Sýkorová K., Service-Profit Chain in the Hotel Industry. Thesis. Brno: Mendel University in Brno, 2015. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the theory of a Service-Profit Chain in the hotel industry. The thesis is divided into two sections -- theoretical and practical. The theoretical part describes each of the particular links of the chain such as employee satisfaction, motivation, place of work, work performance, engagement and so on. Another important link of the chain involves guests, their satisfaction, and loyalty. As the research includes a questionnaire survey, the theoretical section describes both how to create a questionnaire and also how to evaluate it. The practical section of this thesis demonstrates the questionnaires, process of interviewing and evaluation of data. This area of the thesis also presents an interpretation of results and further recommendations.

Deciding on the appropriate level of customer service remains an important area of research. In the current service environment where competition is ubiquitous, the importance of identifying and retaining key customers is of paramount importance. As such, the concept of customer delight, which refers to a profoundly positive emotional state experienced by the customer, has developed. Unfortunately, much remains unknown regarding customer delight. In response to this dearth of research, the current study focuses on delight from multiple perspectives utilizing multiple methods. Thus, this dissertation adds to the emerging knowledge base of customer delight in three areas: first, assessing what delight represents to the employee; second, investigating its impact on the employee; and third, examining what delight represents to the customer. To gain this knowledge, three separate essays were written. A summary of each is below. In Essay 1 (Chapter 2), the goal was to gain an appreciation of delight from the employee’s viewpoint. Through the use of a qualitative technique where critical incidents were content analyzed, several themes emerged. First, employees evaluate delight differently then customers. Second, employees experience elevated affective states after providing delight. Finally, employees seem to exhibit customer-oriented behaviors after a delightful encounter. With these key themes in mind, Essay 2 (Chapter 3) utilized structural equation modeling, which is a quantitative method that helps investigate relationships among variables. Findings indicated that employees did in fact experience elevated levels of affect, as well as commitment, satisfaction, and customer-oriented behaviors. After investigating the effects of delight on the employee, it was necessary to evaluate what exactly delights the customer. Utilizing the aforementioned qualitative method, Essay 3 (Chapter 4) provides several themes regarding the customer perspective: first, there are both cognitive and affective routes to delight; second, both the disconfirmation paradigm and the needs-based model are appropriate for understanding delight; and third, employee affect and effort are key drivers of delight. Taken together, the findings provide a more complete understanding of the focal construct, as well, as articulating specific behaviors that lead to perceptions of delight. Finally, this dissertation evaluates the important employee outcomes that result from providing delight.

The management of operations for a customer contact center (CCC) presents significant challenges. Management's direction is to reduce costs through operational efficiency metrics while providing maximum customer satisfaction levels to retain customers and increase profit margins. The purpose of this correlational study was to quantify the significance of various customer service representative (CSR) characteristics including internal service quality, employee satisfaction, and employee productivity, and then to determine their predictive ability on customer satisfaction, as outlined in the service-profit chain model. The research question addressed whether a linear relationship existed between CSR characteristics and the customers' satisfaction with the CSR by applying ordinary least squares regression using archival dyadic data. The data consisted of a random sample of 269 CSRs serving a large Canadian bank. Various subsets of data were analyzed via regression to help generate actionable insights. One particular model involving poor performing CSRs whose customer satisfaction was less than 75% top box proved to be statistically significant (p = .036, R-squared = .321) suggesting that poor performing CSRs contribute to a significant portion of poor customer service while high performing CSRs do not necessarily guarantee good customer service. A key variable used in this research was a CSR's level of education, which was not significant. Such a finding implies that for CCC support, a less-educated labor pool may be maintained, balancing societal benefits of employment for less-educated people at a reasonable service cost to a company. These findings relate to positive social change as hiring less-educated applicants could increase their social and economic status.

