Stemming from the above reasons, the author chooses the topic "product and process innovation in Vietnam’s hotel industry", on the one hand, adding to the research gap on service innova
Trang 1CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales
Innovation – as an expression of human creativity and lateral thingking – is not the
result of economic development, but rather the source of sustainable economic and social
progress (Collins and Fahy, 2011) Baden-Fuller and Stopford (1994) even indicate
innovation as the path to sustain competitive advantage and to rejuvenate mature business
One of the economic sectors to which innovation brough a particularly significant
contribution is tourism In fact, over the course of history, tourism demonstrated immense
innovativeness (Hjalager, 2010) One sector of toursism value chain, which is
particularly open to innovations, is the hotel industry (Gabriela, 2013) In an era of
globalization, technological evolution and stagnating tourism demand, competiion in the
hotel industry has become fierce (Tseng và cộng sự, 2008) Although innovation is one of
the main determinants of compettion sector The tourism industry depend on innovation
for achieving lower costs and higher quality outputs (Ottenbacher và Gnoth, 2005; Chadee
và Mattsson, 1996), such as improved services and products, environmental issues,
informantion and communication technologies (ICT) interaction
Although the research on innovation in the tourism industry in general and the
hotel in particular has had a great effort in the past time, due to tourism is a young
research area in which only in early 70-ies of last century, hotel products are services,
meanwhite, research on innovation in services is also relatively young Hotels are the
basic tourism receptive units and one of the most important segments of the tourism offer,
until now the study of hotel innovation still has three limitations following:
First, research on innovation is not systematic, limitations on empirical research Hotel
innovation is primarily studied in cases, the number of empirical studies is very small to have
a significant impact on management practices and is not extensive compared to research on
innovation in other sectors (Hall và Williams, 2008; Hall, 2009; Hjalager, 2010; Gabriela,
2013) Much of the research content has yet to reach consensus (Gabriela, 2013)
Second, there is a lack of research on product and process innovation Third, the
hotel sector has been associated with negative effects on the environment through the
consumption of natural resources, the generation of greenhouse gases, and waste
production (Alzboun, Khawaldah, Backman, & Moore, 2016) In the face of social and
stakeholder pressures, hotel managers are difficult to find solutions that could meet a
growing market segment who want to pay for the green hotel while they try to control
operating costs of their hotels (Rodríguez-Anton và cộng sự, 2012) So innovation to
protect the environment and sustainable development is the trend of the current hotel but
very few studies mention this content
Next, in Vietnam, environmental protection activities are increasingly focused,
awareness of consumers is increasing and green consumption trend is spreading in the
community Vietnam’s tourism and hotel industry has had strong changes to global integration To integrate with the development trend of world tourism and to meet the needs and consumption trends of tourists, hotels need to be transformed more strongly by having to innovate According to my knowledge, there has been no research on this content
in this industry in Vietnam
Stemming from the above reasons, the author chooses the topic "product and process innovation in Vietnam’s hotel industry", on the one hand, adding to the
research gap on service innovation and tourism field, on the other hand, contributing to practicalbility in the local and regional context
1.2 Research objective and questions
The objective of this research is to build an integrative model linking knowledge green procduct and green process innovation determinants, green product and process innovation and performance of Vietnam hotels and test that model in Vietnam Special research questions are:
