Dr Chen Zheng

The hospitality industries are fragile and have very little business in a public crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Under a difficult time, the hospitality organizations still need to keep talent employees who are critical when the business is recovered. Furlough that employers keep talent employees without variable cost, becomes a common choice among hotels. However, the potential impacts of such furlough practices on employees have rarely been investigated. By analyzing the data set from 386 furloughed UK hotel employees, the present study illustrated that the perceived costs of furlough as well as the availability of alternative opportunities resulted in career changes, and that feelings of acknowledged as a dimension of autonomy support weakened the effects of social costs on career change decisions. The findings call for more balanced furlough strategies and extend knowledge about social justice at workplace.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for communities and economies around the world. Based on 13 leading global stock indices, the event study method is adopted in this research to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of the stock market indices in the short term. Regression results show that the global stock markets performed poorly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the event study imply that the stock markets reacted rapidly and negatively to the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdown restrictions were announced to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Asian stock indices experienced more negative abnormal earnings than the stock indices of the countries outside Asia. Moreover, investor sentiments act as a wedge between financial investment decisions, returns, and fear of uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Furthermore, the panic experienced by investors may be an effective transmission channel through which the COVID-19 outbreak affects the returns on the stock market indices.

This study aims to examine the relationship between business segment diversification and firms’ performance as well as the moderating role of the geographic diversification in the context of Chinese tourism industry. The analysis is based on data from annual reports of Chinese tourism firms over 8 years. This study affirms an inverted U-shape relationship and suggests the optimal level of business segment diversification to Chinese tourism firm performance. The positive effect of business segment diversification on Chinese tourism firm performance was supported in the group of firms with geographic diversification and was not supported in the group of firms without geographic diversification. The application of optimal business segment diversification and implications for Chinese tourism industry are discussed as well.

This study explores the potential of tryvertising in accommodations using an experimental research design. By building a moderated mediation model, this research offers theoretical underpinnings to comprehend how and when tryvertising works in peer-to-peer accommodations. The results demonstrate that tryvertising is more effective in Airbnb than in a hotel context, and more effective in an entire property than a private room in Airbnb. Different accommodation settings represent different levels of territoriality, with higher territoriality leading to higher psychological ownership, and hence higher purchase intentions towards tryvertised products. Such effects are moderated by impermanence which is a threat to psychological ownership. This research suggests avenues marketers/hosts can optimize tryvertising effectiveness in peer-to-peer accommodations, by increasing guests’ perceived territoriality and psychological ownership.

This study aims to identify the factors that drive or hinder convention venues to implement sustainable practices. The response from 136 Asian convention venue senior managers shows that improving the corporation image of the venue is the primary driving factor for the management team to engage in sustainable practices, while lack of resources is the major hindering factor. The significant differences in the driving and hindering factors were identified among the management team from different sized convention venues in Asia. The importance and suitability of sustainable practices were revealed from the perspective of different sized convention venues. The insights from this study deepen the understanding of sustainability in convention management and provide valuable implications for industry practitioners.

This study explores the influence of political risk on firms in the tourism industry. It addresses a research gap regarding the impact of political risk on firm-level performance and failure and uncovers the role of organizational slack in this relationship. Firm-level political risk is estimated from 2002 to 2019 financial data for firms across six tourism sectors in a developed economy, the United States. Such risk is found to be significantly associated with firm performance and business failure. From the perspectives of the resource-based view and the threat-rigidity hypothesis, the results support the moderating effects of absorbed and unabsorbed slack on links between risk, performance, and business failure. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the tourism industry’s vulnerability, this study will be of interest to tourism firms seeking to improve business sustainability and resilience.

