A NETNOGRAPHY EXAMINATION OF TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS: A CASE STUDY OF THE ST REGIS HOTEL KUALA LUMPUR

There has been a growing reliance on consumer generated content as a source of knowledge for hospitality product decision-making. People post their views, ratings, and reviews of products and services on such platforms, and companies and research organizations are interested in analyzing and extracting all of the comments. It is critical for hotels to take advantage of online customer review information in order to better understand their customers and enhance hotel efficiency. However, analyzing guest reviews is challenging as it contains abundance of data. Using The St Regis Kuala Lumpur as a case study, the objective of the paper is to profile the hotel online reviews using a Netnography approach, identify the hotel attributes that guest comment based on the hotel online reviews and examine the guest satisfaction attitude based on the hotel online reviews. A total of 388 reviews from TripAdvisor were collected. The findings revealed that most of the hotel guests who left comments were international tourists, and couples. Many of whom left excellent ratings for the hotel. The findings show there are nine attributes that are frequently mentioned namely, amenities, location, price, service, cleanliness, food and beverages, hotel and room environment. The results also show that guests left both positive and negative reviews in few common categories such as hotel cleanliness, hotel environment and amenities. Among all the attributes mentioned, satisfied guests tended to leave positive comments for things like hotel cleanliness, hotel and room environment, while dissatisfied guests emphasised the amenities or the lack thereof. The findings of this study make several theoretical and managerial inferences with regards to identifying hotel attributes that contribute to guest satisfaction and improves the understanding of what satisfies and dissatisfies guests from the comments left by the guests on TripAdvisor. The paper concludes with limitations and suggests future research.

Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process and Weighted Product Methods in Determining the Best Employees

<p><strong>A</strong><strong>bstract</strong><strong>.</strong> Employees are one of the company's assets that must be managed properly. Therefore the selection of the best employees is now needed. The problem faced in determining the best and qualified employees is that there are still no standards in assessing only one person subjectively in determining the best employee, which consequently lacks appropriate or objective results. To provide rewards for the best employees, we need a system to support the decisions of the best employees who deserve to receive rewards to be on target. The purpose of this research is to design and build a decision support system application in determining the best employees using the analytic hierarchy process and weighted product methods. Stages of software development of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) uses a waterfall, that is data analysis, system design, construction, coding, testing and implementation. The results of this process are in the form of calculation applications that have been obtained from the analytic hierarchy process and weighted product methods in determining the best employee. The result gives an accuracy rate of 82.3%.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong><strong>: </strong>analytic hierarchy process, weighted product, decision support system, employees</p>

Impact of the new middle class on consumer behavior: a case study of Delhi-NCR

PurposeThe paper examines the increase in annual income of the new middle-class (The NMC) of Delhi-NCR and its impact on their investment habits, consumption habits and lifestyle. The paper aims to look into the transformation of the new middle-class into the NMC in emerging economies and its potential to the companies and investors.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws insight from 558 new middle-class consumers in Delhi-NCR. ANOVA, post hoc tests , and hierarchical multiple linear regression model are applied to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe NMC living in India's megacities imitates the lifestyle of their counterparts living in the West. To maintain their status and present themselves different from those living in middle or lower-middle-class categories, they spend audaciously, even though the income is low. When they enter the new middle class, their consumption, saving and lifestyle diversify positively.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has limitations. First, the authors do not apply any behavioral theory or marketing model such as the theory of reasoned action (TRA), Engel-kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model or theory of normative model of target markets. Second, the research is limited to the NMC of only one emerging economy, i.e., India. Third, the research sample is limited to only one megacity of India, i.e., Delhi. Finally, this research used only one factor, i.e., AI, to study the consumption pattern.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that considering the buying habits and lifestyle of Indian the NMC, consumers would prove helpful to the companies in product decision-making. Furthermore, understanding change in investment habits across different income levels would be advantageous to financial institutions, investment planners and marketers while designing their products to attract investment.Originality/valueThe research holds significance from the point of view of understanding Indian consumers encompassing the the NMC and predicting their implications on consumer goods-producing industries, which shall, in turn, facilitate producers and government in formulating policies and strategies.

Studi Pemasaran Jasa Pendidikan: Faktor-Faktor yang Memengaruhi Mahasiswa Memilih Program Studi Baru

Instititut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Lhokseumawe is the only Islamic education campus in Lhokseumawe city, which one of its faculties is the Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, consisting of Sharia banking and Sharia Accounting study programs. This research tries to determine factors influencing the students' decision to choose the new study program in the Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, IAIN Lhokseumawe. This research used analysis factor methods using SPSS. The study samples are Sharia banking and Sharia Accounting students. The research results explained that the investigated two-factor groups: the first-factor group includes the place, process, physical evidence, price, product, decision, and economy. The second-factor group includes positive issues and promotion. The positive issue factor is the highest and dominated the students' decision to choose the study programs. The following factors included place, process, physical evidence, price, product, promotion, decision, and economy. Thus, there is no difference between factor 1 and factor 2 variables influencing the students' decision when choosing the departments. This research is limited to two study programs in an Islamic higher education institution. Future research can involve students' parents and compare with other study programs using other research methods to get a complete picture to deepen the factors influencing students to choose a new study program.