Tourism Management Studies

Designing and validating a model of customer delight in the hotel industry: mixed methods research

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Mohsen Sohrabi 1
Ahmad Rahchamani 2
Rasoul Sanavifard 3

1 Ph.D. Student, Department of Business Management, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management, Accounting and Humanities, Gazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gazvin, Iran.

3 Associate Professor Department of Business Management, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2024.79395.2931
Abstract
The traditional goal of satisfaction has yet to work to ensure customer loyalty, and moving toward customer delight is essential for hotels. This research aims to design and validate the customer delight model in the hotel industry using mixed-methods research. At first, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 specialists using grounded theory and theoretical and purposive sampling methods. Three coding steps identified 98 concepts and 25 main categories presented as a paradigm model. The research hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modeling method. The findings of the quantitative section showed that the category of perceived value of service is the causal factor and the cause of customer delight, and this category will influence the consequences of delight (customer's positive behavioral intentions and improvement of hotel performance) through the optimization of the customer experience management process. Meanwhile, in order to successfully implement delight strategies, it is necessary to pay attention to the availability of cultural platforms (organizational culture, management's commitment to customer delight, and Customer engagement) and obstacles to delight (increasing customer expectations, increasing the costs of delight, and reducing the effectiveness of delighting actions).

Keywords

Customer Delight
Customer Experience Management
Grounded Theory
Hotel Industry
Subjects
  1. اسدزاده، علیرضا، شریفی‌راد، محمد‌صادق، شاکراردکانی، محمد (1403). بررسی تأثیر رهبری اصیل بر روی کامیابی کارکنان در محیط کار در صنعت هتلداری: نقش تعدیلگری سیاست سازمانی. فصلنامه مطالعات مدیریت گردشگری، 19(65)، 183-208. https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2024.75531.2887    
  2. داوری، علی، رضازاده، آرش (1393). مدل سازی معادلات ساختاری با نرم افزار PLS. تهران: سازمان انتشارات جهاد دانشگاهی.
  3. فراستخواه، مقصود (1398). روش تحقیق کیفی در علوم اجتماعی با تأکید بر «نظریه برپایه» (گراندد تئوری GTM). تهران: انتشارات آگاه.
  4. کرسول، جان، پلانوکلارک، ویکی (1398). روش‌های پژوهش ترکیبی. ترجمه علیرضا کیامنش و جاوید سرایی، تهران: نشر آییژ.
  5. مؤمنی، منصور، فعال‌قیومی، علی (1391). تحلیل‌های آماری با استفاده از SPSS. تهران: ناشر مؤلف.
  6. میرفخرالدینی، فائزه السادات، ابراهیمی، میلاد، جندقی‎اردکانی، فرزانه (1403). شناسایی و تحلیل اهمیت-عملکرد شاخص‎ های مؤثر بر عملکرد مالی در هتل ‎های استان یزد. فصلنامه مطالعات مدیریت گردشگری، 19(65)، 99-134. https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2024.76171.2883
  7. Aksoy, L. (2013). How do you measure what you can’t define? The current state of loyalty measurement and management. Journal of Service Management, 24(4), 356-381. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-01-2013-0018
  8. Aktas-Polat, S., & Polat, S. (2022). Discovery of factors affecting tourists’ fine dining experiences at five-star hotel restaurants in Istanbul. British Food Journal, 124(1), 221-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2021-0138
  9. Anderson, E. W., & Mittal, V. (2000). Strengthening the satisfaction-profit chain. Journal of Service Research, 3(2), 107-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/109467050032001
  10. Andreassen, T.W., Kristensson, P., Lervik-Olsen, L., Parasuraman, A., McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Edvardsson, B., & Colurcio, M. (2016). Linking service design to value creation and service research. Journal of Service Management, 27(1), 21-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-04-2015-0123
  11. Arnold, M. J., Reynolds, K. E., Ponder, N., & Lueg, J. E. (2005). Customer delight in a retail context: investigating delightful and terrible shopping experiences. Journal of Business Research, 58(8), 1132-1145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.01.006
  12. Barnes, D. C., Beauchamp, M. B., & Webster, C. (2010). To delight, or not to delight? This is the question service firms must address. Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 18(3), 295-303. https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679180305
  13. Barnes, D. C., Collier, J. E., Ponder, N. & Williams, Z. (2013). Investigating the employee’s perspective of customer delight. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 33(1), 91-104. https://doi.org/2307/23483322
  14. Bartl, C., Gouthier, M. H., & Lenker, M. (2013). Delighting consumers click by click: antecedents and effects of delight online. Journal of Service Research, 16(3), 386-399. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670513479168
  15. Beauchamp, M. , & Barnes, D. C. (2015). Delighting baby boomers and millennials: factors that matter most. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 23(3), 338-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2015.1032472
  16. Bowden, J. L., & Dagger, T. S. (2011). To delight or not to delight? An investigation of loyalty formation in the restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 20(5), 501–524. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2011.570637
  17. Chin, W. W. (1998). The partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling. In G. A. Marcoulides (Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
  18. Chitturi, R., Raghunathan, R., & Mahajan, V. (2008). Delight by design: the role of hedonic versus utilitarian benefits. Journal of Marketing, 72(3), 48-63. https://doi.org/10.1509/JMKG.72.3.048
  19. Creswell, J. W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
  20. Crotts, J. C., & Magnini, V. P. (2011). The customer delight construct: Is surprise essential? Annals of Tourism Research, 38(2), 719-722. https://doi.org/1016/j.annals.2010.03.004
  21. Dubey, P., Bajpai, N., Guha, S., & Kulshreshtha, K. (2020). Mapping gender and marital roles on customer delight by value perception for mobile technology in India. Technology in Society, p. 62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101275
