Managing service innovations at online travel agencies: evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Mu ◽  
Bart Bossink ◽  
Tsvi Vinig ◽  
Suchuan You
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Innovation Management ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agencies

Purpose Research on service innovation management of online travel agencies (OTAs) remains relatively scarce. This study aims to illuminate the detailed components of managing service innovations at OTAs. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study is conducted at Trip, the largest OTA in China. A coherent framework of managing service innovations at OTAs is proposed through refining an existing framework from new service development (NSD), and concerning the success factors of service innovation. Based on theoretical synthesis and empirical analysis, the NSD framework is adapted, restructured and refined for service innovation management at OTAs. Findings The proposed framework contains three facets and associated managerial elements: (1) resources, including stakeholders, technologies and systems; (2) contexts, including innovation strategy, structure and culture; and (3) ideation, including idea generation and idea application. Different success factors are attached to the managerial elements. The facets, managerial elements and success factors serve as the components in the framework. Research limitations/implications This study provides academia with an analytical framework to understand and interpret service innovation management at OTAs, which can be used as a point of departure for future research. Practical implications The analytical framework inspires OTA managers to adopt a structured approach in service innovation management, and policymakers to design related interventions. Originality/value This study offers a first step toward the investigation of service innovation management at OTAs, specifically in China. The proposed framework is potentially applicable to other industries.

scholarly journals Social media promotions and travelers’ value-creating behaviors: the role of perceived support

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 633-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis V. Casaló ◽  
Jaime Romero
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Perceived Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agencies ◽  
Monetary Promotions

Purpose Encouraging travelers to create value that benefits firms is of great relevance for companies that operate in online contexts. The purpose of this study is to investigate, focusing on online travel agencies, how monetary promotions (i.e. economic incentives) and non-monetary promotions (i.e. draws and contests) conducted through social media enhance customers’ voluntary behaviors (i.e. suggestions, word of mouth, and social media interactions) that go beyond brand choice, which may provide benefit to firms. Design/methodology/approach The research model draws on the social exchange theory, equity theory and the concept of perceived support – how customers perceive that companies care about their well-being. The authors collect information from 491 users of online travel agencies in Spain and test their hypotheses using partial least squares. They also evaluate the existence of indirect effects. Findings Promotions developed by companies make customers more likely to perform, voluntarily, the helping behaviors of suggestions, word of mouth and social media interactions, through the influence of perceived support. Research limitations/implications Use of a single survey to collect measures and restriction of the sample to Spanish-speaking travelers suggests caution in generalizing the results. Future research could investigate other company-initiated actions and other value-creating behaviors of travelers. Practical implications Promotions help develop perceived support for customers, which leads to voluntary, valuable traveler behaviors. Promotions may be also sufficient to trigger some customer behaviors, such as word-of-mouth. Originality/value Based on the social exchange and equity theories, this paper investigates the influence of social media promotions on customers’ voluntary behaviors via perceived support.

Room with a view: how hedonic and utilitarian choice options of online travel agencies affect consumers’ booking intentions

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Scholl-Grissemann ◽  
Benedikt Schnurr
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Shopping Behavior ◽  
Factorial Experimental Design ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Booking Intentions ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agencies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how hedonic and utilitarian choice options of online travel agencies (OTAs) affect consumers’ process enjoyment and booking intentions. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply a one-factorial experimental design. The stimuli consisted of screenshots of the fictitious OTA “www.my-holiday.com”. Participants were told to imagine they were planning a city trip to San Francisco and that, during an internet search, they came across a new OTA called “www.my-holiday.com”. Findings The authors find that both booking intentions and process enjoyment are higher for hedonic OTAs, i.e. OTAs which offer more hedonic choice options such as entertainment and spa. The authors conclude that these toolkits strongly relate to pleasurable experiences and positive emotions. Therefore, these options drive positive affective reactions in terms of process enjoyment, which subsequently affect booking intentions. Additionally, the authors find that preference insight positively affects consumers’ booking intention as the number of choices provided by the OTA increases. Originality/value This paper contributes to tourism research on online travel shopping behavior. The authors apply knowledge from research on online customization tools to an OTA context and show that hedonic and functional choice options of OTAs significantly reflect on consumer behavior.

