About CV

Research

Teaching

Service/Honor

Service Awards & Grants

Media/Talk/Engage

📰

News

Board view

I participated in a panel talk session at #APF2025 titled "From Graduate to Scholar: Insights from Early-Career Academics."

Big cheers to all PhD pursuers!

Participated as a Panelist in APF2025

2025/05/15

Conference

I'm pleased to announce that I've been invited to become an Assistant Editor (specializing in social media) for the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education.

Appointed as JHTE Assistant Editor (of social media)

2025/04/01

Academic Appointment

Such an honor to lead a talk with Rosewood Hong Kong's senior executives, Hugo Montanari (Managing director), Olena Pavlyshyn (Director of Rooms), and Angus Pitkethley (Director of Sales & Marketing). Diving into Rosewood's blend of #luxury, #digitalstorytelling, and #socialimpact was truly inspiring, presenting a learning curve for us all!

Thanks to Dr. YooHee Hwang, who sat with me as a co-moderator. Also, kudos to Dennis Wong for coordinating Rosewood Day 2025 along with #PolyUSHTM - his alma mater!

Originally posted on LinkedIn.

Chaired a panel session with Rosewood HK’s executives

2025/02/21

Industry Involvement

I’m pleased to share my new research titled, Improving employee-robot collaboration in hospitality: Understanding the zero-sum mindset.

Key insights:

Mindsets matter. Employees viewing resources as limited (the "zero-sum mindset") may see high-intelligence robots as competition, welcoming their low-intelligence counterparts instead. 

Fear not, change warriors! Advocacy campaigns can help employees see robots for what they are - aids to free them for more intricate tasks, not terrors plotting job takeover. 

Task design is another pivotal point. Involving employees in shaping how robots assist them mellows their apprehensions and fosters collaboration, especially for those with a strong zero-sum mindset. 

Tips to make this transition smoother:

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Communicate clearly, address fears of job displacement, and offer training. Transparency builds trust! 

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Actively involve employees in creating the future. Ownership inspires cooperation. 

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Be mindful of the intelligence level needed for robotic tasks, factoring in employee mindsets. 

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Capitalize on competitive mindsets to champion this transformation. 

Academic abstract

In the evolving landscape of the hotel industry, the integration of robotic technologies is reshaping service dynamics. This three-part research investigates the transformative impact of robots on hospitality employees and their inclination to collaborate with robotic counterparts. Study 1 delves into the intricate relationship between employees' zero-sum mindset and the influence of robot intelligence on collaboration willingness. Employees with a strong zero-sum mindset exhibit a heightened willingness to collaborate with low-intelligence robots but perceive high-intelligence robots as competitors. Study 2 introduces an advocacy campaign, revealing its effectiveness in shifting zero-sum mindset perceptions from threats to valuable resources. In Study 3, employee participation in collaborative tasks is explored, emphasizing the positive outcomes of involving employees in task design for enhanced collaboration with service robots. The findings underscore the need to address employees' competitive mindset and employ effective communication strategies for successful employee-robot collaboration in the hotel industry.

Link

New article (IJHM) - Employee-robot collaboration

2025/01/03

Publication

I had the "luxury" of being invited to present a guest seminar on Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and the logic of necessity in causality at my alma mater, Hanyang University! Developed by Dr. Jan Dul, NCA has shown rapid growth in the field of tourism & hospitality since its first application in 2019 (https://lnkd.in/gtdkr2gn), offering researchers a method to theorize/test necessity-based causal relationships. This causal approach is valued for its strong predictive capabilities and parsimony.

NCA works for both experimental and observational studies. It also complements PLS-SEM effectively (check Richter et al., 2020, https://lnkd.in/gzTQiPPu), integrated within the SmartPLS software for analysis.

Since 2020, I have been serving on the NCA development team.

Originally posted on my LinkedIn page.

Guest Lecture at Hanyang University, South Korea

2024/12/10

Invited Talk

Last week, I was honorably invited to share my research on strategies to maintain hospitality value in self-service technology in the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT), University of the Philippines.

