This research study examined the work conditions, ergonomic problems, and prevalence of pain among low wage hotel room cleaners in Orlando. In most hotels, the cleanliness of guestrooms is one of the most important service standards expected by customers. The role of the housekeeper is thus critical to service provision and hotel profitability. The hospitality industry is a major recruiter of low wage workers with the majority working in housekeeping departments. Due to the nature of the research problem, a positivist quantitative approach was adopted although the survey instrument included space for qualitative comments to some of the latter open-ended questions. The survey instrument used in this study was adapted from validated survey instruments used in previous studies about the occupational health of hotel housekeepers. Data was collected from 177 hotel housekeepers. The local union of hotel housekeepers assisted with data collection from hotel housekeepers in local hotels in Orlando. The questions were specific and relevant to housekeeping department work conditions. An informed consent to participate was included in the survey to inform respondents about the voluntary nature of participation and the possibility of withdrawal from participation in the study was possible. Data was coded for entry in SPSS for subsequent analysis. Before starting analysis, the data was explored for incomplete surveys, errors and outliers. The scale of the data was compressed for better data analysis results. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to understand the sample collected. Furthermore, chi square and t-test was used to explore physical workload,ergonomic problems and prevalence of pain among housekeepers.

This study examined the cognitive and affective factors that influence users' post-adoption behavioral intention. Specifically, based on the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) (Bhattacherjee, 2001b) the impact of cognitive factors (i.e., perceived usefulness, confirmation of expectations, mobility, personalization and responsiveness) and affective factors (i.e., satisfaction, perceived enjoyment) on hotel branded mobile applications (apps) users' continuance intention and WOM were examined. Hospitality firms invest considerable resources on technology solutions that are aimed at improving the consumer experience. However, for investments to be profitable firms must ensure that technology solutions are continuously used and ensure post-adoptive behaviors such as continuance intention and WOM. Data for the study were collected from 550 hotel branded mobile app users. After data were collected and cleaned, Partial Least-Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results of the structural model indicated that continuance intention and WOM were directly influenced by satisfaction and perceived enjoyment; with satisfaction exerting the most influence on continuance intention. Conversely, perceived enjoyment was most influential to WOM. All cognitive factors were found to influence satisfaction and enjoyment, except for responsiveness and perceived usefulness. The results show that contextual factors have a more significant impact than previously established constructs. The results of the study allow hoteliers and hospitality technology consultants to identify the influential factors impacting post-adoptive behaviors. The study extends the literature on post-adoptive behavior and the ECM by including context specific factors (i.e. perceived mobility, personalization and responsiveness). This study contributes to the scare literature in the lodging industry literature examining users' evaluations of mobile apps and post-adoptive behaviors in the hospitality industry. The study adds to the post-adoptive behavior literature by adding WOM as a second outcome to continuance intention. The treatment of contextual factors in this study, allowed to show the impact technology characteristics have on technology post-adoption.

Due to the development of technology, one of the major trends in the hospitality industry is service migration from human interaction services (HISs) to self-service technologies (SSTs). Therefore, it is important to examine customers service perceptions based on two different service provisions: SSTs and HISs. This study investigated similarities and differences between SST and HIS customer service perceptions based on several service quality dimensions, their effects on customer satisfaction and service loyalty in the hotel industry. Initially, this study conceptualized the service quality dimensions with six major dimensions (i.e., reliability, responsiveness, tangibles, competence, efficiency, and enjoyment) and hypothesized to have a positive influence on customers satisfaction, and subsequently, on service loyalty. A total of 275 useable responses were collected through an online self-administrative survey on Qualtrics. The results indicated that the service quality for SST and HIS customers could be evaluated through three major factors: interactive quality, tangibles, and enjoyment. Overall, interactive quality and enjoyment had a significant effect on customer satisfaction and service loyalty, while tangibles showed a direct impact on service loyalty. In addition, hotel customers had a higher level of interactive quality and service loyalty when they received service from HISs. On the other hand, hotel customers tended to show a higher level of enjoyment when they receive service from SSTs. This study contributes theoretical implications as it suggests the service quality framework that can be applied to both SST and HIS service settings. Furthermore, this study provides hotel managers with a comprehensive understanding of customer service perceptions towards SSTs in contrast to HISs.

It is a general policy in the hotel industry that all the service should be provided in the friendly and a professional manner. The first smile of a front desk clerk or a wait staff can make a difference in customer satisfaction and loyalty. A service quality is becoming more important with increase of competitiveness among hotels and hotel brands. A process of regulating positive emotions for an organization is called Emotional Labor (EL) (Grandey, 2000). While essential for the hospitality industry, empirical research on EL is very limited, and research on EL during stressful situations is almost nonexistent. To reduce the gap in the prior research, this study is looking into dynamics of a perceived organizational and customer (in) justice as a stress factor on an employee's EL and subsequent job satisfaction. To further understand dynamics of the proposed model, variables such as a gender and intensity of interaction were used as moderating effects. This study extended research done by Spencer and Rupp (2006, 2009) on employees' perceived customer injustice and its effects on employees' EL. This study drew on fairness, effective events, referent cognition, social exchange and action theories to explain why individuals' EL is impacted by injustice extended by guests and organization. Four types of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational) were used in this research. The results of the study indicated that employees EL (effort, dissonance) increases with increased effects of distributive (in) justice. EL dissonance had a significant negative effect on job satisfaction and EL effort had a significant positive effect on a job satisfaction. Finally, procedural (in) justice and informational (in) justice had a higher effects on male employees rather than their female counterparts. Since this study is first to explore effects of four facets of organizational (in) justice on employees EL, job satisfaction and gender as moderating effects, this study offers multiple theoretical and managerial implication for evaluation of EL and its antecedents in the hospitality industry.

