Business Commons^™

Salesperson-Customer Dyads In The Casino Gaming Industry: How Sales Competencies And Relationship Lifecycles Influence Customer Satisfaction And Account Profitability, Alicia Lechtenberger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Developing extraordinary relationships between sales personnel and customers is essential to corporate success. To meet the increasing demands of customers within the hospitality industry, corporations must ensure they pair customers with salespeople who are highly competent, possessing refined and adaptable skill sets that directly increase customer satisfaction and account profitability. Corporations spend billions of dollars annually on hiring and training salespeople; yet, salespeople often quit or miss their quota targets. Considering this industry-wide business problem, the purpose of this dissertation study was to determine how sales competencies influence customer satisfaction and account profitability while taking into consideration the duration of …

Payment Profiles: Using Payment Transaction Data To Identify And Characterize Gamblers, Kasra Ghaharian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Payment providers in the gambling industry facilitate transactions, allowing customers to transfer money to and from wagering accounts. Payments transaction data is information that is captured from these transactions, including, for example, the type, amount, time, and location. How this data may be used for gambling harm minimization and prevention has garnered significant interest, particularly due to accelerated payments modernization in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this study, I explored the utility of payments transaction data to categorize subgroups of gamblers in order to identify individuals who may be at-risk of harm. I benchmarked six cluster analysis methods …

Negative Customer Reviews And The Online Decision-Making Process: The Role Of Construal Fit, Minji Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Consumers seek out online reviews to aid their decision-making, particularly when purchasing products and services online. Given their power to influence consumer behavior, online reviews have been extensively studied in various settings. While much research has focused on what determines the performance of online reviews, limited research has focused on why a particular review receives more or less attention from consumers. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by exploring how consumers with different mindsets respond to online reviews framed at different levels of construal. Applying the construal fit principle, this research predicts that consumers more fluently process online …

A Development Of A Game-Theoretic Artificially Intelligent Neural Network Revenue Management Forecasting Model, Fatemeh Binesh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The aim of this dissertation is to create and test a risk induced game-theoretic price forecasting model. The models were tested with datasets from 3 Upper Midscale hotels in 3 locations (urban, interstate and suburb), one hotel from each location. The data was obtained from STR, a leading hospitality marketing company which consolidates all of the daily hotel data from hotels in the United States. Multiple error measures were used to compare the accuracy of models. Three LSTM models were proposed and tested; LSTM model 1 that relied on ADR to forecast ADR, LSTM model 2 that used ADR, supply, …

Predicting And Mitigating Reactance Impact On Attitude And Behavioral Intention, Matthew Ryan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At times messaging may be of an instructive nature that can be perceived as an attempt to threaten or limit an individual’s freedom. This freedom limitation can range from individual choice to physical requirements. How a message is framed, or positioned, is very important. In certain instances, even when the message has the best intentions, if framed incorrectly can have the opposite, or boomerang, effect on people. This state is known as psychological reactance. When invoked, consumers will act in a way that eliminates the threat of freedom to restore balance. Such a state can also lead to negative implications …

An Assessment Of Hotel Guests’ Perceptions Of Preventive Safety Measures In The Era Of Covid-19, Un Hyeok Ko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the era of COVID-19, hospitality was one of the industries that was most severely impacted by the virus. Spread of the virus was rapid enough to force hotels to close properties worldwide, and hotels were required to adopt safety measures and protocols in order to re-open or remain open. New types of measures, some never seen before the pandemic, were created and implemented throughout the hotel industry.

The main purpose of this study is to assess guests' perception of preventive safety initiatives and measures in the era of COVID-19 and to determine their level of satisfaction with such measures. …

The Effect Of Perceived Justice And Organizational Embeddedness On Employee Morale And Voluntary Turnover Rate After Layoffs In The Hospitality Industry, Jungjoo Bae

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that reduce the detrimental impact of layoffs. This research found that damaged employee morale and increased turnover intention of survivors after layoffs can cause more adverse impact on companies where layoffs were conducted. Also, it was found that perceived justice and organizational embeddedness can reduce the possibility of having destructive outcomes after layoffs. Additionally, the moderating impact of organizational embeddedness on the effect of perceived justice on employee morale and turnover intention was researched. Data were gathered from junior and senior undergraduate students majoring in hospitality management with at least …

Factors Influencing Golfers' Intention To Use A Direct Booking Website, Junghoon Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To find out golfers’ perceived value of a direct booking website, an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT 2) model is adapted to test out golfers’ behavioral intention when they book a tee time via a golf course’s website. The influential factors are Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating conditions, Hedonic Motivation, and Price Saving Orientation that predicts golfers’ behavioral intention to use. A sample has chosen through the screening questions that the target sample, who are an adult at age 18 or older, have played golf at a public golf course over the last …

