Hospitality & Tourism Management Masters Theses Collection

The Economic Significance Study on the Volleyball Hall of Fame and Its Charitable Impressions

Xu, Feng — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:39:52 PDT

Events and attractions can bring visitors and have economic impact and significance in the local areas. The measure and estimate of the economic impact and significance becomes a big concern for the organizers, governments and local residents. This study assessed the economic significance and impact of the Volleyball Hall of Fame and its related events in October 2009, and furthermore it examined its charitable impressions.

The study first examined the demographic background of the visitors, and then followed the basic economic impact and significance assessment process proposed by Crompton and Stynes. The locals, casuals and time-switchers were identified, and then the study assessed the economic contributions in two dimensions: (1) the economic significance assessment including all the visitors, and (2) the typical economic impact assessment excluding the locals, casuals and time-switchers, and applied a conservative multiplier. Group sizes and the lengths of the stay were also examined to determine how they may also relate to the economic significance and impact assessment. Additionally the study assessed the charitable impressions by the visitors through a set of Likert scaled statements.

The study found that, although the Volleyball Hall of Fame is a small-scale attraction, it did generate an economic contribution to the local community. Furthermore visitors had strong awareness of, and supported the Volleyball Hall of Fame’s participation in the non-profit charitable events, and the charitable impressions were identified as possible means to promote visitors' willingness to donate to the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

The Effect of Menu Nutrition Labels on Consumers' Dietary Decision Making

Lowe, Diane M. — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:09:13 PDT

To help combat the growing obesity problem in the United States, the Menu Labeling Act was passed in 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, little research has been conducted to determine the optimal format and content of the imminent label. A between-subjects experiment was conducted with a non-probability sample that was provided with three nutrition label treatments and surveyed to determine the labels’ effect on accuracy in dietary judgments and nutrition evaluations, level of certainty and confusion while completing those tasks, and perceived label comprehension and utility. The presence of a label had a positive relationship with all the dependent measures, while the addition of percent daily values to the label had a nonsignificant increase in accuracy but a negative effect on confusion and comprehension.

Students’ Perceptions of Effectiveness of Hospitality Curricula and Their Preparedness

Rahman, Imran — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:15:35 PDT

Curriculum assessment has been an important tool in measuring the effectiveness of the curriculum to evaluate student learning and preparedness. This study develops a conceptual framework, based on course offerings and descriptions of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to evaluate how the curriculum contributes to students’ preparedness for their future career. Using an online field survey, this study examines the skills that contribute to students’ preparedness. Besides putting forward the strengths and weaknesses of the program, and identifying the significant skill areas that contribute significantly to students’ preparedness, findings of this study indicate that students are quite well prepared and overall satisfied with the program. Results also highlight the importance of work experience as an integral part of the curriculum in affecting students’ preparedness.

REVENUE MANAGEMENT AND PERCEPTIONS OF FAIRNESS

Choi, ChoongBeom — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:15:21 PDT

In revenue management practice, the issue of perceived fairness is a serious concern, because revenue management applies different prices for basically the same service. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of hotel revenue management pricing on customers’ perceptions of fairness. Specifically, this study explores whether framing revenue management pricing as discounts rather than surcharges would significantly enhance customers’ perceived fairness. In addition to framing, this study investigates whether customers’ perceived fairness is affected by the fencing condition customers are in. Furthermore, most importantly, this study proposes that such framing and fencing condition effects are moderated by a hotel’s reputation with a revenue management pricing practice. This study found that framing and fencing condition had a significant effect on customers’ fairness perception, respectively. In addition, this study found that reputation moderated the effect of framing on perceived fairness. When the hotel had a poor reputation, framing as a discount rather than framing as a surcharge considerably increased customers’ perceived fairness. When the hotel had a good reputation, however, there was no significant difference between priced framed as a discount and a surcharge. This study supports hotel managers to understand how customers perceive fairness in revenue management practices and also provides hotel managers with broad acceptance levels of the tested revenue management pricing mechanisms.

Excess Return Estimate and Risk Factors in Hospitality Firms

Lagji, Genti — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:13:21 PDT

Calculating the expected return has been a longstanding issue in the finance. There is a positive correlation between the undertaken risk and excess return (or loss) but numerous variables need to be considered. This study builds on the Fama and French formula and adds factors unique to the hospitality industry such as labor cost and diversification in order to get results that are a tailored to the hospitality industry. Active hotel and restaurants companies (SIC 7011 and 5812 respectively) in the 2000-2009 period were analyzed in separate samples. The labor cost improves the explanatory on both samples and the diversification proxy was significant in the hotel sample. Based on the results suggestions for further research were made.

