Andrew Lockwood

ICT Paradox Lost? A Stepwise DEA Methodology to Evaluate Technology Investments in Tourism Settings

Despite the continuous increase of investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the tourism industry, empirical studies have not persuasively established corresponding increases in productivity. Indeed several shortcomings have been identified in past studies. This study proposes a new way of assessing ICT productivity. The methodology is tested in a data set from the three-star hotel sector in the United Kingdom using a nonparametric technique called data envelopment analysis (DEA). Empirical findings reveal that productivity gains accrue not from investments per se, but from the full exploitation of the ICT networking and informationalization capabilities. A model for managing ICT applications and benefits is proposed.

Using Service Incidents to Identify Quality Improvement Points

To be able to deliver consistent quality to hospitality customers, it is necessary to be able to identify those aspects of the service encounter that bring about satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Explores a simple technique for recording success and failure in service situations. This will allow organizations to identify areas for quality improvement and enable decisions to be made about the key priorities for action.

Productivity in hotels: a stepwise data envelopment analysis of hotels' rooms division processes

Low productivity within service industries has been a major concern, but this situation is unlikely to improve without a general change in the way productivity is measured and managed. This paper aims to illustrate the value of stepwise data envelopment analysis (DEA) for measuring and benchmarking productivity. The issues and problems regarding productivity measurement as well as the advantages of using DEA in productivity measurement are analysed. The article extends current DEA applications by developing a stepwise approach to DEA. The latter technique combines correlation and DEA analysis for developing robust models and sound productivity measurement. The advantages of the proposed methodology are illustrated by applying it to a dataset of three-star hotels in the UK. Six inputs and three outputs are identified as the factors affecting rooms division efficiency in three star hotels.

Core and Peripheral Employees in Hotel Operations

This article discusses approaches to work flexibility and the use of core and peripheral workers in the hotel industry. It argues that hotel companies have traditionally neglected building a core workforce and resorted to using “peripheral” workers in key operative jobs. It distinguishes between three groups of core workers that can be found in hotels: company core staff, who make their careers across a range of units in a hotel group; unit core staff, who are limited to the single hotel unit; and operative core staff, who may develop their careers within one hotel or across a number of hotels. The problems of developing such an operative core are discussed, as are the consequences of not developing it.

Strategic implementation and IT: gaining competitive advantage from the hotel reservations process

Reviews the development of approaches to reservations management in the hotel industry alongside models of the stages of development in information technology (IT). Suggests that strategic success and operational implementation have been built on the prevailing IT “era”. Explores the future strategic potential of reservations management. Hotel operators need to understand how technology changes the “rules of the game” and identify alternative strategies for gaining competitive advantage. In reality, strategic implementation is either “service‐led” or “IT‐led”.

Understanding the challenges of implementing best practices in hospitality and tourism SMEs

Purpose – To provide insight into the barriers to the application of best practices in hospitality and tourism small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews were conducted with owners, managers and staff in 89 award‐winning business in the hospitality and tourism industry. Eight areas of best practice that arose from an initial pilot study were investigated in the sample population of SMEs. With a holistic and multiple‐cases analysis approach, the case studies are assembled to form a portrait of hospitality and tourism in the UK.Findings – Results suggest a model identifying seven key capabilities that underlie the adoption of best practices and six barriers to their implementation. The seven key capabilities for hospitality and tourism SMEs are customer focused goals, planning and control, partnering and networking, internal and external communication, achieving consistent standards, strategic workforce management, cash flow and performance manage...

Strategies and measurement for workforce flexibility: an application of functional flexibility in a service setting

In situations where a volatile product market meets an unstable labour market, as is often found in customer contact service operations such as the hospitality industry, there is a need for the constant manipulation of labour supply to match labour demand. Functional workforce flexibility, where multiskilled staff are able to move from jobs in one department to jobs in another, presents an opportunity for solving part of the problem. Presents an approach to calculating the need for functional flexibility dependent on the identified discrepancies in labour demand and supply. Having identified the size of the need, a strategy needs to be developed for fulfilling that need. In implementing this strategy, two approaches are identified: planned whole job substitution and boundary loosening. While the planned approach offers the rational course for maintaining quality and productivity levels, there is evidence that an evolving approach may help to stabilize a highly volatile situation by breaking down barriers from within.

An investigation of the factors affecting innovation performance in chain and independent hotels

SUMMARY The failure rate of new service projects is high, because the knowledge about how innovations should be developed is limited. In the last decade, several studies have investigated the success factors associated with service innovations (e.g., Atuahene-Gima, 1996; de Brentani, 2001; Storey and Easingwood, 1998). However, no research in new service development (NSD) has addressed the question of whether chain affiliated and independently operated service firms have different approaches for developing successful innovations. The majority of past new service development (NSD) success studies have concentrated on the financial service sector, which is generally represented by large corporate organizations. The findings of this study indicate that the factors which impact on the performance of NSD depend on the organizational relationship of hotels-chain affiliation or independent operation. The studys results suggest that market attractiveness, process management, market responsiveness and empowerment predict NSD success within chain affiliated hotels. While empowerment and market attractiveness are also related to NSD success in independent hotels, this is also linked to effective marketing communication, employee commitment, behaviour based evaluation, training of employees and marketing synergy.

Creating positive service encounters.

Contrary to common belief, managers can exert control over what takes place in service encounters

Operations management research in the hospitality industry.

Abstract This article critically reviews operations management research in the hospitality industry. The literature is reviewed by moving from studies of “macro issues” such as industry classification through consideration of chain, unit and specific operations (namely food and beverage and accommodation) to the “micro issue” of the service encounter. It concludes that commonly used operations terminology is not clearly defined; operations management research to date has been too conceptual; and that this type of research is conducted in isolation. It therefore strongly advocates grounding such research in the discipline of “production and operations management” (POM) and engaging in more empirically based studies.