Measuring Quality Of Virtual Event: Scale Development And Validation, Sung-Eun Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has led to a critical reconsideration of the way humans work and live. In turn, true paradigm shifts are arising across diverse industries based on remote and online communication. Undoubtedly, traditional in-person events are transforming into virtual events through more innovative platforms and safer experiences. The market for virtual events is considerably expanding and promising; thereby, the demand for research on the nature and dynamics of virtual events is increasingly growing. However, research on virtual events and virtual event quality (VEQual) is still in its infancy and has lagged behind, resulting in a …

Gambling Behaviors Among Vip Hosts In Macao, Tiange Xu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many studies have shown that casino employees are at-risk gamblers, but limited research on this topic has been conducted in Asia. Given the unique gambling setting of Macao, it would be meaningful to investigate the gambling behaviors among VIP Hosts, who play an important role in the gaming market. Specifically, the present study examined the relationship between problem gambling, cognitive distortions, and potential risk and protective factors. The author used a snowball technique to recruit participants and an online survey to collect data. A total of 41 responses were included in the data analysis. The results showed that VIP Hosts …

Exploring The Airline Passengers’ Preferences Of Inflight Foods, Eun Min Hwang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To keep up with a rapidly expanding aviation industry, it is critical for airline marketers to incorporate most preferred service elements to enhance the passengers’ inflight experience. To attract the valued passengers, the current study focused on inflight foods and included the attributes that address the trends of healthy and environmentally sustainable foods. Usingconjoint value analysis, the study investigated the differences on participants’ preferences and importance of inflight food attributes with their demographic profiles and travel characteristics. The research found that health and taste attributes were found to be the greatest importance of inflight foods and suggested the optimal inflight …

An Examination Of The Role Of Online Reviews For Niche Restaurant Segments: Casino Buffet Restaurants, Tevfik Demirciftci

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation applied hygiene factor (two-factor theory) and rational choice theory to investigate the factors which influence satisfaction for iconic, niche casino buffet restaurants, determine if the factors that impact satisfaction also impact WTP in the same direction and with the same weight, and examine the relationship between those items mentioned in online reviews and WTP in a buffet setting. Two studies were conducted to discover the key attributes of the casino buffet restaurant. In the first study, a qualitative-text analysis-was made to discover satisfiers and dissatisfiers for casino buffet restaurants. In the second study, a quantitative analysis -conjoint analysis-was …

Organizational Symbolism And Employee Immersion, A Mixed Methods Investigation Of Organizational Socialization Efficacy In The Hotel Industry, Jeffrey Michael Yedlin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study delves into the theory of organizational socialization through a mixed methods exploratory explanatory design examining organizational symbolism and social capital to identify strategies to reduce new hire turnover in hospitality. Constructs within the study include role clarity, training, organizational and coworker support as well as future prospects. New literature was studied for developing theory. Seminal work on socialization by Van Maanen and Schein (1979), Feldman and March (1981), Jones (1986), and Taormina (1997), perceived organizational support from Eisenberger et al., (1986), self-efficacy from Bandura (1977), and organizational symbolism by Dandridge & Mitroff (1980) and Van Buskirk (1991) were …

Shattering The Glass: Will Gen Z Bring Us Closer To Gender Equality In Us Hospitality Leadership?, Denise Holly Ramirez Molintas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The continued underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions has impaired the hospitality industry’s capacity to achieve the fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality. Although the industry has initiated programs to establish gender parity, the innate gendering through traditional leadership prototypes and gender-role stratification requires investigation. Scholars have noted the limited focus on gender-aware issues in hospitality research. Further, as gender is a socialized construct, historical shifts in gender ideologies have enabled changes in gendering at the individual, interactional, and institutional dimensions of society. Grounded in gender as a social structure theory and role congruity theory, this dissertation …

How Consumers Assess Multiple Cues: The Role Of Dual Processing System On Hotel Booking Decisions, Eun Joo Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An online travel agency (OTA) is an important channel for hotels to generate new reservations. To make booking decisions, people collect and evaluate available information. Hotels try to provide effective information to persuade customers to book their hotel deals; however, not all information is manageable by the hotels. This research evaluates the effects of information on OTA websites with an approach based on the origins of the information. Depending on the origin, multiple cues can be categorized by two types, controllable and uncontrollable cues. A controllable cue is information that hotels can maintain, whereas an uncontrollable cue is not manageable …

Meal Duration: Implications For Restaurant Revenue Management, Dale F. Billings

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A comprehensive revenue management strategy addressing space, product, price and time, has been shown to increase profits within the hospitality sector. While the literature shows that the restaurant industry has frequently addressed space, product, and price when looking at financial strategy, the effect of the variable of time on revenue generation has not been adequately studied. Restaurants shy away from the practice of using time as a commodity, particularly regarding meal duration, due to fears of reducing customer satisfaction.

