Value gap in the hospitality industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Value gap in the hospitality industry - Essay Example The literature review section (above) gives a detailed summary of the information that was obtained in the course of the secondary research. From this research two primary objectives for the study could be identified. These are: To evaluate the discrepancy gap between the customers’ expectations and perception of their overall experience with the offered service To identify the factors that enhance customer satisfaction in the hotel industry In order to investigate these objectives both qualitative and quantitative research were used. It was not practical to examine the hotel industry as a whole, an as a consequence four London based hotels were used in order to examine these factors. 3.2 Research Philosophy Yin (2003) considers two different methods that can be used while conducting research, either qualitative or quantitative. These methods refer to the way the researcher treats and analyses the collected data as well as the data itself. The qualitative research approach is less formal and based on unsystematic and unstructured observations. There is little to no numerical component of the research, and consequently it consists mostly of observations and can be difficult to analyse. According to Corbin and Strauss (2007) qualitative verbal analysis is often used in order to gain proper understanding of the phenomenon. The use of this method is to value and study the entire situation. Quantitative research has a foundation of numerical data, which then are calculated and accessible in figures with statistics; therefore, the quantitative research is more standardized (Corbin & Strauss 2007). A positive side of the quantitative approach is that it is rather easy to generalize from the gathered resources. This study took an interpretive paradigm that stresses differences in individuals’ perceptions of social reality that vary across time and place. Interpretive approach thus requires the researcher to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the phe nomenon before drawing any inferences (Klein & Myers 1999). However, since interpretive approach is predominately qualitative, elements of positivism, notably quantitative and statistical techniques were incorporated into the analysis to enhance the generalisability of results. A combined approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods enabled the researcher to understand why customer experience and customer satisfaction are different, and to identify the specific factors that make the two different. To accomplish this both interviews and the survey questionnaire were used in this study. 3.3 Population The primary mandate of the researcher was to choose a sample whose collected data could be generalised for the entire population of managers, employees and customers from the hotel industry in London. The management including CEOs, supervisors, department heads, managers, and team leaders were among the population targeted to be included in this study. This population was releva nt for this study because it has the knowledge and experience of the perceived differences between customer experience and customer satisfaction. Therefore, their views and perceptions were ideal for this study particularly in answering the research questions. For this study, staff members from four hotels were used as the study population. The specific hotels were