Sangwon Park | University of Surrey (original) (raw)

Papers by Sangwon Park

Despite the growing prevalence of smartphones in daily life and travel context, travellers still ... more Despite the growing prevalence of smartphones in daily life and travel context, travellers still perceive an extent of risk associated with using their smartphone to book travel products. In order to alleviate or reduce perceived risk, it is important to better understand the dimensions of and the factors that contribute to perceived risk. This study analysed 411 responses from an online panel to examine perceived risk in mobile travel booking and identified the following facets: time risk, financial risk, performance risk, privacy/security risk, psychological risk, physical risk, and device risk. Several antecedents of perceived risk were identified. Perceived collection of personal information via smartphones contributes positively, while consumer innovativeness, trust, and visibility contribute negatively to perceived risk. Further, the predictive validity of perceived risk is confirmed as it significantly explains perceived usefulness, attitude, and behavioural intention in mobile travel booking. Implications to manage perceived risk and its antecedents are provided.

There is a dearth of studies analysing the relationship between demand variations, productivity a... more There is a dearth of studies analysing the relationship between demand variations, productivity and flexible working in the face of variable demand challenges confronting the tourism industry. This investigation is needed to inform important firm and industry specific labour management strategies for improving productivity. Using data for 43 medium sized hotels owned by two chains in the UK, this paper analyses productivity in relation to external (demand variations) and internal (labour management) conditions over an 8 year period from 2005-2013. The paper’s findings show that demand variation is the principal determinant of productivity. Numerical, functional and zero-contract hour flexible labour management also contributes to labour productivity. Significant differences in findings between establishment and departments indicate the importance of disaggregated analyses.

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget ret... more Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2010

ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this ... more ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this study it is argued that the portfolio of trips (specifically, the portfolio of various trip styles) one takes can be used to describe his/her overall travel persona. Network analysis ...

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2010

ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this ... more ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this study it is argued that the portfolio of trips (specifically, the portfolio of various trip styles) one takes can be used to describe his/her overall travel persona. Network analysis ...

This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of performa... more This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of performance in hotels, utilising a highly disaggregated data set of actual hours worked and outputs, on a monthly basis, over an 8 year period for 25 establishments within a single firm. It examines not only inter-establishment, but also intra-establishment (departmental) variations in performance. The analysis also systematically compares the findings based on financial versus physical measures, against a background where existing research has utilised diverse and, sometimes, hybrid measures of performance and productivity. While generally confirming significant relationships between performance and flexible working and migrant employment, the findings also emphasise that the types of flexible working practices are important. It also identifies complex variations at the departmental level: substantially different relationships between flexibility and migrant employment, and performance are identified for rooms versus food & beverage departments, reflecting different operating conditions.

Consumers tend to seek heuristic information cues to simplify the amount of information involved ... more Consumers tend to seek heuristic information cues to simplify the amount of information involved in tourist decisions. Accordingly, star ratings in online reviews are a critical heuristic element of the perceived evaluation of online consumer information. The objective of this article is to assess the effect of review ratings on usefulness and enjoyment. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 5,090 reviews of 45 restaurants in London and New York. The results show that people perceive extreme ratings (positive or negative) as more useful and enjoyable than moderate ratings, giving rise to a U-shaped line, with asymmetric effects: the size of the effect of online reviews depends on whether they are positive or negative.

Tourism Management

In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. According... more In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to analyze the potential differentiated effect of advertising on two basic consumption patterns: individual products (i.e. hotel, restaurant) vs. bundle (i.e. hotel + restaurant). This research adds to the extant literature in that, for the first time, this potential differentiated effect is examined through a hierarchical modelling framework that reflects the way people make their decisions: first, they decide whether to visit or not a region; second, whether to purchase an advertised product in that region; and third, whether to buy products together or separately at the region. The empirical analysis, applied to a sample of 11,288 individuals, shows that the influence of advertising is positive for the decisions to visit and to purchase; however, when it comes to the joint or separate consumption, advertising has a differentiated effect: its impact is much greater on the joint alternative (“hotel + restaurant”) than the separate options (“hotel” and “restaurant”). Also, the variable distance moderates the advertising effect.

