Check out the profile pages on our faculty and staff directory as well as our Ph.D. students to see more of the great research being done by the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Faculty Spotlights
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Kawon (Kathy) Kim, Ph.D.
Associate professor Kawon (Kathy) Kim's research is focused on service marketing (social and interpersonal influence, social support, influence of other customers, service failure and recovery) and organizational behavior (leadership, employee training).
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Robin DiPietro, Ph.D.
Professor Robin DiPietro is director of the International Institute for Foodservice Research and Education. DiPietro has research interests in multi-unit chain restaurant operations and human resources issues inherent to restaurant operations including motivation, leadership, employee retention, and staffing issues of organizations.
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Fang Meng, Ph.D.
Professor Fang Meng served as committee chair of the 2022 International Tourism, Retail and Service Management Conference hosted by USC and is the Ph.D. program director for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Meng’s research interests include tourism marketing and management, destination branding, consumer behavior / experience in tourism and hospitality, and international tourism.
Research Highlight
Iskender, A., Sirakaya-Turk, E., Cárdenas, D., & Hikmet, N. (2022). Restaurant patrons’ intentions toward QR code menus in the U.S. during COVID-19: Acceptance of technology adoption model (ATAM). Journal of Foodservice Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2022.2133518
During COVID, technology adoption accepted by individuals was equivalent to a decades-long adoption level. QR codes and Zoom were available before the pandemic, but we didn’t use them. People didn’t like them. This means if COVID-19 did not happen, some technologies would be adopted in the next decade, not now. It became a tool to help businesses continue their services. Now, customer acceptance is getting higher and higher. People like the technology when it is functional, utilitarian. That is the main motivation behind technology acceptance.
2021 School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Published Work Highlights
Bold = USC faculty
* = Current or former student