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Purpose The hospitality industry has recently witnessed explosive growth in robotization with the replacement of robots in many areas. Yet, a key consideration in this robotics wave is whether competition (i.e. robots take over all human tasks) or collaboration (i.e. humans collaborate closely with robots to perform work better) will define the future of the hospitality workspace. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this controversial issue by taking a collaborative perspective to address the future human–robot relationship in hospitality workplace (i.e. cobotic team). Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon relevant theories and extant robotics literature, this paper will develop a critical reflection on the management of future cobotic team as a new phenomenon in hospitality industry. Findings The successful management of cobotics in hospitality lies in three interrelated key domains: feeling intelligence training for frontline employees, ethics governance for cobotics and trust building toward robot partners. Practical implications How to manage this cobotic team efficiently will be a focus for hospitality managers in the coming years. This paper offers several managerial insights for hospitality managers and practitioners regarding effectively managing the future collaboration between humans and robots within a dynamic work environment. Originality/value This study addresses cobotics as a critical yet unaddressed shift in the contemporary hospitality sector and proposes a framework highlighting three key domains for managing this cobotic team effectively. This framework also sets the direction to encourage more future empirical research exploring cobotic workforce in hospitality.

PurposeThis paper introduces the concept of dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand and argues that when customers perceive that a brand has failed to fulfill its promises, a psychological brand contract breach occurs, which in turn leads to a psychological brand contract violation, which evokes dysfunctional customer behavior toward the brand. In addition, this study investigates whether the impact of a breach of this contract is dependent on brand relationship quality, brand apology and restitution.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 conducted the online survey and 224 respondents were used for data analysis and the moderating role of brand relationship quality was examined. Study 2 conducted an experiment with 201 participants to test the moderating role of brand apology and restitution.FindingsThis study found the moderating role of brand relationship quality, brand apology and brand restitution on the relationship between a psychological brand contract breach and dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand (i.e. brand-negative word-of-mouth, brand retaliation and brand boycott), which is mediated by psychological brand contract violation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theoretical understanding of dysfunctional customer behavior toward a brand by integrating the literature on brand management with the organizational literature on psychological contracts between organizations and their employees. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the effectiveness of reparative actions by the firm after occurrence of the psychological brand contract breach.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate emerging trends in data analytics and knowledge management (KM) job market by using the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) framework. The findings from the study provide insights into curriculum development and academic program design. Design/methodology/approach This study traced and retrieved job ads on LinkedIn to understand how data analytics and KM interplay in terms of job functions, knowledge, skills and abilities required for jobs, as well as career progression. Conducting content analysis using text analytics and multiple correspondence analysis, this paper extends the framework of KSA proposed by Cegielski and Jones‐Farmer to the field of data analytics and KM. Findings Using content analysis, the study analyzes the requisite KSA that connect analytics to KM from the job demand perspective. While Kruskal–Wallis tests assist in examining the relationships between different types of KSA and company’s characteristics, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) aids in reducing dimensions and representing the KSA data points in two-dimensional space to identify potential associations between levels of categorical variables. The results from the Kruskal–Wallis tests indicate a significant relationship between job experience levels and KSA. The MCA diagrams illustrate key distinctions between hard and soft skills in data across different experience levels. Practical implications The practical implications of the study are two-fold. First, the extended KSA framework can guide KM professionals with their career planning toward data analytics. Second, the findings can inform academic institutions with regard to broadening and refining their data analytics or KM curricula. Originality/value This paper is one of the first studies to investigate the connection between data analytics and KM from the job demand perspective. It contributes to the ongoing discussion and provides insights into curriculum development and academic program design.

The fermentation process has a significant impact on the aromatic profile of wines, particularly in relation to the difference in fermentation matrix caused by grape varieties. This study investigates the leaching and evolution patterns of aroma compounds in Vitis vinifera L. Marselan and Merlot during an industrial-scale vinification process, including the stages of cold soak, alcohol fermentation, malolactic fermentation, and one-year bottle storage. The emphasis is on the differences between the two varieties. The results indicated that most alcohols were rapidly leached during the cold soak stage. Certain C6 alcohols, terpenes, and norisoprenoids showed faster leaching rates in ‘Marselan’, compared to ‘Merlot’. Some branched chain fatty-acid esters, such as ethyl 3-methylbutyrate, ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, and ethyl lactate, consistently increased during the fermentation and bottling stages, with faster accumulation observed in ‘Marselan’. The study combines the Orthogonal Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) model based on odor activity values to elucidate the accumulation of these ethyl esters during bottle storage, compensating for the reduction in fruity aroma resulting from decreased levels of (E)-β-damascenone. The ‘Marselan’ wine exhibited a more pronounced floral aroma due to its higher level of linalool, compared to the ‘Merlot’ wine. The study unveils the distinctive variation patterns of aroma compounds from grapes to wine across grape varieties. This provides a theoretical framework for the precise regulation of wine aroma and flavor, and holds significant production value.

