bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rational Resignations
Authors: CAMERON MAXWELL A.
Published: March 2007

Under what conditions is the threat of resignation a powerful bargaining instrument? This article draws on the theory of games to show how the ranking of actor preferences and the assignment of rules concerning the decision-making process to strategic interaction can generate games that allow us to explain bargaining outcomes. A major limitation of game theory, however, is that it assumes all actors are equally motivated to play. A model is developed to show how actors may try to influence other actors' perceptions of their willingness to play in order to extract concessions. The model is applied in two distinct national settings: (a) the resignation of Mario Vargas Llosa from the Peruvian Democratic Front in an effort to force his coalition partners to bow to his demands or accept the division of the coalition and (b) the resignation of Philippine politician Salvador Laurel from the Aquino coalition in order to overcome the resistance of Aquino's allies to the predominance of his party within the anti-Marcos coalition. These events, and the bargaining that followed them, shared a common strategic logic. In both cases carefully reasoned resignations were withdrawn, and the respective coalitions consolidated, once initial demands were met.
Political Implications of Increasing Numbers of Women in the Labor Force
Authors: TOGEBY LISE
Published: March 2007

Political scientists generally agree that women's behavior is strongly affected by their growing labor market participation. But how will political life be affected when practically all women in a society work outside the home? Five hypotheses are formulated in this article and tested on data from Denmark: (a) The political involvement and participation of women will increase and reach the level of men's; (b) women will become more feminist, demanding greater gender equality and greater emphasis on reproductive values; (c) women will move to the left on almost all political issues; (d) the political dominance of men over women in the family will disappear; and (e) political resources as well as situational factors will influence men and women in the same way.
Community Versus Market
Authors: FARMER AMY , BATES ROBERT H.
Published: March 2007

Given the nature of developing societies, the study of developmental politics becomes, in important respects, the study of rural politics. Moral economists link agrarian institutions to rural values and thereby account for the revolutionary behavior of peasants. This article presents and critiques their arguments, showing where they are wrong—and where right. In so doing, the authors substantially modify earlier criticisms, including some by the authors themselves.
Electoral System Effects on Women's Representation
Authors: MATLAND RICHARD E. , TAYLOR MICHELLE M.
Published: March 2007

This study considers the effects of electoral system structure on women's representation in national legislatures. Research done in Western Europe finds women's representation is positively affected by party magnitude; tests for similar effects in Costa Rica are done and confirm this hypothesis. The effects of electoral thresholds are also considered. The Costa Rican electoral threshold increases disproportionality and enhances the likelihood of producing parliamentary majorities, as expected. Moving beyond these traditional findings, the threshold also has a positive effect on the descriptive representativeness of the legislature by increasing party magnitudes and thereby increasing the representation of women. The study ends by suggesting the electoral studies field needs to expand its evaluation criteria to not only consider representativeness in terms of reflecting party support, but also consider representativeness in terms of accurately mirroring society at large, that is, descriptive representation.
Politics and Society
Authors: ZUCKERMAN ALAN S. , KOTLER-BERKOWITZ LAURENCE A.
Published: March 2007

The authors resolve a theoretical puzzle that characterizes the political preferences of members of social groups by (a) demonstrating that political homogeneity is a variable to be explained, (b) detailing how political discussions and shared attachments to political parties strongly influence its probability and arguing that political uniformity requires reinforcement and negotiation, (c) noting that the relatively low levels of shared policy preferences and political values are hardly influenced by any of the explanatory variables offered, and (d) presenting an alternative set of principles that accounts for these sometimes coherent and sometimes incoherent patterns. Finally, the authors address general themes in political analysis: the formation of political cultures and the relationship between theory and evidence in political science, themes at the heart of Harry Eckstein's contributions to theory in political science.
When in Doubt, Use Proxies
Authors: ANDERSON CHRISTOPHER J.
Published: March 2007

This article argues that citizens employ proxies rooted in attitudes about domestic politics when responding to survey questions about the European integration process. It develops a model of public opinion toward European integration based on attitudes toward the political system, the incumbent government, and establishment parties. With the help of data from Eurobarometer 34.0, the study tests political and economic models of public support for membership in the European Union in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. The analyses show that system and establishment party support are the most powerful determinants of support for membership in the European Union. The results also suggest that the relationship between economic factors and support previously reported in research on public opinion toward European integration is likely to be mediated by domestic political attitudes.
Who Gets Legislation Passed in a Marginal Legislature and is the Label Marginal Legislature Still Appropriate?
Authors: TAYLOR-ROBINSON MICHELLE M.
Published: March 2007

