Hotel industry on the Spanish market : supply chain management a way of creating a competitive advantage?
Authors
Dubreuil, Sophie
Issue Date
2014
Degree
MA of Business Administration
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Purpose: The goal of the research was to show how supply chain management can be used in the hotel industry on the Spanish market to create a competitive advantage. In order to do so the study examines some practices that can lead the hotels to reduce their costs in order to satisfy their customers but also to obtain quality and therefore a competitive advantage. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: The study is done in a descripto-explanatory way in order to analyse data through a qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative data are collected through interviews of professionals of the hotel industry in Spain and a participant observation on the supply chain of a hotel group in Spain whereas the quantitative data are collected through questionnaire distributes among customers of hotels in Spain. Findings: Using the analysis of the data it can be deduced that it exist a positive correlation between supply chain management in hotels in Spain and performance of the hotels. Moreover, customers are willing cheap prices and therefore there are some supply chain practices that can be adapted to hotels in Spain in order to do so. Practical implications: In order to obtain a real competitive advantage, the hotels have to put in place supply chain practices that allow and cheap costs (therefore cheap prices) and good quality if they want to gain and retain customers and be different from their competitors. Originality/ value: The study brings a balance between academic research and practical implications about the supply chain management in hotels in Spain. On a longer term, more studies could be done in order to generalize those practices and apply them to hotels in more countries over the world and not only on the Spanish market.