My story with AIT began over a decade ago, first as a curious sit-in student, then as a private student for one semester. It was here that I found the social phenomena of tourism & hospitality - the act of people (leisurely) moving from one place to another and the interactions between hosts and guests - fascinating. In 2019, AIT also gave me the chance to stand at the front of a classroom, where I experienced the joy (and challenge) of college teaching for the first time. Those experiences sparked a dream that eventually led me to pursue a PhD at Fox School of Business at Temple University and, today, to become part of the top school faculty at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Returning to AIT to share my research felt like coming home. I’m incredibly grateful to Dr. @Edieser Dela Santa, Dean @Giovanni Francis Legaspi, and andre joseph anthony alip for their generous invitation, and my other AIT friends and faculty/students from @UP Diliman Dept. of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management who joined my talk and/or came to support.

Thank you, AIT, for being more than the starting point of a dream but a home!

Originally posted on my LinkedIn page.

Guest Lecture at University of the Philippines

2024/12/04

Invited Talk

I'm pleased to announce that I've been invited to become a Social Media Officer for the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Management.

Appointed as JHTM Social Media Officer

2024/11/01

Academic Appointment

Why wouldn't we feel moved anymore by a love letter, if it turns out to be an Internet quote or AI-generated? What truly matters is the thoughts behind the letter (or the action of writing)!

Happy to share our first "hospitality-specific" theory paper! Dr. Lu Lu and I theorize, based on the philosophical discussions around the "problem of other minds" and "genuine hospitality," that consumers can recognize true hospitable values via AI providers' services/actions only if they see these AIs as conscious entities. Our study further predicts that AIs, no matter how closely they resemble humans in appearance and behavior (i.e., fully humanoid AI vs. Homo Sapience), will still be viewed as less conscious and, thus, less capable of showing genuine hospitality.

Specifically, our theorizing is based on necessity-based causality and Necessary Condition Analysis, a concept developed by Dr. Jan Dul (a special shout-out to him!). I'm overjoyed to have been part of this wonderful team for more than 5 years now!

Academic abstract

This research establishes the Consciousness Attribution Model of AI Hospitableness (CAMAH), an emerging theoretical framework that examines three interconnected aspects: (1) the mechanism of consciousness attribution by consumers towards AI-enabled service providers, (2) the necessity of such attributions in recognizing the symbolic value of AI hospitableness, and (3) a nuanced comparison between human and AI providers concerning their capacity to deliver genuine hospitability. At its core, CAMAH articulates seven foundational propositions around the argument that consuming genuine hospitality delivered by AI service providers necessitates consumers’ attribution of consciousness. Our model not only highlights a necessary condition under which AI providers are capable of offering symbolic values through their perceived hospitableness but also delineates the key boundaries of such perceptions, acknowledging the inherent distinctions between AI entities—notwithstanding their potential to emulate humanlike form/behavior—and humans.

Link

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431924002408

New article (IJHM) - Theorizing AI hospitableness

2024/09/23

Publication

Our study, coauthored with Dr. Lu Lu. has been featured in The Conversation US! A big thank you to Tom Benner and Bryan Keogh for collaborating with us on our news brief about self-service kiosks and restaurant waiting lines.

Our "waiting line" research is still on the way to making impacts! It's been highlighted in several spaces including:

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The Conversation (https://lnkd.in/grWTUcNy)

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Temple Now (https://lnkd.in/dNXVuiXh)

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Kiosk Marketplace (https://lnkd.in/gUaJ3A93)

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Fox Newsroom (https://lnkd.in/ggMagzxu)

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Restaurant Business (https://lnkd.in/gJBjxXm8)

Why restaurant self-service kiosks can actually result in customers ordering less food

New research on food-ordering kiosks introduces the social dynamics at play and offers alternatives for designing a more effective and customer-friendly self-service process.

https://theconversation.com/why-restaurant-self-service-kiosks-can-actually-result-in-customers-ordering-less-food-235462

Featured in The Conversation

2024/08/29

Media Hits

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as an Assistant Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University!

Appointed as Assistant Professor at PolyU

2024/08/01

Academic Appointment