شیوه های مدیریت عرضه و عملکرد در صنعت مهمان نوازی کانادا

As the competition to gain customers becomes more intense, the hospitality industry has faced increasing pressure to find new approaches to create and deliver value to customers through supply chain management (SCM) practices. Over the past decade there has been a growing realization of the important contribution that purchasing and supply management can have on an organization's performance. This paper addresses SCM practices, with an emphasis on strategic purchasing (SP), in one sector of the Canadian hospitality industry. Using data collected from 105 Canadian hotels, this study tested seven hypotheses of the impact of SP on SCM practices and verified the impact on the hotel's performance. All of the hypothesized relationships were supported. The results indicate that SP is positively related to the relationship with the supplier (SR), communication (COM), service quality (SQ), financial performance (FINP), and customer satisfaction performance (CUSP). The managerial and research implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.

Supply chain management (SCM) is gaining the interest of many researchers and practitioners in different industries because suppliers have a profound impact on the costs and quality of the buying firms in supply chains (Zhang et al., 2009). Following the path of other sectors, an increasing number of hospitality industry organizations are beginning to adopt SCM practices to improve their performance. Handfield and Nichols (1999) noted “SCM aims to integrate all key business activities through improved relationships at all levels of the supply chain (internal operations, upstream supplier networks, and downstream distribution channels) to achieve a competitive advantage.” In fact, SCM – an integrated approach starting from planning and control of materials, logistics, services, and information – flows from suppliers through manufacturers or service providers to the end customer; it represents a major change in modern business management practices. It is a very significant change because it acknowledges that individual firms no longer compete as independent units, but rather as supply chains (Chen and Paulraj, 2004a). While SCM was gaining attention both in practice and in the academic literature, the concept of strategic purchasing (SP) has also been expanding. Early understanding of the purchasing responsibility was limited to obtaining the materials, supplies, and services required to produce a product or provide a service. However, the role of the purchasing function has recently changed significantly, going from a transactions-oriented function to a higher strategic level function with an emphasis on SCM (Stanley and Wisner, 2001). Carter and Narasimhan (1996) noted that “the difference today is that the ability of purchasing to impact strategic planning has increased in a number of businesses.” The current literature search shows that the issue of SP has been extensively discussed in theory. In the context of the manufacturing industry, several empirical studies have thoroughly verified the impact of SP and SCM practices on organizational performance. For instance, Carr and Smeltzer (1999), Stanley and Wisner (2001), Chen et al. (2004), and Paulraj and Chen (2005) have empirically tested the critical role of SP and its impact on buyer–supplier relationships. The empirical literature in manufacturing industry has laid a foundation for developing constructs and proposing relationships among the variables selected for our study of the service industry. However, to our knowledge no previous study has attempted to empirically demonstrate the relationships between SP and SCM practices in the context of the service industry. This study intends to develop a framework of SP in the hospitality supply chain, recognizing the important role service quality (SQ) plays in the hospitality supply chain. Using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, we empirically investigate the relationships among SP, SCM practices, and financial and non-financial performance in the Canadian hospitality industry. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we develop a synthesis of the literature to provide a conceptual foundation for the framework. Then, in Section 3, we develop the logic of the substantive relationships among the study variables, and we state hypotheses. In Section 4, we explain our research methodology and analysis, including the data collection procedure, construct operationalization, and measurement. The testing of hypotheses and the results are discussed in Section 5. Section 6 presents discussion and implications of the study findings. In Section 7, we conclude the study and highlight limitations along with suggestions for future research.

From our study, we can conclude with some degree of certainty that SP appears to be a critical area that has a significant impact on COM, SR, SQ, CUSP, and FINP. The research results supported by the findings reported in Table 3 indicate that Canadian hotel managers have achieved a marginally higher rate in non-financial performance than in financial performance. The total standardized path coefficient for CUSP was 0.53 compared to FINP, which was 0.37. In addition, CUSP was statistically significant at the 1% level and FINP was statistically significant at the 5% level. This is strong evidence that success in business today is not solely determined by a strong cash flow or meeting a financial budget. Developing an appropriate purchasing strategy; a good two-way communication system; excellent relationships with key suppliers; and skills in areas such as customer service, quality, and innovation also play a significant role. These are, however, not easily measured in financial terms. While we hope this study has enhanced the state of empirical research in the context of the hospitality industry, our results should be taken as no more than a preliminary step towards understanding the complex, multidimensional concept of strategic purchasing at the chain level. The measures of SP and supply chain practices dimensions used to rate the supply chain lodging organizations are a possible limitation of the research study. Research in the area of the hospitality supply chain should try to establish operationally useful measurement criteria to facilitate an empirical study. However, since there is no general agreement in the hospitality literature on how to measure these constructs, we believe that it is possible to build upon the measures used in this study to develop an adequate measure in the context of a hospitality supply chain. Since the data of the study was collected from the hospitality industry in Canada, results of the study may not be directly applied to the hospitality industry in other countries or to other types of hotels. The results of this study may vary with the service levels, size, and geographic locations of hotels; this suggests future research opportunities. In addition, a similar study could be conducted in other continents or countries, which will make it possible to find differences among nations or continents. Future studies should focus on identifying what attributes – in addition to SP, COM, SR, and SQ – characterize supply chain practices in hospitality industry supply chains. The use of larger sample sizes would be especially useful in future studies.