This study aimed to explore factors affecting seniors' intention to relocate to a senior living facility. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of push and pull motivational factors and perceived barriers on seniors' intention to relocate to a senior living facility (SLF). In addition, the mediating role of perceived barriers on the relationships between push motivational factors and intention to relocate and pull motivational factors and intention to relocate were explored. The data of the study was collected from 363 seniors. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to test the study hypotheses. The results indicated that health related, social and family/friend related, housing and property related push motivational factors and facility related pull motivational factor positively influenced seniors' intention to relocate to SLFs. In addition, the study results revealed that family related barriers, economic barriers, socio-psychological barriers, and knowledge and information barriers negatively affected seniors' intention to relocate to SLFs. In terms of the mediation effects, the study results indicated that (1) family related barriers mediated the positive relationship between health related push motivational factor and intention to relocate; (2) economic barriers mediated the positive relationship between facility related pull motivational factor and intention to relocate; (3) socio-psychological barriers mediated the positive relationship between health related push motivational factor and intention to relocate; and (4) socio-psychological barriers mediated the positive relationship between facility related pull motivational factor and intention to relocate. The findings of this study provide valuable theoretical contributions in the context senior living literature and important practical implications for SLF operators, health care facilitators and government agencies.

The American non-profit arts sector is faced with challenges including shifting audience demographics, competition for patrons due to evolving new media and entertainment technologies, changes in donors, and the discontinuation of federal and state funding sources. Savvy arts organizations are rebooting for long-term sustainability and relevancy to their communities, while some organizations adhere to unchanged practices and modes of operation. Amidst the 21st century digital landscape, arts engagement that yields personal and community impact and sustainability for the future is indeed attainable. Characteristics of participatory culture and democratization rooted in emerging digital entertainment and social media communications technology, coupled with the power of the millennial generation, the first generation with access to digital technologies since birth, are two forces that can be non-profit arts organizations' biggest resources and are inherently a part of the arts. Using a mixed method approach, this project examines discourse surrounding arts engagement, focusing on the millennial generation, social media as a catalyst for potent arts participation, and Central Florida as a region demonstrating significant innovations and opportunities for growth in the arts. A survey was completed by Central Florida millennials, and with permission from Americans for the Arts, select questions replicated their 2016 National Arts Engagement survey, situating Central Florida alongside National data. Qualitatively, interviews were conducted with six executive directors of Central Florida non-profit arts organizations. Grounded theory practices yielded a synthesis of perspectives and strategic action plan for arts organizations to consider. Resulting recommendations for organizations seeking to further arts engagement with millennials via social media include: incorporating transmedia storytelling elements, considering how the arts convene and create around causes, programming with consideration of the life cycles and interests of millennials, considering diversity and cultural equity in the arts, and creating experiences that define engagement in the digital and physical worlds.

The current state of literature surrounding the business-to-business (BTB) exchange in the meetings, incentives, conventions, and events (MICE) industry is limited. Likewise, the manner in which meeting planners forge their intentions to repurchase was unknown until the present study was conducted. The following research focused on the role of the hotel convention service manager (CSM) in the BTB exchange with the meeting planner to understand the role they play in the meeting planner's decision to repurchase. Since hotel CSMs have not been assessed in previous literature, one of the major contributions of this study was that it established a set of functional competencies on which to evaluate hotel CSM performance in on-the-job tasks. The current study also introduced an emotional competence evaluation by means of asking meeting planners to evaluate hotel CSMs on well-being, emotionality, self control and sociability, in the face of client interaction. It was found that both forms of competency performance significantly contribute to the planner's perceptions of relationship quality. The current state of the literature was also ambiguous surrounding relationship quality in the BTB exchange. It was well established that relationship quality was most commonly composed of at least two dimensions: trust and commitment. However, because this study investigated the BTB exchange in an individual-individual context, likability was added as a new dimension of relationship quality. The second order factor structure of relationship quality was confirmed, and post-hoc tests revealed that a meeting planner's perceptions of emotional and functional competence in the exchange, appears to hinge on the quality of that relationship, when the meeting planner is evaluating their intentions to repurchase with the property and the hotel CSM. In fact, repeat purchase intentions with the hotel CSM were found to supersede intentions with the property, thereby establishing hotel CSMs as directors of repeat business for their respective employer (property). To accomplish this study's objectives, a mixed-mode methodology was employed. Qualitative analysis was conducted after collecting data via semi-structured interviews and focus groups to establish the functional competencies of hotel CSMs and create a generic scale for assessing those competencies. Quantitative analysis was preceded by a survey composed of five sections: functional competence, emotional competence, relationship quality, repeat purchase intention, and demographics. Data was collected from meeting planners, which resulted in a usable sample of 324 responses. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on functional competence to understand its underlying latent structure. A robust reliability analysis and a priori testing was employed prior to conducing confirmatory factor analyses, which were followed by structural equation modeling to test the proposed theoretical model. The results showed the following. Functional and emotional competence were positively related to relationship quality, respectively. The second order factor structure of relationship quality was established, composed of the following first order factors: trust, commitment, and likability. Finally, perceived relationship quality is positively related to repeat purchase intention with the property and with the hotel CSM. The study offered a number of theoretical and practical implications, and limitations and directions for future research were also discussed in the final chapter.