Purpose Dysfunctional customer behavior is believed to engender employee stress and, in turn, fuel employee turnover. However, little research has examined the moderating role of individual-level and contextual-level resource variables. The purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps by examining employee embeddedness and individualism–collectivism as putative moderators of the hypothesized mediation chain. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a field study involving 264 service employees working in two hotels operated by the same international hotel chain, one in South Korea (n=138) and the other in the UK (n=126). Findings Results show that employee embeddedness weakens the impact of dysfunctional customer behavior on employee turnover via employee stress. In addition, findings suggest that collectivists (individualists) are more (less) likely to be receptive to embeddedness cues. Originality/value This is the first known study to show that employee embeddedness can mitigate the impact of dysfunctional customer behavior on turnover via employee stress. This moderated-mediation model is further moderated by employees’ cultural value orientation (individualism–collectivism). Prior literature is not explicit on these complex models.

PurposeWhile robots have increasingly threatened frontline employees’ (FLEs) future employment by taking over more mechanical and analytical intelligence tasks, they are still unable to “experience” and “feel” to occupy empathetic intelligence tasks that can be handled better by FLEs. This study, therefore, aims to empirically develop and validate a scale measuring the new so-called empathetic creativity as being creative in practicing and performing empathetically intelligent skills during service encounters.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a multistage design to develop the scale. Phase 1 combines a literature review with text mining from 3,737 service robots-related YouTube comments to generate 16 items capturing this new construct. Phase 2 assesses both face and content validity of those items, while Phase 3 recruits Prolific FLEs sample to evaluate construct validity. Phase 4 checks this construct’s nomological validity using PLS-SEM and Phase 5 experiments dedicated effort (vs natural talent) as an effective approach to foster FLEs’ perceived empathetic creativity.FindingsThe final scale is comprised of 13 refined items that capture three dimensions (social, interactive and emotional) of empathetic creativity. This research provides timely implications to help FLEs in high-contact services stay competitive.Originality/valueThis study introduces the new construct of empathetic creativity, which goes beyond the traditional definition of creativity in services and highlights the importance of empathetic intelligence for FLEs in future employment. This study also develops a multi-item scale to measure this construct, which can be applied to future service management research.

The examination of stamp impressions is a routine task for questioned document examiners (QDEs) in determining the authenticity of disputed documents. Some studies have provided methods for date determination of stamp impressions, but each single method has its own limitations, so date determination of stamp impressions remains a challenge in case work. This study reports on the real case of a forged contract, in which pre-inked stamp impressions were made on blank paper without the knowledge of the stamp owner. The combination of Raman and video spectroscopy is demonstrated to be a novel method for the date determination of these impressions. In addition to conventional morphological examination methods, video spectroscopy (VS) images were combined with Raman spectroscopy to identify ink components and the distribution of pre-inked impressions. These characteristics vary with the time of stamping, especially after re-inking, and can thus be used to date forged documents. Specifically, spectral analysis of the ink provided a regular representation of temporal variations based on reference stamp samples, which were mutually confirmed by morphological analysis. This approach combines multiple analysis methods to provide diverse evidence for characterizing the tampering and dating the impressions. The results suggest the included stamp impressions were genuine and made on a blank sheet of paper prior to printing the content of the agreement. The five questioned impressions were not entirely consistent in terms of generation time, and none of them were stamped on the nominated date. [Display omitted] •Multiple analysis methods (Video spectrocopy, Raman spectroscopy, and morphological method) were used to provide diverse evidence.•Reporting the variation in inks distribution of pre-inked stamp impressions before and after re-inking.•The combination of Video and Raman spectroscopy is a potential method beneficial to dating the impressions.

