Anna Mattila

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · School of Hospitality Management

Despite abundant research demonstrating the impact of servicescape on consumer responses, there is a lack of understanding of how each servicescape dimension distinctly influences consumer satisfaction. To bridge this gap, we utilize the affordance theory to examine the unique impact of various servicescape dimensions on consumer satisfaction. We c...

Drawing from AI classification experience and identity-based motivation frameworks, this research explores the impact of AI classification failures on consumers' self-identification and examines how self-expression plays a crucial role in shaping these effects. Across five studies, this research reveals that AI classification failures can diminish...

The pay-what-you-want pricing scheme has been frequently employed by nonprofit and for-profit tourism organizations. While this voluntary payment format can foster inclusivity by making tourism accessible to a larger population, one urgent challenge these institutions face is how to increase consumer payment to sustain both social and economic sust...

Although prior research indicates that crowdsourcing is primarily beneficial for companies, this work reveals, across three studies, that quality perceptions of crowd‐sourced (vs. company‐generated) products are shaped by relationship norms: communal norms (vs. exchange norms). Study 1 indicates that developing a communal (vs. exchange) relationshi...

The hospitality and tourism industry is moving closer to implementing robotic service encounters as more companies use service robots in frontline service positions. However, we still lack knowledge of the unintentional effects of robotic service encounters. In three field and online experimental studies, we found that robotic service encounters un...

Purpose This paper aims to bridge the extended reality framework and the luxury hospitality literature by providing insights into how immersive technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) can shape luxury value and consumer differentiation. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted three experimental studies comparing immersive AI vers...

Purpose Customer misbehavior has a negative impact on frontline employees. However, the underlying mechanisms from customer misbehavior to employees’ negative outcomes need to be further unfolded and examined. This study aims to propose that employees’ affective rumination and problem-solving pondering could be the explanatory processes of customer...

Purpose A visual sweetness scale with an arrow pointing to a specific sweetness level is now required on all labels of AOC Alsace. The sweetness scale makes it easier for consumers to understand what is in the bottle. What is less clear, however, is whether such labeling is always effective. To fill this gap, the current research paper aims to exam...

Despite Artificial Intelligence (AI)'s emerging trend in luxury services, recent research shows mixed findings regarding its impact. This paper builds upon the optimum distinctiveness theory and the need for uniqueness to examine AI's effects on consumers’ willingness to accept luxury suggestions. Four studies reveal that using AI recommendations i...

Recent technological advances have allowed businesses to adopt emojis when interacting with consumers. To gain in-depth theoretical and managerial insight into this trend, five pre-registered studies (1 field observation and four controlled experiments) indicate that emojis in digital communication work as heuristic cues that might have a different...

Consumers’ multisensory preferences bring new ideas to service and experience design—yet do consumers always react favorably to sensory complexity? This research examines variation by time of day in how consumers respond to complex sensory experiences (e.g., purchase behavior, choice, and liking). Specifically, we theorize that arousal levels incre...

While prior research suggests that facial expression influences consumer behavior, it remains unclear under which conditions specific emotional expressions on social media drive sales performance and customer engagement. Drawing on the facial feedback hypothesis and the emotional congruence framework, two pre-registered experimental studies (N = 99...

Purpose This study aims to understand consumers' reactions to hospitality corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns under different resource scarcity reminders, an important but overlooked contextual factor, and examine how such scarcity reminders interact with message framing, a widely used technique in CSR communication. Design/methodology...

Purpose Hospitality and tourism research lags in using experimental designs. This study aims to reveal prestigious scholars’ opinions and suggestions on how to effectively design and execute experimental research. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an open-ended survey on 187 editors and editorial board members from 22 top hospitali...

Despite the pervasiveness of pay-what-you-want pricing in the travel and hospitality industry, tourism scholars have devoted little effort to investigating the effectiveness of this pricing scheme. The current research examines the joint effect of social crowding (crowded vs. non-crowded) and self-construal (interdependent vs. independent) on touri...

Despite the growing relevance of influencer marketing, recent research suggests that consumers have negative reactions to social media ads. Our research investigates how different types of disclosure (paid partnership vs. in-text disclosure) and post content (experiential vs. material) mitigate consumers' negative reactions to social media advertis...