1 What is the current status of green product and green process in Vietnam’s hotels?
2 What factors determine a green product and green process innovation in hotels? the degree of impact of each factor?
3 How does a green product and green process innovation affect its performance?
4 Is the green product and green process innovation different in differnct types of Vietnam hotels?
5 What measures can Vietnam’s hotels take to improve their green product and green process innovation?
1.3 Research subject and scope
Research subject
Research Content
+ Research only product and process innovation (2 of the 4 types of innovation) defined by OECD (2005)
+ Only interested in green innovation (to protect the environment and sustainable development in the supply of hotel products)
Research scope and space
3 to 5 star hotels are not in the chain in Vietnam
Duaration time of the study
Data is collected for the period 2016 - 2018 and recommendations for the next 5 years
1.4 Definition of key term
Innovation, product innovation, process innovation, hotel
1.5 Research methodology
This research uses both quantitative and qualitative mthods in order to get both the coverage and deep understanding of green procduct and green process innovation in Vietnam hotels Combining both of these methods can help to narrow the methodological
Trang 2research gap The research proceeded through five steps: (1) review literature, (2)
research context examination, (3) qualitative research, (4) empirical survey, (5) results
and implications
1.6 New contributions of the study
Theoritical contributions
First, the thesis has systematized the knowledge of innovation in general and green
innovation in particular in the tourism and hotel industry, provides insight into the green
innovation process in hotels in Vietnam Second, in the service industry, product and
process innovation has many different perspectives, on the one hand they integrate with
each other, on the other hand they are completely independent like in the manufacturing
industry The thesis describes the differences between these two types of innovation,
reinforcing the proof of the independence of each type in the hotel industry in particular
and services in general Third, building and testing a new integrative model linking
knowledge green procduct and green process innovation determinants, green product and
process innovation and performance of Vietnam hotels which takes into account the
moderate effects of contextual factors in the hotel sector Qualitative research with
managers has confirmed the suitability of the theoretical model to Vietnamese context
Fourth, through collecting primary data, the topic creates a new data system of green
innovation in the hotel industry The results of this research contribute to a general
understanding of innovation and the factors that influence hotel innovation - a type of
specific service business in transition economies
Practical contributions
Provide a current picture of the hotel industry in Vietnam and innovation on the
tourism and hospitality sectors; provide information on green consumption trends in the
tourism industry and the status of green product and green processes innovation in
Vietnam's hospitality industry; provide a new data set; compare the difference in green
product and green process innovation among hotel types, categories and ownerships;
offer solutions to help hotels in Vietnam conduct suitable creative ideas to improve
business efficiency and policy recommendations to create an environment for promoting
creativity in hotels in particular, in businesses in general
1.7 Structure of the thesis
The thesis comprises of seven chapters, including this Introduction chapter
Chapter 2 reviews literature on innovation, which serves as the theoractical foundation
for the studying of innovation in tourism and hotel; theoretical perspective in innovation
research; reviews specific literature on innovation in tourism and hotel to build a
conceptual Chapter 3 findings research gap and builts a conceptual model and produce
a number of hypotheses Chapter 4 provides back ground information on Vietnam hotel
industry Chapter 5 describes the research methodology Chapter 6 presents research result
Chapter 7 compares the result of the study with the literature, discusses their implications
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 2.1 Overview research on innovation
2.1.1 Definition of innovation
Research on innovation began in the middle of the twentieth century, so far, many concepts have been proposed, such as Schumpeter (1934) ,Thompson Crow (1965), Zaltman và cộng sự (1973), Kimberly (1981), Drucker (1985), Ven và cộng sự (1986), Damanpour (1996), Ủy ban Châu Âu (1995), Rogers (2003)
2.1.1.1 Dimentions of innovation concept
Ram et al (2010) pointed five broad dimensions in which the concept of innovation
is defined and discussed Each dimension is discussed as following: (1) Innovation as something new, (2) Innovation as a conduit of change, (3) Innovation as a process, (4)
Innovation as a value driver, (5) Innovation as invention
2.1.1.2 The “essences” of innovation
Bareghenh et al (2009) indicated 6 essences that are "embedded" in these definitions, including: (1) nature of innmovation, (2) types of innovation, (3) stage of innovation, (4) social context of innovation, (5) means of innovationand (6) aim of innovation
2.1.1.3 Definition of innovation according to OECD standard
“An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved
product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method inbusiness practices, workplace organisation or external relations” (OECD, 2005, p.46)
2.1.1.4 The "new" essence in innovation according to OECD standards
The main point of innovation is to do something new The novelty of Innovation based on the OECD standard is expressed in one of the following three aspects: (1) new to firm, (2) new to market and (3) new to the world
Two concepts related to the level of innovation include: “radical innovation" and
“incremental innovation” Radical and incremental innovation show novelty at two different poles, one is high and other is low The innovations is between these two gaps are called really new innovation by García and Calantone (2002) These are moderate innovations
