Yield management, market orientation and business performance in hotel industry
This work aims to investigate the impacts of the 'yield management' process and market orientation on overall business performance in the hotel industry in France. A data collected in self-completion questionnaires returned by 132 hotel directors were analysed by structural equation modelling. The results underline the positive impact of market orientation on performance and yield management, the positive effect of the latter on performance, and its partial mediating role in the orientation-performance relationship. A major implication for hotel management practice is confirmation that market orientation is indeed a powerful factor in the planning and delivery of the service, corroborating earlier French studies and generalising findings from the USA, UK, Europe and Asia, but contradicting the findings of others in the USA, UK, Australia and Ghana. A contribution to the body of knowledge is the empirical evidence for links between market orientation and the practice of yield management, and between the latter and overall business performance. Marketing strategists can benefit from a frame of mind in which a true "market view" influences the implementation of yield management in a "learning organisation". This study is the first to investigate the role of yield management in the link between market orientation and performance.