<p>Hotellmarknaden är under utveckling, nya aktörer kommer in på marknaden, kedjor, fusioner och nya trender skapas. Utvecklingen sker som följd av tjänsters framväxt i samhället, vilket gör att förändringar blir ett absolut. Hotellmarknaden är cyklisk, detta gäller ett beroende av det aktuella konjunkturläget, naturligt ger detta lönsamhet vid högkonjunktur som dock kan skifta snabbt. Olika verksamheter inom branschen har varierande förutsättningar, studiens objekt har begränsningar i form av ekonomiska och resursmässiga möjligheterna att förändras efter nya mönster och trender. Dessa objekt kategoriseras som mindre, fristående, traditionella hotell.</p><p>Tanken med uppsatsen är att ge verksamheter som studiens eller liknande möjligheten att se viktiga delar inom den interna marknadsföringen som kan ge dem större konkurrensmöjligheter. De undersöka objekten i studien, mindre, fristående, traditionella hotell, bygger mycket av sin verksamhet på relationer, personlighet, upplevelse och en familjär känsla. Utifrån detta har uppsatsen formats att handla om den interna marknadsföringen, relationer inom verksamheten, som ligger till grund för att verksamheternas personal skall kunna ge en god service till kunderna.</p><p>Uppsatsen har byggts upp utifrån en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie på sammanlagt tre hotell med liknande förutsättningar. Detta för att få en bild av deras syn på den interna marknadsföringen genom dess utformning och utbredning. Som en kontroll på utfallet av verksamheternas interna marknadsföring har en kvantitativ undersökning av hotellgästernas upplevda kvalitet genomförts. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har formaliserats till ett idealläge, där företagen beskrivs kunna skapa bästa utvecklings- och konkurrensmöjligheter genom en välutvecklad intern marknadsföring.</p><p>I uppsatsen visar samtliga verksamheter på kunskap kring fenomenet intern marknadsföring, de visar också på olika grader och former av intern marknadsföring inom de olika verksamheterna. I slutsatsen framkommer flera varierande brister med därpå lämpliga åtgärder som författarna kan peka på. Dessa brister och åtgärder utgör de faktorer som krävs för att de mindre, fristående, traditionella hotellen ska kunna öka konkurrenskraften på en föränderlig marknad. Faktorerna utgörs av brister angående ledningens engagemang i personalens delaktighet, utveckling och kompetens, personalens bristande upplevda motivation, tydliga riktlinjer visavi verksamhetens visioner, brister i de befintliga informationskanalerna och betydelsen av ägarens förståelse för skillnaden mellan att driva en verksamhet och att äga en verksamhet.</p>

Hotellmarknaden är under utveckling, nya aktörer kommer in på marknaden, kedjor, fusioner och nya trender skapas. Utvecklingen sker som följd av tjänsters framväxt i samhället, vilket gör att förändringar blir ett absolut. Hotellmarknaden är cyklisk, detta gäller ett beroende av det aktuella konjunkturläget, naturligt ger detta lönsamhet vid högkonjunktur som dock kan skifta snabbt. Olika verksamheter inom branschen har varierande förutsättningar, studiens objekt har begränsningar i form av ekonomiska och resursmässiga möjligheterna att förändras efter nya mönster och trender. Dessa objekt kategoriseras som mindre, fristående, traditionella hotell. Tanken med uppsatsen är att ge verksamheter som studiens eller liknande möjligheten att se viktiga delar inom den interna marknadsföringen som kan ge dem större konkurrensmöjligheter. De undersöka objekten i studien, mindre, fristående, traditionella hotell, bygger mycket av sin verksamhet på relationer, personlighet, upplevelse och en familjär känsla. Utifrån detta har uppsatsen formats att handla om den interna marknadsföringen, relationer inom verksamheten, som ligger till grund för att verksamheternas personal skall kunna ge en god service till kunderna. Uppsatsen har byggts upp utifrån en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie på sammanlagt tre hotell med liknande förutsättningar. Detta för att få en bild av deras syn på den interna marknadsföringen genom dess utformning och utbredning. Som en kontroll på utfallet av verksamheternas interna marknadsföring har en kvantitativ undersökning av hotellgästernas upplevda kvalitet genomförts. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har formaliserats till ett idealläge, där företagen beskrivs kunna skapa bästa utvecklings- och konkurrensmöjligheter genom en välutvecklad intern marknadsföring. I uppsatsen visar samtliga verksamheter på kunskap kring fenomenet intern marknadsföring, de visar också på olika grader och former av intern marknadsföring inom de olika verksamheterna. I slutsatsen framkommer flera varierande brister med därpå lämpliga åtgärder som författarna kan peka på. Dessa brister och åtgärder utgör de faktorer som krävs för att de mindre, fristående, traditionella hotellen ska kunna öka konkurrenskraften på en föränderlig marknad. Faktorerna utgörs av brister angående ledningens engagemang i personalens delaktighet, utveckling och kompetens, personalens bristande upplevda motivation, tydliga riktlinjer visavi verksamhetens visioner, brister i de befintliga informationskanalerna och betydelsen av ägarens förståelse för skillnaden mellan att driva en verksamhet och att äga en verksamhet.