This project explores the use of time as a commodity in restaurant revenue management. In particular, it examines consumers’ feelings about …

Mental Accounting And Unplanned Purchases In Online Booking: The Role Of Discount, Impulse Buying, And Thinking Style, Esther L. Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To minimize the high cost of commissions of online travel agencies (OTA), the majority of hospitality operators provide member only exclusive rates to encourage consumers to book on their websites directly. However, the revenue cannot be maximized due to the amount of discount. This dissertation suggests that hospitality operators may maximize their profit with the adoption of surprise discount to increase consumers’ unplanned purchases. Applying the mental accounting principle, this dissertation examines how consumers respond to a surprise discount when they make unplanned purchases, such as purchasing add-on items online. This dissertation utilized three experiments in an online hotel booking …

The Effect Of The Minimum Server Wage On Restaurant Guest Tipping Behavior And Perceptions, Jason Tang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Restaurant server income is predominantly composed of tips received from guests and the minimum server wage received from restaurants. Grounded in equity theory, this dissertation investigated the effect of the minimum server wage, in combination with established antecedents of voluntary tipping, on tipping rate and examined guest perceptions of fairness of the minimum server wage and three prevalent tipping policies (voluntary tipping, automatic service charge, and service inclusive pricing). Two experiments were conducted, a 2 (minimum server wage) x 2 (service quality) experimental design, and a 2 (minimum server wage) x 3 (tipping policy) experimental design. The results revealed that …

The Relationship Between Motivation To Use Airbnb And Guests’ Repurchase Intention: Moderating Effect Of Consideration Set, Wen Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the rise of the peer-to-peer sharing economy, Airbnb has become the leading platform as an online marketplace that allows homeowners to contract short-term leases or rents to tourists. It has expanded rapidly around the globe. This study comprehensively reviews previous literature with respect to the marketing of Airbnb. The study then summarized and categorized 12 motivators linked as causative agents for guests choosing Airbnb. Using the push-pull theory, along with research on the consideration set, this study examines the relationships between Airbnb motivators and guests’ repurchase intention. This study further examines how the consideration set moderates these relationships.

Seventy-eight …

Examining The Role Of Business Intelligence And Analytics In Hospitality Revenue Management, Anna I. Kharitonova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Most hospitality revenue management forecasting systems were built prior to the business intelligence and analytics movement. Only recently these systems have been enhanced to offer contemporary business intelligence and analytics functionalities. In addition, revenue management professionals are receiving support from standalone, supplementary business intelligence and analytics platforms. The purpose of this dissertation was to produce a holistic review of and establish the role of business intelligence and analytics within hospitality revenue management. Data was collected from twenty-three interviews; all participants were employed by hospitality organizations in revenue management specific positions. Grounded theory methodology was utilized. The results show that nearly …

Using Design Science Research To Develop A Conceptual Solution For Improving Knowledge Sharing In A Virtual Workspace, Lata Koneru

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Enhancements in technology have resulted in significant changes to day-to-day operations of organizations in the present day. One especially noteworthy change is the alteration in the nature of teams from being co-located, with face-to-face interaction, to virtual, with the involvement of information and communication technologies (ICT) to facilitate communication. This change in team character has had a downstream impact on a key element of an organization’s competitive edge, namely knowledge.

Overall, there is consensus that knowledge is a crucial facet of the competitive edge of an organization. Consequently, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, and organizational learning are essential components of an …

An Examination Of Perceived Leadership Behaviors And Employee Engagement In The Us Federal Government: An Exploratory Study, Jason Barker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Leadership can exist in any organization or entity. It has been studied extensively and examined comprehensively. There have been various theories of what type of leadership is ideal or suitable for a group or organization. From transformational to transactional leadership, leadership styles exist that can contribute to organizations and the style they employ. Employee engagement can be based on either or both transformational and transactional leadership factors. Transformational leadership behaviors generally show an increase in employee engagement. Employee engagement has an association with job satisfaction and leadership perception. Leadership styles will be defined, in addition to factors in the employee’ …

Managing Data-Driven Change: A Model Of Unintended Deviation, Sang-Mun Ray Cho

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Data-driven change in hospitality gaming is desirable because of the opportunities to leverage untapped sources of rich and abundant marketing data. However, change has been difficult to implement as indicated by a lack of widespread adoption. Some have attributed these difficulties to cultural, structural, and other generic factors but these explanations fail to explain the root dynamics of data-driven change.