Purpose Frontline employees’ proactive behaviors (i.e. job crafting) are critical to satisfying customers’ idiosyncratic needs. If the supervisors practice job crafting, their subordinates are more likely to mimic such behaviors. However, there has been limited research on how leaders’ job crafting can influence subordinates’ job crafting. This stu...

Purpose-This paper aims to examine how the relationship norms established between customers and brands influence customer perceptions of crowdsourcing (vs firm-generated) cues. Design/methodology/approach-Four studies (N = 851) examine the moderating role of relationship norms on product labeling cues (crowdsourcing vs firm-generated) effects on br...

Purpose This paper aims to examine how the relationship norms established between customers and brands influence customer perceptions of crowdsourcing (vs firm-generated) cues. Design/methodology/approach Four studies ( N = 851) examine the moderating role of relationship norms on product labeling cues (crowdsourcing vs firm-generated) effects on...

Although time-based sales messages (e.g., booked X times in the last Y hours) are frequently employed in the travel industry, their effectiveness has not been systematically examined in previous research. To fill this gap, we compare two types of sales messages: large total sales in a long term vs. large hourly sales in a short term (e.g., 72 times...

The responsible tourism and hospitality (RTH) literature has been growing, as evidenced by the increasing number of published articles. In this study, we synthesize the current knowledge of RTH research. Through co-citation and content analyses, we map the intellectual structure of the tourism and hospitality literature from various perspectives, i...

Purpose Many hospitality organizations see the benefits of engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR), which can take many forms. This study aims to examine one relatively unique form of CSR: hiring individuals experiencing houselessness. This research aimed to investigate the impact of hiring individuals experiencing houselessness on custom...

Corporate charitable giving (CCG) is increasingly pervasive in the global hospitality industry. Among various subtypes of CCGs, many hospitality companies request donations from customers during the service delivery or payment process to encourage customer engagement and co-created social responsibility. Karma—the implicit belief that the universe...

Purpose With the recent surge of plant-based menu items, it is critical to understand how to effectively communicate such products to consumers. This study aims to examine the impact of various descriptive names on consumers’ responses to novel meat alternatives in China, one of the emerging yet unexplored markets. Design/methodology/approach Two...

Purpose This research examines how construal level shapes the effectiveness of rational (vs emotional) messages for inducing cessation behaviors. Concrete mindsets foster self-improvement goals, whereas abstract mindsets boost self-relevance goals. Design/methodology/approach In four studies, this research examines the moderating role of construal...

The recent surge of plant-based menu items offers new opportunities for individuals who want to join the fight against climate change. However, it is unknown whether environmental awareness will affect consumer responses to these new foods, and if so, what interventions will be more effective in increasing such awareness. We conducted two studies t...

Corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA), as an emerging marketing strategy, can lead to divergent consumer responses. However, there is limited empirical research investigating how the various elements of CSA can be incorporated to create compelling campaigns. To fill this void, this research examines two important, yet unexplored CSA dimensions, p...

While the restaurant industry is seeing an unprecedented rise of ethnic restaurants, the existing hospitality literature provides little guidance on how to enhance perceived uniqueness of ethnic menu offerings through visual design. The present research offers an innovative marketing strategy (i.e., using real handwriting in menus) to boost consume...

Based on the conservation of resource theory (COR), this study investigates the impacts of job crafting and psychological resilience on emotional labor and the mediating role of an individual's service orientation. A survey was conducted on more than 300 customer-contact employees in China using a two-wave longitudinal study. The results demonstrat...

Being green has become a focus in hospitality as evidenced by the rise of sustainable tourism in general and green hotels in particular. The current research examines the impact of willingness to sacrifice for the environment on green hotel evaluations and demonstrates that consumers high in willingness to sacrifice are more likely to embrace green...

While prior research indicates that establishing interpersonal interaction with customers is mostly beneficial, this work reveals that the impact of social ties depends on relationship norms (communal vs. exchange). In three studies, including a real-world field dataset (N = 87,615 customers), the current investigation demonstrates the conditions u...

Purpose The present research examines the interaction between explanation type and regulatory focus on informational justice (IJ) and satisfaction with service recovery. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two experiments with 538 respondents. Findings The findings imply that the effectiveness of the explanation type depends on the...

Considerable research has demonstrated the positive effects of handwritten font styles on product attachment and word-of-mouth behavior. However, few studies examined whether these positive effects can be mitigated or even reversed. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by identifying several boundary conditions (communal orientat...