2.1.2 Types of innovation
There are many differen ways to classify innovations OECD (2005) relies on firm’s activities to divide innovation into four categories: product inovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation
“A product innovation isthe introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.” (OECD, tr 48)
“A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software” (OECD, 2005, tr 49)
Trang 32.2 Industry innovation system
2.3 Literature review on tourism innovation
2.3.1 The importance of innovation in tourism
Among the various sub-sectors of the global economy, tourism is one of the most
competitive service industries and the extraordinary growth of tourism in the past few
decades has always been accompanied by fierce competition (Backman và cộng sự, 2017;
Cirstea, 2014; Vodeb, 2012) Therefore, innovation is the optimal coping mechanism for
fierce competition as well as satisfying the ever-changing needs of tourists to achieve
sustainable growth for businesses in the tourism field (OECD, 2008; Simonceska, 2012)
The importance of innovation in tourism is multidimensional A new innovative
tourism product that brings high added value Increasing the ability to innovate, tourism
suppliers can become monopolizing Tourism destinations are forced to plan and
implement an innovative approach to attract potential customers (Santos, 2014) In this
way, a destination begins to provide travel experiences that were previously unavailable
This helps suppliers gain a comparative advantage over competitors
2.3.2 The researches on innovation in tourism to date
Literature review on tourism innovation, scholars focus on three major issues: (1)
research contributing to the development of theory of innovation in tourism, (2) research
innovation at the regional and destination level, (3) research innovation at the enterprise level
2.3.3 Classification of innovation in tourism
Hjalager (2010) identified five main categories of innovation:
(1) Product or service inovations are changes which are perceptible to tourists and
which are generated either by destination managers or by enterprises operating in the
field of tourism (2) Process innovation is generally implemented in the back office of
service to improve productivity and business efficiency (3) Managerial innovation refers
to new ways of organizing and directing internal and external resources (4) Marketing
innovation includes new ways of marketing This innovation play vital role in the
relationship between service providers and customers, as they determine the
organization’s market orientation and notoriety…(5) Institutional or management
innovation refers to the structure or legal framework through which tourist services are
provided and consumed Such alliances, social tourism organizations, networks of
accommodation providers…
2.4 Literature review on hotel innovation
2.4.1 Features of hotel innovation
According to Allegro and de Graaf (2008), in the hotel industry, the most
innovative ideas come from those, who have an outsider’s perspective looking at the
operation and they do not restricted by existing practices Konovalova and
Jatuliavicienne (2015) show that hotel innovation is more affected by external
environmental movements than from internal impacts Therefore, the development of
innovation needs through interaction with actors that may not be directly related to tourism industry (Hjalager, 2002)
Product of hotel is service Every attribute of hotel product is considered in innovative activities The intangible and tangible components of products are services that are highly correlated in the hospitality industry This means that both properties depend on each other when integrated into the service delivery process and influence the process that hotels provide services to guests
2.4.2 Product innovation in hotel
Product innovation refers to two aspects of introducing new products and improving existing products (Chang et al, 2012; Polder et al, 2010) Product innovation can include design changes that lead to important changes in the use or features of a product (OECD, 2005) These hotels were started to provide a low-price service without compromising essential and basic hotel standards such as accessibility, cleanliness, and comfortable beds (Hall & Williams, 2008) Later, as illustrated by Reiwoldt (2006), a diversification of the mainly small-scale accommodation sector has occurred through design and niche hotels as a way to create a sensuous atmosphere, illusions and aesthetics which are important ingredients in the product on a footing with functional attributes Some studies in the hotel sector refer to single qualities of the hotel services as innovative, for example gastronomy, animation, infrastructure, or wellness facilities (Jacob et al, 2003; Pikkemaat, 2008), customised comfort (Enz & Siguaw, 2003) or environmental measures (Le
et al, 2006)
2.4.3 Process innovation in hotel
This type of innovation refers to the application of new or greatly improved methods
in the manufacture, supply of products and services; applying new or greatly improved approaches to logistics, distribution or delivery of materials and products; introducing new
or greatly improved supplementary activities (e.g maintenance systems, procurement, accounting) Process innovation can be the foundation to improve services to attract new
customers, increase loyalty of customers and help increase the value of products
Restaurant kitchens offer many examples of intensive process innovations The application of food service technologies embraces faster and better preparation methods, energy and labour savings, waste reduction, better sanitation, faster service and higher flexibility (Rogers, 2007)
2.4.4 The relationship between product and process innovation in the hotels
The relationship between product and process innovation within a company is seen
in the specialist literature from two opposing views (Damanpour, 2010): the distinctive view, which considers that both kinds of innovation are independent, and the integrative view, which assumes the existence of complementarities between the two kinds of innovation Guisado-González et al (2014) pointed that that each of the two types of innovation is independent
