AI redefining the hospitality industry

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have redefined the hospitality industry. It develops a theoretical framework to evaluate its impact on employee engagement, retention and productivity levels, stemming from its potential implications for service quality and customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Based on the exploration of relevant literature, role theory and service-profit chain were used to develop – role-service-profit chain. Findings Role-service-profit chain is an analytical tool which has strong implications for investment and deployment analysis of the new technologies in hospitality and tourism businesses. It proposes how managers can evaluate how the role expectation of technological innovations relate to service quality and customer satisfaction through its impact on employee-related outcomes (such as employee engagement, retention and productivity), and assess the corresponding impact on profitability and growth, in the context of their own unique internal environment and position in the market. Research limitations/implications Although an empirical assessment of the hypothesised relationships in the model is required to evaluate and validate it in the hospitality industry, role-service-profit chain presents promising implications for tourism and hospitality practice and future research. Practical implications Role-service-profit chain is an analytical tool from which managers can make improvements on talent and talent management practices and adjust expectations and behaviours in ways that facilitate improvements in service quality and customer satisfaction. Originality/value This paper makes an important contribution to hospitality and tourism literature, as it explores how AI technologies implemented to improve on talent and talent management practices impact on service quality and customer satisfaction, and develops analytical tools by which this may be evaluated.

Digital business strategizing: the role of leadership and organizational learning

“…Drawing from leadership literature (Denti and Hemlin, 2012;Mokhber et al, 2018;Cheong et al, 2019), organizational learning literature (Bierly and Chakrabarti, 1996;Dasgupta and Gupta, 2009), change management literature (Kotter, 1996;Stanley et al, 2005;Gilbert, 2015), e-HRM literature (Ruta, 2005;Ruel et al, 2011;Ruel and Njoku, 2020), information technology (IT) value literature (Scott, 1991;Perez-Arostegui and Martinez-Lopez, 2014), value co-creation literature (Marcos-Cuevas et al, 2016;Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2018) and Industry 4.0 literature (Schneider, 2018;Ustundag and Cevikcan, 2018), the contextual factors (environment or conditions) that makes co-creating digital business strategies possible, includes strategic alignment, IT competence, institutional trust and organizational change readiness.…”

“…Grounded on integrated value chain theory, businesses in the digitalized market environment of Industry 4.0 implement and use digital technologies to leverage the new ways of creating value (such as globalizing, network effects and demand-side economies of scale) through effective and efficient configuration and co-ordination of their value chain intra-and inter-organizationally (Njoku et al, 2019;Ruel and Njoku, 2020). Industry 4.0 is the integration and interconnection of information systems and technologies of various businesses and industries (that includes social media, mobile, analytics or embedded Dr Esther Njoku is not currently affiliated with University of South Wales.…”

“…This compels businesses to operate as clusters of network organizations (digital ecosystems), by streamlining and integrating their operations using digital technologies (Porter, 1998;Schneider, 2018;Ruel and Njoku, 2020). As they may have similar needs, an interest in interacting with each other, and/or a potential for creating synergistic advantages for the overall network by increasing value at each stage of the chain through better communication, collaboration and teamwork (Varadarajan et al, 2014).…”

Technology, ICT and tourism: from big data to the big picture

“…AI applications in tourism also include biometric identification, meal planning, or voice-steered information searches, for instance in cruise ship environments (Forbes, 2019). While AI increases efficiency, also through the control of staff (Ruel & Njoku, 2020), it upsets an important element of tourism, i.e. the social exchange of hosts/providers with guests/customers.…”

CoVid Key Figures and New Challenges in the HoReCa Sector: The Way towards a New Supply-Chain

“…Concerning HoReCa, and from a sustainability perspective, the sector has been a subject of research due to its environmental impact, especially food waste management [7][8][9][10], its quantification [11] and the prevention options [12,13]. The potential impact that e-commerce and innovative digital technologies can have on hospitality has also been analysed by academic studies [14][15][16][17]. However, literature review shows few studies focused on the problems associated with the HoReCa distribution channel in general [18] and that they are mainly focused on the environmental impacts of its supply chain [19,20] and on the use of technological advancements in downstream value chains [21].…”