Tourism Management

While the proliferation of online review websites facilitate travellers' ability to obtain inform... more While the proliferation of online review websites facilitate travellers' ability to obtain information (decrease in search costs), it makes it difficult for them to process and judge useful information (increase in cognitive costs). Accordingly, this study attempts to identify the factors affecting the perceived usefulness of online consumer reviews by investigating two aspects of online information: (1) the characteristics of review providers, such as the disclosure of personal identity, the reviewer's expertise and reputation, and (2) reviews themselves including quantitative (i.e., star ratings and length of reviews) and qualitative measurements (i.e., perceived enjoyment and review readability). The results reveal that a combination of both messenger and message characteristics positively affect the perceived usefulness of reviews. In particular, qualitative aspects of reviews were identified as the most influential factors that make travel reviews useful. The implications of these findings contribute to tourism and hospitality marketers to develop more effective social media marketing.

Journal of Business Ethics

This study examines the effects of transformational, transactional, and non-transactional leaders... more This study examines the effects of transformational, transactional, and non-transactional leadership on hotel employees’ outcomes including extra effort, perceived efficiency, and satisfaction with managers. Employees from eleven 4-star hotels in Spain provided the collected data. A series of statistical analyses (1) identify the elements of three leadership styles using a multi-factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ-5X); (2) examine the effect of leadership styles on employees’ outcomes. The results of this study indicate that “idealized attributes” of transformational leadership and “contingent reward” from transactional leadership are the most important factors that positively affect all three outcomes (i.e., extra effort, perceived efficiency, and satisfaction); and (3) to assess the moderating effect of different types of ownership of hotel properties on the relationship between styles of leadership and outcomes of employees’ activities other than these two elements, the significant factors indicating positive or negative relationships vary depending on the types of individual outcomes as well as ownership of hotel properties. The discussion sections indicate theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Tourism Analysis

This study builds on previous research examining the concept of travel decision flexibility based... more This study builds on previous research examining the concept of travel decision flexibility based on theories related to adaptive decision making, which argue that travelers perceive different levels of flexibility depending on the trip-related decision. The results of this study indicate that there are two distinctive types of decision flexibility, which are related to the timing and components of the trip: pretrip and en route flexibility. The constructs are examined for their external validity using several travel situational factors, including number of alternatives, prior knowledge, length of stay, planning horizon, and types of travel groups. These findings are important in that they help us to understand better the underlying structure and characteristics of travel decisions and, in turn, help us identify potential ways to design more effective information delivery systems using information technology.

Annals of Tourism Research, 2013

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget ret... more Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Journal of Travel Research, 2012

Mobile phones have evolved to be smart computers (smartphones) supporting a wide range of informa... more Mobile phones have evolved to be smart computers (smartphones) supporting a wide range of information services that can be accessed anytime and from (almost) anywhere. With the increasing number of users and greater incursion into people’s life, smartphones have the potential to significantly influence the touristic experience. This study explores the mediation mechanisms of smartphones by examining stories provided by travelers related to their use of smartphones (and associated applications) for traveling purposes. The results reveal that smartphones can change tourists’ behavior and emotional states by addressing a wide variety of information needs; in particular, the instant information support of smartphones enables tourists to more effectively solve problems, share experiences, and “store” memories. The implications of these findings are important in that they suggest a huge potential for smartphones in changing many aspects of the tourism business.

Tourism Analysis, 2012

This article analyzes cultural differences in web communication in the tourism context. the conce... more This article analyzes cultural differences in web communication in the tourism context. the conceptual framework presenting cultural differences in the three types of web communication is developed. the specific hypotheses are tested on the US American and Chinese sample. Although the findings support the developed framework they also reveal nonsignificant differences between the groups. theoretical and practical implications of the findings are identified and recommendations for future studies are made

International Journal of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, 2012

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 2011

Using tourists' stories to promote destinations is believed to be an innovative approach in desti... more Using tourists' stories to promote destinations is believed to be an innovative approach in destination marketing. This study conceptualizes and investigates the effectiveness of such an approach. This study supports the underlying premise of introducing narrative in marketing, that is, the narrative reasoning that human beings possess with which they can retrieve information better through a story. Furthermore, it is argued that the increased knowledge of a destination will have a stronger effect on the intention to visit a destination if the audiences can identify themselves with the story characters. Several managerial implications are also discussed.

Anatolia:An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2011

The Internet has become the primary channel for the purchase of a number of travel-related produc... more The Internet has become the primary channel for the purchase of a number of travel-related products including airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rental, tickets to events and attractions, etc. This study examines the pattern of travel-related products purchased online by American travelers. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong hierarchical structure in the purchasing of eight travel-related products. In addition, it appears that American travelers can be roughly classified into three travel product groups, ranging from the ‘Core Internet Traveler’ and ‘Advanced Internet Traveler’ to the ‘Comprehensive Internet (or Complete) Traveler.’ Finally, an analysis of the travelers indicates that they differ significantly in terms of demographic characteristics, information search behavior, and travel planning activities. These findings offer a number of important implications for destination marketing.

