An analysis of environmental management, organizational context and performance of Spanish hotels

This paper addresses the factors that determine the deployment of environmental management practices and its effects on firms’ financial performance. Empirical evidence supporting this investigation is gathered from the Spanish hotel industry. Our results find support for the notion that age of facilities, size, chain affiliation, stakeholder environmental pressures, and their use of operations management techniques exert a lasting influence on the degree of implementation of environmental management practices by hotel firms. Moreover, our findings show a positive relationship between environmental management practices and firms’ financial performance.     

Managing international business operations in a changing institutional context: The case of the St. Petersburg hotel industry

This article advances the institutional view of business strategy by analyzing the post-socialist institutional transition in Russia and its implications for business strategies in the St. Petersburg hotel industry. The development of the institutional context is divided into three periods: socialist, early transition and late transition. The strategies of foreign hotel enterprises characteristic of each period are investigated with respect to entry/ownership mode, product, supply and human resource management strategies, and sales and marketing. The study is based on 24 semi-structured interviews with hotel managers, and a variety of local archival sources.The analysis shows how tightly companies are integrated with the formal and informal macro- and industry-level institutional context of Russia. In the case of the hotel industry, the impact of the change in the institutional context from a centrally planned to a market economy centers on the connections of the hotel enterprise with public and private sector actors. Here, empirical analysis shows that first, the degree of integration varied between the three time periods examined, second, many relevant institutional effects are observed at industry level, and third, foreign and local enterprises differ especially during the period of rapid institutional change.     

Organizational Social Network Research: Core Ideas and Key Debates

Abstract

Given the growing popularity of the social network perspective across diverse organizational subject areas, this review examines the coherence of the research tradition (in terms of leading ideas from which the diversity of new research derives) and appraises current directions and controversies. The leading ideas at the heart of the organizational social network research program include: an emphasis on relations between actors; the embeddedness of exchange in social relations; the assumption that dyadic relationships do not occur in isolation, but rather form a complex structural pattern of connectivity and cleavage beyond the dyad; and the belief that social network connections matter in terms of outcomes to both actors and groups of actors across a range of indicators. These leading ideas are articulated in current debates that center on issues of actor characteristics, agency, cognition, cooperation versus competition, and boundary specification. To complement the review, we provide a glossary of social network terms.     

Differentiated transformational leadership and knowledge sharing: A cross-level investigation

Building on theories of differentiated leadership and knowledge sharing, this study investigated the influence of dual-level transformational leadership on three group climates, leader–member exchange (LMX), and knowledge sharing. Using data from 275 employees of 71 work groups in five companies, we found that group-focused leadership and individual-focused leadership both facilitated knowledge sharing while the three group climates and LMX acted as mediators at the group level and individual level, respectively. In addition, our analysis showed an interesting finding in Chinese organizations: an innovativeness climate and a fairness climate contributed to an affiliation climate, which in turn promoted knowledge sharing.     

论当代中国饭店管理理念与实践中的人文导向

随着旅游需求的变迁、科技的发展和新型人力资源的引入,世纪之交的中国饭店业的管理理念和管理实践正在发生一系列的变化。人文导向则是把握这些变化的核心内核,并将主导未来一个时期中国饭店业的创新与发展。在对饭店管理理念进行解说的基础上,本文重点阐述了人文导向的若干载体性事件:管理制度的理性化、对员工的关注、经济型饭店的兴起、绿色饭店等等。     

饭店服务标准化进程研究

在对饭店服务标准化的内涵与功能初步解说的基础上,本文采用规范分析方法系统地研究了标准化发展的历史进程与逻辑进程,并着重分析了饭店标准化与个性化之间共存共荣关系。论文还从影响要素的变化方面指出了饭店产品标准未来总的发展趋势是以国际饭店业惯例、国家标准、行业标准为基础,以企业标准求发展,以个性化服务求创新。而中国旅游饭店服务在当前和未来一个时期的发展方向应该以标准化为主、个睦化为辅。     

