Knowledge Management Capabilities and Hotel Performance in Malaysia: The Role of Market Orientation

Abstract

This study is concerned with the impact of Knowledge Management Capabilities (KMC) and Market Orientation (MO) on Hotel Performance (HP) in Malaysia. The World Tourism Organization (2018) highlighted that the global tourism industry  today attracts around 1.245 billion international tourists, with trillions of US dollars expected to be generated from tourism in 2016. The tourism industry, which includes hoteliers, must follow the current market trends to ensure that its  performance is sustainable in a competitive environment. Therefore, hoteliers must provide sufficient knowledge to their employees in terms of infrastructure and process to deal with market trends. However, many of them are still reluctant to embrace management adaptation. The data for this study were collected from the top management of 146 hotels. Top management in this context included managers, managing directors, or chief operating officers from three-star to five-star hotels in Malaysia. The results show that knowledge management capabilities have a significant relationship with market orientation. The findings suggest that market orientation strengthens the relationship between knowledge infrastructure and hotel performance. The paper presents a few contributions. Firstly, the framework can be a support tool for top management in the hotel industry to develop knowledge management capabilities that cater to the market in sustaining competitiveness. Secondly, the research broadens the scope of opportunities for future research.