StratExploRe

Strategy and Experience linked to the Hotels and the Restaurants

Project title: Hospitality and catering: what strategies create what experiences?
 
Project manager: S. CAMUS
Duration: 3 years (2015-2018)
Amount allocated: Funding for the thesis + 10 000 € for the doctoral student (operation) and 13 000 € for the scientific program
Ph.D Student: Sourou MEATCHI
 
Keywords: Experience, strategy, company performance, customer relations, employee relations, prices, design, atmospheres, authenticity, hotels, restaurants, gastronomy.

Project description

In an experience economy, the strategic advantage of hotel and restaurant businesses lies in their ability to offer their clients a rewarding experience. The project aims to question the notion of experience and to understand the stakes of accommodation and restaurant businesses. It questions both the conditions of the experience offered by the companies, and the customer's experience.
On the one hand, the project proposes to identify the intentions and strategic levers of managers concerning tourists' experiences. Work will either approach this analysis from a global or fragmentary stand point leading to some research analysing intentions and strategies as a whole, while other research will focus on one key factor (eg the design of an area). On the other hand, the project question tourists about the gratifying, authentic and / or shared experience. It aims to identify the specific characteristics and dimensions of hotels and restaurants experienced. It is thus a question of apprehending the experience in the hotel and restaurant business considering it both as a company's strategy and an expectation on the part of the tourists. Thus, the link between these two variables (strategic intent and tourist expectation) will be questioned throughout this project. Conducted by a multidisciplinary and international team, this work on the tourism experience will be analysed by researchers in economics, management, sociology, geography, history, mathematics, computer science, statistics and will offer international comparisons.
 
Theme 1: EXPERIENCE AND GENERAL STRATEGY OF THE COMPANY
- Strategic intent in restaurants
- The operationalisation of the strategy in restaurants
 
Theme 2: EXPERIENCE DETERMINANTS
- Products, services and servicescape
- Distribution and prices
 
Theme 3: EXPERIENCES AND SHARED RELATIONS
- Experiences shared by tourists
- Inter-employees relations