The study develops and empirically tests a moderated mediation framework that studies the intricate relationships between furlough-induced financial and psychological costs, relative deprivation, job turnover intentions, and the moderating roles of self-efficacy and autonomy support. In particular, we combine Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to elucidate why resource losses create subjective experiences of disadvantage through social and temporal comparisons, thus triggering turnover. The Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) is used to theorize the autonomy support as a moderator and understand how organizational practices meeting the autonomy need (i.e., offering choice, understanding, and acknowledgement) can shape the psychological process of deprivation to turnover. The findings validate substantial effects of furlough-induced costs on turnover, which are mediated by relative deprivation. To our surprise, autonomy support enhanced, rather than reduced, the detrimental effect of relative deprivation, indicating that increased understanding and acknowledgment within organizations may lead to higher leaving intentions. This emphasizes the critical importance of managing employees’ psychological experiences during furlough using cautious communication techniques.

This study uses the Gregory–Hansen cointegration method and the vector error correction model in the vector autoregression system to reveal how international trade contributes to economic sustainability. The Gregory–Hansen test for cointegration method reveals a permanent equilibrium relation among sustainably economic growth, exports, and imports and shows that exports facilitate GDP growth and accelerate improvements in the capability of imports in the long-run. The causality between GDP and exports is unidirectional, indicating that exports area determinant of sustainable economic growth. The bidirectional causality from imports to GDP also sheds light on the important influence of imports on economic sustainability; however, GDP growth also drives import growth. The interaction between imports and exports corresponds to their bidirectional causal relationship, which is indicative of imports contributing to export production and of export growth expanding the capacity for imports. This finding indicates that imports are both exogenous and endogenous factors for exports.

This study aims to revisit the classic topic of tourist satisfaction formation in the context of urban tourism, and contribute to the dialogue by verifying an expectation-as-moderator paradigm. A model depicting the relationship between expectation, service performance, perceived value, and tourist satisfaction was constructed and tested based on three-year survey data collected from two major sectors of tourism industry in Hong Kong (accommodation and attraction), using Moderated Structural Equation Model. The results reveal that the moderation effect of tourist expectation exists in accommodation sector, but does not exist in attraction sector. The conclusion suggests that tourists with higher expectation towards accommodation service tend to be more sensitive to service performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examines the effects of diversification strategy and board size on firm performance as well as the moderating effect of board size on the relationship between diversification strategy and firm performance in the Chinese tourism industry from 2008 to 2015. The results show that related diversification positively influenced Chinese tourism firm performance, and unrelated diversification negatively influenced it. Board size was found to negatively moderate the relationship between related diversification and firm performance and to positively moderate the relationship between unrelated diversification and firm performance. In addition, the results imply that small boards are beneficial to Chinese tourism firms when both related and unrelated diversification strategies are implemented.

Purpose To better understand how to retain hospitality customers in the fierce competition among mobile applications, this study aims to propose and empirically validates an integrative framework, which elaborates how conscious and subconscious factors, together with affective factors, may induce app loyalty and how brand viscosity moderates such effects. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an online survey to collect data and received a total of 268 valid responses. This study splits the data into two groups (brand viscosity vs non-viscosity). Then, the authors performed a multi-group structural equation modeling with Chi-square difference tests to compare the model between the two groups. Findings The findings support the integrative model and reveal that the influence of app satisfaction on loyalty is stronger for app users who do not stick to one brand across the website and mobile app channels. Moreover, for those with brand viscosity, habit and switching cost are two significant determinants that exert positive effects in inducing app loyalty. Research limitations/implications Brand viscosity across different channels matters for the effects of habit and switching costs in shaping app loyalty. E-commerce managers should elaborate on brand management among various booking channels and establish effective digital marketing strategies to facilitate the formation of usage habits and switching costs and to enhance brand viscosity across channels. Originality/value This research advances the knowledge of app loyalty in hospitality by providing a comprehensive explanatory framework from affective, conscious and subconscious lenses. This research is among the first to unveil the impact of brand viscosity on the links between loyalty and its determinants.