International Journal of Tourism Research, 2010

The purpose of this research is to compare salient approaches for identifying the patterns of col... more The purpose of this research is to compare salient approaches for identifying the patterns of college students' information search behaviours while preparing for their spring break trips. Comparing four different prominent constructs (i.e. past experience, prior knowledge, involvement and a concept of specialisation combining those three variables), the results of the study indicate that involvement and the specialisation concept have more distinctive results than the others in terms of measurement of travellers' perceived usefulness of information sources and the importance of information content. In addition, the different groups assigned different priorities for usage of main information sources. As a result, involvement and the specialisation concept appear to provide more distinctive clarification for identifying the information search behaviours of spring break travellers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2009

The purpose of this study was to identify information search behaviors of college student travele... more The purpose of this study was to identify information search behaviors of college student travelers by applying the concept of specialization. Dividing the college travelers into groups of high‐, medium‐, and low‐leveled specialization, the research investigated the perceived value of information content and information sources, and identified the main information sources used to obtain information for their recent spring break trips. It was observed that the different specialization groups assigned different values to information content and sources. The differences in the choice of information channel also appear to be substantial. As a result, the findings of this study supported the idea that the specialization concept can be used as an alternative approach to segment travelers in a more comprehensive way, which combines past experience, prior knowledge, and involvement that are important to classify travelers.

Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, 2008

The study aims at demonstrating cultural differences between Americans and Chinese in terms of cu... more The study aims at demonstrating cultural differences between Americans and Chinese in terms of customer's perceptions and satisfaction of crowded environments within the context of restaurant settings. It has been noted that culture has a substantial impact on customer affection and judgment, and crowding in service environments is a critical antecedent of customer satisfaction. Considering these main themes, this study examined how cultural differences play a role in predicting customer satisfaction within the crowded restaurant setting. With the use of customers from the two different cultures in an experimental study, participants' responses to similarly crowded environments in a restaurant were compared. It is revealed that customer perceptions of crowdedness negatively influence their satisfaction, but the relationships vary depending on customer's cultural background. Cultural differences also appear to be substantial in predicting customer satisfaction.

Despite the growing prevalence of smartphones in daily life and travel context, travellers still ... more Despite the growing prevalence of smartphones in daily life and travel context, travellers still perceive an extent of risk associated with using their smartphone to book travel products. In order to alleviate or reduce perceived risk, it is important to better understand the dimensions of and the factors that contribute to perceived risk. This study analysed 411 responses from an online panel to examine perceived risk in mobile travel booking and identified the following facets: time risk, financial risk, performance risk, privacy/security risk, psychological risk, physical risk, and device risk. Several antecedents of perceived risk were identified. Perceived collection of personal information via smartphones contributes positively, while consumer innovativeness, trust, and visibility contribute negatively to perceived risk. Further, the predictive validity of perceived risk is confirmed as it significantly explains perceived usefulness, attitude, and behavioural intention in mobile travel booking. Implications to manage perceived risk and its antecedents are provided.

There is a dearth of studies analysing the relationship between demand variations, productivity a... more There is a dearth of studies analysing the relationship between demand variations, productivity and flexible working in the face of variable demand challenges confronting the tourism industry. This investigation is needed to inform important firm and industry specific labour management strategies for improving productivity. Using data for 43 medium sized hotels owned by two chains in the UK, this paper analyses productivity in relation to external (demand variations) and internal (labour management) conditions over an 8 year period from 2005-2013. The paper’s findings show that demand variation is the principal determinant of productivity. Numerical, functional and zero-contract hour flexible labour management also contributes to labour productivity. Significant differences in findings between establishment and departments indicate the importance of disaggregated analyses.

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget ret... more Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2010

ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this ... more ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this study it is argued that the portfolio of trips (specifically, the portfolio of various trip styles) one takes can be used to describe his/her overall travel persona. Network analysis ...

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2010

ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this ... more ABSTRACT Travel style has been shown to be a useful concept for understanding travelers. In this study it is argued that the portfolio of trips (specifically, the portfolio of various trip styles) one takes can be used to describe his/her overall travel persona. Network analysis ...

