Search results

Food SMEs is the backbone of local and world economy. Even while food SMEs are aware of the potential advantages of implementing supply chain analytics (SCA), only a small number of companies use data-based decision-making. This is because of technophobia. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that have an impact on SCA adoption which in turn influence the sustainable performance of firms.

The data were collected from 221 managers working in food-related SMEs in China by using a questionnaire-based survey. The framework of this study was validated using a rigorous statistical procedure using the technique, namely, partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings of this study suggest that all modified UTAUT components (i.e. performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and technophobia) significantly influence SCA adoption. Moreover, the existing study highlights and confirms the significance of adopting SCA to improve sustainable performance.

This research is novel, as it extends and investigates the theoretical framework based on UTAUT theory in SCA context and its impact on sustainable organizational performance. In addition, the factor of technophobia is tested in SCA context. This study has several contributory managerial implications for food SMEs.

Infrared simulation plays an important role in small and affordable unmanned aerial vehicles. Its key and main goal is to get the infrared image of a specific target. Infrared physical model is established through a theoretical research, thus the temperature field is available. Then infrared image of a specific target can be simulated properly while taking atmosphere state and effect of infrared imaging system into account. For recent years, some research has been done in this field. Among them, the infrared simulation for large scale is still a key problem to be solved. In this passage, a method of classification based on texture blending is proposed and this method effectively solves the problem of classification of large number of images and increase the frame rate of large infrared scene rendering. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Mosart Atmospheric Tool (MAT) is used first to calculate data of sun radiance, skyshine radiance, path radiance, temperatures of different material which is an offline process. Then, shader in OGRE does final calculation to get simulation result and keeps a high frame rate. Considering this, the authors convert data in MAT file into textures which can be easily handled by shader. In shader responding, radiance can be indexed by information of material, vertex normal, eye and sun. Adding the effect of infrared imaging system, the final radiance distribution is obtained. At last, the authors get infrared scene by converting radiance to grayscale.

In the fragment shader, fake infrared textures are used to look up temperature which can calculate radiance of itself and related radiance.

The radiance is transferred into grayscale image while considering effect of infrared imaging system.

Simulation results show that a high frame rate can be reached while guaranteeing the fidelity.

The paper aims to identify the emergent themes of hotel guests’ satisfaction, to compare the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests and to compare the importance of the themes for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests from a cross-cultural perspective.

By adopting Python (a computer language), the word-frequency method was used to identify emergent themes of hotel guests’ satisfaction. Topic modeling was adopted to compare the attributes distribution of each theme and the features of satisfaction between Chinese and North American guests.

First, three themes were identified including functionality, staff and price. Functionality can be further categorized into five subthemes, namely, room, travel, food, environment and hotel facility. Second, the distribution of the attributes of the themes between Chinese and North American guests was compared from a cross-cultural perspective. Chinese guests tend to mention both lifestyles- and social norms–related attributes and expect personalized service, while North American guests mainly prefer to describe lifestyle-related attributes and prefer standardized service. Third, the study compared the changing importance of the themes (functionality, staff and price) for different satisfaction levels between Chinese and North American guests. As the satisfaction level decreases, the importance of functionality decreases, that of staff increases and that of price remain stable for Chinese guests. In contrast, the importance of each theme has fluctuated mildly from the high to the low satisfaction level for North American guests.

Proposed managerial implications are to highlight lifestyle- and social norms-related attributes, as well as personalized service for Chinese guests. However, lifestyle-related attributes and standardized service should be facilitated for North American guests. Specific suggestions were made to help improve hotel performance such as the good performance of functional-related attributes, which could enhance satisfaction and better staff performance, which would reduce dissatisfaction.

By mining big data, this study investigated hotel guests’ satisfaction from a dynamic instead of a static perspective. This study provides some rare insights into differences in key attributes influencing satisfaction levels of Chinese versus North American guests staying in luxury hotels in China. This study also takes a novel approach to examine the dynamics of the importance of the various themes at different satisfaction levels, and contrast these dynamics between Chinese and North American guests. The findings offer valuable insight into market segmentation and management in the hospitality industry.

Portfolio risk in crop insurance due to the systemic nature of crop yield losses has inhibited the development of private crop insurance markets. Government subsidy or reinsurance has therefore been used to support crop insurance programs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibility of converting systemic crop yield risk into “poolable” risk. Specifically, this study examines whether it is possible to remove the co-movement as well as tail dependence of crop yield variables by enlarging the risk pool across different crops and countries.

Hierarchical Kendall copula (HKC) models are used to model potential non-linear correlations of the high-dimensional crop yield variables. A Bayesian estimation approach is applied to account for estimation risk in the copula parameters. A synthetic insurance portfolio is used to evaluate the systemic risk and diversification effect.

The results indicate that the systemic nature – both positive correlation and lower tail dependence – of crop yield risks can be eliminated by combining crop insurance policies across crops and countries.

The study applies the HKC in the context of agricultural risks. Compared to other advanced copulas, the HKC achieves both flexibility and parsimony. The flexibility of the HKC makes it appropriate to precisely represent various correlation structures of crop yield risks while the parsimony makes it computationally efficient in modeling high-dimensional correlation structure.

This study aims to propose a comprehensive causal model to examine the relationships between customer experience and four key factors in brand building, i.e., brand loyalty, brand trust, brand affect and brand involvement. The dimensionality of customer experience in full-service hotel is also particularly examined in relation to brand building.

Three steps of data collection were used: interviews of 50 customers on their experiences of staying full-service hotels, a small survey of 176 hotel guests to establish the measurement scale of customer experience and a major survey of 732 hotel customers in ten major Chinese cities to test the model of brand loyalty.

