RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Service quality and brand personality in hotel and
hospitality the case of Romanian hotels
Andreea VASILE 1 , Dimitrios NIKOLAIDIS 2 1,2
City College, An International Faculty
of the University of Sheffield
1
dvasile@city.academic.gr
Abstract: Hotel service quality and hotel brand personality are very important constructs that hotels must
master and understand in order to stay competitive in business and grow in market share. It is also important
for companies to know how to measure these constructs so that they acknowledge customer needs and
desires and hence satisfy them. Nevertheless, innovation plays a key role in this respect. Entrepreneurs build
innovation either by introducing new products, technological change, new market opportunities or by developing
new brands. In the case of hotel brands, constantly improving services and being up to date with technology
keeps them on the right track. The main purpose of this study is to understand how hotel guests evaluate
and perceive service quality and brand personality in the hospitality industry. In order to do so, the proposed
strategy is to design a model which incorporates brand personality scale measurement and service quality
measurement, with the purpose of analyzing the effect these variables have on brand value and brand loyalty.
The method of analysis uses structural equation modelling and investigates the impact of service quality
and brand personality on hotel brand loyalty. The results confirm the existing literature and indeed certifies
the fact that brand personality significantly impacts brand value and loyalty and that perceived quality impacts
brand loyalty and brand value. This research contributes to the already existing studies examining service
quality and brand personality, but it also brings original value considering that it deals with the Romanian
hospitality industry. Also, the originality of this study consists in the proposed study methodology, which
uses structural equation modeling for analyzing the relationship between the constructs. Hopefully, this research
paper will shed light on the existing literature about service quality and brand personality, but it will also
clarify its relationship with brand value and brand loyalty.
Keywords: perceived service quality, brand value, brand loyalty, brand personality, Romanian hospitality
Introduction
In today’s competitive business world, service quality is essential to long-term business
success and it is mandatory in order to guarantee a minimum level of customer satisfaction.
There is even strong evidence in the literature that service quality is an antecedent of cus-