Smart initiatives are gaining popularity from the development of smart homes and smart communities to the emergence of smart cities all around the world. Smart technologies like AI-powered digital assistants are becoming more widespread within the tourism industry, giving rise to the concept of smart destinations. Despite the growing awareness, the theoretical and practical knowledge of smart destinations remains fragmented and mostly speculative. The primary objectives of this research study are: 1) to develop a comprehensive framework of smart destinations through multiple case studies of the emerging smart destinations and interviews with the industry stakeholders, and 2) to construct and apply a smartness index based on the framework that could serve as a practical tool to assess the smartness level of various tourism destinations. The study adopts a Destination Marketing/Management Organization (DMO) perspective as these organizations are uniquely positioned to fulfill the key roles in coordination, facilitation, and governance of smart tourism. That is, the technological sophistication of these organizations and their destination management systems (DMSs) is assumed to reflect smart initiatives implemented destination-wide. The study employed the three-stage methodology: assessment of the DMOs' websites, interviews with the key industry stakeholders, and survey completed by the DMOs' representatives. The results of the survey were used to construct the index with Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Lastly, the index was applied to assess DMOs' performance in key areas that determined smartness of tourism destinations. As a result, the study developed a more comprehensive conceptualization of smart destinations than was currently available in the research literature. Furthermore, the study offered a practical tool that could assess destinations smartness and identify the critical areas for improvement. This research, therefore, offers a necessary foundation for the advancement of tourism research and the framework for destinations that aspire to become smart.

Online reviews play a strategic role in the decision-making of individuals and accordingly, the sales and reputation management of businesses. Despite the significant role of reviews, the subject of motivations for posting reviews has been relatively less investigated. This is specifically important since when the online review is negative, it can immediately and negatively affect a company financially by deteriorating its image. Therefore, further investigation regarding negative online reviewing motivation with the accompany of theory building and empirical study is needed. To address this gap, this study adopted the two motivational theories of self-determination and expectancy to investigate the relationship of motivation quality and motivation force with the intention to write negative reviews. In order to empirically test the proposed model, a pilot study was first conducted to ensure the quality of the questionnaire. After the necessary refinement of the pilot questionnaire, the final questionnaire was developed, and a two-step PLS-SEM along with a CMB analysis was conducted on the collected data. The study responded to recent calls on developing a more comprehensive understanding of negative review writing motivations. The study offered a new perspective with regards to the quality of motivations for engaging in such actions by empirically indicating that individuals' behavioral intention to write a negative review is a result of intrinsic motivation and a variety of extrinsic motivations. Furthermore, this study allowed for the examination of the dynamic, inter-related impact of motivations on one another in addition to taking into consideration the aspects of each motivation that an individual considers to carry out an action. While providing important theoretical contributions in the context of negative review writing motivations, the findings of the study also offer valuable practical implications for practitioners of the hospitality industry.

The recent situation with the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in the business event industry and forced event planners to organize virtual events. However, virtual events are lacking social interactions with the physical environment and people, and are characterized by lower levels of engagement, while the majority of event planners design virtual events by using the same practices and tools they applied during the previous face-to-face meetings. There is also a gap in the previous literature related to the influence of virtual events on attendees' outcomes. This study aims at investigating the relationships between event types and attendees' behavioral intentions, as well as analyzing the influence of event price and attendees' risk perceptions on attendees' outcomes. The online experimental design was applied to explore the proposed relationships by assigning study participants to one of the hypothetical event website scenarios. The two-step approach was used to analyze the influence of different types of events and event prices on attitudes toward an event, attendees' risk perceptions, and visiting intentions. The measurement model fit and validity of the constructs were assessed by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, while the study hypotheses were tested with the help of the Structural Equation Modelling. The results demonstrated that event type has significant effects on attendees' risk perceptions, while risk perceptions significantly affected attendees' visit intentions. The study also revealed significant moderating effects of attendees' age on the relationship between event type and visit intentions. The study provides important theoretical, managerial, and methodological implications by introducing new factors affecting attendees' perceptions and behavioral intentions, describing the relationship between risk perceptions and attendees' behavioral intentions, and providing practical recommendations for event planners.