Rate My Professor Emily Ma

Professor Emily (Jintao) Ma is a Professor in the School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. She earned her PhD in Hospitality Management from Oklahoma State University in 2010, her MS in Hospitality and Tourism Management from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and her BA in Tourism Management from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Additionally, she holds a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (GCHE) and is a Chartered Institute of Arbitrators affiliate (CHIA). Her distinguished career includes faculty positions across four continents: she previously served as faculty at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and as Associate Professor in the Hospitality & Tourism Management Department at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, joining there in spring 2016.

Ma's research specializations encompass organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and organizational behavior in hospitality and tourism contexts, leadership development with a focus on motherhood and women in leadership, human-robot interaction to improve employee well-being and customer experiences, and customer experience management. She has authored or co-authored numerous influential publications in leading journals. Key works include "Going above and beyond for your own sake? An integrated model of hotel employees’ OCB, workplace thriving, and perceived control" in the International Journal of Hospitality Management (2025), "Robots vs. human employees' influence on restaurant brand relationship building: An integration of role theory and stereotype theory" in the Journal of Vacation Marketing (2025), "Daily green behavior as an antecedent and a moderator for visitors' pro-environmental behaviors" in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism (2020), "When work and life boundaries are blurred—P2P accommodation hosts’ work-life integration and consequences" in the International Journal of Hospitality Management (2021), and "From good soldiers to happy employees: Exploring the emotional and well-being outcomes of organizational citizenship behavior" in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021). Her scholarship advances understanding of employee motivations, service innovation, technological integration, and diversity in the hospitality industry.