Hospitality Consumers’ Innovativeness: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Research on consumer innovativeness has been studied in the field of marketing during the past decade, in that it has become critical to firms and businesses introducing new products. Yet as the literature concerning innovativeness in the hospitality sector is extremely limited, the purpose of this study is to better conceptualize and understand innovativeness in the hospitality sector (e.g., hotel, restaurant & bar, food & beverage, and occupational training). Using a qualitative method, personal interviews have been collected in this study from local hospitality managers and data are analyzed by constant comparative analysis. Eight themes emerge from the interview data: (1) novelty seeking, (2) eagerness, (3) vigilance, (4) openness, (5) venturesome, (6) hedonism, (7) value seeking, and (8) social distinctiveness. These intrinsic characteristics capture the concept of innovativeness in a broader range within different perspectives. The resultant data could therefore be utilized in future research to evaluate the level of awareness and use of perceived innovativeness in consumer behavior research and business marketing.

Citation

Wang, W. (2014), "Hospitality Consumers’ Innovativeness: A Qualitative Study", Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (Advances in Hospitality and Leisure, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1745-354220140000010002