years and between the two differing types of hotel businesses in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachA data envelopment analysis (DEA) analysis was used to characterise the efficiency of all-inclusive (AI) and bed and breakfast (B&B) hotel businesses with one output (total revenue) and three inputs (labour, food and capital costs). The Malmquist approach is then used to discern changes in total efficiency (TTE) and intertemporal shifts in the efficiency frontier (technological change (Tch)).FindingsThe results reveal that the AI hotel operates at 100% efficiency in the summer and year-round. The B&B hotel business operates at 89.6% with variable constant returns to scale during the summer and with 100% efficiency. The results of the Malmquist approach indicate that the total factor productivity grew in the years 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, while the other years were marked by inefficie...

Tourism Culture & Communication, 2021

Teaching in a different culture and environment is always a challenging issue. This may last from... more Teaching in a different culture and environment is always a challenging issue. This may last from a few months to a few years, depending on the consequences of personal characteristics and environmental situations. Based on a personal experience, this article investigates the possible cultural differences between the lecturer and students in a teaching environment and understanding how the student perceptions may gradually change and the student–lecturer interaction may evolve until the semester ends. In a methodological way, the conclusions were drawn out of a mixed-method approach that is composed of a personal observation of the lecturer (etic), and expressions, both verbal and written, and memories of other persons (students) within the same class (emic). In lights of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, the study addresses a list of practical implications as the "lessons learned"—presumably the best way to cope with the challenges of teaching in a different culture.

Annals of Tourism Research, 2020

While brief short communications may appear simplistic, the opposite is true. Research notes, vie... more While brief short communications may appear simplistic, the opposite is true. Research notes, viewpoints, and similar works are in fact small but mighty: a slice of impactful research in a tidy package. Scimago's Journal & Country Rank listing (SJR, 2018) indicates that among 102 journals across tourism, leisure, and hospitality management, about one-fifth provide avenues for less-thanfull-sized research papers (generally 3000 words or less). Some outlets such as Journal of Travel Research and Annals of Tourism Research, offer a "Letter to Editor" or similar "Viewpoint" category published at discretion of the journal editors without peer review. While some journals may prefer accepting more extensive empirical work, the potential power of brief publications cannot be understated (Ertaş & Kozak, 2020); rather, these formats should be embraced and respected (Dolnicar, 2019). This short piece echoes Dolnicar's (2019) advocacy efforts by arguing that brevity should not compromise credibility. Similar to journals in disciplines such as medicine and life science, diverse approaches to knowledge sharing can be considered in tourism; publication formats such as rapid communications would allow for timely reporting of breakthrough findings. Several aspects of short communication pieces deserve consideration, particularly given these papers' capacity to introduce new ideas and foster future theoretical harmonisation (Ertaş & Kozak, 2020). First, length is not analogous to quality. Indeed, two Nobel Prize winners were recognised for their concise but influential work: John Nash and colleagues earned the Nobel Prize for a paper of merely 908 words on Nash equilibria; J. Robin Warren and colleague's letter to The Lancet summarised a paper on Helicobacter pylori gastritis. In addition, Albert Einstein's famed equation on mass-energy equivalence, E = mc 2 , was described in roughly 2 pages. Thus, scientists' work can earn great recognition even if corresponding explanations are brief. Second, short communications should be welcomed in all disciplines. Some research domains encourage scientists to share succinct findings or predictions. For instance, various medical journals welcome short papers such as rapid communications, letters to the editor, perspective pieces, clinical notes, and correspondence letters, some of which cannot exceed a mere 300 words. Many leading medical outlets such as The Lancet also publish full-length articles of up to 3500 words, far shorter than conventional papers that may reach 10,000 words in fields such as tourism. Ertaş and Kozak (2020) found that tourism journals appear to be more conservative than other outlets in solely publishing full empirical papers. In this case, it is necessary to reconsider the relationship between quality and contribution: is length truly a fair barometer of a study's worthiness? Surely the value of research output is not tied to paper length alone. Third, compared to full-length research, brief papers can be more challenging to complete due to length constraints and fewer venues for publication (e.g., in tourism). No other submission types, such as rapid communications or correspondence, are currently solicited in tourism journals. Recalling the above-mentioned publication formats welcomed in medicine, it is worth pondering whether additional communication channels are needed in tourism. Such avenues would enable tourism researchers to keep a finger on the veritable pulse of knowledge through journals. The tourism community should turn to domains such as medicine for models of open, diverse communication between scholars, journal editors, and the public. Fourth, not all research contexts are equal. Amidst a life-or-death battle against COVID-19, the pandemic's consequences on global

