Do ict's deep use increase hotel's staff productivity and guest satisfaction?

Abstract

According to the literature, one regularity regarding the technology adoption cycle is that it takes time to reach all potential effects of a given technology, either on the production side or in terms of efficiency gains. In this context, the main aim of the current PhD Thesis is to take advantage of this issue to identify areas of improvement of the technology adoption and use that could influence a firm¿s (hotel) performance in terms of productivity and staff-plus-customer¿s level of satisfaction. In doing so, we define a theoretical model and apply it empirically on data gathered through questionnaires made to 190 hotel managers, staff and tourism experts. The empirical model also helps to highlight the central role played in this setting by the employees training policies when dealing with ICT installed resources. After running a SEM-GSCA application, the results of the empirical model show that both a better (deep) adoption and use of the existing ICT resources at hotels, and training policies significantly influence the performance of the hotel establishment regarding the efficiency, labour productivity, of employees and job and customer's satisfaction levels. The leadership of managers on selecting and training the staff on ICT resources for their daily tasks appear also key for succeeding strategies. The case study employed in the Thesis to illustrate all the stated hypotheses, that focuses on the IP/PBX digital telephony, is shown to be important, and could also be extended to other ICT resources at hotels within the same framework of analysis. Results of the research open new paths of operations to improve the hotel's efficiency and working environment through a process of better understanding of the installed ICT resources. In this direction, we propose to shed more light on the key role that the ¿technologist¿ persons should play inside the companies, in order to reduce the time gap in technology adoption and use and to recognize and spread the created knowledge along the whole organization structure. One of the main channels identified by this Thesis deals with the improvement of communication capabilities among the staff through a more proper use of the ICT resources, also leading to cost saving innovations important in a post-Covid scenario with relevant budget restrictions. Recommendations of the research findings are also included in the conclusions section of the present PhD manuscript.