Purpose: Using the basic framework of the service profit chain, this study aims to develop an integrated model that explains the relationships among role overload (RO), customer orientation (CO), service interaction quality (IQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and sales performance. Design/methodology/approach: A large-scale survey of 872 customers and 530 frontline employees across 50 branches of a major retail bank in New Zealand serves as the study setting. Findings: The results indicate that RO has a significant negative effect on IQ. Nevertheless, CO mitigates the negative outcome of RO on IQ. IQ fully mediates the relationship between RO and CS. Additionally, the effect of IQ on branch sales is fully mediated by CS. Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional nature of the current survey does not permit causal inferences. Thus, future studies should adopt longitudinal designs. Also, future studies should explore the roles of other variables (e.g. job crafting, work-related self-efficacy) as possible moderators. Practical implications: Results suggest that service managers should create a balance between the role requirements and organizational resources to mitigate the adverse effects of employee RO. To enhance IQ and CS, bank managers should coach employees about work overload and train them in CO while prioritizing the tasks. Originality/value: Empirical research pertaining to employee–customer interaction through a nested framework accommodating data from customers, employees and firm performance is scarce. This study fills in the void.

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This study explores how foreign owned service firms with headquarters in developed markets transfer their service culture into a country with an emerging market like Nigeria. This study is motivated by the need to understand this process considering the unique features of these markets, and the expansion into countries with emerging markets by service firms located in countries with developed markets to take advantage of both natural and human resources. The research uses case studies of two hotels from different firms, both in Abuja, Nigeria, to explore activities that enhance the transfer of service culture from the Headquarters of these hotels based in the USA. Both hotels were investigated through semi-structured interviews, based on elements of internal service quality from the service profit chain model, in addition to documents and observation notes. The finding reveals the process of transferring service culture is difficult and complex because of unique contextual challenges. Some of these challenges were shown to be country specific, while some may be unique to countries with emerging markets. The country specific challenges include; strong religious allegiance and cultural affinity, and unique societal factors. Other factors could apply to any country with an emerging market these include; corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of skilled labour. Similarly this study identified new elements that enabled both firms to address these challenges as well as enhance the transfer of focal areas in their signature service culture. Some of these elements have also been identified to be country specific i.e. inclusiveness and provision of social support, while the remaining three are emerging market specific i.e. transfer of knowledge and skills, accommodating corruption, and improvisation. These new elements also add to the existing five elements of internal service quality, which are employee selection, job description, reward and recognition, tools to serve customers, and workplace design. The study demonstrates the important role that intermediaries can play in achieving accommodations to achieve at least partial transfer of the parent service culture. Overall, the research contributes to management practice by highlighting areas to focus on when attempting to transfer service culture in similar circumstances. This thesis adds to the academic literature on the transfer of service culture from headquarters in a developed country to a unit in a country with an emerging market. It does this by extending concepts from the service profit chain to show how internal elements can enhance or block the transfer of service culture.

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