In this paper, we discuss managerial challenges and opportunities related to the newly introduced real estate investment trust (REIT) in India. Features of the proposed REIT structure are critiqued in light of the existing body of knowledge about REITs. We revisit the debate surrounding the issue of external versus internal management of REITs. Analysis of salient aspects of Indian real estate companies such as financing, investment, cash flows, and ownership pattern suggest that potential sponsors must go through some fundamental attitudinal changes to successfully adopt the REIT model.
This study tests the effect of a pairing suggestion for food with wine by the glass directly placed on the menu. We made the assumption that these suggestions can, by reducing social and financial risk, increase wine by the glass sales. One hundred and fifty-nine customers of a Swiss restaurant participated in this experiment. For 82 customers, a food and wine by the glass suggestion was directly placed on the menu while the 77 others were given a normal menu (without a pairing suggestion). Results show that this type of suggestion significantly increases wine sold by the glass. Practical applications of this strategy are discussed.
The purpose of this empirical study is to examine the conditions under which work-family enrichment happens. We conducted a total of 30 interviews with managers (and their spouses) participating in a demanding executive education program at a prestigious business school in Spain in order to explore how work and family resources are generated and transferred from one role to the other. Based on the qualitative results, we developed a model and surveyed 302 Chilean employees across an organization in the industrial sector in order to test our preliminary results in the qualitative stage. In our qualitative study, we find that there is a unique resource generated only in the family domain, which we define as “agape love” that contributes to enrichment. Our quantitative study confirms that, the more individuals experience agape love from spouse and children, the more the family enriches the employee’s work life.
In selecting a hotel room, guests evaluate specific room characteristics. After their stay, these characteristics are used as reference levels in deciding which hotel room to stay in the future. According to prospect theory, the gains (i.e., upgrade or improving) and losses (i.e., downgrade or worsening) with respect to the reference level are perceived differently by individuals. In particular, losses are weighted more than gains. This research investigates the asymmetric preference in hotel room choice by performing a stated choice experiment among the guests of a hotel in Hong Kong. A mixed logit model is estimated by deriving different coefficients for improving and worsening conditions, and attribute-specific cluster analyses are performed to identify those segments with similar preferences. The results confirm the validity of reference-dependent specification in hotel room choice and provide insights for revenue managers in relation to their aim to maximize revenue for repeat guests.
The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of online real-time interactivity on the desire of users to visit and to purchase products/services from the company in the future. Online real-time interactivity has been increased by the use of avatars. We also investigated the antecedents of online real-time interactivity by focusing on trust, emotional appeal, and social presence. As far as the methodology is concerned, we designated companies using avatars on their websites. We asked respondents to visit these websites and then fill in our questionnaire. We received 945 questionnaires back. As we had several latent variables, we used partial least squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation modeling method. The results show that online real-time interactivity significantly increases the patronage intention. The results also illustrate the impact of the degree of trust and the emotional appeal on user's perception about the online real-time interactivity. Nevertheless, the impact of the emotional appeal is less relevant compared to the degree of trust. Moreover, the degree of trust in the information found on the website explains user's emotional appeal during the conversation. Finally, avatar's social presence has a significant impact on trust and emotional appeal. Our results have immediate and direct implications for avatars' developers and companies who want to invest in improving the real-time interactivity of their website.
Contrary to the practical application of revenue management (RM), its theoretical definition has remained virtually unchanged. Today’s data-driven approach to RM forms an integral part of management and clearly contributes to the financial performance of hotels. Its growing importance and the shifting balance between art and science in RM decision making is only partially supported by changes to its underlying process. Additional tasks place new demands on the required competences and fight for priority with the core responsibility of optimising (overall) revenue potential. This article provides a brief historic overview of hotel RM and outlines and discusses its current state as well as future challenges.
This study examines whether industry-specific characteristics can explain the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) compensation and the performance of firms and, if so, what roles these characteristics may play in affecting the relationship. We developed a fixed effects model that controls for unobserved characteristics (such as managers’ skills, abilities, and talent) which are correlated with the independent variables in the presence of homoscedastic errors. The firm’s fixed effects allow us to take into account unobserved variables that do not mutate over time and by doing so, to address the principal–agent problem in CEO compensation in both the hospitality and non-hospitality industries in the United States over the period 1992–2010. The evidence shows that CEOs in the hospitality industry have been paid less compared to their peers in other industries. This is mainly due to the non-hospitality industries tending to pay higher salaries and to award more bonuses, long-term incentive plans, non-equity incentives as well as restricted stocks. The empirical analysis also reveals that incentives provided to CEOs failed to resolve the principal–agent problem in both hospitality and non-hospitality industries.
There is growing evidence that a significant share of global food is thrown away, with concomitant detrimental repercussions for sustainability: Food production is linked to land conversion and biodiversity loss, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, water and pesticide use. To reduce food waste is consequently a key sustainability challenge for the foodservices industry. This article studies how foodservices can profit from innovations in waste management. It is based on the evaluation of best practices that combine strategic dimensions of waste management with practice-driven initiatives, including incremental (operational and technological) and radical innovations. The paper concludes that there exist a wide range of waste management initiatives, and that embracing these has positive economic and environmental outcomes for the foodservice sector.
This paper examines the strategic renewal activities top service firms use to respond to environmental scarcity. Based on a longitudinal dataset of 97 leading European service firms, it empirically conceptualizes three clusters or strategic types of organizational response to overcome long-term financial strain. Leading E.U. service firms that attempt to maximize recovery by strategic expansion (i.e., increase in R&D investment, strategic M&A and recruitment)generate growth in their operating profits and net sales in contrast to service firms that implement defensive retrenchment actions (layoffs and cutting back on R&D investment. These results contribute to the understanding of the potentially positive and negative issues related to the actions service firms use to overcome environmental decline and the role that different responses play in fostering recovery from ongoing economic and financial crisis, which have thus far remained empirically under-researched.