Despite the documented benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the service industry, the service employees’ fear of being replaced by AI continues to be a major concern as we transition to the Feeling Economy. This paper builds upon the Feeling Economy framework and the social comparison theory to examine how different service-related tasks (th...

While recent research on sustainability communication demonstrates the relevance of message framing, research on the effects of message framing on consumers’ emotions is scant. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this paper examines the impact of environmental advertisements (stimuli) on two discrete emotions – hope and guilt –...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of timing and framing of hotel’s upselling message on consumer attitudes toward the message. The mediating role of reactance between the timing of upselling message and consumer attitudes is also explored. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (timing: immediately after the booki...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of holistic wellness to a postpartum care resort experiencescape to enhance women’s health and well-being. Several relevant theories are highlighted to demonstrate how to design a soothing postpartum care experiencescape. This paper also discusses the notion of regenerative business practice...

How do consumers make purchase decisions for novel food products? This research demonstrates the importance of supermarket credibility as a heuristic cue influencing consumers’ purchase decisions. We used a 2 (supermarket type: specialty store vs. conventional store) x 2 (food familiarity: novel vs. familiar) x 3 (price: high, average, low) between...

Recently, many firms that have caused direct pollution to the environment have begun to think about the necessity of environmental management. As buildings have played an important role in environmental issues, the real estate industry can no longer ignore demands for environmental management. Research on environmental management has mainly focused...

In a series of three studies, we explore the effectiveness of two types of discount frames—add-on discount frame (ADF) and bundle discount frame (BDF)—in driving consumers’ purchase intentions for cross-category, add-on travel bundles. Consistent with the analytical mindset induced by a utilitarian core product, we found that an ADF is most effecti...

While many retailing businesses have responded to the Covid-19 crisis by instituting various new rules, there is scant research examining how to effectively communicate such preventive measures to customers. This study investigates the joint effect of policy type (mandatory versus voluntary) and message framing (appreciation versus apology) on cust...

Purpose Although academics and retail managers share a common belief that crowded stores generate more sales, there is a growing concern about the negative impact of retail crowding on customer relationship management (CRM). This research aims to understand the underlying processes driving the effect, and it explores potential moderators that may m...

Consumers use aesthetics bias to judge the risk of their food intake, having an important impact on food waste of less appealing food (i.e., aesthetically imperfect foods). In six studies, this research adds to past work by revealing that when the aesthetics bias is applied to food targets, consumers make risk inferences for imperfect (vs. perfect)...

The focus of the peer-to-peer in tourism (Airbnb) has shifted recently from personal peer providers (i.e., individuals that rent a room) to commercial peer providers (i.e., companies that manage several Airbnb lodgings). While prior research encourages peer service providers (Airbnb hosts) to focus on social interactions, there is scant research on...

The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodations has revolutionized the hospitality industry. Yet, research on peer-to-peer service failures and consumer forgiveness remains scant. This paper shows that relationship type—whether communal ("Airbnb host") or exchange ("hotel")—influences consumer forgiveness in a post-recovery context. Across five studie...

Are rational (emotional) advertising appeals more congruent with healthy (indulgent) products? Prior research shows inconsistent results on the congruency effect between appeal type and product category. This study sheds light on this topic by examining the moderating effect of two psychological states (i.e., feelings of uncertainty and powerlessne...

Although cool brands are increasingly popular in the marketplace, there is scant research examining generational differences in consumers’ coolness perceptions. To address this gap, the present research investigates consumers’ perceived coolness of hotels and the consequent brand attitudes among four generations of consumers. Our findings suggest t...

This research examines the joint effect of plate shape and plate placement in the context of multiple Korean side dishes, called banchan. Our findings indicate that, when side dishes are presented in an organized manner, round (vs. square) plates elicit more favorable attitudes toward the restaurant. When presented in a less organized manner, there...

While the recent surge of meat-like items on restaurant menus has received considerable attention, little is known how to encourage consumers to choose such novel dishes. To address this gap, we investigate the role of various communication strategies in making plant-based menu items more attractive. The results from Study 1 suggest that using a so...

Service robots (SR) are increasingly valued and embraced; they are here to stay. Research on collaborative intelligence to better understand robotic-human partnerships is scarce. To bridge that gap this study aimed to examine the value of SR from the guest’s perspective, thus gain a deeper understanding of the co-value creation process in the conte...