This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of performa... more This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of performance in hotels, utilising a highly disaggregated data set of actual hours worked and outputs, on a monthly basis, over an 8 year period for 25 establishments within a single firm. It examines not only inter-establishment, but also intra-establishment (departmental) variations in performance. The analysis also systematically compares the findings based on financial versus physical measures, against a background where existing research has utilised diverse and, sometimes, hybrid measures of performance and productivity. While generally confirming significant relationships between performance and flexible working and migrant employment, the findings also emphasise that the types of flexible working practices are important. It also identifies complex variations at the departmental level: substantially different relationships between flexibility and migrant employment, and performance are identified for rooms versus food & beverage departments, reflecting different operating conditions.

Consumers tend to seek heuristic information cues to simplify the amount of information involved ... more Consumers tend to seek heuristic information cues to simplify the amount of information involved in tourist decisions. Accordingly, star ratings in online reviews are a critical heuristic element of the perceived evaluation of online consumer information. The objective of this article is to assess the effect of review ratings on usefulness and enjoyment. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 5,090 reviews of 45 restaurants in London and New York. The results show that people perceive extreme ratings (positive or negative) as more useful and enjoyable than moderate ratings, giving rise to a U-shaped line, with asymmetric effects: the size of the effect of online reviews depends on whether they are positive or negative.

Tourism Management

In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. According... more In a context of intense competition, cooperative advertising between firms is critical. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to analyze the potential differentiated effect of advertising on two basic consumption patterns: individual products (i.e. hotel, restaurant) vs. bundle (i.e. hotel + restaurant). This research adds to the extant literature in that, for the first time, this potential differentiated effect is examined through a hierarchical modelling framework that reflects the way people make their decisions: first, they decide whether to visit or not a region; second, whether to purchase an advertised product in that region; and third, whether to buy products together or separately at the region. The empirical analysis, applied to a sample of 11,288 individuals, shows that the influence of advertising is positive for the decisions to visit and to purchase; however, when it comes to the joint or separate consumption, advertising has a differentiated effect: its impact is much greater on the joint alternative (“hotel + restaurant”) than the separate options (“hotel” and “restaurant”). Also, the variable distance moderates the advertising effect.

Tourism Management

While the proliferation of online review websites facilitate travellers' ability to obtain inform... more While the proliferation of online review websites facilitate travellers' ability to obtain information (decrease in search costs), it makes it difficult for them to process and judge useful information (increase in cognitive costs). Accordingly, this study attempts to identify the factors affecting the perceived usefulness of online consumer reviews by investigating two aspects of online information: (1) the characteristics of review providers, such as the disclosure of personal identity, the reviewer's expertise and reputation, and (2) reviews themselves including quantitative (i.e., star ratings and length of reviews) and qualitative measurements (i.e., perceived enjoyment and review readability). The results reveal that a combination of both messenger and message characteristics positively affect the perceived usefulness of reviews. In particular, qualitative aspects of reviews were identified as the most influential factors that make travel reviews useful. The implications of these findings contribute to tourism and hospitality marketers to develop more effective social media marketing.

Journal of Business Ethics

This study examines the effects of transformational, transactional, and non-transactional leaders... more This study examines the effects of transformational, transactional, and non-transactional leadership on hotel employees’ outcomes including extra effort, perceived efficiency, and satisfaction with managers. Employees from eleven 4-star hotels in Spain provided the collected data. A series of statistical analyses (1) identify the elements of three leadership styles using a multi-factor leadership questionnaire (MLQ-5X); (2) examine the effect of leadership styles on employees’ outcomes. The results of this study indicate that “idealized attributes” of transformational leadership and “contingent reward” from transactional leadership are the most important factors that positively affect all three outcomes (i.e., extra effort, perceived efficiency, and satisfaction); and (3) to assess the moderating effect of different types of ownership of hotel properties on the relationship between styles of leadership and outcomes of employees’ activities other than these two elements, the significant factors indicating positive or negative relationships vary depending on the types of individual outcomes as well as ownership of hotel properties. The discussion sections indicate theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Tourism Analysis

This study builds on previous research examining the concept of travel decision flexibility based... more This study builds on previous research examining the concept of travel decision flexibility based on theories related to adaptive decision making, which argue that travelers perceive different levels of flexibility depending on the trip-related decision. The results of this study indicate that there are two distinctive types of decision flexibility, which are related to the timing and components of the trip: pretrip and en route flexibility. The constructs are examined for their external validity using several travel situational factors, including number of alternatives, prior knowledge, length of stay, planning horizon, and types of travel groups. These findings are important in that they help us to understand better the underlying structure and characteristics of travel decisions and, in turn, help us identify potential ways to design more effective information delivery systems using information technology.