A Comparative Revenue Analysis of Hotel Yield Management Heuristics

Yield management is the dynamic pricing, overbooking, and allocation of perishable assets across market segments in an effort to maximize short-term revenues for the firm. Numerous optimization heuristics for allocation and overbooking exist for the airline industry, whose perishable asset is the airplane seat. When an airplane departs, no revenue is gained from the empty seat(s). In the hotel industry, the perishable asset is the hotel room-once a room is left empty for a night, that night's revenue cannot be recaptured. The literature on yield management heuristics for the hotel industry is sparse. For the hotel operating environment, no research has adequately (1) integrated overbooking with allocation, (2) modeled the phenomenon of hotel patrons extending or contracting their stay at a moment's notice, or (3) performed a realistic performance comparison of alternative heuristics. This research develops (1) two hotel-specific algorithms that both integrate overbooking with the allocation decisions, (2) a simulation model to reproduce realistic hotel operating environments, and (3) compares the performance of five heuristics under 36 realistic hotel operating environments. Seven conclusions are reached with regard to which heuristic(s) perform best in specific operating environments. Generally, heuristic selection is very much dependent on the hotel operating environment. A counterintuitive result is that in many operating environments, the simpler heuristics work as well as the more complex ones.     

HOTEL OVERBOOKING AS A MARKOVIAN SEQUENTIAL DECISION PROCESS*

This paper deals with the problems of hotel overbooking and the scientific determination of hotel booking policies. The general hotel reservations system is described, and a Markovian sequential decision model is proposed for it. An application of the model is presented, based on an actual sample of hotel data. Because of the significance of the cancellation phenomena in the sample, the model prescribes a substantial amount of overbooking. The paper concludes with comments regarding the necessity for and course of future research in this area.     

酒店收益管理的研究进展与前景

对酒店收益管理的内涵进行了讨论,从六个方面介绍了酒店收益管理的应用特征,归纳 分析了酒店收益管理的常用研究方法. 基于酒店收益管理(包括需求预测、超量预订、客房分配 和定价等) 研究进展的介绍与分析,指出了酒店收益管理的研究发展方向.     

论饭店资源需求战略的系统定位模式

饭店是由各种饭店资源所组合而成的竞争实体,饭店资源的需求战略是饭店对自身所需资源的一种系统规划,它决定了饭店的动态竞争能力。它应该以饭店的生命周期、市场需求和资源柔性作为其基本的决策维度,这同时也是饭店资源需求战略系统定位模式的建构基础。     

“We open doors others do not!”: Position and power of foreign institutional networks

Foreign institutional actors (INAs) can act as a liaison between firms and authorities and other power players to navigate bureaucratic structures, both as resource and legitimacy providers in the host market. Building on institutional theory, this study draws from broader organizational sociological literature, to explore the structural position of INAs in a host country context, and engages with fundamental questions of legitimacy, status, and power. It responds to repeated calls that more studies in international business research are needed on the impact of institutional differences, how to obtain legitimacy, and enhance the home country support networks. To understand INAs' position, specifically within the social structure of a bureaucratic host environment, our study uses in-depth interviews with elite actors from the support networks. Japan is chosen for this study as a host market, because it is the European Union's second largest trading partner in Asia, has a strong central bureaucracy, and historically and currently remains a challenging market for Westerners due to complex market entry barriers. The findings provide a new theoretically derived empirical model demonstrating the positional leverage of these INAs, to “open-doors” into a complex environment and offer a nuanced understanding of their formal and informal structural positions of power. The findings also demonstrate a significant overlap between organizational legitimacy and the exemplary status of these INAs in the bureaucratic environment, which enhances and empowers their leverage to reach authorities, press, and other important actors in the market.     

淡季中酒店与OTA合作模式选择研究

针对淡季时酒店入住率下降的困境,将"互联网+"背景与收益管理理论相结合,通过构建Stackelberg博弈模型,研究了淡季时酒店与在线旅游代理商（Online Travel Agent,OTA）如何选择合作模式以提高入住率和收益。研究在几种常见情境下展开,不同情境下均得出了最优合作模式。优化的合作模式不但协调了酒店服务供应链,而且在提高酒店整体效益的同时,也增加了OTA的收益。研究为酒店和OTA提供了具有可操作意义上的合作模式决策支持,同时也弥补了以往研究在酒店和OTA合作模式对比、选择与优化方面的空缺。     

论饭店企业品牌忠诚的创建

在当前的竞争形势下,饭店企业要想增加市场占有率非常困难。饭店有必要由追求市场占有率的扩大转向追求良好顾客关系的保持。本文在分析品牌忠诚对饭店企业的重要性以及品牌忠诚的决定因素的基础上,探讨了饭店企业创建品牌忠诚的策略。     

基于顾客的饭店品牌价值影响因素的实证研究

本研究在对基于顾客的饭店品牌价值影响因素进行分析的基础上,探讨了饭店企业中服务质量对品牌表现的作用影响,分析了品牌认知如何与服务质量共同作用于顾客满意度和忠诚度。研究的主要结论为:在服务质量对品牌满意的作用和影响上,品牌认知与服务质量存在着显著的交互作用,品牌态度的强弱影响了服务质量与顾客满意度的关系。     