Tourism managers have a long-held belief that preferential recovery helps mitigate customers’ negative reactions following a service failure. This research investigates the joint effects of recovery type (preferential vs. non-preferential) and status (high vs. low) on customer responses. Five experiments provide converging evidence to show that low...

Engaging consumers in prosocial practices can increase their favorable responses toward a company. We suggest that cuteness cues of a third party (i.e., neither beneficiary nor benefactor) spur consumer engagement in such practices. It is well-known that a cute X stands a higher chance of being helped than a non-cute Y. This research examines a nov...

One of the prominent features of Korean cuisine is its use of small side dishes (called banchan), which are offered free of charge, a feature that should appeal to price-conscious, variety-craving US consumers. As little is known about how these side dishes and their presentation style influence diners’ perceptions of Korean cuisine, the goal of th...

Prior research demonstrates that consumers are more likely to donate when asked to round up their total bill to the next whole dollar (vs. donate a flat-dollar amount). However, there is scant research demonstrating boundary conditions for the effectiveness of round-up donations. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by suggesting...

We conducted a randomized controlled field study to explore the effectiveness of sensory marketing on beverage consumption patterns in a real bar setting. Specifically, we examined (a) the effect of visual elements (i.e., consumption-inducing text messages on coasters), (b) the effect of social density, and (c) the joint effect of visual elements a...

Loyalty reward members who redeem their reward points for materials/experiences may perceive themselves as “smart shoppers.” The purpose of this study is to illustrate the effect of smart shopper self-perceptions on word-of-mouth behaviors and to demonstrate emotional attachment as the mechanism underpinning such an effect. Study 1 used a recall-ba...

For many hospitality businesses, environmental lighting design can be a powerful tool to be leveraged to stage the servicescape when creating marketing collateral to attract customers. Addressing this underexplored topic, the current research examines how and why focal and general lighting designs, as presented in the restaurant's ambient images, i...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss some common pitfalls in experimental research in the field of hospitality and tourism. It aims to offer recommendations on how to avoid such problems to enhance theory development. Findings This paper highlights some common pitfalls in hospitality research regarding manipulations, samples and data an...

Robots are the next wave in service technology; however, this advanced technology is not perfect. This research examines how social perceptions regarding the warmth and competence of service robots influence consumer reactions to service failures and recovery efforts by robots. We argue that humanoid (vs. nonhumanoid) service robots are more strong...

Purpose This article explores four dimensions of frontline employee (FLE) friendliness (humorous, informal, conversational, and approachable) to propose a relevant measurement instrument of the influence of FLE friendliness on relationship quality and perceived value, as well as its indirect influence on repatronage intentions. Recent studies sugge...

The emergence of various service technologies has reshaped how today’s customers interact with the service provider. The current research proposes a service matrix delineating various types of service encounters along two dimensions: touch (the extent to which customers directly interact with frontline employees) and tech (the intensity of technolo...

In this editorial, we offer a critical assessment of the service failure and recovery (SFR) literature and suggest that the field is at a crossroads in terms of growth and relevance. Specifically, we address two key questions: (1) What is the current state of the field? (2) What avenues should SFR researchers pursue to promote a new stage of succes...

Despite the prevalent use of savings messages (e.g., “get $x off” and “save $x”), no previous tourism and hospitality research has examined their effect on consumer responses. To fill that void, this study investigates the joint effect of savings message type (gain-framed vs. nonloss-framed) and weather conditions (sunny vs. rainy) on consumer atti...

Understanding customer responses to service failures enable practitioners to minimize the negative impact of service failures. The purpose of this study is to examine the joint effect of service failure type and culture (power distance) on two discrete negative emotions and investigate the mediating role of discrete negative emotions in driving fac...

The growing reliance on the Internet as an information source for services raises the need for more research focusing on electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Drawing on construal level theory and the sunk costs fallacy, we examine how psychological distance and prior investments in information search influence service consumers’ reactions to negative e...

Purpose: This article explores four dimensions of frontline employee (FLE) friendliness (humorous, informal, conversational, and approachable) to propose a relevant measurement instrument of the influence of FLE friendliness on relationship quality and perceived value, as well as its indirect influence on repatronage intentions. Recent studies sugg...

Research shows that offering monetary compensation is effective in restoring customers’ equity perceptions following a service failure. However, little is known about loyalty reward program members’ responses to various types of recovery options. This study fills this important void by investigating two types of compensation: a discount coupon (in...

