engleski

Knowledge management and quality in Croatian tourism

Knowledge is an infinite resource of hotel enterprises, and society as a whole. In hotel enterprises, it will be serve as a platform for practising sustainable development and gaining competitive advantages. Knowledge-based economic development provides the best opportunities for dealing with a global environment in which rapid and dynamic changes are taking place. Seen as a precondition to success, knowledge management (KM) will result in generating value-added in tourism. A survey was conducted in large and mid-sized hotel enterprises to demonstrate their KM level and the contribution of KM in gaining competitive advantages in the Croatian hotel industry. Empirical research was used to establish the level of KM development in the Croatian hotel industry, and to determine the importance of KM in gaining competitive advantages in the hotel industry. In addition to knowledge, quality is a vital factor in gaining competitive advantages in hotel enterprises. Globalized markets and increasingly discerning customers, demanding more and more for their money, are compelling product and service providers to ground their business systems on customer needs. Total Quality Management (TQM) – a new management philosophy – enables the systematic application of these ideas. This chapter looks at several TQM approaches that define the basic elements essential to successful TQM implementation, in particular, the element pertaining to employees. The application of these elements in the Croatian hotel industry is presented through the results of empirical research on a sample of mid-sized and large hotel enterprises.

knowledge management ; knowledge management strategy ; quality ; total quality management ; innovation ; tourism

rad objavljen i kao reprint u Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications / Khosrow-Pour, M (ur.). Hershey, PA (USA): IGI Global, 2015. str. 1284-1298 doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-6543- 9.ch073 CROSBI ID 962191