This article explores who gets legislation passed in a marginal legislature and what types of legislation it is? Mezey defines a marginal legislature as one with modest policy-making power and little support from political elites. The assumption in Latin American politics is that assemblies are marginal, rubber stamps for the executive. The case of the Honduran Congress is used to empirically test these assumptions. As expected, the executive sponsors most of the bills that become law. However, deputies also sponsor significant numbers of national-level bills and laws. In addition, deputies do not pass much particularistic and local-level legislation that could enhance their local patron status. These findings call into question the continued utility of Mezey's typology of legislatures given the new realities of the third wave of democracy. A new method of classifying legislatures is proposed based on the incentives that deputies have to act independent of the executive.
Conceptualizing Security Governance
Authors: KRAHMANN ELKE
Published: March 2007

This article examines the changing transatlantic security architecture since the end of the Cold War. It argues that the absence of a unifying military threat and the subsequent broadening of the notion of security from states to societies has led to the increasing differentiation of security policy arrangements since the beginning of the 1990s. Not only have international institutions proliferated since the end of bipolarity, private actors — such as non-governmental organizations and private security companies — have gained considerable influence. Since these features are not fully grasped by traditional models in security studies, the article suggests that a new theoretical perspective might be required if we are to understand the emerging security system. It proposes that such a perspective can be based on the concept of `security governance', which describes the development from the centralized security system of the Cold War era to the increasingly fragmented and complex security structures of today.
Finland and the European Community: Changing Elite Bargains
Authors: VÄYRYNEN RAIMO
Published: March 2007

The Finnish integration policy has been conditioned by the elite bargain struck in the European Community on the Single European Act which crystallized a compromise between market-oriented reforms and intergovernmental institutionalism. A similar political development has occurred in Finland where the elite bargain has included the application for EC membership. The move towards the EC has been facilitated by the changes in the Soviet and Russian policies, which have become less of a constraint on Finland's choices. The elite bargain in Finland has been rather loose and informal, partly because in the late 1980s the industry used the exit option by investing heavily in Western Europe. That is why it has needed little voice to convince the political leadership which has shifted to support the EC membership under internal and external influences.
Experience-based Travel
Authors: Olsen Michael D. , Connolly Daniel J.
Published: March 2007

Two broad-based think tanks, sponsored by the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), examined the future of information technology in the hospitality industry. A chief theme emerging from the think tanks is that the successful hospitality purveyor of the future will be the one that can use technology to meet the customer's needs on the customer's terms. That means supplying disparate information relating to the customer's travel desires and being able to do so instantaneously—whenever the guest decides to make the inquiry. While hospitality firms will not be able to count on blind loyalty, they will be able to use technology to learn enough about their customers to continually meet their changing needs and desires. Since customers will be able to find nearly any kind of information via the internet, intermediaries will need to develop ways of packaging information to make it more valuable to customers. Likewise, destination-based companies will have to assemble a portfolio of potential experiences and match those to the experiences desired by a customer. All of this will require not only technology, but excellently trained employees who know how to use the technology to add value to the customer's travel experience. Lacking that value-added feature, hospitality purveyors risk being relegated to commodity providers competing only on price-a gloomy scenario that can be avoided with judicious application of information systems.
Panama's TCR Action Plan
Authors: Ayala Hana
Published: March 2007

This update of Panama's Tourism-Conservation-Research (TCR) Action Plan for sustainable economic development shows that the plan is moving full steam ahead under a new administration and has the guidance of an expert team of leading economists, scientists, architects, and others. The collaborative effort has produced a web of 23 heritage routes that form the core of the TCR plan for attracting investments and visitors. These routes highlight Panama's position as a crossroads of the American and European civilizations and as an important research laboratory where scientists continue to learn about tropical ecosystems. The heritage routes are grouped into three categories: thematic, chronological, and spatial. It will be possible to develop different tourist itineraries on the basis of each heritage route (i.e., theme) or to combine several routes into larger circuits. The idea is to use the routes to link hotels and interpretive centers with conservation and research projects that will attract tourists while accruing benefits to the surrounding communities. The action plan calls for strategic alliances through which hospitality developers and managers base their investments on having access to that knowledge which will enrich the tourist experience, and through which alliances they can also finance the protection of heritage assets that, in turn, create demand for tourism products. Such renowned experts as economist Theodore Panayotou and architect Frank O. Gehry are under contract to the government of Panama to help accomplish the TCR goals, while leading hospitality specialists, such as IH&RA's Guillermo Rocha and Ken Hine, are among those who have voiced support for the TCR concept.
Ethical Principles for the Hospitality Curriculum
Authors: Vallen Gary , Cadado Matt
Published: March 2007