Studies into tourism enterprises acknowledge the importance of trust in facilitating effective pro-environmental knowledge transfer and action. Yet empirical support remains inconclusive. Firstly, this research tests the validity of a model proposing four antecedents of trust-based decisions in tourism enterprises; self-efficacy, social norms, social capital, and credibility. Secondly, we deconstruct the knowledge transfer process, focusing on the mediating effect of trust on the intention to act sustainably upon transferred knowledge. The study surveyed UK-based tourism enterprises using a structural equation approach to test the validity of the model. Bootstrap analysis was employed to assess how trust-based decisions inform pro-environmental knowledge transfer and behavioural intentions. Findings validate all four antecedents with social norms found to be the most influential antecedent in pro-environmental knowledge transfer. Secondly, they validate the role of trust in lubricating the transition from pro-environmental knowledge transfer to the intention to behave sustainably. Future qualitative studies are proposed alongside practical implications. Specifically, the study suggests tourism managers should prioritise social norm interventions in any pro-environmental knowledge transfer initiatives and focus on those actors who are most trusted in organisations to deliver pro-environmental messages.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to reshape service industries globally, the events sector stands at a pivotal point in its digital evolution. This exploratory study examines the perceptions and preparedness of UK-based event professionals to incorporate AI into design, planning, and management practices. Framed through stakeholder theory and extending the conceptual foundations laid by Neuhofer et al. (2020), the research explores how AI influences stakeholder dynamics, value co-creation, and ethical engagement within event ecosystems.Drawing on qualitative interviews with twenty-six experienced event professionals in the United Kingdom, conducted between January and April 2023, the study finds that professionals simultaneously welcome AI's potential for personalisation and operational efficiency, while voicing concerns about over-automation, diminished creativity, and stakeholder exclusion. Building on Neuhofer et al.’s conceptual scenarios, this research grounds those trajectories in lived practitioner experience, offering empirical insight into how AI adoption is shaped by sectoral context and stakeholder influence.A key contribution is the development of the AI in Events Stakeholder Framework, which reconfigures traditional stakeholder models to incorporate AI-specific actors, such as technology developers, ethical advocates, and regulatory bodies. This is further operationalised through the integration of Mitchell et al.’s (1997) stakeholder salience framework, which reveals how power, legitimacy, and urgency dynamically influence AI governance across different event formats. The study underscores the need for inclusive implementation strategies and targeted upskilling, emphasising that AI integration must align with stakeholder values to preserve the industry’s human-centric identity while enabling responsible innovation.

Airbnb has become a strong competitor for hotels when it comes to accommodation choices. However, few studies have analyzed the service quality provided by Airbnb. In order to approach this gap and to support the industry to maintain competitiveness, this study identified related dimensions measuring the service quality based on a qualitative design, conducting a content analysis of Airbnbrelated reviews. The following six dimensions are identified and discussed: Accuracy, Cleanliness, Rooms and Facilities, Location, Personalized Service, and Value. Findings indicate that competitive advantage can be maintained by improving target group-related service quality, the accuracy and relevance of information provided, flexible check-in and check-out slots and services, as well as the organization of tours and events for guests.

Purpose This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between industrial diversification and firm performance and the moderating effects exerted on that relationship by board size and family representation on the board. Design/methodology/approach Secondary financial data were collected for hotel firms listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during the period 2005-2016. Subsequently, a bivariate correlation and a fixed-effects panel regression analysis were performed on the data. Findings The empirical results showed that diversification positively influenced firm performance until firms reached an optimal level of diversification (0.34); beyond that level, the effect was negative. In addition, firms with a larger board tended to show better performance when the level of diversification increased from medium to high, and firms with lower family representation on the board tended to exhibit better performance when the level of diversification increased from low to medium. Practical implications Theoretical and managerial implications are suggested in terms of balancing the size of a firm’s board and with regard to family representation on a board from the perspectives of resource dependence theory (RDT) and socioemotional wealth (SEW), the diversification of hotel firms and future research. Originality/value A limited number of studies have considered diversification as a corporate-level strategy in the hospitality field and in the unique context in which a service-oriented economy is dominant, such as in Hong Kong. The role of board composition on the diversification–performance relation has rarely been investigated theoretically and empirically. Apart from providing managerial implications for corporate governance, this study also offers theoretical generalizability, from the perspectives of RDT and SEW, to examine the moderating roles of board size and family representation on the diversification–firm performance relation.