The middle and senior managers' tendencies to developing innovation in hotel firms: an empirical research

Abstract

Applying a new service development is an important matter for the hotel industry. However, developing innovations in service firms is much harder than one in manufacturing firms because the service concept consists of an intangible characteristic and also the producing and consuming occur simultaneously in service firms. In other words, it is very difficult to develop and implement service innovation in the hotel firms because of their own specific characteristics. On the other hand, customers' needs and expectations are changing in the hospitality industry more and more. In this respect hotels have to develop new services appropriate for customers' expectations in today's progressive conditions. The purpose of this study is to try to determine the middle and top-level managers' tendencies towards developing innovation in hotel firms. The technique of questionnaire has been used as a method in this research. The questionnaire has been applied to the city and resort hotels in Balikesir region. In the research the factor analysis, t-test and variance analysis have been made as well as the descriptive statistics. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that the managers' tendencies towards innovation have appeared differently depending on the sizes of hotels. the location of hotel (city or resort) and some demographic features of hotel managers.