Printer source prediction is an important task when examining questioned documents. While some research has provided methods to predict the source printer of documents, with the advent of compatible consumables, printer prediction could become more complex and difficult. Predicting the source printer after replacing cartridges and identifying the source of printer cartridges are unresolved issues that are rarely addressed in current research. Herein, we introduce a novel technique to predict the manufacturer, model, and cartridges of laser printers (i.e., compatible, and original cartridges) used to produce a given document. Document samples produced using eight laser printers and 247 cartridges were collected to establish a dataset. Common manufacturers included HP, Canon, Lenovo, and Epson. After obtaining white-light images and three-dimensional profile images of printed characters, a morphological analysis was conducted by questioned document examiners (QDEs) using microscopy. Microscopic image features across a series of images were also extracted and analyzed using algorithms. Then, six high-dimensional reduction algorithms were used to obtain between- and within-printer variations as well as between- and within-cartridge variations. Finally, we conducted principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis. For 40 % of the samples, mixed discrimination analysis (MDA) and fixed discrimination analysis (FDA) were employed to predict the manufacturer, model and cartridge of laser printers used to produce the questioned printed document; the remaining 60 % samples comprised the training dataset. In the prediction of manufacturer, model and cartridge, our method achieved mean accuracies of 95.5 %, 97.5 %, and 90.2 %, respectively. Hence, this technique could reasonably aid in predicting the manufacturer, model, and cartridge of a laser printer, even if different cartridges are loaded into printers. [Display omitted] •A novel technique was provided to predict the manufacturer, model, and cartridges of laser printers.•Three-dimensional profiling combined with white-light microscopic images helps to improve the performance of the prediction.•This paper expands document examination from two dimensions to three dimensions.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of culture (Western versus East Asian) on customers' perceived informational fairness of several types of failure explanations - excuse, justification, reference, and apology. It also seeks to examine whether informational fairness influences post-failure satisfaction and consequent loyalty intentions.Design methodology approach - A two (culture: US and Taiwanese) × four (explanation type: excuse, justification, reference to other people, and penitence) between-subjects experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. Participants were exposed to a written scenario describing a flight delay. A total of 286 undergraduate students served as the subject pool.Findings - The findings of this study imply that customers from different cultures perceive service failure explanations somewhat differently. US customers perceive reference to other customers to be more just while Taiwanese customers perceive apology to be more just. Furthermore, such informational fairness influences satisfaction, and consequent loyalty intentions.Research limitations implications - Owing to the comparison of US and Taiwanese participants in this study, these results may not be applied to customers from other countries. Second, the stimuli involved service failures that are in the context of air travel. Third, though the student sample is appropriate for cross-cultural research, it limits the generalizability of the study's findings.Practical implications - The study findings indicate that explanations for service failures enhance customers' fairness perceptions, thus inducing loyalty. Yet, it is important for front-line employees to keep in mind that customers' cultural backgrounds can affect their perceptions of specific types of explanations.Originality value - The findings of this study add to the evidence that culture is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of a service recovery effort. Specifically, this research shows cross-cultural differences in informational fairness perceptions across various explanation types.

[Display omitted] •Probability density distribution indicates variances within- and between-writers.•Score-based log-LR was employed to estimate the strength of handwriting evidence.•Performance validation was employed to measure the accuracy, discriminating power.•Calibration of the likelihood ratio calculation method presented in this paper.•The relevant dynamic features were much more distinctive than static features. This paper extends on previous research on the extraction and statistical analysis on relevant dynamic features (width, grayscale and radian combined with writing sequence information) in forensic handwriting examinations. In this paper, a larger signature database was gathered, including genuine signatures, freehand imitation signatures, random forgeries and tracing imitation signatures, which are often encountered in casework. After applying Principle Component Analysis (PCA) of the variables describing the proximity between specimens, a two-dimensional kernel density estimation was used to describe the variability of within-genuine comparisons and genuine–forgery comparisons. We show that the overlap between the within-genuine comparisons and the genuine–forgery comparisons depends on the imitated writer and on the forger as well. Then, in order to simulate casework conditions, cases were simulated by random sampling based on the collected signature dataset. Three-dimensional normal density estimation was used to estimate the numerator and denominator probability distribution used to compute a likelihood ratio (LR). The comparisons between the performance of the systems in SigComp2011 (based on static features) and the method presented in this paper (based on relevant dynamic features) showed that relevant dynamic features are better than static features in terms of accuracy, false acceptance rate, false rejection rate and calibration of likelihood ratios.