کیفیت بازارگرایی: اثر ادراک شده آژانس های گردشگری

This paper analyzes the effects of market orientation from two perspectives. First, its direct influences on tourist agencies’ perceived performance, and its indirect ones on performance through the perceived value of market information. Second, direct effects on the perceived service quality offered by the firm and indirect influences derived from the utilization of quality measurement systems are analyzed. Hypothesized relationships are tested in an empirical study of tourist managers. Research findings confirm the proposed relationships, except the influence of using quality measurement systems on service. A positive direct influence between perceived service quality and performance is also analyzed and confirmed.

Service quality constitutes a key factor in the development of tourism (Augustyn and Ho 1998), and in particular in retail tourist agencies. Following Bigné and Andreu (1999) and Bigné, Martínez, Miquel and Andreu (2003), one, the performance of the service offered implies a high degree of personal interaction with the potential customer, the seller-customer encounter acquiring a central role; two, the agencies’ profits normally consist of commissions on price, with the result that there is very little variation in the price of the products and services they offer, and very little differentiation among competitors in terms of price; three, the structure of the sector shows considerable fragmentation at the distribution level, limiting power in negotiations with providers; and, four, the adoption by providers of new communications technologies, such as the Internet, may constitute a serious threat, as this has an enormous impact on the intermediation function of agencies. The commitment of the firm and its efforts to provide service quality are perceived by its managers as a competitive advantage that contributes to the success of the tourist agency. Indeed, the results of the empirical research carried out with managers of such firms corroborate the direct effect between service quality and the benefits perceived by their managers. This conclusion is explained in the light of the concepts approached in the tourism commercialization chain, which considers the consumer as the focus of decisionmaking. In this way, if the marketer is able to provide high value services and the tourist perceives this, the latter’s evaluation of the quality and the satisfaction generated by its use will be positive, favoring customer loyalty and higher profitability for the firm. Therefore, service quality must be the basis of differentiation and the key element in customer loyalty (Marsh 1994). As affirmed by Baker and Crompton (2000), quality exercises a positive influence on customers’ satisfaction and contributes to making them loyal. In addtion, this study corroborates the existence of a direct and indirect influence of market orientation on the benefits perceived by the tourist manager. Service quality and MO have in practice been studied individually in the context of business performance, and there is a lack of studies that analyze simultaneously the relationships between these concepts (Lai 2003). In this sense, the contribution of this study is the analysis of this relationship; confirming a direct effect between both constructs. Therefore, MO is configured as an antecedent of the service quality offered by the firm, in line with Raju and Lonial (2002). The more market oriented the agency, the higher its service quality will be in comparison with its direct competitors. It is important to consider the limitations of the study concerning the single-item measure of perceived serviced quality. Scholars suggest that using a multi-item measure is superior to a single-item (Chen and Hsu 2001). Further research could use the five-SERVQUAL dimensions (Parasuraman et al 1988) in conjunction with market orientation dimensions to further examine how market orientation influences the multi-item measure of quality. Furthermore, the study of MO in tourist agencies needs further replication. The low reliability score regarding the responsiveness design (α = 0.66) creates the need for further research to strengthen its reliability. Since this study focuses on several types of tourist agencies (tour operators, retail agencies, and hybrid firms), future studies could make efforts to increase the sample of the three types of agency and test the scale in each category using structural equation procedures. The utilization of quality measurement systems is posited as a necessary element in the management of tourism firms. The Spanish Tourism Administration, through the Spanish Tourism Quality Institute (Instituto para la Calidad Turística Española), currently promotes the achievement of quality marks, which are becoming less of a differentiating element than a requirement, given the confluence of various factors such as greater competition and more demanding customers. In this study, the utilization of quality measurement systems as a precursor of the service quality perceived by the manager of the agency compared to its competitors has not been confirmed. In other words, the actions of a firm with an organizational culture that favors quality—such as through measurement quality systems—does not in itself guarantee direct benefits (Raju and Lonial 2002); it must achieve a higher service quality than its competitors. In sum, this study shows, for management purposes, that it is not enough for there to be certifications to ensure that a particular agency meets certain quality standards; but the quality of the service provided has certain benefits and repercussions when an effort is made to offer a higher quality than competitors. The conclusions reached here can be generalized to industries or activities characterized by a high level of competition due to the participation of a large number of agents, or by a low level of perceived differentiation. Nevertheless, the generalization of results is limited by the characteristics of this study. In particular, the sample used involves a high degree of dependency among some agencies and tour operators, and membership in chains; this causes some of the processes used in this study to be defined and developed by the head office with only limited intervention of each individual agency in the chain. The interest of some of the results opens new horizons of research. Thus, the study of the relationship among the type of quality measurement and its effect on the service quality offered is configured as a fruitful field of great utility in both management and academic spheres.