A survey of 45 GMs of the largest hotels in several U.S. states found a strong perception that hotel-industry workers and managers do not always behave ethically. The GMs' estimates of the annual cost of ethical violations in their own hotels ranged from under $10,000 to over $500,000, with a mean exceeding $100,000. Given a list of 12 ethical principles, the respondents ranked the concepts according to their importance to profitable hotel operation and then again according to how frequently each principle was breached. The four most important ethical principles for successful operation were leadership, accountability, commitment to excellence, and integrity. The three most-often-breached principles (in the managers' view) were accountability, commitment to excellence, and respect for others. Anecdotal comments comprised scathing observations of unethical behavior. Like so many people, the respondents considered themselves more ethical than others in the industry and also believed that the industry itself had a distance to go in relation to other businesses. The results indicated to the authors that college-level instruction in ethics would be useful for hospitality students.
Customer Perceptions of Singapore's Theme Restaurants
Authors: MacLaurin Donald J. , MacLaurin Tanya L.
Published: March 2007

Western favorites Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Café are popular in Singapore— earning high scores for atmosphere, menu attributes, service quality, and overall value.
Financing Lodging Properties
Authors: Singh A. J. , Schmidgall Raymond S.
Published: March 2007

A steady flow of financing is essential to the continued expansion of the hospitality industry. Over the years, the industry has attracted the attention of different sources of financing, becoming "hot" for international financiers for a time and then attracting the attention of another source, such as life-insurance companies or Wall Street investors. Using the consensusbuilding Delphi method, the authors asked a panel of experts from the financial community and hospitality industry to determine where the sources of funding would most likely be for 11 different hospitality segments for the years 2000 and 2005. The financing prospects seemed strong for luxury and convention hotels and resorts, primarily from such sources as pension funds, life-insurance companies, investment banks, and money-center banks. On the other hand, big financing seemed unlikely for motels, budget-type properties, and extended-stay properties. While local sources, such as community banks, might finance select properties, the Delphi panel believed that a heavy supply overhang would discourage most lenders from investing in those segments.
Disaster Evacuations
Authors: Drabek Thomas E.
Published: March 2007

This quantitative study may be the first one to compare travelers' reactions to weather-related emergencies (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes) with the responses of their professional hosts (e.g., hotel GMs, resort operators, campground managers). Telephone interviewers reached 603 people who had experienced such an emergency while traveling, 523 of whom also completed a follow-up questionnaire. Those responses were then compared to an existing data base of 185 managers' reactions to and preparations for public emergencies (including evacuation). For the most part, guests had a substantially different view of the managers' roles and responsibilities related to evacuations when compared to what steps and provisions the managers themselves felt obligated to provide. For example, one survey item asked about managers' disaster-evacuation planning. Almost two out of every three managers believed that preparations were adequate, while only half of the customers thought so. Another item addressed whether managers would call for an evacuation if not directly ordered to do so by local officials. Few customers (17 percent) believed that GMs would wait until forced to evacuate, yet more than a third of the managers agreed that that was their policy. Additional items show similar if less dramatic gaps between travelers' and managers' perceptions of what to do, and when, during an emergency. These include whether the hotel or resort is obligated to provide special services such as assistance for the disabled, road-evacuation directions, and food and water.
Henry B. Plant
Authors: Turkel Stanley
Published: March 2007

Transplanted from the north in 1853, Henry B. Plant became so enamored of Florida's Gulf Coast that he decided to develop it for other travelers. Thus was born the Plant System (rail and steamship line), which developed the Port of Tampa and several sun-coast hotels, including the remarkable 500-room, Moorish-style Tampa Bay Hotel, which opened in 1891. Plant is remembered today by the namesake Plant City, Florida, and by the University of Tampa, which uses part of the former Tampa Bay Hotel and maintains a Henry Plant Museum.
Best Practices in Service Quality
Authors: Enz Cathy A. , Siguaw Judy A.
Published: March 2007

A wide-ranging study of the best practices among hotels in the United States turned up a surprisingly small number of operations that focused specifically on service excellence. The Cornell University-based study cited 13 operations, however, for outstanding programs in guest service. Those champions are Ashley House Hotels-Keswick Hall, the Boulders, Carlson Hospitality, Cincinnati Marriott Northeast, Club Hotel by Doubletree, Dahlman Properties, Four Seasons & Regent, the Inn at Essex, Promnus Hotel Corporation, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the Waldorf=Astoria, Windsor Court Hotel, and Winegardner & Hammons. The champions excelled in one (or more) of four categories, namely creating a service culture, building an empowered service-delivery system, facilitating a "customer listening" orientation, and developing responsive service guarantees. One essential factor in achieving service excellence appears to be employees who are truly empowered to take whatever actions are appropriate to ensure guest satisfaction. To make this work, employees must know that their decisions are not subject to management review.
Consumer Habits in the Hospitality Industry
Authors: Hotel Research & Development
Published: March 2007