Presenteeism: A Comparative Analysis

O'Donnell, James E. — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:23:36 PST

Presenteeism is the state of being physically present but less than fully functional because of illness or other distraction. Health and Productivity Management (HPM) professionals and academics seek to quantify losses attributable to this phenomenon.

The Stanford SPS-6 is selected as the most useful instrument to test for the characteristic of presenteeism as intrinsic capacity for performing while distracted. This study tests graduate students from a variety of curricula, as examples of career choice, to determine whether some groups would have greater capacity to perform under distraction.

Results of the study showed differences in presenteeism scores between groups. Males scored higher than females, and more work experience may bring greater capacity. Evidence of a relationship between severity and score was found for those with psycho-emotional distractors, but not when the source was physical. For those reporting psycho-emotional sources of distraction, severity was a predictor. Similarly, correlations were found such that an increase in self-perceived severity could be associated with a reduction in capacity to perform when the source of distraction was psycho-emotional.

It is possible that presenteeism can be quantifiable and associated with career-choice. This may be useful for hospitality and other industries as a test for suitable workers.

College Student Gambling: Examining the Effects of Gaming Education Within a College Curriculum

Conrad, Maryann — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:53:41 PST

The research in this study examined the nature of college student gambling (N=201) and whether general gaming education can influence meaningful changes in college students’ gambling attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions. A group of college students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Casino Management class, received general gaming education while two comparison groups, one from the same university and one from Worcester State College, Massachusetts, did not. Assessment of the participants’ attitudes toward gambling, gambling fallacy perceptions, ability to calculate gambling odds, and gambling behaviors were examined before and after exposure to gaming education. Seventy five percent of the students surveyed as the baseline group reported gambling within the past 12 months, with a minority gambling weekly or more, or gambling large amounts of money. At the semester end, follow-up findings showed that the students who received the gaming education intervention demonstrated significant improvement in their ability to calculate gambling odds and resist common gambling fallacies. Unexpectedly however, this improved knowledge was not associated with any decreases in their gambling attitudes or time and money spent on gambling activities. The implication drawn from this research is that knowledge gained from a general gaming class, including gaining improvements in odds calculations and fallacy perceptions, may not be enough of a factor to effect significant changes in college students’ gambling attitudes and behaviors.

Senses of Place

Cighi, Catalin I. — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:35:25 PDT

This thesis puts forth a model for analyzing and understanding the social construction of the concept of place. The Place Deconstruction Model (PDM) consists of a decentered and a centered perspective. The decentered perspective identifies three instances of sense making, at the levels of perception (crude place), meaning making (constructed place), and the building of artifice (commodified place). The centered perspective accounts for the subjectivity of the observer, as determined by memory, expectations, and the experience of the here and now. The method of analysis involves the juxtaposition of spatial (space, place identity, place image), temporal (time, history, heritage), and social (being, self identity, self image) lenses that require adjustment of parameters such as perspective and unit of analysis. The findings derived from the application of this model have both academic and practical applications.

Price Bundling in Online Travel Markets: An Exploratory Study

Kim, Jinhoo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:52:34 PST

Price bundling, offering two or more separate products/services together in a single package at a different price from the sum of the components’ prices, is one of the most prevalent marketing practices in many industries, including hospitality and travel. Virtually all types of firms in the hospitality and travel industry, from suppliers such as hotels and airlines to intermediaries such as travel agents, are encouraging customers to purchase travel “packages” rather than a single component of travel.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the practice of price bundling by online travel agents is associated with actual monetary savings to consumers. Conventional economics theories generally assume that price bundling results in consumer savings in comparison with purchasing the same component products separately, and this is what travel agents are highlighting in their advertisements for selling travel packages. This study also investigated whether the magnitude of bundle discounts vary by four relevant variables such as travel agent, destination city, hotel class, and the timing of purchase.

The results show that purchasing a travel bundle results in significantly lower consumer prices than purchasing the component products separately. However, the magnitude of the bundle savings is inconsistent across the relevant variables. In particular, Travelocity tends to offer significantly greater bundle savings than Expedia; bundles including upper-class hotels appear to provide greater absolute discounts than lower-class-hotel bundles, but those two are not significantly different in terms of percentage discounts. Some important implications of the results are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.