  22. Ekini, Y., Dawes, P. & Massey, G. (2008). An extended model of the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction for hospitality and services. European Journal of Marketing, 42, 35-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560810840907
  23. Finn, A. (2005). Reassessing the foundations of customer delight. Journal of Service Research, 8(2), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670505279340
  24. Fraering, M., & Minor, M. S. (2013). Beyond loyalty: customer satisfaction, loyalty, and fortitude. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(4), 334-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876041311330807
  25. Guidice, R. M., Barnes, D. C., & Kinard, B. R. (2020). Delight spirals: the cause and consequence of employee perceived customer delight. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(2), 149-170. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-05-2019-0126
  26. Kao, C. Y., Tsaur, S. H., & Huang, C. C. (2020). The scale development of organizational culture on customer delight. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(10), 3067-3090. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2019-0128
  27. Kao, C. Y., Tsaur, S. H., Wu, T. C. (2016). Organizational culture on customer delight in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 56, 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.05.001
  28. Keiningham, T. L., Goddard, M. K., Vavra, T. G., & Laci, A. J. (1999). Customer delight and the bottom line. Marketing Management, 8(3), 57-64. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/customer-delight-bottom-line/docview/194193438/se-2?accountid=201395
  29. Kim, M. R. (2011). The importance of customer satisfaction and delight on loyalty in the tourism and hospitality industry. [Doctoral dissertation summary]. European Journal of Tourism Research, 4(2), 226–228.
  30. Kim, S., Kim, M., Choi, L. (2024). Going the extra mile: An integrative model of customer delight. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 36(4), 1193-1212. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2022-1083
  31. Kumar, A., Olshavsky, R. W., & King, M. F. (2001). Exploring alternative antecedents of customer delight. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction. Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 14, 14–26. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/exploring-alternative-antecedents-customer/docview/204708738/se-2
  32. Kwong, K. K. & Yau, O. H. (2002). The conceptualization of customer delight: a research framework. Asia Pacific Management Review, 7(2), 255-266. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265755253_The_Conceptualization_of_Customer_Delight_A_Research_Framework
  33. Lariviere, B., Keiningham, T. L., Aksoy, L., Yalçin, A., Morgeson, F. V., & Mithas, S. (2016). Modeling heterogeneity in the satisfaction, loyalty intention, and shareholder value linkage: a cross-industry analysis at the customer and firm levels. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(1), 91-109. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.12.0143
  34. Lee, B. Y., & Park, S. Y. (2019). The role of customer delight and customer equity for loyalty in upscale hotels. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, PP. 39, 175–184. https://doi.org/1016/j.jhtm.2019.04.003
  35. Liu, C. H. (2017). Creating competitive advantage: Linking perspectives of organization learning, innovation behavior, and intellectual capital. International Journal of Hospitality Management, PP. 66, 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2017.06.013
  36. Ma, J., Gao, J., Scott, N., & Ding, P. (2013). Customer delight from theme park experiences: the antecedents of delight based on cognitive appraisal theory. Annals of Tourism Research, 42, 359-381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.02.018
  37. Oliver, R. L., Rust, R. T., & Varki, S. (1997). Customer Delight: Foundations, Findings, and Managerial Insight. Journal of Retailing, 73, 311–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(97)90021-X
  38. Panchapakesan, P., Amin, M., & Herjanto, H. (2021). How luxury restaurants will enhance the concept of guest delight. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 5(2), 311-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-10-2020-0198
  39. Parasuraman, A., Ball, J., Aksoy, L., Keiningham, T. L., & Zaki, M. (2021). More than a feeling? Toward a theory of customer delight. Journal of Service Management, 32(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-03-2019-0094
  40. Robinson, G. J. (2012). Delight, Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions in a Hospital Setting; the Role of Environmental and Interpersonal Services [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Cleveland State University.
  41. Schneider, B., & Bowen, D. E. (1999). Understanding customer delight and outrage. Sloan Management Review, 41(1), 35-45.
  42. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  43. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  44. Torres, E. N., & Kline, S. (2006). From satisfaction to delight: A model for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 18(4), 290 – 301. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110610665302
  45. Torres, E. N., & Kline, S. (2013). From customer satisfaction to customer delight: creating a new standard of service for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(5), 642-659.  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-Dec-2011-0228
  46. Torres, E. N., & Ronzoni, G. (2018). The evolution of the customer delight construct: Prior research, current measurement, and directions for future research. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(1), 57-75. https://doi.org/1108/IJCHM-09-2016-0528
  47. Wang, X. (2011). The effect of unrelated supporting service quality on customer delight, satisfaction, and repurchase intentions. Journal of Service Research, 14(2), 149–163. https://doi.org/1177/1094670511400722
  48. Wetzels, M., Odekkerken-Schroder, G. & Van-Oppen, C. (2009). Using PLS path modeling for assessing hierarchical construct models: Guidelines and empirical illustration. MIS Quarterly, 33(1), 177-195. https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284
Tourism Management Studies
Volume 19, Issue 66
Spring 2024
Pages 231-270

Main Page

Editorial Boards

Submit Manuscript

Article Processing Charges

Contact Us