According to the resource based view (RBV) of the firm, quality management (QM) is one of the sources the firm can use to generate competitive advantage (CA). Although QM and CA have widely attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners, the link between these two concepts has rarely been examined in the literature, especially in service industry. Additionally, among those few studies that investigated the relationship between QM and CA, there is contradictory evidence on which QM practices generate CA. Thus, this study examines the impact of QM on CA in the hotels industry, in order to identify which QM practices generate CA. Based on an extensive review of the literature on QM and CA, valid and reliable definitions were formulated for both concepts, and then a conceptual framework was developed to illustrate the relationships between the research variables. Data obtained from a survey of 384 four and five star hotels in Egypt is used to test the impact of QM on CA. A total of 300 responses were obtained. Twelve uncompleted questionnaires were removed, leaving 288 usable questionnaires and yielding a response rate of 75 %. All questionnaires were completed by the hotel general managers. Three main data analysis techniques were employed: exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modelling (SEM). Three models are employed in CFA to test the dimensional structure of QM. These models include a model that allows all factors to be freely correlated (oblique factor model), a model where all factors are correlated because they all measure one higher order factor (higher order factor model), and a model where all indicators are employed to test if they measure only one construct. The results of CFA provide solid statistical evidence that affirm the multidimensionality of the QM construct and contradict other studies that employed QM as a unidimensional construct. These results assist in resolving the problems that might arise from the lack of clarity in the literature concerning the dimensional structure of QM. The SEM results affirm that the soft QM practices such as top management leadership (TML), employee management (EM), customer focus (CF), and supplier management (SM) directly improve the hotel financial performance but the hard QM practices such as process management (PM) and quality data and reporting (QD&R) do not. However, two quality management practices, TML and SM, are found to distinguish those hotels that have CA from those hotels that have not. Therefore, these results can help hotel managers to reallocate the hotel resources to implement those QM practices that can improve the hotel financial performance and generate CA. Finally, this study would benefit if these models are tested with an alternative data set. This study also suffered from a limitation common to survey research and SEM. The current study survey, due to time and money constraints, is a cross sectional sample at one specific point in time. As a result, while causal relationships can be inferred, they cannot be strictly proven. Causal inferences are stronger with longitudinal studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:559108 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Elshaer, Ibrahim Abdelhamid |
| Contributors | Augustyn, Marcjanna |
| Publisher | University of Hull |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6069 |
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