This summary presents a few highlights of an intensive study made of the consumer habits of former guests of twenty-four selected hotels within the continental United States. The researchers believe that the complete survey report indicates the opinions and travel habits of a sizable cross section of the former guests of the properties involved and of ones similar to them. The complete 72-page report may be ordered from this magazine for $10 plus 50 cents postage.

Studies of this nature give the hospitality industry a chance to examine and to measure the changes taking place in many critical areas of consumer behavior. The strong, continuing con cern of the industry is to increase profitability while holding related operational costs stable through better marketing and improved operational procedures. Toward that end, every hotel operator must be concerned with the rapid directional changes in the basic marketplace. Recent pressures related to the economy's decline, pushed by rising energy costs and related problems, have eroded the established base of clientele.

It is the hope of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University that this study will provide some guidelines for the entire industry as to potential market research. One important outcome of this study has been the development of a sophisticated "software" program for com puter applications and for the examination of data for further research. Thus a hotel, or a group of hotels, desiring similar analyses of former guests may have relatively quick service in obtain ing the report. In addition, comparisons can be made with the information compiled for the survey reported below. Additional analyses beyond those of this report can also be readily pro duced.— Malcolm A. Noden, Research Associate.
Making Hospitality Operations Hospitable: The First Step in Accessibility for the Handicapped
Authors: Brodsky-Porges Edward
Published: March 2007

Are your employees — or you — unwittingl y constructing barriers against the handi capped ? It is useless to remove architectural barriers without first eliminating psychological barriers through employee training.
On Understanding the Future Hospitality Student
Authors: Keiser James R. , Swinton John
Published: March 2007

A professor in a huge lecture hall at Penn State recently noticed one of his students cribbing on a final exam. He publicly accused the student of cheating and called for his test booklet. In response, the student stepped forward and asked, "Do you know my name?" When the professor answered no, the student shoved his test deep into a stack of completed exams, pulled down his cap, and sauntered confidently out of the hall.

Are hospitality students becoming ruder, less intellectually curious, more interested in being entertained than in learning? The authors say yes, and comment on ways in which educators can meet the challenge
Culture at the Crossroads
Authors: Glanzberg Al , Withiam Glenn
Published: March 2007

Under the operation of Michael Glennie, both Rockresorts and the Boca Raton Resort and Club have experienced changes in their operations as a result of market realities. Boca Raton implemented European-plan pricing. Rockresorts changed from a product-driven approach to a more customer-responsive attitude, which includes (among other things) putting telephones in the rooms for the first time.
The Future of Hospitality Education
Authors: Goodman Raymond J. , Sprague Linda G.
Published: March 2007

Because of the expanding role of services in the world economy, schools of business have begun to address the needs of service operations. At the same time, many hotel-school programs are drifting away from a hospitality-management orientation toward general business-management courses. If hospitality-education programs are to serve adequately their students and the industry, they must refocus their curricula on the needs of the hospitality industry; the alternative is to be absorbed into general business programs. Already, hospitality-program graduates and general-business graduates are competing for the same managerial jobs in the service sector. Four-year programs must find or develop faculty whose specializations are in the hospitality industry, and, in close cooperation with the industry, specialized programs must be developed for managers-in-training.
Hotel Development In Eastern Germany
Authors: Scott Jeffrey F. , Renaghan Leo M.
Published: March 2007

Along with unification of Germany have come outstanding opportunities for hotel development. This is particularly true in eastern Germany, where 85 percent of the hotels are at least 45 years old. Demand for modern hotels is high especially for economy-lodging products-and there are not nearly enough rooms to handle all the business. The government is willing to take risks and help with financing, and private ownership of real estate and foreign investments is now possible. But there are obstacles to be overcome, including issues related to the region's relatively poor infrastructure (utilities, roadways, and communications), personnel training, and environmental pollution. Those companies willing to bear the risks and start-up costs of being among the first in can expect to make the most profit in the long term.
Culturl Bridging
Authors: Holtzman Warren Lloyd , Murthy Bvsan , Gordon J. C.
Published: March 2007

The most successful American negotiators with the Japanese are those who have made the effort to understand Japan's culture, which revolves around such concepts as group consensus and maintaining face. This article presents 28 guidelines for building a cultural bridge with Japanese negotiators. Suggestions include being patient, getting to know your negotiators, doing your homework, and remembering the Japanese saying, "An able hawk hides his talons."

