The impact of competitive intelligence on quality of service delivery: The mediating role of open-book management in the hotel industry

Today, the hotel industry is increasingly facing dynamic and changing environments that should adapt itself to environmental changes for survival and dynamism. Providing quality services based on competitive intelligence is a fundamental challenge for hotel managers. This study presented a structural model to evaluate competitive intelligence's effect on service delivery quality by explaining the mediating role of open book management in the hotel industry. This applied, and the descriptive-correlational study was conducted on all managers, assistants, and senior staff of three, four, and five-star hotels in East Azerbaijan province, of whom ۱۸۰ people were selected as the sample size based on Cochran's formula with the proportional distribution. Data measurement tools were Goldstone's competitive intelligence questionnaire, Sajedi's open book management questionnaire, and Parasuraman et al.’s service delivery quality questionnaire. The face validity method and expert confirmation were used to determine the validity of the questionnaires. The internal reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The statistical description of research variables was performed using mean index and standard deviation. The research hypotheses were analyzed with the Pearson correlation coefficient, bootstrap, and Sobel test using SmartPLS software. The results of the correlation analysis showed a significant positive relationship between competitive intelligence and open book management (P<۰.۰۰۱) . A crucial positive relationship was confirmed between open book management and service quality (P<۰.۰۰۱) . The relationship between competitive intelligence and quality of service provision was positive and significant (P<۰.۰۰۱) . The Bootstrap and Sobel test results showed that open book management significantly mediated the relationship between competitive intelligence and quality of service delivery (P<۰.۰۰۱) .

Keywords:

Competitive intelligence , open book management , service quality , hotel industry