Krystin Zigan

Intangible resources in performance measurement systems of the hotel industry

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the value of intangible resources and, consequently, the importance of their integration into performance measurement systems applied in the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a thorough literature review, arguments draw on relevant theories in performance measurement in the hotel industry and the concept of intangible resources. Merging these two different concepts reveals new research areas.Findings – The literature review shows that even those integrated performance measurement systems that aim to include non‐financial measures do not necessarily capture intangible resources. Based on this finding, suggestions for extending performance measurement systems are made.Practical implications – This paper has significant implications for hotel managers, as it will allow them to broaden their perspective and include important performance drivers (i.e. intangible resources such as knowledge, motivation and social capital) in their performa...

Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews on Hotel Performance An Empirical Analysis

Understanding consumers’ needs and wants has been a major source of success for hotel organizations. Notwithstanding, investigating the valence of online reviews and modeling hotel attributes and performance is still a rather novel approach. Using partial least squares path modeling, Swiss country-level data for online reviews from 68 online platforms, together with data from 442 hotels, we test 11 hypotheses. Our research model includes three distinctive areas of the hotel: physical aspects, quality of food and drink, and human aspects of service provision. RevPAR and occupancy are employed as performance metrics. We also test for mediation effects. Results indicate that hotel attributes, including the quality of rooms, Internet provision and building show the highest impact on hotel performance, and that positive comments have the highest impact on customer demand. This study contributes to theories of valence on hotel performance and presents salient implications for practitioners to enhance performance.

Intellectual capital and its impact on business performance: evidences from the Jordanian hotel industry.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between intellectual capital and business performance in the Jordanian hotel industry. The data for this study were collected from 116 managers of four- and five-star hotels. Regression analyses were conducted to test different research hypotheses. The findings showed that all dimensions of intellectual capital have a positive and significant impact on the business performance of Jordanian hotels. In particular, structural capital as one of the intellectual capital dimensions had the strongest and largest contribution to business performance. The extended knowledge about the importance of intellectual capital and its impact on business performance enables practitioners to develop adequate strategies to better manage organisational performance. Not much research has investigated the importance of these resources in the hotel industry and even less research has been undertaken to explore their significance for Arabic countries. To our knowledge, this research is the first large-scale empirical study, which investigates this relationship in the Arab hotel industry.

A Contingency Approach to the Strategic Management of Intangible Resources

Not with standing the increasing awareness of the importance of intangible resources for the success of organisations, there is a paucity of research investigating the impact of contingent factors on the strategic management of such resources. This research therefore aims to address this issue by investigating the contingencies which come into play in hospital organisations. It does so by using a case study approach to examine the impact of industry-specific and organisation-specific factors on management activities. It was found that factors such as task complexity and staff profile play a significant role in regulated management contexts making the adjustment of existing approaches an indispensable task for general managers who aim to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The paper contributes to various disciplines. For example, it contributes to the literature on resource management, by proposing a framework for the effective management of intangible resources in the light of the impact of contingent factors.

The Identification of Important Intangible Resources in Hospitals

Abstract The current research literature has little on the understanding and use of intangible resources in hospitals, and given the importance of people in the delivery of health care organizations, the objective of this research was to identify what managers perceived to be the key intangible resources that were used in this setting. The supplementary objective was to explore whether known intangible resources were managed in any systematic way. A qualitative research approach was followed and this allowed for the identification and description of key intangible resources in the hospital setting. In particular we found that social capital and staff attitude were identified as important by hospital managers and clinicians. The findings contribute to current research as they theoretically allow the extension of the concept of intangible resources to the hospital sector. They also lead to a number of recommendations for the strategic management of intangible resources in hospitals, and other health care organizations.