Trang 42.4.5 Green product and process innovation in hotel
Terminology for product and process innovation towards ‘green’ element (abbreviate
as green product and process innovation) refer to product and process innovations help reduce
negative environmental impacts through the consumption of natural resources, creating
greenhouse gases and producing waste These type of innovation create various
environmental initiatives that reduce energy consumption, water and waste output in order to
make a positive contribution to protect the hotel environment
2.4.6 Innovative trends in the hotel industry
According to the literature review, in the development stages of the hospitality
industry, hotel innovation often focuses on the following aspects: (1) application of
information technology to innovate hotel’s products, processes, and marketing, (2)
organizational innovation and emergence of business models, new types of hot, (3) other
innovations such as customizing service for guests, designing themed products, adapting
to environmental protection activities…
2.4.7 Empirical studies on hotel innovation to date
First, several studies identify important procedures for hotel innovation
development such as the work of Ottenbacher and Harrington (2007) Second, researches
focus on developing one or several types of hotel innovation such as the works of
Orfla-Sintes and Mattsson (2009), Ottenbacher (2007) Third, testing factors that can create hotel
innovation, for example Hjalager (2002), Ottenbacher and Gnoth (2005), Ottenbacher
(2007) The impact of innovation on organizational performance is also studied
individually or integrated into the above research lines Previous typical studies are
summarized in table 3.1 to 3.3 The topic of this thesis will focus on the third research line
CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAPL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES
3.1 Research gap, 3.2 Theoretical perspective and 3.3 Research proposal
From the analysis of the features and the innovation process that takes place in the
hotel and literature review on tourism innovation, it appears that network, cooperation
with external organizations play a important role and occupy a special position than
businesses in other industries Research on green product and process innovation in the
hospitality industry is very essential Green innovation is currently one of the outstanding
directions of the industry but very few scholars are interested in this field of research
However, this research area is still very few scholars interested in Studies have often not
considered innovation in a specific theoretical perspective The search for a background
theory to investigate the content of this thesis is essential to both increase reliability and
add the research gap above Therefore, based on the two theories that are network and
absorption capacity, I propose a research on the impact of these two factors on green
product and process innovation and test the impact of green product and process
innovation on hotel performance
3.4 Hypotheses
3.4.1 Network and innovation
3.4.1.1 Concept and essential components in network 3.4.1.2 Network theory
3.4.1.3 Network and parties involved
The parties involve in the entreprise network
From the stakeholder perspective, the various parties involved in a (social) network are considered as those affecting or being affected by the actions of the business as a whole (Philips et al., 2003) The variety of parties which can be involved in interactive relations with a firm within a network can be relatively large: buyers, suppliers, competitors, government offices, industry associations, religious affiliations, universities, and consultants (e.g., Smeltzer et al., 1988; Fann and Smeltzer, 1989; Tidd and Trewhella, 1997)
Table 3.2 Parties involved in a hotel’s network
Source: Refined references of Indarti & Postma (2013) 3.4.1.4 Netwwork and green product innovation, green process innovation
Tie diverstity
Previous studies (e.g Becker and Dietz, 2004; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) point out that interaction with diverse partners may provide various advantages Diverse sources of knowledge allow the firm to create new combination of technologies and knowledge, which in turn it provides opportunities for the firm to select among various possible paths (Metcalfe, 1994) Partners may also contribute different resources and capabilities instrumental to improve the firm’s innovation capabilities (Becker and Dietz, 2004)
Moreover, varied network partners, may attract more heterogeneous knowledge, experimentation, search, variation, and risk-taking, which contributes to explorative innovation (March, 1991; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) and to sustain innovation (Laursen and Salter, 2006) More specifically, collaboration with varied partners improves the chance of achieving product innovation (Becker and Dietz, 2004; Nieto and Santamaria, 2007) Against this backdrop, therefore I propose:
The focal firm (Hotel)
Suppliers Buyers
Government institutions
agencies
Business Associations
University/ research institution Competitors
Trang 5H1a: The tie diversity is positively associated with green product innovation
H1b: The tie diversity is positively associated with green process innovation
Tie intensity
As indicated, repeated, enduring and structured relationships are the
main rationale behind the capability of networks to spread and diffuse knowledge
among their members (Inkpen and Tsang, 2005) Social interactions are reflected in
the intensity in terms of number of times actors share time in any kind of event, so,
more interactions between actors could mean more access to knowledge of others,
possibly resulting in more sharing of this knowledge (see e.g Molina-Morales and
Martinez-Fernandez, 2010; Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998; Yue-Ming, 2005) When ties
become more intense, the quality of the knowledge exchange is likely to increase,
especially so-called strong ties (see Granovetter, 1973), allow for more knowledge
exchange and more exploration (learning), and therefore the hypotheses are proposed