Customers’ experiences with full-service hotels are proposed to be categorized into functional, affective and social. There is a chain effect from customer experience to brand trust and to brand affect and then to brand loyalty. The brand involvement does moderate relationships between customer experience and brand trust and brand affect but not brand loyalty.

For full-service hotels, social and functional experiences are critical in building brand loyalty, and therefore, they need to be the focal points in the enhancement of customer experience. Also, hoteliers are advised to develop emotional connections between the customers and the hotel brand – an effective way of building trust and affection.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first few studies to link customer experience to brand loyalty with comprehensive causal effect analysis. This study also contributes to the knowledge of customer experience in the context of the full-service hotel sector.

As an unhealthy dependence on social media platforms, social media addiction (SMA) has become increasingly commonplace in the digital era. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of SMA research and develop a theoretical model that explains how different types of factors contribute to SMA.

Considering the nascent nature of this research area, this study conducted a systematic review to synthesize the burgeoning literature examining influencing factors of SMA. Based on a comprehensive literature search and screening process, 84 articles were included in the final sample.

Analyses showed that antecedents of SMA can be classified into three conceptual levels: individual, environmental and platform. The authors further proposed a theoretical framework to explain the underlying mechanisms behind the relationships amongst different types of variables.

The contributions of this review are two-fold. First, it used a systematic and rigorous approach to summarize the empirical landscape of SMA research, providing theoretical insights and future research directions in this area. Second, the findings could help social media service providers and health professionals propose relevant intervention strategies to mitigate SMA.

Innovation through tradition (ITT) is an increasingly important area of research particularly in the creative and cultural industries. The purpose of this study is to develop a process framework of ITT for rural heritage bed and breakfast (B&B) sector and investigate the antecedents and challenges of ITT implementation.

Nine heritage B&Bs displaying successful ITT in Songyang county in China were selected as the research site. Multiple cases of B&B were interviewed, and some observations were conducted. This study adopted the process-oriented reflexive critical incident technique to collect qualitative data and analysed it thematically.

Based on the findings, a five-phase innovation framework is proposed to demonstrate how ITT could be achieved in practice. These phases are idea generation, idea evaluation, initial implementation, continuing implementation and sustaining improvement. Three key antecedents (experience corridors, networks and institutional pressures) of ITT implementation were also identified.

This study has showed that rural heritage B&Bs can differentiate themselves from competition by the means of ITT. This study proposes a process framework for this kind of innovation bringing to light the required steps, the antecedents and key activities which the practitioners should pay great attention. This study highlights the needs for continuing and sustaining innovations in the long term.

This study proposes a novel five-phase process framework of ITT to encompass the innovation activities in heritage setting. For practitioners, this study recommends enhancing the sensing capability of local entrepreneurs through personal travel experience and establishing business networks as the key antecedents of a successful ITT under rural heritage setting.

Given the competitive landscape in the higher education setting, it is important that universities adopt strategies that create competitive advantage for them. Universities must leverage their resources efficiently to address this goal. Creating a positive brand image is one such strategy. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize university brand image as its heritage, service quality and trustworthiness and investigate their relationship with student’s satisfaction. It also investigates the role of university reputation as a mediating variable.

Data were collected through a mixed method approach. The first stage involved qualitative interviews and focused group discussions with students to understand the factors responsible for student satisfaction with their respective universities. The second stage involved administering a survey questionnaire in two geographies – the USA and India to investigate the hypothesized relationship. The authors use regression analyses to test these relationships.

Findings indicate that a distinct brand image plays an important role in students’ level of satisfaction across both the USA and India. Service quality has a greater impact on student satisfaction levels across both contexts (as compared to university heritage and trustworthiness). The authors also find a positive mediating effect of university reputation in the relationship between university brand image and student satisfaction levels.

The current research contributes to the services marketing literature in the university context. It offers a framework for decision making in universities. It suggests that universities must work toward developing their brand image by focusing on its three dimensions – heritage, trustworthiness and service quality.

The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the multi-faceted dimensions of Chinese travellers’ image of boutique hotels with a large amount of online textual data from social media (53,427 reviews written from 2014 to 2018), reinforcing the value creation of user-generated content via social media.

With the aid of Python, a computer language, online textual reviews (53,427 reviews) of 86 high-end boutique hotels in seven cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Qingdao and Sanya) were collected from the top-ranked online travel agency in China, Ctrip.com. Then, the overall perceived image of boutique hotels was revealed with the aid of Python.

The results showed multiple dimensions of the image of boutique hotels. The overall image can be grouped into eight dimensions (room, service, food, environment, entertainment, location, price and value, and uniqueness). An affective image based on eight dimensions was further developed in the Chinese boutique hotel context. It appears that online data from social media are beneficial for hotel managers to learn travellers’ overall perceptions of boutique hotels and help put more effective management strategies in place in the hospitality industry.

The relationship between cognitive image and affective image should be further investigated in future research. Theoretical implications are discussed from both cognitive image and affective image perspectives in the boutique hotel context. Managerial implications are highlighted to help industry managers understand the travellers’ perceptions of the hotels, via online data from social media, and put more effective hotel strategies in hospitality industry.

By using textual online data from social media, this paper deconstructs both the cognitive image and the affective image of boutique hotels. The dimensions of the most frequently mentioned concepts related to the Chinese boutique hotel industry are profoundly deconstructed, as is the uniqueness of the image of boutique hotels. The work is valuable for promoting effective marketing strategies in the hotel industry.