Competitive advantage through service in hospitality and tourism: a perspective article Available to Purchase

Jay Kandampully is based at the Department of Human Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA. He is a Professor of Service Management at The Ohio State University, USA. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Service Management and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of 12 refereed international journals. He also serves as the CTF International Fellow at the University of Karlstad, Sweden; International Fellow at the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China; and International Fellow at the University of Namur, Belgium. He holds PhD in Service Management and an MBA with a specialization in Services Marketing, both from the University of Exeter, England. He is co-author and author of the books Service Management Principles for Hospitality and Tourism and Services Management: The New Paradigm in Hospitality (translated into Chinese), respectively. He is also editor of the following books: Service Management: The New Paradigm in Retailing (translated into Chinese); Service Management in Health & Wellness Services; Customer Experience Management: Enhancing Experience and Value through Service Management; and the lead editor of the book, Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (translated into Chinese, Korean and Arabic). His publications have appeared in journals such as Journal of Service Management, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, The Service Industries Journal, Journal of Services Marketing, Managing Service Quality, Journal of Consumer Behaviour and The Journal of Product & Brand Management.

David Solnet is based at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He is an Associate Professor of Service and Hospitality Management in the University of Queensland Business School. He currently serves as Program Leader and Academic Lead for the development of UQ’s first fully online Master’s Degree (Master of Leadership in Service Innovation). He comes from a restaurant background, with over 18 years of experience including Senior Management roles in the USA and Australia. He is recognized internationally for his research, teaching and consulting, all focussed on managing and leading service organizations, with particular emphasis on managing the employee–customer interface. He has published around 40 peer-reviewed academic journal articles, and his work consistently appears in top journals such as Journal of Service Management, Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel Research and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. He is a sought after consultant to the industry, specializing in business improvement programs, financial analysis, service quality improvement, balanced scorecard creation and implantation and management development programs.