H2a: Intense ties are positively associated with green product innovation
H2b: Intense ties are positively associated with green process innovation
Multiplexity
Tie diversity and tie intensity do not suffice to capture the quality on interaction
with diverse partners Tie diversity indicates the number of partners in the network, while
tie intensity denotes the frequency of interactions To complement them, Indarti &
Postma (2013) introduce the notion of multiplexity to indicate the amount and the
variety–i.e the depth–of knowledge transferred during the interactions Multiplex
means that a single line or channel can carry various messages simultaneously It
refers to the complexity of the relationships, the variety of the exchanges embedded in
the relationship or the number of diverse types of ties (Tuli et al., 2010)
Indarti & Postma (2013) argue that this issue concerns the number of various
knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship refers ranging from design to
production to markets More multiplex relationships between firms in a network concern
richer knowledge domains (Hoang and Antonic, 2003) Collaboration with different
partners affects the amount and variety of knowledge to be shared which enhance the
firm’s innovation (Becker and Dietz, 2004) I contend that the more diverse the
knowledge that is exchanged in the relationships, the more probable will be that this
knowledge positively affects a firm’s innovation, thus I propose the following:
H3a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is
posititively associated with green product innovation
H3b: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is
posititively associated with green process innovation
3.4.2 Absorptive capacity and green product, process innovation
3.4.2.1 Absorptive capacity
Absorptive capacity is ‘the ability to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it and apply it to do commercial ends’ (Cohen và Levinthal, 1990, p.128)
Organizational absorptive capacity is a multi-component contruct Thomas and Wood (2014) point out that tourism businesses in particular rely on external knowledge for innovation and argue that the two-factor model is "the ability to find and acquire knowledge - ACQUISITION" and “the ability to use knowledge - USE" is more appropriate than the four-factor model proposed by Zahra and George's (2002) The
thesis uses the model of Thomas và Wood
Figure 3.3 A model of absorptive capacity in tourism
Source: Thomas và Wood (2014) 3.4.2.2 Absorptive capacity and green product, green process innovation
Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) have identified absorptive capacity as a solid capacity to bring value from receiving external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it to
do commercial purposes With the greater availability of external sources of knowledge
in modern economies, the absorptive capacity is very important and necessary because it influences on the ability to achieve goals, acquire and deploy external knowledge It is necessary to promote the internal innovation process to bring a competitive advantage (Fosfuri and Tribó, 2008)
As Lichtenthaler and Lichtenthaler (2009) have argued, absorptive capacity may be one of several capability-based capacities that influence innovation When conceptualised appropriately,
Absorptive capacity
Activiation
sources of knowledge
Personalised sources of knowledge
Social activiation mechanism
Regimes
of appropria
Competitive advantage
Strategic flexibility Innovation Perfomance
Trang 6there is a strong a priori case for supposing that absorptive capacity is a valuable means of
examining an aspect of innovation within enterprises in tourism
H4a: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with green
product innovation
H4b: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with green
process innovation
H5a: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green product innovation
H5b: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green process innovation
3.4.3 Green product, green process innovation and hotel’s perfomance
Innovations are crucial conditions for improving performance and raising
organizational value (Llore´ns Montes et al., 2005; Bowen et al., 2010) Organizations
achieve excellence in operational performance dimensions such as cost, quality,
delivery, and flexibility as a result of focusing their resources and efforts on product and
process improvements and innovations (Tan et al., 2007) Kafetzopoulos and Psomas
(2015) found that the level of innovativeness was positively related to productivity and
performance Saunila et al (2014) demonstrated that organizations which are more
successful in innovations had higher operational and financial performance than others
According to some scholars, hotels should be innovative in the field of
environmental practice (Best and Thapa, 2013; Le et al 2006; Smerecnik and Andersen,
2011) Applying green practices is very beneficial for hotels and the tourism industry
(Chou, 2014) Therefore, I propose the hypothesis H6:
H6a: Green product innovation is posititively associated with hotel’s performance
H6b: Green process innovation is positively associated with hotel’s performance
3.4.4 Green product, green process innovation, its antecedents, and hotel’s performance
Empirical proof of this can be found, for example, in De Jong and Den Hartog’s study (2010) where they emphasize that the use of the skills and behaviors of employees does not directly favor business performance if that relationship is not mediated by innovation output In other words, there will be an increase in business results only if the employees’ ideas and creativity in the workplace are transformed into concrete innovative products and services (Marques and Ferreira, 2009) Thus, this thesis proposes testing the median level of product innovation and green processes in the relationship between knowledge absorption capacity, relationship network with hotel performance whether it is fully or partially mediated H7a: Green product innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance H7b: Green process innovation mediates the relationship between green product innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance.