In a separate sidebar, "Understanding and Serving the Japanese Today," Edward Hubennette focuses on specific hospitality-related suggestions for Americans who have Japanese guests. He recommends, for instance, that hoteliers work with regional offices, get to know tour packagers and their programs, and, as a way to show respect, print a few pieces of collateral in Japanese if your market is large. (Since many Japanese can read material printed in English, it's not necessary to translate everything into Japanese.)
Upscale Markets
Authors: Boyer Cheryl , King Ellen
Published: March 2007

Although New York City and Washington, D.C., are both large, gateway cities located on the Atlantic seaboard, their upscale hotel markets are not as similar as one might predict. New York's hotels achieve higher rates but have higher costs than those in Washington. Moreover, New York has a top-level class of hotels, known as car- riage-trade hotels, that does not exist in Washington. Those hotels are generally patronized by price-insensitive clients. In contrast, New York's other class of upscale hotels, its luxury hotels, are similar to most of Washington's high-line hotels in that they depend on business guests and meetings. Not surprisingly, Washington's business is driven mostly by government demand, and its hotels have slack periods for the five months that Congress is out of session. While both mar- kets have seen occupancy and room rates decline some- what, New York has been steadier than Washington.
Microtel
Authors: Justus George R.
Published: March 2007

Microtel is a super-budget lodging concept developed by a company in Rochester, New York. The formula relies on attractive yet simple construction, including interior corri- dors for improved safety; a low-maintenance design; and room rates that are posted by the street to attract custom- ers away from the competition. Microtel does little or no advertising, relying instead on capturing traffic generated by the presence of the other budget chains in the same neighborhood. The first Microtel, in Rochester, experiences occupancy rates well above local and national averages. There are currently five Microtels in operation and more than 135 in various stages of development, mostly located in the eastern United States.
Discounting in the HotelIndustry
Authors: Hanks Richard D. , Cross Robert G. , Noland R. Paul
Published: March 2007

Faced with the need to discount room rates, lodging companies have tried different methods to segment high-rate customers from low-rate customers. For many hotel companies, the discounting mechanism is informal, encouraging prospective guests to haggle in an attempt to push down the rate. Moreover, casual discounting procedures allow high-rate customers to trade down-purchasing lodging at a price far lower than they would otherwise be willing to pay. By establishing discrete rate tiers, however, a hotel can maximize its revenue by offering different room products to different market segments. The key is to segment the markets and to keep them segmented. Marriott has attempted to do that by setting up "fenced rates"-discounts aimed primarily at leisure travelers that are tied to such restrictions as advance purchase, no itinerary change, and no refund. Such restrictions do not hamper leisure travelers, but business travelers find it difficult to overcome such hurdles. The initial response from consumers has been positive, and Marriott has garnered substantial incremental room nights from the program.
The ADA, Part II
Authors: Kohl John P. , Greenlaw Paul S.
Published: March 2007

This article and the one that preceded it report on the issues and implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Following an overview of the ADA, Part 11 focuses on the costs of compliance. A major provision of the act requires employers to make "reasonable" adjustments in the work place to accommodate disabled workers (e.g., revising schedules, job assignments, and the physical environment). The EEOC estimates that 80 percent of accommodations cost less than $500 and that the average cost of all accommodations is $304 (tax credits are available to help defray the costs of employment accommodations). The ADA specifically exempts those private establishments that are not covered by Title 11 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (e.g., membership clubs).
Property-Tax Valuation of Lodging Properties
Authors: Lesser Daniel H.
Published: March 2007

This article shows by way of a step-by-step hypothetical example that, for lodging properties, the income-capitalization approach produces the most supportable value estimate and should be given the greatest weight for hotel valuations. Under the income-capitalization approach, the appraiser uses a stabilized statement of income and expenses to make market-supported deductions for income attributed both to personal property and to the value of the business itself. Since an assessment for property taxes requires that only the real estate be considered, deductions can be made to exclude the value of the business and the FFE. By calculating the cost of capital one may derive first the adjusted overall capitalization rate and then the property-tax valuation.
Hospitality Russian Style
Authors: Welsh Dianne H.B. , Swerdlow Skip
Published: March 2007