A DEA-based two-stage network approach for hotel performance analysis: An internal cooperation perspective

In the digital era, cooperation has become a new way of firm operation, but only rarely have studies investigated how internal cooperative mechanisms among departments affect firm performance evaluation. Grounded on resource-based view theory, a two-stage network structure model of a hotel (i.e. operations stage and marketing stage) is presented, illustrating how a hotel consumes internal resources and obtains competitive advantages and market profits. A DEA-based bi-objective model is put forward to evaluate the hotel performance from the perspective that the two internal stages cooperate with each other. To solve the proposed model, an extended augmented weighted Tchebycheff metric and a new algorithm are used. An empirical analysis using data from 68 Taiwanese international tourist hotels in 2011 was conducted, and the results corroborated the theorems and remarks about the proposed model. This study offers a comprehensive benchmarking tool to improve hotel decision-making.     

Survival of the foreign subsidiaries of TMNCs: The influence of business group affiliation

We investigate the survival rates of the foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms from India to test if affiliation to a business group affects a subsidiary's survival chances. Business group affiliation is an important organizational attribute of firms in emerging economies. Business groups are complex organizations with heterogeneous resources that evolve along with changes in the institutional environment of a firm's home country. We examine how business group affiliation and the development stage of the host country jointly influence the survival chances of foreign subsidiaries. Our results show that business group affiliation does not have an independent influence on a subsidiary's survival rates, but it does have a contingent effect, where the contingency emerges from the development stage of the host country. Our findings thus have implications for the theory of TMNCs, and business group strategy in emerging economies.     

酒店网上预订价格离差实证研究——以北京、上海和广州三地为例

本文跟踪收集了2005年6月9日到2006年7月31日中国北京、上海和广州三地11个网站、23家不同星级酒店网上预订的相关数据,分别从房型、酒店星级、地域和时间四个维度进行了分析.结果表明:房型、酒店星级、地域和时间对网上酒店预订价格离差具有显著的影响,其中酒店星级的影响最大,而且房型、酒店星级和地域三个因素其影响并不随时间发生变化;北京、上海和广州三地在网上酒店预订价格离差上存在差异,上海的网上酒店预订价格离差最大,而北京与广州的差别不显著.     

Prospects for the British hotel industry

There is currently a surplus of hotel accommodation in many towns and cities in the United Kingdom and in most countries of the world. Rationalization on a substantial scale is in progress and will inevitably continue as the pressures of the widespread economic recession force capacity and style more in line with the size and needs of the market. World economic recovery will, however, in due course bring speedier growth to tourism and higher occupancy to the British hotel industry as well as in other countries.

In this article the author outlines the situation and prospects in the hotel industry in Britain. He discusses the main economic and marketing problems facing the operators and in addition identifies the vital contribution required from the government in terms of the allocation of adequate ministerial resources, a co-ordinated national tourism policy and improved communications with the industry and the other parties involved.     

International Diversification,Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from India*

We investigate the impact of business group affiliation on the relationship between international diversification and firm performance for emerging economy firms. We develop the theoretical arguments based on an integration of the literature on international diversification with the institutional theory perspective. We argue for a U‐shaped relationship between international diversification and firm performance, and suggest that a firm's affiliation to a business group moderates the relationship between international diversification and firm performance. Based on a sample of Indian firms, we find that firm performance is positively related to the degree of internationalization, while business group affiliation reduces the positive effect of internationalization on firm performance.     

Service Package Switching in Hotel Revenue Management Systems

Revenue Management Systems (RMS) are commonly used in the hotel industry to maximize revenues in the short term. The forecasting‐allocation module is a key tactical component of a hotel RMS. Forecasting involves estimating demand for service packages across all stayover nights in a planning horizon. A service package is a unique combination of physical room, amenities, room price, and advance purchase restrictions. Allocation involves parsing the room inventory among these service packages to maximize revenues. Previous research and existing revenue management systems assume the demand for a service package to be independent of which service packages are available for sale. We develop a new forecasting‐allocation approach that explicitly accounts for this dependence. We compare the performance of the new approach against a baseline approach using a realistic hotel RMS simulation. The baseline approach reflects previous research and existing industry practice. The new approach produces an average revenue increase of at least 16% across scenarios that reflect existing industry conditions.