scholarly journals Hotels that most rely on Booking.com – online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotel distribution channels

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Martin-Fuentes ◽  
Juan Pedro Mellinas
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Independent Hotels ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Simple Ratio ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agencies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to know which hotels mostly rely on Booking.com, investigating the level of presence on Booking.com around the world by country, hotel size, hotel category and managerial form. Neither the company nor the hotels provide this information, so the authors use the number of reviews as an indicator of estimated sales. Design/methodology/approach Data from 33,996 hotels worldwide are downloaded from Booking.com using a Web browser automatically controlled, developed in Python, that simulated a user navigation (clicks and selections). The comparison between independent hotels and hotels belonging to a chain is performed by a Student’s t distribution test and the comparison of hotel categories and hotel size is analyzed by a one-way ANOVA test. Findings The results show that three factors clearly influence the usage level of Booking.com: independent vs chain hotels, small vs large hotels and low vs high category hotels worldwide. The authors also observe that hotels from Europe are the ones that rely more on Booking.com. Originality/value The originality of this research is to identify the factors that make hotels to have a greater (lesser) dependence on Booking.com within each destination and geographical area. Moreover, the use of big data from hotels worldwide allows the authors to know the level of use of Booking.com in dozens of countries, especially those with the highest tourist activity. This work expands the capabilities of big data in the hospitality industry research, and with a simple ratio, this study counteracts the lack of public data on hotel sales through Booking.com. This new approach could be extended to the analysis of other online travel agencies (OTAs), which use similar review systems.

Social media and new services: how a consulting firm leveraged LinkedIn

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Benedic
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Media Network

Purpose This paper aims to explore how social media can be used strategically for delivering new services in a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) context. Design/methodology/approach Single case study: CONSULT+ (pseudonym), a consulting firm specialized in change management. Consultants use a social media network to develop their new services. Findings To take on the challenges of heightened competition, CONSULT+ has created thematic business units to encourage new service development. This research explored strategies, practices and benefits associated of using social media network by intrapreneurs at all levels of new service idea trajectory (idea generation, elaboration, championing and implementation). Research limitations/implications The research is based on a single case study. Further research should be conducted to establish the generalization of the results. Practical implications This paper highlights the key success factors in making such an approach successful: raising awareness of the benefits of using social media; analysing of complementarities of tools; accompanying the development of advanced practices; capturing the valuable potential for the organization and avoiding negative effects of individual practices. Originality/value The research provides a unique approach that can be practically implemented within knowledge-intensive SMEs to leverage social media network to deliver new services (best practices and insights for managerial support schemes).

Service innovation process digitization: areas for exploitation and exploration

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fotis Kitsios ◽  
Maria Kamariotou
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Service Projects ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the dominant role which technology plays in the new service development (NSD) process and indicate the critical success factors that managers should have in mind during the implementation of service projects, as well as the extent to which NSD lead to technological investments. Design/methodology/approach Studies were identified using a three-phased literature review methodology, which was suggested by Webster and Watson (2002). A total of 144 papers have been categorized and analyzed based on their content. Findings The findings of this paper indicate that information technology (IT) is a critical factor for the success of new services, but managers ignore its benefits. It could be used during the development process, to support managers to produce innovative services. Practical implications This study provides practical implications for IT managers, to increase the success rate of service innovation. The understanding of the effect of technology on firm performance can help managers to use technology to increase firms’ performance and provide an opportunity for organizations to benchmark their own processes of service innovation technology with their competitors. Originality/value This paper may be of interest to academics who are already studying service innovation or NSD-related scientific areas or researchers who have been introduced to the field but they are interested in examining more specific insights into where current research topics in this literature can be located and how they may contribute to them.

