Nonprofit organizations are faced with unprecedented challenges as they seek to accomplish their lofty missions in a complex environment, ripe with uncertainty. The global COVID-19 pandemic brought forth new problems for communities and workplaces. As a result, some old ways of working may no longer be useful. To make meaningful progress on their social missions while navigating an unfamiliar post-pandemic context, nonprofits need new tools to help them understand and respond to changing community needs. Evidence has shown design thinking to be an effective approach to developing innovative strategies tailored to real needs, however, it has not been widely practiced in the nonprofit sector. Therefore, the purpose of this action research study was to introduce design thinking to one nonprofit organization where new strategies were necessary to effectively support constituents’ evolving needs. Five action research cycles engaged staff and stakeholders in a design team to apply human-centered design to a real organizational challenge. Research questions sought to understand how design thinking practices were implemented, which attributes contributed to the development of a new strategy, and the ways in which design thinking influenced how the organization responds to evolving constituent needs. Qualitative data from participant interviews, observation, and focus groups found four themes addressed the research questions: Relevance, Leadership Expectations, Capacity, and Intentionality. By way of engaging in play and inquiry, participants saw design thinking as an opportunity to innovate and adapt, helping nonprofits become more relevant. Findings also revealed expectations for leaders to have the answers may hinder ideation and implementation, though data also suggest leadership communication may be a particularly powerful facilitator of design thinking implementation, providing clarity on organizational priorities and aligning leaders and team members. Capacity, including organizational resources and personal bandwidth, was also found to affect how the design team’s ongoing work was supported and implemented across the organization. Finally, intentionality was revealed through the application of empathy, collaboration, and testing assumptions to aid learning. Such attributes may have already been present, but following design thinking, became intentional practices. Taken together, this also suggests incorporating elements of design thinking may be beneficial for nonprofits, as well as easier to implement than a full design thinking process. Findings from this study provide insights into what helps and hinders the implementation of a human-centered design practice, based on real experiences of nonprofit practitioners attempting to innovate and adapt to better serve their communities. This study contributes to knowledge regarding how design thinking might impact nonprofit organizations and offers some actionable insights regarding team dynamics, leadership, and facilitation of design practices. Finally, these findings offer practical implications and recommendations for organizations seeking to address longstanding problems in new ways, which may be particularly important in complex times.

Research regarding self-service technology and its integration into the traditional service environment is relatively limited as it applies to the lodging industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the customer check-in satisfaction and customer commitment impacts of self-service hotel kiosks as implemented in convention hotels by examining perceptions of kiosk users. It has been theorized that customer perceptions of self-service technology attributes are positively related to satisfaction and subsequent commitment. A model was employed in this study that had been previously supported outside of the hospitality industry which demonstrated support for a universal standard of investigating self-service technology impacts regardless of environment, but heretofore had not been tested in the convention hotel segment. This was a quantitative case study using survey analysis to examine customer perceptions of self-service technologies at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The results of this study supported a direct association between positive and negatives attributes of SST and corresponding customer check-in satisfaction levels. Secondly, while results supported direct association between customer check-in satisfaction and affective customer commitment, virtually no association was found between satisfaction and instrumental commitment.

It is estimated that there are approximately 42,000 beverage establishments in the U.S. whose annual revenue surpasses $20 billion (First Research, 2014). To facilitate discussion of beverage establishments, it is essential to recognize beverage establishments as businesses whose majority of sales come from alcoholic drinks (Moss, 2010a). In this research, beverage establishments are divided into beverage-only bars, bar/entertainment combinations, and food and beverage combinations. Even though they are a well-established industry, beverage establishments have received little academic attention (Moss, 2010b). For example, previous studies have given little attention to the development of the model that examines the relationships between quality attributes, convenience, perceived price fairness, customer experience, and customer loyalty in beverage establishments. However, current research in other service sectors has showed that quality, pricing and convenience have a strong effect on customer experience and behavioral intentions (Baker & Crompton, 2000; Cronin et al., 2000; Taylor & Baker, 1994; Tian-Cole, Crompton, & Willson, 2002; Woodside et al., 1989). Quality is tightly related to customer experience since it positively affects customer satisfaction and therefore company's profitability (Hallowell, 1996). This study has the following objectives: (1) to develop an instrument to measure the antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments; (2) to examine the relative importance of different antecedents of customer experience in different types of beverage establishments; and (3) to build a model of various antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments. This study was conducted in six phases. The first phase was the analysis of previous literature regarding quality attributes, convenience, perceived price fairness, customer experience, customer loyalty, and beverage establishments. The second phase was a development of mixed methodology research design. The third phase was the data collection based on interviews with management of beverage establishments, customer focus groups, and a survey of customers of beverage establishments. The fourth phase was a pilot study that involved a refinement of the study instrument. The fifth phase was a main quantitative study based on the survey design. The results from each qualitative and quantitative phase of the study were integrated and analyzed. The results from the instrument development part of the study identified the following eleven antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments: (1) service quality, (2) product quality, (3) physical environment design, (4) physical environment layout, (5) music quality, (6) social environment, (7) information convenience, (8) location convenience, (9) parking convenience, (10) entrance fee fairness, and (11) perceived price fairness. Additionally, the second instrument development study was used to recognize different customer experiential state dimensions. The factor structure included two customer experiential states: (1) the affective experiential state and (2) the cognitive experiential state. A comprehensive theoretical model that integrates different dimensions of antecedents of customer experience, customer experiential states, customer loyalty and the moderating affect of the type of the beverage establishment was developed. One of the most important findings of the study is the relationship between the social environment and the affective experiential state. The results of the study indicate that the majority of other antecedents of customer experience did not have a significant effect on two experiential states or that effect was relatively weak. However, social environment was the strongest predictor of customers' positive emotions and therefore customer loyalty and behavioral intentions. Finally, the study results confirmed Oliver's (1997) theory of customer loyalty by providing support for the sequential relationship between cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty. This study has several important theoretical contributions. Different antecedents of customer experience in beverage establishments were recognized and an instrument that measures these dimensions was developed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scale specifically developed to measure experience in beverage establishments. Additionally, the importance of each of the antecedent of customer experience was examined in regards to their effect on customer experience. Additionally, an instrument that measures cognitive and affective experiential states was developed and was a foundation for the study model. Finally, this study integrates different customer experience and customer loyalty dimensions into a comprehensive theoretical model that could be applied and retested in other service settings.