In this dissertation, it is theorized that data-driven change requires a particular form of social interaction, which are called analytical bonds (AB). The suggestion was that there is a sender of an analytic deliverable and a receiver that makes a …

Measuring Implementation Success Of Pay Structures And The Role Of Human Resources In Higher Education, Derek Spencer Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to determine if a new salary structure initiative for university staff employees would reduce variance in pay. The initiative was purposed to identify and describe the appropriate components of a pay plan that could be established by an HR unit in higher education. The treatment was tested with a quasi-experimental design using a before/after approach with classified personnel at a Midwestern university. The treatment was the implementation of the new pay plan. The final tool created was named the Pay Structure

Initiative (PSI). The analysis showed that variance in pay was reduced after the …

A Cross-Cultural Investigation Of The Relationship Between Customer Demographics And Hotel Room Price Perception, Jinhua Hong

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this paper, the researcher explored the significant effect of multiple demographics, age, gender, marital status, and culture, on a customer’s perception of hotel room prices. The customer’s perception of hotel room rates was assessed by three variations, perceived value, perceived fairness, and willingness to pay. Descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and ANOVA were applied in this study. The results demonstrated that age, gender, and marital status had a significant impact on a customer’s perceived value; age, gender, and culture significantly influenced a customer’s perception of fairness; yet, none of these demographics had a significant impact on a customer’s willingness to pay. …

Hearts And Minds: An Analysis Of Checks And Safeguards, Monitoring, And Performance Review Of Executive Boards And Their Executive Directors Within Select Nonprofit Corporations., John Michael Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Horror stories of ineffective nonprofit organization management arise in the media far too often. When these stories emerge, the public demands accountability from those responsible. Ultimately, accountability rests with the fiduciaries of the organization. For nonprofit

organizations in the United States, fiduciary responsibility and accountability reside with the board of directors.

Board governance has been widely studied in the for-profit sector. Due to the critical nature of the work nonprofits perform, there has been an increasing effort to study board governance in nonprofit organizations. Employing in depth interviews, with both executive

directors and board members, checks and safeguards such as …

The Impact Of Supportive Parenting On Career Confidence Of Young Adults, Salma Ettefagh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Despite freedoms for women in modern economies, there remains a large disparity between female graduation rates and women achieving high-ranking positions in the business world. Confidence may be one factor why women are underrepresented in the executive class.This

exploratory research investigated if supportive parenting has an effect on self-reported career confidence among undergraduates. A quantitative ANOVA analysis found that instrumental support factors (for example, money and tuition) overall were significant in predicting performance-based confidence, particularly for males. However, qualitative results showed that supportive parenting and confidence are not always correlated.

Value Co-Creation Propositions: A Self-Determination Theory Of Customer Acceptance, Trust And Wellbeing, Lenna V. Shulga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the emergence of shared business models, hospitality and tourism consumers are faced with the decision to accept value propositions from various service providers, including traditional, collaborative and shared. Grounded in service-dominant logic, theory of acceptance, theory of value, self-determination theory and generational theory, this dissertation examines why consumers accept value propositions from service providers and what drives customers to collaborate with front-line employees. The research uses three studies that utilized a destination resort context with a mixed factorial equal cells experimental design. Study 1 utilized a 3 (generations) x 3 (business models) x 4 (value propositions) factorial between-within subjects …

Volunteer Management In Faith-Based Organizations, Cheryl Regina Coleman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) rely heavily on volunteers to carry out their mission, making volunteer labor fundamental to an organization’s business operations and outcomes. A review of the literature revealed a significant gap in managing volunteers effectively in a nonprofit, faith- based setting. The standard business management practices typically employed when managing volunteers lack effectiveness in nonprofit FBO environments. Employing for-profit management practices to managing volunteer labor in nonprofit settings is especially challenging given the uniqueness of nonprofit organizations that rely on volunteer over paid labor. Challenges include the organization’s values, mission, identity, social goals, outcomes, and ideological characteristics. The purpose …

The Effects Of Availability Heuristic Cues On Restaurant Purchase Decisions, Nadia Hanin Nazlan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation applied the theory of judgment heuristics to investigate the influence of availability cues on restaurant purchase decisions. Two studies were conducted in which respondents made food choice decisions. In the first study, respondents evaluated menu items in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design that manipulated scarcity cues, bundling, and price. In the second study, respondents evaluated restaurant appeal and menu choice in a 3 × 2 × 2 experiment that manipulated information vividness, message frequency, and price. The results of Study 1 suggest that respondents’ evaluations and purchase intentions can be influenced by scarcity …