3.5 Conceptual model
CHAPTER 4: THE RESEARCH CONTEXT CHAPTER 5: REESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5.1 Qualitative research
The author interviewed and discussed with 15 managers including 3 directors, 2 deputy directors, 5 business managers and 5 professional managers of 6 hotels to find out the meaning and necessity of the green innovation in hotel; find out the factors affecting green product innovation and green process in the hotels; explore outstanding factors in
a practical context Combine with the preliminary survey to screen and adjust the scales, giving an official research model
5.2 Empirical survey
5.2.1 Survey objectives, 5.2.2 Research sequence, 5.2.3 Data collection and sample
The survey population was defined as all three to five-star hotels rated by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Data were collected from February to June
2019 Each hotel surveyed three subjects: management, head of business department, head of profession department Two channels of survey implementation were selected First channel, 19 tourism departments of 19 provinces and cities supported to send 987 letters with paper questionnaires to each survey object of their hotels The second
Absorptive capacity
Ability to find and acquisition knowledge Ability to use knowledge
Network
Tie intensity Tie diversity Multiplexity
Green product innovation
Perfomance
Marketing results Economic results Financial results
Control variables
Room Years of operation Employee Category Type of hotel Ownership
Green process innovation
Trang 7channel, the Vietnam Tourism Association, the Quang Ninh Tourism Association, the
Danang Hotel Association, the Hotel CEO Club and two travel companies support email
surveys to hotels of 37 provinces remaining
5.2.4 Variables and measures
Except product innovation, process innovation variable, all other latent variables
were measured by multiple items using a Likert- type (1= strongly disagree to 5 = strong
agree) format Multiple items measures were used because they could increase the
measures’ reliability (Neuran, 2000) The Likert-type scaling was used because of its
power and simplicity (Alreck and Settle, 1995)
The measure of Hotel Perfomance over the last three years was taken from Snoj
và cộng sự (2007) It includes three statements address the hotel’s achievement of target
marketing results, economic results, financial results with 10 items: (1) customers’s degree
of satisfaction, (2) percentage of customers who use hotel more than once, (3) service
quality, (4) image of the hotel in the market, (5) development of scales, (6) development
of market share, (7) development occupation rate, (8) gross profit, (9) return on investment,
(10) return on equity
The measure of green product innovation and green process innovation were
adapted from Salmones và cộng sự (2005); Smerecnik và Andersen (2011), Jeou-Shyan và
cộng sự, (2017), Maria del Rosario và cộng sự (2017) The measures include items assessing
to them by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers Green product innovation comprises 5 items in the
following areas: (1) there are more and more reusable components, (2) there are products,
materials or packages which do not contain hazardous substances that can reduce the
environmental impact, (3) inclusion of organic products, (4) use resources effectively,
(5) modification of spaces ensuring the preservation of the natural environment Green
process innovation’s consisted of seven items: (1) adopt new or improved methods to be
recycled in the process of providing products and services, (2) invest in new purchases
equipment, purchases with energy-saving/water-saving marks or green-label items, (3)
collects hazardous waste by categories, (4) adopt new or improved methods to uses
environmentally friendly building materials, (5) adopt new or improved methods devices
for water reutilization, (6) Use of more eco-friendly cleaning supplies, (7) use of
conditioning of areas using natural and/or local materials
The measure of tie intensity adopted from Zeng và công sự (2010) Tie intensity
indicates the intensity of interaction between the focal firm and the external parties Tie
diversity represents the number of various external parties involved in the interaction
with the focal firm: (1) institution customers, (2) individual customers, (3) suppliers, (4)
competitors, (5) government institutions, (6) tourism associations, (7) tourism forums,
(8) university research institutions A firm that has interaction with more various external
parties has higher tie diversity The respondents were asked to mention which external
parties they interact with
Multiplexity represents the depth of knowledge domains absorbed by the focal
firms from various external parties The mearuse was taken from Indarti và postma (2013) The deeper and more various knowledge domains absorbed from the external partners, the higher the degree of multiplexity The respondents were asked to indicate the specific knowledge content obtained from 8 external sources are indicated above and also indicate the depth of the knowledge
The measure of absorptive capacity in hotel industry was taken from Thomas and wood (2014) The researchers develope the scale from 4 research works of Camisón and Forés (2010), Delmas and cộng sự (2011), Flatten and cộng sự (2011), Barrionuevo et
al (201) incluing 15 items (table 6.1)
The common control variables in the hotel innovation study found through the literature review include 6 variables: (1) years of operation, (2) category, (3) number of employees , (4) number of rooms, (5) type of hotel, (6) ownership
5.2.5 Data procesing
First, relibiliy analysis and factor analysis were used to evaluate the measures’s reliability and validity (Aaker et al, 1998) Then, bivariate correlations were performed
to explore bivariate relationaships among variables
Second, multiple regressions were used to estimate the relationships between the
