Business Commons^™

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 Impact Of Virtual Presence On Willingness To Book: The Moderating Role Of Self-Construal And Gender, Sung Jun Joe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Social influence is not limited only to interactive situations but also includes those that occur without a direct interaction such as the mere presence of others (Argo, Dahl, & Manchanda, 2005). Although there is wide agreement that the mere presence of others influences one’s decision-making process, little research is conducted to understand whether the effect of the presence of others influences consumer behaviors in an online context (Naylor, Lamberton, & West, 2012). To address this gap, this study suggests that mere virtual presence (MVP) provides social cues to the customer and influences the customer’s willingness to book (WTB). Specifically, the …

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 …

Building A Music Festival: Understanding Media Industry Lore, Madeline Edgmon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music festivals have become culturally salient within the new age of consumer participatory culture. Festivals fundamentally warrant a rite of passage by providing consumers a unique, all-encompassing experience. This critical media industry study examines the music festival industry and its’ usage of lore as industry held logics based off of perceptions of consumer wants and desires that calcify within the industry (Havens and Lotz, 2012). I contend three substantial and emergent lore in the music festival industry identified include millennials, experience economy, and prosumer culture. In addition, this thesis explores industry lore as various textual representations across social and physical …

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 …

Social Media Influencer Endorsement And Events: An Integrated Framework Of Congruence, Jie Sun

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In today’s digital world, marketing practitioners have increasingly started to reach out to their audiences by integrating social media influencer (SMI) into their marketing plans. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the factors influencing SMI endorsement effectiveness in the context of event. Based on relevant theories (congruity theory, match-up hypothesis model, self-congruity theory, and vicarious self-perception) and a thorough review of existing literature in the SMI endorsement, the present study developed an integrative research model which included follower’s prior attitude toward SMI, attitude toward the event, pass-on behavior intention, event participation intention, SMI-event congruence, event-follower congruence, and SMI-followers …

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. …

Examination Of Mental Health And Family Relationship In Collegiate Athletes, Julia Hussey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Athletes at the collegiate level frequently experience unique stressors that cause them to be at risk for a number of mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, and substance use. Current research in the field suggests that athletes are not as likely as their non-athlete peers to seek out psychological services for mental health difficulties. Social supports have been shown to impact athletes’ mental health and sport performance. Specifically, family relationships appear to have an influence on athletes’ level of stress and motivation, with positive family relationships showing decreases in athletes’ worry as well as faster recovery following injury. Surprisingly, there …

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 “Singapore Model” In Gaming: Applications In South Korea, Young Gi Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The gaming governance system in Singapore is a very well-known and internationally renowned model. Singapore began to launch their gaming regulation system in 2005 by establishing a national framework on gambling prior to opening two integrated resorts in the country in 2010 (Winslow, Cheok, & Subramaniam, 2015). In contrast, the South Korean “model” is much less renowned. Though there have been discussions about introducing full-scale integrated resorts, the government currently allows South Korean citizens to gamble in only one property - Kangwon Land (Research, 2016). However, Kangwon Land’s situation is controversial in South Korea, with concerns about problem gambling issues …

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.

Impact Of Ingredient Branding On The Hotel Brand: Spillover Effect Of Branded Amenities, Eun Joo Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ingredient branding is a popular marketing strategy, in which a brand uses a different branded product as a component in the main one. Utilizing ingredient branding, a host brand can benefit from the positive evaluation of a component brand that customers are already aware of. Although the hotel industry has applied a substantial number of other brands as internal factors, there has been little awareness or research on ingredient branding. The main purpose of the study was to investigate 1) whether ingredient branding has a positive impact on a hotel brand equity and 2) whether the effect varies for different …

Consumer Attitudes And Purchase Intentions Of Cruises In China, Wenjia Han

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the impact of consumers’ attitudes towards cruises on their purchase intention of cruises. A sample of 229 past outbound travelers in China were surveyed via an online self-administered survey sent by a Chinese online survey platform named ’So Jump’. The survey used a two-part statement evaluation format to measure cruise purchase intentions and the factors that impact the intentions. Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement, the important of the sub-factors, and the likelihood to participate in certain activities on a seven-point Likert scale. Use the theory of planned behavior as the base, the three …

Numerical Methods For Option Pricing Under The Two-Factor Models, Jiacheng Cai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Pricing options under multi-factor models are challenging and important problems for financial applications. In particular, the closed form solutions are not available for the American options and some European options, and the correlations between factors increase the complexity and difficulty for the formulations and implements of the numerical methods.

In this dissertation, we first introduce a general transformation to decouple correlated stochastic processes governed by a system of stochastic differential equations. Then we apply the transformation to the popular two-factor models: the two-asset model, the stochastic volatility model, and the stochastic interest rate models. Based on our new formulations, we …

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 …

Influence Of Sustainability Reward Program On Meeting Planners’ Site Selection Decision And Perceived Value-For-Money, Shinyong (Shawn) Jung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many types of voluntary sustainable programs have been integrated into the hospitality industry standards and been examined to measure their effectiveness by research firms and institutions (Giebelhausen & Chun, 2016). However, there is a lack of research examining how the benefits received by participating in green meetings influence perceptions and behavioral intentions on environmentally sustainable meetings. Consequently, this research investigates how incentivizing tools such as incorporating sustainability reward points for choosing sustainable venues and participating in environmental programs can affect planners’ perceived value for money and site-selection intention. The results of the three-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) did …

Examining The Decoy And The Phantom Decoy Effects On The Menu Item Choice, Yang-Su Chen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the modern foodservice industry, restaurant potential customers encounter a vast quantity of information that influences their dining choices. Using theoretical foundations of traditional asymmetrical-dominating decoy and phantom decoy effects, this dissertation empirically tested a variety of decoy and phantom decoy items applied to a menu and investigated whether these effects increase the attractiveness of the target item and further increase customers’ likelihood of choosing the target item, as well as their post-choice assessments. Two separate experimental designs that manipulated different decoy and phantom decoy conditions and customers’ familiarity with the food items were conducted.

The results of study 1 …

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 …

Is There A Link Between Fantasy Sports Players And Sports Bettors?, Wayman Wittman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper will explore the consumer base playing fantasy sports and comparing it with the consumer base that is currently betting on sports. According to the Fantasy Sport Trade Association, (FSTA), there are an estimated 41 million people that actively participate in fantasy sports in the United States of America and Canada (Dwyer, Achen & Lupninek, 2016). The FSTA also estimated that $1 billion was spend directly on fantasy products with an additional $4 billion spent on related services such as media (Dwyer, et al., 2016). If there is a link between playing fantasy sports and sports betting, then being …

Impacts Of Wechat On Millennials’ Perceptions And Consumption Behaviors In The Hotel Industry, Mengqi Cai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Social media, known as interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications, has deeply changed and reformed interpersonal communication and business operation with the wide spread of Internet and the development of technology. In the past few years, since mobile apps are becoming more and more popular, the access of social media is not limited to tablet computers only, but is also available for almost all kinds of smart phone devices, such as iPhone, Android, Symbian and so on. The function of social media is not confined to real- time message transmission or information sharing any more. It has expanded to a widely …