Florida bed and breakfasts (B&Bs) were surveyed for the purpose of discovering the attitudes, beliefs, and actual behaviors of B&B owners and operators that contribute to an operation’s success. This study had several objectives: 1) to provide an analysis of attitudes and beliefs perceived to be necessary for success and the actual behaviors exhibited by operators based upon their self-definition of success, 2) to collect demographic information from various bed and breakfasts in Florida, and 3) to expand the limited amount of research that has addressed issues in the bed and breakfast industry. Between July 2009 and August 2009, data was collected by using a mailed survey. After collecting and compiling all of the information, Pearson’s correlation was used to determine if any correlations existed between owners and operator’s attitudes and beliefs and actual behaviors. Furthermore, the total sample was separated into a “successful” group and an “other” group in order to discover disparities between each group’s attitudes/beliefs and behaviors. This study was modeled after Bed and Breakfasts in Virginia: Identification of Success Factors (Kaufman, 1994), and had many correlations that were similar to Virginia’s bed and breakfast industry. In addition to the similar correlations found in the previous study, this study found several more attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that have deemed necessary for success by Florida’s bed and breakfast industry leaders. The study concluded that several attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors were necessary for success: bed and breakfast owners and operators must understand the B&B industry, have had past work experience in the hospitality industry, understand the basic functions of running a business, and maintain a positive relationship with employees and guests.

Historically, hospital institutions came out of the Middle Ages. The unfortunates who found themselves in these places included the poor, pilgrims, travelers, old and the orphaned. Started by Christians to take care of their own monks, hospitals were the epitome of charity and hospitality to its consumers. The purpose of this paper is to use the Gap Theory to explore the nurse-patient relationship within a hospitality setting. This information will be used to clarify points within patients' hospital stays that could have an effect on the patients' intent to return or recommend the institution. Four key attributes were discovered through the review of literature that can help nurses and patients enhance the therapeutic relationship. Trust, hospitableness, flexibility and activation are all attributes that must be present in this relationship for it to reach the full potential. Comprehensive trainings done often can help hospitals keep their nurses and other medical staff updated and educated on these attributes. Literature supports the possibility that hospitals would benefit from an added position: the Hospitality Ambassador. This person would be able to take on non-clinical roles to help relieve the burden of the nursing staff while providing the personalized service that patients have come to expect.

The hospitality industry has focused on increasing customer satisfaction by offering services that are generally described as flawless, courteous, and friendly. Dick's Last Resort restaurants, however, are distinguished by intentionally staged erroneous, obnoxious, and rude services that nevertheless provide a unique experience for customers. This unconventional service theme might work for some customers but not for others. This study focuses on exploring the factors that lead to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction at Dick's Last Resort restaurants. In addition, customer satisfaction levels are examined according to gender and location. Using the modified critical incident technique, 518 online reviews were analyzed through a categorization process. The results of this study suggested that "overall theme experience" and "employee performance" are the most important factors in determining customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However, the findings suggest that there is no satisfaction rate difference by customers' gender and restaurant's location. The study's limitations and managerial implications for future research are discussed.

This research was conducted to discover college students' attitude towards green hotel practices and will be helpful to the hospitality industry to help focus their marketing efforts Based on the survey correlations between variables it appears that the people who use green practices at home are more aware of green practices when staying at a hotels. Implementing green practices into hotels will help the environment and also create a positive brand image and loyalty from guests. The movement of "Green" benefits everyone: the employer, the employees, and the guests.

Queue lines are a fundamental inevitably of the modern theme park. Parks have begun to introduce various systems for combating the normal queue, some of which are at no extra cost to guests and some of which are an extra cost. These systems feature a variety of methods by which guests can bypass the normal queue and enter one featuring a minimal wait. Parks have also started to introduce elements within queues that make waiting in them easier and change guests’ perception of time, thus making the waits seem shorter. This thesis attempts to determine the attitudes of guests towards these new trends as well as traditional queuing. Experiences and perceptions of queues from theme park guests were collected and have been compared with existing literature on guest satisfaction, theme parks and queue lines in order to determine relationships between current practices and theory. The findings from these relationships resulted in several suggestions for theme parks to take into account as queues continue to evolve in order to best suit guest needs.

This research aims to investigate the role of employee's personality type (most specifically introversion/extraversion) in the service recovery process. Toe literature review suggests that introverts and extraverts exhibit unique traits. Toe researcher hypothesizes that those traits associated with most extraverts may inhibit their performance in the service recovery process. It is believed their consistent tendencies to talk in argumentative tones, ill attention span, and disregard direction can have damaging results on the recovery process. Based on the research objectives, a survey was designed and data was collected from a sample of approximately 140 students in an Introduction to hospitality management or Guest service management class from the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. Toe participants who ranked in the extreme levels of introversion or extraversion responses were used. Their information was then analyzed using statistical programs and tested for main effects. Toe research findings suggest there is a relationship between personality and the service recovery process. Though two hypotheses were not supported by the data, the data analysis results supported the hypothesis that extraverts have a greater capability for empowerment. It is believed further investigation will reveal other human resource management issues for which personality will play a significant role in.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education