independent variables and green product/process innovation, between green product/process innovation and performance, and the mediating relationship of green product/process innovation This technique could be used to analyze, the relationship between a single
dependent variable and several independent variables (Hair et al, 1998) To test the mediating impact of innovation, the method of Baron and Kenny (1989) was recommended
CHAPTER 6: RESEARCH RESULTS 6.1 Qualitative research results
The research qualitative results show a picture of the status of green product innovation and green processes innovation in Vietnamese hotels According to the hotel managerial staffs' assessment of the impact of these factors on the activities, the most mentioned and influential elements for hotels to conduct innovation as well as be able to implement this type of innovation are the customers (institution and individual), suppliers, competiors, horizontal and vertical sectoral authorities, unofficial social organizations in the industry where hotel businesses find ideas for innovation, methods implemented through interaction relationships between hotel with external organizations
To put new ideas into practice at the hotel, internal factors are also very important such
as capacity, staff qualifications, culture of sharing and cooperation, dynamism and willingness to change have also shared by the interviewers These two factors of relationship with external organizations and this internal capacity are also consistent with previous studies: Rice (2009), Teece and cộng sự (1997), Zander and Kogut (1995), Zott
Trang 8(2003), Meeus and cộng sự 2001), Vinding (2006), Chesbrough and cộng sự (2006), Rice
(2009), Morone and Taylor (2012)
The qualitative research results for the 15 hotel managerial staffs show that the
theoretical model is basically consistent with the industry's research context However,
the measure of network has a item which predicts is not valid in model analysis and
verification It is a measure of "the number of related external organizations" According
to the research theory in chapter 3, there are 8 types of external organizations specific to
the industry in which a hotel may have a relationship Result of in-depth interviews did
not discover a new organization type compared to the literature but pointed out a common
feature that the hotels were related to all of the 8 types of organizations mentioned above
6.2 Prelimitary survey result
The questionaires were sent to 55 people (director, vice director, head of business
department, head of profession deparrtement) of 22 three to five-star hotels The return
questionnaire indicated that infomants had no difficulties in understanding the questions and
Coronbach alpha analysis results show that all of the scales meet reliability requirements with
values greater than 0.70 (Nunnally và Bernstein, 1994)
The researcher's 'suspect' element was also clarified The results of 55 survey
questionnaires show that all hotels have relationships with the 8 types of external
organizations included in the research model Therefore the item of "the number of
external parties" is removed from the scale of network Along with the removal of this
measure, the initial hypotheses H1a, H1b are also excluded from the content of testing
The official research model and the proposed hypotheses are as follows:
H1a: Intense ties are positively associated with green product innovation
H1b: Intense ties are positively associated with green process innovation
H2a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is
posititively associated with green product innovation
H2a: The number of various knowledge domains to which an interactive relationship is
posititively associated with green process innovation
H3a: The ability to find and acquire knowledge is positively associated with
green product innovation
H3b: The ability to use knowledge is positively associated with green process
innovation
H5a: Green product innovation is positively relationship with the hotel’s performance
H5b: Green process innovation is positively relationship with the hotel’s performance
H6a: Green product innovation mediates the relationship between green product
innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance
H6b: Green process innovation mediates the relationship between green product
innovation antecedents and the hotel’s performance.
Figure 6.1 Official research model
6.3 Quantitative research result
6.3.1 Data collection and sample
Result of survey obtained 609 questionaires from 268 hotels including 172 online questionaires and 438 paper questionaires There are 27 paper questionnaires which had
"missing data" and 151 had no guarantee of reliability during data collection After eliminating the unsatisfactory questionaires, the data included in the analysis included
432 questionaires of 206 hotels, accounting for 22% of the total number of hotels nationwide; accounting for 31% of total non-chain hotels
6.2.2 Analysis of multiple-item measurement
Coronbach Alpha analysis results show that all the scales meet reliability requirements with values greater than 0.7 (Nunnally và Bernstein, 1994) The first factor analysis results extracted 7 factors Absorptive capacity has the lowest loading factor (.416) in item A1 and the load is inconsistent into two factors Item A4 has a high loading factor (.713) that loads individually into a factor If item A4 is omitted, item A1’s loading factor is very low If both items are excluded, the Coronbach Alpha increases from 0.94
to 0.952, the KMO index also increases from 0.883 to 0.887 Evaluation of "face validity", these two items can also be removed from the model without affecting the content of the variable A new measure of absorptive capacity after removing these two items is included in the second EFA analysis The result shows that there are 6 components extracted with the total variance extracted of 72.763 at eigen-value of 1.01 Moreover, all variables have a high loading weight (> = 0.556) on the concept they measure and low on the concept they do not measure Multiplexity variable is extracted