Journal of Travel Research, 2017

This exploratory study, based on 316 questionnaires completed by mainland Chinese tourists in Hon... more This exploratory study, based on 316 questionnaires completed by mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong, investigates whether certain conditions are sufficient to motivate tourists’ decisions to buy luxury products. The results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis reveal that a combination of four conditions (emotional attachment, fashion leadership, prestige sensitivity, and social value) is sufficient to influence tourists to shop for luxury brands. It must be pointed out, however, that the four conditions are unnecessary in some social and shopping contexts, and thus the findings do not reject the possibility that alternative conditions may also influence luxury shopping decisions. This study using fuzzy-set theory demonstrates that tourists who score highly in all four conditions constitute an almost perfect subcategory of luxury shoppers. Therefore, it is recommended that other scholars examine the conditions that are sufficient to influence tourists rather than concen...

Destination benchmarking: concepts, practices and operations., 2004

European Journal of Management and Business Economics, 2018

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Big Data and Innovation in Tourism, Travel, and Hospitality, 2019

Big data plays a catalytic role in the determination of consumers’ preferences while achieving me... more Big data plays a catalytic role in the determination of consumers’ preferences while achieving meaningful results together by obtaining the right data. Artificial intelligence systems, particularly those powered by machine technology, can achieve significant results through the rapid elimination of large data sets. This leads to determining structural changes both in consumer behaviour models and marketing strategies. With preliminary information about consumers, intelligent system mechanisms, i.e. artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT), have increased the speed of information processing and the analysis of larger volumes of information and have also targeted reaching the right consumer segments, affecting their decision-making preferences before the event. As a result, these types of automations may enable tourism and hospitality businesses to benefit from marketing activities with the help of different algorithmic solutions. Thus, this chapter aims to debate how big data, artificial intelligence and IoT are likely to reshape the traditional structure of tourism and hospitality marketing in the future and introduces new approaches as the key elements in maintaining competitiveness in a new era.

Tourism Review, 2021

Purpose COVID-19 is currently the most serious crisis facing the world, and scholars in the medic... more Purpose COVID-19 is currently the most serious crisis facing the world, and scholars in the medical and social sciences are working to save lives and mitigate the societal effects of the pandemic. This global public health emergency requires interdisciplinary work to provide comprehensive insight into a rapidly changing situation. However, attempts to integrate the medical and social sciences have met several barriers. This paper aims to identify feasible research opportunities for interdisciplinary studies across tourism and public health regarding COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a critical review of the literature and generates corresponding conceptual and theoretical frameworks to provide an in-depth discussion. Findings Tourism-related issues of destination management policies and capital are addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective. The conclusions encourage interdisciplinary research into global health problems, which will promote tourism’s ren...

Tourism, 2022

This study aims to investigate how the coronavirus has resulted in harmful effects on the tourism... more This study aims to investigate how the coronavirus has resulted in harmful effects on the tourism industry and how it has most likely shaken the common traditional practices that the industry had followed for years. With a chronological order, this is a case study focusing on personal observations and also personal communication with hoteliers and retailers commencing from the early weeks to the end of 2020 in Turkey. The study has resulted in the categorization of risks, challenges and responses under 10 parts. The study also provides implications for the literature and the industry at the business and destination level altogether.

Even though competition will become increasingly fierce in the 21st century (Ireland and Hitt 199... more Even though competition will become increasingly fierce in the 21st century (Ireland and Hitt 1999), little research has been carried out dealing with the topic of competitiveness of different tourist destinations either at the regional/national or international level (e.g. Briguglio and Vella 1995; Edwards 1993). It is claimed that a full competitive destination analysis has not received widespread recognition in the tourism literature (Pearce 1997). As Table 1 shows, both primary and secondary types of data collection methods have been employed to carry out destination comparison / competitiveness research. Secondary data collection methods have primarily focused upon the analysis of figures, whereas primary research methods focus solely on investigating customer attitudes towards or perceptions of the attractiveness of several individual destinations. Much of the research conducted using primary methods has been conducted without evidence about whether respondents have been to sa...