Does interest alignment between hotels and online travel agencies intensify review manipulations?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Chen ◽  
Tianwei Tang ◽  
Yongjian Li ◽  
Di Fan
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Travel Agency ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Interest Alignment ◽  
Customer Trust ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agency ◽  
Online Travel Agencies

PurposeThis study examines whether a higher interest alignment between online travel agencies (OTAs; hosting platform) and hotels (business owners) will intensify review manipulation activities.Design/methodology/approachWith a panel data set collected from a Chinese online travel agency and a travel search engine, the authors develop a matching-based difference-indifference approach to examine the presence of partnership-intensified review manipulation.FindingsThe authors find that the ratings of agency's partner hotels (with a higher interest alignment) are abnormally higher than those of matched non-partner hotels (with a lower interest alignment), after they are benchmarked with their ratings on the search engine (without a partnership business model). Further, the analysis results indicate that this partnership-intensified manipulation deteriorates the hotel's sales performance because of damaged customer trust and satisfaction.Originality/valuePrevious studies implicitly assume that review manipulator is independent from the hosting platform. This is the first study examining the role of the hosting platform in review manipulations.

scholarly journals What makes you continuously use chatbot services? Evidence from chinese online travel agencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Li ◽  
Kyung Young Lee ◽  
Emmanuel Emokpae ◽  
Sung-Byung Yang
Keyword(s):  
Travel Agencies ◽  
Online Travel ◽  
Online Travel Agencies

Service innovation management in a modern economy: Insights on the interplay between firms’ innovative culture and project-level success factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 120562
Author(s):  
María Leticia Santos-Vijande ◽  
Jose Ángel López-Sánchez ◽  
Primitiva Pascual-Fernández ◽  
John M. Rudd
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Innovation Management ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
Innovative Culture ◽  
Project Level

Twiga Hosting Ltd – providing affordable information and communication technologies services to small and medium enterprises

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Juma James Masele
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Innovation Management ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Medium Enterprises

TitleTwiga Hosting Ltd – providing affordable information and communication technologies services to small and medium enterprises.Subject areaThe case describes the launch of Twiga Hosting Ltd, a company providing information and communication technology (ICT) services to the underserved small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Tanzania and in a many countries in Africa.Study level/applicabilityThis case targets a range of audience from undergraduate students taking both Bachelor of Commerce and those taking Bachelor of Business Administration; and Postgraduate students taking business‐related courses. Nonetheless, the case may be used by all other learners of advanced studies in entrepreneurship and innovation management.Case overviewThe case addresses a number of issues including: Issues to be considered when starting an ICT enterprise. Strategic management. Business revenue models.Expected learning outcomes To impart/inculcate entrepreneurial insights in ICT and related areas. To make learners aware of the business growth opportunities in ICT ventures. The success factors for fruitful ICT ventures. To enable learners to identify challenges facing entrepreneurs in ICT ventures and the ways to overcome them.Supplementary materialsTeaching notes.

scholarly journals Designing for the satisfaction of high-level needs

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 639-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petter Stenmark ◽  
Johan Lilja
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
New Product ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Creation ◽  
High Level ◽  
Satisfaction Surveys

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a methodology that can support the process of understanding and designing for the satisfaction of high-level needs in practice. The satisfaction of high-level needs has seldom been in focus when it comes to customer satisfaction surveys or the process of new product or service development. However, needs do occur on various levels, and the satisfaction of high-level needs actually appears to have the greatest potential for the creation of loyalty among customers and customer satisfaction. The satisfaction of high-level needs has furthermore been pointed out as a strategy for the creation of attractive quality. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on literature studies and the application of the Ideation Need Mapping (INM) methodology in a specific case. Findings – The paper presents the INM methodology that could be used for guiding product and service innovation in practice. More specifically, the methodology supports the process of understanding and designing for the satisfaction of high-level needs. Originality/value – This paper aims to contribute to envisioning and demonstrating how the understanding of, and design for, satisfaction of high-level needs can be done in practice.

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