by two factors that were renamed level of relationship with customers and businesses in the industry including 4 items N1, N2 N3, N4 and level of relationship with state
Absorptive capacity
The ability to find and acquire knowledge The ability to use knowledge
Network
Tie intensity Multiplexity
Green product
Marketing results Ecomomic results Financial results
Control variable
Room Years of operation Employee Category Type of hotel Ownership
Green processs innovation
Trang 9management agencies and supporting organizations including 4 items N5, N6, N7, N8
The absorption capacity variable is extracted by a factor that was renamed ability to find
and use knowledge including 13 item A2, A3, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10, A11, A12, A13,
A14, A15 The performance variable is extracted by two factors, namely, the market
result including items from P1 to P4 and the financial and operational results consist of
items from P5 to P8 These groups of newly formed factors were put into the Coronbach
Alpha test once again, the results achieved reliability > 0.07 Therefore, the scales of
these six research concepts ensure reliability, convergence and discriminant validity
6.3.3 Normality diagnosis, descriptive analysis and correlations
To check the samle distribution of a variable, I observed (1) the skewness
staticstic, which measured the symmetry of the sample distribution, (2) the kurtosis
statistic, which measured the sample distribution’s peakedness, and (3) the histogram
with normal curves West et al (1996) suggested that the absolute value of kurtosis >
7 or skewness > 2 was acceptable Kim (2013) also confirmed West's point of view
and added the factors that are suitable for samples larger than 300 In comparison with
the data analysis results, the variables in the research model ensure normal
distribution Examining the correlation coefficients among the variables in the model
shows that there is a strong correlation between these variables
6.3.4 Hypothesis testing
6.3.4.1 Innovation model
(a) Green product innovation model
Bảng 6.5 Multiple regression results for green product innovation
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Control variables
Main variables
Level of relationship with customers and
Level of relationship with state
management agencies and supporting
organizations
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
All coefficients are standardized
Looking at the overall 4 models, years of operation of the hotel, 4 - 5 stars hotels has a slightly significant at (p <0.1), the number of employees, the size and ownership
of foreign aren’t significant associated with green product innovation The city hotel type is inversely significant associated at different levels with green product
innovation Among the independent variables, only the group factors of multiplexity and ability to find and use knowledge are significant associated with green product innovation (p <0.5) Level of relationship is not statistically significant Therefore, this
analysis supports the hypothesis H2a, H4a and H3a is partially supported, meanwhile, there is no evidence to support H1a
Table 6.6 Multiple regression results for green product innovation
Model 6
Model 7
Model 8
Control variables
Main variables
Level of relationship with customers and
Level of relationship with state management agencies and supporting organizations
All coefficients are standardized
Trang 10In Model 8, all control and independent variables were entered into the regression
equation As a result, 4-5-stars hotel tends to impact green process innovation; hotel size,
city hotel are inversely significant associated; the remaining control variables have no
significant For the two independent variables, there are only groups of factors about
multiplexity, ability to find and use knowledge are strongly positively associated with
green process innovation (p < 001) The overall review of the regression results for green
process innovation shows that the hypothesis H2b, H4b are supported, the hypothesis
H3b is partly supports and H1b is not supported
6.3.4.2 Perfomance results
(a) Market performance results
Table 6.7 Multiple regression results for market performance results
Model 10
Model 11
Model 12
Model 13
Model 14
Control variables
Innovaion antecedents
Level of relationship with
customers and businesses in
the industry
Level of relationship with
state management agencies
and supporting organizations
Ability to find and use
All coefficients are standardized
Model 10 explains 5.7% of the market performance at (.127, p <.1) Hence the
hypothesis H5a is partly supported Model 13 results show that green process innovation
does not affect market perfomance Therefore, the H5b hypothesis is not supported for
market results To test the mediating impact of green product innovation, green process innovation (hypotheses H6a, H6b) I followed the method recommended by Baron and Kenny (1989) Observing results of model 4, 8 11, 12 and 14 to indicates that green product innovation and green process innovaton fails to mediate the relationship between its antecedents and hotel’s performance
(b) Financial and operational results
Table 6.8 Multiple regression results for financial and operational results
Model 10
Model 11
Model 12
Model 13
Model 14
Control variables
Green product
Innovaion antecedents
Level of relationship with customers and businesses
in the industry
Level of relationship with state management agencies and supporting organizations
Ability to find and use
All coefficients are standardized
Looking at the model 8, green product innovation contributes to 3,5% of the variance in finalcial and operational ressults and is statistically significant ( 139, p< 1), green process innovation contributes to 3,3% of the variance in finalcial and operational ressults and is statistically significant (.136, p< 1) Along with the results in models 10,
13 conclude that the hypothesis H5a is supported, H5b is partly supported (in financial