How is reputation created and managed through strategic intelligence ? Case study : an examination of mechanism and strategy on hotels in the area of Spa

Abstract

Reputation is described as the most relevant asset in a company (Helm, 2011). Liehr-Gobbers and Storck (2011) adds that reputation has become a prerequisite to achieve organizational success. In the case of hotels, reputation grew in important over the recent years. This thesis intends to demonstrate how reputation is created and managed through strategic intelligence. The objective is to answer to two research questions based on case studies, on hotels in the area of Spa, in order to demonstrate how to work on reputation through the tool that is strategic intelligence composed of this three pillars. Moreover, the two research questions were also answered with the help of a quantitative study, oriented towards customer sounding. The two research questions are: 1. To what extent is strategic intelligence used by hotels to create their reputation? 2. To what extent is strategic intelligence used by hotels to manage their reputation? In order to answer the second question, three hypothesis will be created. Hypothesis 1: Scanning allows an increased knowledge of the image of the hotel which allows to maintain and improve the level of the hotel. Hypothesis 2: Sharing knowledge maintains competition and pushes hotels to innovate on certain criteria valued by the customers and thus improves their reputation. Hypothesis 3: Formal hotel communication builds loyalty among existing customers and brings in new ones that maintain reputation through informal communication. The third part, results, will analyse a case study of three hotels, different in their type (rank, independent or hotel chain). Through interviews, it has been possible to demonstrate the way everyone works in front of reputation but above all through strategic intelligence and its three pillars. In the fourth and last part, discussion, a quantitative study will be conducted in order to collect data from the customer perception. All this information will be used to support the answers to the various hypotheses and thus to demonstrate them from an external point of view, independently from the three hotels studied before.