Annals of Tourism Research, 2013

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget ret... more Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Journal of Travel Research, 2012

Mobile phones have evolved to be smart computers (smartphones) supporting a wide range of informa... more Mobile phones have evolved to be smart computers (smartphones) supporting a wide range of information services that can be accessed anytime and from (almost) anywhere. With the increasing number of users and greater incursion into people’s life, smartphones have the potential to significantly influence the touristic experience. This study explores the mediation mechanisms of smartphones by examining stories provided by travelers related to their use of smartphones (and associated applications) for traveling purposes. The results reveal that smartphones can change tourists’ behavior and emotional states by addressing a wide variety of information needs; in particular, the instant information support of smartphones enables tourists to more effectively solve problems, share experiences, and “store” memories. The implications of these findings are important in that they suggest a huge potential for smartphones in changing many aspects of the tourism business.

Tourism Analysis, 2012

This article analyzes cultural differences in web communication in the tourism context. the conce... more This article analyzes cultural differences in web communication in the tourism context. the conceptual framework presenting cultural differences in the three types of web communication is developed. the specific hypotheses are tested on the US American and Chinese sample. Although the findings support the developed framework they also reveal nonsignificant differences between the groups. theoretical and practical implications of the findings are identified and recommendations for future studies are made

International Journal of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, 2012

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 2011

Using tourists' stories to promote destinations is believed to be an innovative approach in desti... more Using tourists' stories to promote destinations is believed to be an innovative approach in destination marketing. This study conceptualizes and investigates the effectiveness of such an approach. This study supports the underlying premise of introducing narrative in marketing, that is, the narrative reasoning that human beings possess with which they can retrieve information better through a story. Furthermore, it is argued that the increased knowledge of a destination will have a stronger effect on the intention to visit a destination if the audiences can identify themselves with the story characters. Several managerial implications are also discussed.

Anatolia:An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2011

The Internet has become the primary channel for the purchase of a number of travel-related produc... more The Internet has become the primary channel for the purchase of a number of travel-related products including airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rental, tickets to events and attractions, etc. This study examines the pattern of travel-related products purchased online by American travelers. The results of this study indicate that there is a strong hierarchical structure in the purchasing of eight travel-related products. In addition, it appears that American travelers can be roughly classified into three travel product groups, ranging from the ‘Core Internet Traveler’ and ‘Advanced Internet Traveler’ to the ‘Comprehensive Internet (or Complete) Traveler.’ Finally, an analysis of the travelers indicates that they differ significantly in terms of demographic characteristics, information search behavior, and travel planning activities. These findings offer a number of important implications for destination marketing.

International Journal of Tourism Research, 2010

The purpose of this research is to compare salient approaches for identifying the patterns of col... more The purpose of this research is to compare salient approaches for identifying the patterns of college students' information search behaviours while preparing for their spring break trips. Comparing four different prominent constructs (i.e. past experience, prior knowledge, involvement and a concept of specialisation combining those three variables), the results of the study indicate that involvement and the specialisation concept have more distinctive results than the others in terms of measurement of travellers' perceived usefulness of information sources and the importance of information content. In addition, the different groups assigned different priorities for usage of main information sources. As a result, involvement and the specialisation concept appear to provide more distinctive clarification for identifying the information search behaviours of spring break travellers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 2009

The purpose of this study was to identify information search behaviors of college student travele... more The purpose of this study was to identify information search behaviors of college student travelers by applying the concept of specialization. Dividing the college travelers into groups of high‐, medium‐, and low‐leveled specialization, the research investigated the perceived value of information content and information sources, and identified the main information sources used to obtain information for their recent spring break trips. It was observed that the different specialization groups assigned different values to information content and sources. The differences in the choice of information channel also appear to be substantial. As a result, the findings of this study supported the idea that the specialization concept can be used as an alternative approach to segment travelers in a more comprehensive way, which combines past experience, prior knowledge, and involvement that are important to classify travelers.

Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, 2008

The study aims at demonstrating cultural differences between Americans and Chinese in terms of cu... more The study aims at demonstrating cultural differences between Americans and Chinese in terms of customer's perceptions and satisfaction of crowded environments within the context of restaurant settings. It has been noted that culture has a substantial impact on customer affection and judgment, and crowding in service environments is a critical antecedent of customer satisfaction. Considering these main themes, this study examined how cultural differences play a role in predicting customer satisfaction within the crowded restaurant setting. With the use of customers from the two different cultures in an experimental study, participants' responses to similarly crowded environments in a restaurant were compared. It is revealed that customer perceptions of crowdedness negatively influence their satisfaction, but the relationships vary depending on customer's cultural background. Cultural differences also appear to be substantial in predicting customer satisfaction.