As a market that has been closed for over 70 years, the former U.S.S.R. represents an exceptional business opportunity—but there are risks, too, given the political and economic uncertainties inherent in today's Russian culture
An Inside Look at Japanese Food Service
Authors: Doi Toshio
Published: March 2007

What trends have forged Japanese food service into its current competitive state? Change began in 1969, when it became possible for foreign interests to invest in Japan. The rest is told in this series of ten essays
Debunking the Myths of Yield Management
Authors: Lieberman Warren H.
Published: March 2007

Yield management (YM) uses information about customer purchasing behavior and product sales to develop pricing and inventory controls that produce greater revenues and deliver products that are better matched to the customers' needs. YM is not merely a set of mathematical techniques or a computer system, but a tool for managers' decision making. Computer-based tools can be a key component of a YM program, but such tools do not replace employee decision making and control. Instead they offer information to a firm's staff members so that they can make better decisions. For example, demand forecasting is basic to YM and enables a hotel to identify low-demand days far enough in advance to take appropriate actions. YM focuses on how much of a product to sell at established prices, but it does not determine what prices to charge or whether to change prices. Well-designed customer-service programs can minimize YM's effects on customer service. YM programs need not be complex, which is especially important in the lodging industry, where personnel turnover rates are high. The best way to implement YM depends on an organization's particular characteristics.
Improving Interactions between Meeting Planners and Hotel Employees
Authors: Rutherford Denney G. , Umbreit W. Terry
Published: March 2007

A study of meeting planners determined that communication, organization, execution, developing relationships, initiative, and crisis management are the key components in the successful delivery of services to the meetings industry. The areas of organization, execution, and professionalism are the most crucial to the success of event management. The most pervasive root causes of negative incidents were training and knowledge lapses, communication failures, and restrictive and rigid policies. Specific problem areas include employee-scheduling policies, lack of vested authority in an available hotel representative, turnover of key employees, outlandish charges by hotel contractors, hotels' focus on profit at the expense of service, hotels' inability to deliver agreed-upon services, and the physical condition or arrangement of meeting rooms. Solutions include involving the conference-services director as soon as possible in the process and training guest-contact employees to deal with groups' problems.
Benefit Dimensions of Midscale Restaurant Chains
Authors: Morgan Michael S.
Published: March 2007

Using the results from a Consumer Reports survey, this article investigates how consumers value benefits provided by family, steak-house, and casual-dining restaurant chains. The CR scores were used to construct three benefit dimensions: “food-service quality,”“family price-value,” and “time convenience.” For all types of restaurants, “food-service quality,” which comprises the basics of food taste and staff friendliness, has the strongest overall effect on chain ratings. “Family price-value” and “time convenience” boost overall ratings only for family restaurants.
Mexican Resorts: A Blueprint with an Expiration date
Authors: Ayala Hana
Published: March 2007

Since 1960 five ambitious coastal projects have expanded Mexico's vacation destinations. Conceived as integrated resorts and master-planned to grow in phases, they are overseen by the government. Master-planned resorts benefit from synergy, critical mass, and control that the developer can exercise over land use. While marketing of individual destinations and properties remains essential, the expanding networks of a region's destinations and hotel companies' properties provide excellent opportunities for cooperative selling and for influencing tourists' pre-decision processes, post-purchase evaluations, and future decision making once they're already on site. Hotels would be wise to promote nearby affiliated hotels to guests as a way of promoting longer stays and gaining repeat business.
Creative Approaches to the Americans with Disabilities Act
Authors: Ohlin Jane Boyd
Published: March 2007

The Embassy Suites Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, provides full guest accessibility under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and most of those accommodations are not apparent to guests. Awareness training for employees further reinforces quality service by encouraging employees' sensitivity to guests' special needs. Here are a few of the ideas described in the article: high-contrast color schemes for doors and walls to assist in locating doorways; steps equipped with lighted strips; elevator doors on slow timers; vending-machine controls at a low height; beds on raised frames; careful placement of the room's fixtures and amenities; fire alarms equipped with strobes and horns; under-the-pillow vibrating alarms; roll-in showers with benches; grab bars in strategic locations; TDDs; closed-caption TVs; door-knocker flashers; and alarm clocks with large displays and a “talking” feature. Employees are taught not to be fearful of people who are disabled and are given instruction in how to address comfortably and naturally the needs of those guests.
Holiday Inn
Authors: Clark Jack J.
Published: March 2007

