Jae-Kyoon Jun

The purpose of this study is to conduct topic modeling and sentiment analysis on the posts of Skytrax (airlinequality.com), where there are many interests and participation of the people who have used or are willing to use it for airlines. The purpose of people gathering at Skytrax is to make better choices using the actual experiences of other customers who have experienced airlines. Online reviews written by customers with experience using airlines in Asia were collected. The data collected were online reviews from 27 airlines, with more than 14,000 reviews. Topic modeling and sentiment analysis were used with the collected data to figure out what kinds of important words are in the online reviews. As a result of the topic modeling, ‘seat’, ‘service’, and ‘meal’ were significant issues in the flight through frequency analysis. Additionally, the result revealed that delay was the main issue, which can affect customer dissatisfaction while ‘staff service’ can make customers satisfied through sentiment analysis as the result shows the ‘staff service’ with meal and food in the topic modeling.

When competitive small restaurants have queues in peak periods, they lack strategies to cope. However, few studies have examined small restaurants’ revenue management strategies at peak times. This research examines how such small restaurants in South Korea can improve their profitability by adapting their price increases, table mix, and the equilibrium points of the utilization rates, and reports the following findings based on the analysis of two studies. In Study 1, improving profitability by increasing prices should carefully consider the magnitude and timing. In Study 2, when implementing the table mix strategy, seat occupancy and profit also increase, and we further find the equilibrium points of the utilization rates. Under a queuing system, the utilization rate and average waiting time are also identified as having a trade-off relationship. The results provide insights into how managers of small restaurants with queues can develop efficient revenue management strategies to manage peak hours.

Purpose: This study aims to propose an extended framework to design a profitable exhibition booth environment (i.e. boothscape) that fosters attendees’ at-show experience and after-show purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach: Survey-based data were collected from attendees who visited one of the five major exhibitions at leading convention and exhibition cities in Korea. Structural equation modeling was used to examine which features of boothscape are more influential in improving attendees’ at-show experience and after-show purchase intention. Findings: Empirical results revealed that booth design, product variety and assortment and entertainment exert a significant impact on attendees’ emotional and cognitive experiences at an exhibition. On the other hand, booth personnel exclusively influence attendees’ cognitive experience. A better chance of after-show purchase incident can be obtained by reinforcing both emotional and cognitive experiences. Research limitations/implications: Although emotional and cognitive experiences are two of the most compelling types of at-show experience, future studies can consider mediating roles of other experiences to better understand the complex mechanism of attendees’ at-show experience. Moreover, it is worthy to examine the moderating effects of attendees’ characteristics, as Bitner (1992) argued that individuals have different perceptions of the surrounding environment based on personal and situation variables. Originality/value: This study provides empirical evidence on the under-explored research area of boothscape. Researchers and exhibitors can learn that both context and content of boothscape should be taken into consideration to create a more holistic at-show experience. In return, attendees can have long-lasting memories of exhibitors and products for future purchase. This new insight can serve as inspiration for researchers and exhibitors to shift paradigms from service- to experience-oriented to improve long-term exhibition performances.