There is scant research on the impact of unionization on hospitality employees’ job security, health, and working conditions. This research explores employees’ beliefs of costs and benefits of unionization in hospitality organizations given that previous research has mainly focused on its influence on the firm and the industry. The findings of this...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues. Design/methodology/approach In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on...

Engaging consumers in a firm’s prosocial initiatives can generate favorable responses. As such, cause-related marketing (CRM) advertisements typically employ various content and design elements to engage consumers. However, the appropriate integration of advertising elements has gained little research attention. To fill this void, this study focuse...

Contributing to a relatively new stream of literature connecting grit to organizational retention, this research note examined how internal employability perceptions interacted with a manager’s grittiness to predict professional mobility intentions (turnover and change career intentions). Retention is a salient concern within the U.S. hospitality i...

Tourists often brag about their exclusive vacations, preferential treatments, and extraordinary adventures on social media. However, the existing digital marketing literature offers little guidance on whether bragging is an effective communication strategy. The current research investigates the joint effect of bragging type (bragging vs. humblebrag...

Customer complaints play an important role in firm performance as complaints enable service recovery and provide feedback for new product development. This study is among the first to investigate the impact of customer compassion on face-to-face complaints and online review posting behaviors following a service failure. Using an experimental design...

Despite the widespread use of “buy one get one free” (BOGOF) and “multi-unit price” (MUP, e.g., buy two get 50% off, 2 for $Y/2) promotions in the hospitality industry, no prior research has compared their effectiveness. The current study examines consumers’ purchase intention as a function of (a) BOGOF vs. MUP promotions and (b) rational thinking...

Dil engelleri konusu, ESL (English as a Second Language-İkinci Dili İngilizce olan) müşteriler için özellikle kültürlerarası hizmet alımlarında son derece önemlidir. Kültürlerarası hizmet alımlarında müşteriler, ne istediklerini anlatırken, hatta ürün ve servislerle ilgili bilgi talep ederken bile iletişim güçlüğü yaşayabilmektedir. Bu çalışma, nit...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of arousal fit between music (auditory cues) and plate color (visual cues) on food evaluations. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (background music: high vs low arousal) ×2 (plate color: high vs low arousal) between-subjects experimental design was employed to test the hypotheses. Participan...

Consumers make Airbnb choices not only based on property features but also based on host characteristics. However, very limited studies have examined how consumers respond to the gender of the Airbnb host. To fill that gap, this study examines the impact of gender congruity on consumers’ Airbnb booking intentions by using a 2 host gender (male vs....

Despite the widespread use of recommendation labels on restaurant menus, no prior research has investigated their impact on diners’ menu decisions. To bridge that gap, this study examines the joint effect of recommendation type (chef recommended vs. most popular) and culture (individualistic vs. collectivistic) on diners’ purchase intention. The re...

Despite the prevalence of a common belief associating healthy eating with high status, the effect of such an intuitive association on consumer behavior remains unexamined. To fill this void, this research explores status signaling in a restaurant context. Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of consumers’ need for status on their prefer...

Advancing a nascent stream of research linking grit to employment retention, this article investigated how job insecurity interacted with a person’s level of grit to predict turnover intentions and career change intentions of hotel managers. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, grit was found to be a valid higher order construct that had an eff...

Online booking is one of the most popular ways of making reservations for hotel guests. Thus, hoteliers are paying increasing attention to hotel website information presentation and design. The purpose of this study, then, is to examine the joint influence of choice set size and information filtering mechanisms on consumers’ decision confidence tow...

Drawing on the innovation diffusion theory and conspicuous consumption theory, this study examines the post-usage responses from customers with varying levels of need for status after using mobile apps of different levels of social visibility. Contrary to some industry opinions, this research shows that a mobile app with low levels of social visibi...

Given the increasing presence of humanoid service robots at airports, hotels and restaurants, the current study investigates how consumers’ interdependent self-construal and technology self-efficacy jointly influence their reactions to service machines with humanlike features in a service failure context. The results demonstrate that consumers show...

This research investigates whether customers’ preferences for a certain diet (vegetarianism) may extend to another indirectly related hospitality choice (lodging at a green hotel). The study results show that, compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarian customers demonstrate higher level of green values and are more likely to choose a green hotel. Th...