Although it's the largest hotel chain in the world and one of the oldest, Holiday Inn Worldwide can be considered one of the newest companies in the hotel industry. As chronicled in this article, Holiday started as a franchising vehicle for hotels and then diversified into related businesses. In the 1980s it became a gaming operator and also operated additional lodging brands. To avoid the possibility of a corporate takeover, Holiday's management recapitalized the company in 1987 by selling assets, paying an immense shareholder dividend, and taking on debt. A second recapitalization in 1989 was a springboard for the spin-off and sale of the Holiday Inn brand to Bass PLC. The other portions of the former Holiday Corporation, including the gaming operation, did business as Promus Corporation. Saddled with considerable debt and facing the uncertain prospects of the 1990s, Bass has developed a new strategy for Holiday Inn Worldwide that includes converting older inns to the new Holiday Inn Express (limited service) concept. In addition, Holiday is experimenting with SunSpree Resorts, a resort concept intended to fill a gap in the market for moderate-price resorts.
The Model Employment Termination Act
Authors: Seidman Lorne , Aalberts Robert J. , Gaston Jolie R.
Published: March 2007

Traditionally non-union employees are hired under the common-law doctrine known as “employment at will,” which allows the employer or employee to terminate the relationship at any time for any reason. Over the years exceptions to that doctrine have crept into case law and, in those states where the tort of wrongful discharge is recognized, wronged employees have recovered substantial punitive and compensatory damages. To avoid expensive litigation, the untested Model Employment Termination Act proposes the use of public-financed arbitrators to settle quickly questions of wrongful termination. Under the act, employees give up the right to sue employers for wrongful discharge in exchange for a “good-cause only” termination guarantee and access to speedy arbitration. Employers give up their reliance on the employment-at-will doctrine in exchange for protection from huge court settlements. The employer, if found to have acted improperly, may only be responsible for reinstatement, back pay, and attorney's fees should the employee be successful at arbitration.
Concept Selection for Independent Restaurants
Authors: Goldman Keith
Published: March 2007

To launch a new restaurant or concept in a specific area you must support your intuition for success with at least a secondary-data analysis, which will help quantify and define your area's potential and indicate the scale of operation you should consider. Next you should conduct a primary study to determine the condition of the market, including the consumers and the competition. You must also anticipate the future by assessing life-cycle categories and trends in your area, for example, the age-group sizes and what direction they are moving. Define the dominant consumer segments in the area (demographic analysis) and analyze the profiles of those segments before selecting the concept that best fits that target. Define your concept decisively. If your concept is preselected, determine what market segment you will compete in and plan the restaurant's menu, price points, atmosphere, size, and financial goals. Once the concept is well-defined, search (as described above) for those locations that likely will support the concept.
Transformational Leaders in the Hospitality Industry
Authors: Tracey J. Bruce , Hinkin Timothy R.
Published: March 2007

Transformational leadership is a way to convey to employees where the organization is going and their role in that journey. Transformational leaders in this study demonstrated a clear sense of direction, emphasized organizational objectives and their followers' needs, displayed a strong sense of values and ethics, created high standards, and served as an example for others to follow. Such executives are viewed as effective by both peers and subordinates, and as possessing the courage to foster an environment of growth and development.
Privatization of Public-Assembly-Facility Management
Authors: Ackerman A. Marc
Published: March 2007

Traditionally, public-assembly facilities (stadiums, arenas, convention centers) are built with public funds and thereafter managed by some municipal authority or governmental agency and subsidized by taxes. The benefits that may derive from breaking out of that traditional mold by hiring a private management firm include increased profitability, a more experienced staff, simpler purchasing procedures, faster decision-making, focused marketing, better accountability, and increased flexibility in negotiating contracts and rental rates. In general, those municipalities that have contracted for private management are pleased with their decisions, will continue to support privatization in their districts, and wholeheartedly recommend it to others.
Status and Outlook of the Chain-Restaurant Industry
Authors: Paul Ronald N.
Published: March 2007

During the last two decades chain restaurants have emerged as a dominant force within the restaurant industry. Total restaurant sales will surpass the $1 90-billion mark in 1994. A large portion of the industry's growth has come from the emergence of major quick-service chains. The growth in the chains' volume and market share results from such factors as the rise of two-income households and the chains' competitive advantages in market concentration and advertising.
Computers and Multiunit Food-Service Operations
Authors: Kasavana Michael L.
Published: March 2007

Computers have changed the nature of multiunit food-service operations, both at the unit level and at corporate headquarters. For each multiunit format-quick service, table service, and institutional service-there are appropriate computer applications, as there are for each level-the unit and the district, regional, and national offices. Data movement can make good use of communication and networking technology. Food-service chains are adopting computer networks at an unprecedented rate. Desktop publishing, transaction-processing technology, electronic marketing, electronic and voice mail, and labormanagement applications are likewise being implemented.
Ski-Resort Operators' Liability for Employees' Actions
Authors: Sherry John E.H.
Published: March 2007

Ski-resort operators may be liable for accidents and damages caused by employees even when they are off duty. In a Utah case, an employee, taking time off from his regular duties, was skiing recklessly while returning from a business errand. (He regularly skis between job assignments for his employer.) The resort was found liable for the employee's conduct, even though some of his skiing was on his own time and he was not following posted rules for the slope he was on. The reasoning stems from a three-part test: (1) that the conduct is of the general kind the employee was hired to do; (2) that the activity occurs within the typical hours and normal space of employment; and (3) that the conduct must be at least partly motivated by the employer's need.
The Educational Value of "Captive Hotels"
Authors: LeBruto Stephen M. , Murray Kenneth T.
Published: March 2007

The authors identified 12 hotel-management schools that maintain full-service hotels as part of their curriculum and that involve faculty in the oversight of the facility. This study investigated the perceived importance of such "captive hotels" in delivering practical hotel-management education. The authors' study measured perceptions of the importance of practical education and the importance of captive training facilities in developing ten competencies that hotel-management graduates should possess. Those perceptions were gathered from entering hotel-management students, faculty, and corporate recruiters at five schools with captive hotels and five schools without such facilities. All three groups validated the importance of practical work experiences for each of the ten competencies. They agreed that an experiential-learning program is a crucial element of hospitality-management education, but there was less agreement among the groups regarding how essential it is to use a captive training facility to teach those skills.
Matching Faculty Goals and Institutional Goals
Authors: Chesser Jerald W. , Ellis Taylor
Published: March 2007

Building on a model of faculty development that suggests a method for reinvigorating faculty members, the authors examine the relationship between academic institutions' expectations for faculty performance and actual faculty activity in the areas of teaching, research, service, and "other." For more than half of the respondents to the survey, expectations and performance diverged substantially as the faculty members' length of service increased. Specifically, faculty members were spending more time on service activities and less time in research than institutions expected. For institutions that want to increase their faculty members' research productivity, the authors suggest applying the principle that a person would like to leave an educational legacy.
Alternatives to High-Cost Litigation
Authors: Goldstein Joseph I.
Published: March 2007

Companies that formalize an internal problem-resolution program may avoid huge legal costs and boost employee morale. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) avoids time-consuming and expensive court trials. ADR may include mediation, arbitration, mini-trials, summary trials, and peer review. Whatever ADR format is used, it gives both sides of a dispute the chance to resolve their conflict-and in so doing saves time and money and relieves the stress associated with litigation. Some courts now require settlement conferences to encourage resolution of disputes outside the courtroom. ADR can be part of a company's formal internal grievance procedure or a company can propose an ADR approach on case-by-case basis. Mediators or arbitrators tend to be less emotional and perhaps more objective than jury members, whose emotions tend to cause high-cost verdicts. ADR can result in a prompt resolution (compared with courtroom backlogs, which can mean years of delay), and ADR can result in sizable reductions in legal fees and other costs.
Management-Development Programs
Authors: Shaw Margaret , Patterson John
Published: March 2007

A survey of what Canadian hospitality managers look for in external management-development programs, including those subject areas that need more education and training programs, reveals that the highest-rated subject areas include service quality, motivation and training, and communication skills. At the bottom of the range are advertising, personal selling, and research methods. Marketing topics, in particular, are rated more important by lodging managers than by food-service and health-services managers. There are no significant differences among lodging, food-service, and health-services managers in their ratings of leadership and motivation and training. Each of the three groups consistently rated managerial accounting, financial management, and business ethics in the midrange. The results show a strong desire across all industry sectors for two-to three-day management-development programs and minimal fees, and a general desire and expectation to continue attending programs.
An Analysis of Hotel-Impact Studies
Authors: Patel Dipan , Corgel John B.
Published: March 2007

This review of 24 impact studies of proposed lodging franchises indicates two general problems. First, impact studies are performed as part of a policy framework that embodies a reactionary approach to assessment of the effects of a new sameor similar-brand competitor. Studies are often commissioned only after potentially affected franchisees object to the plan to develop the new franchise location. Second, the assessment methodology is rarely based on quantitative research. That is, impact conclusions too often follow from personal judgment instead of objective analyses of reliable data. The industry may choose to make incremental changes designed to resolve these problems slowly over time. The authors recommend, on the other hand, investing resources to develop a franchisesystem-growth model that sets goals of maximizing system revenues and franchisee revenues, while maintaining system growth.