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- Contrasting portuguese and international service quality management in the Algarve hotel industryPublication . Cândido, CarlosThis paper establishes a contrast between the management of three different kinds of hotels operating in the Algarve: international chain hotels, portuguese chain hotels and independent hotels. The dimensions along which the contrast is established are fourteen service quality gaps (SQGs), taken from a model which has been developed in a previous paper by the author and a co-author (Cândido et al., 2000). Sample data has been collected through a questionnaire implemented in the population of four and five star hotels of the Algarve (FFSHA). Data analysis involves descriptive statistics and some statistical tests. In general, descriptives emphasise differences between the hotel groups and raise concerns about possible inconsistent management practices. The paper concludes with several specific suggestions to improve service quality in the FFSHA.
- Charting service quality gapsPublication . Cândido, Carlos; Morris, D. S.Some of the most influential models in the service management literature (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Grönroos, 1990) focus on the concept of service quality gap (SQG). Parasuraman et al. (1985) define a pioneering model with five SQGs, the concepts of which are amplified in Brogowicz et al.’s (1990) model. The latter has five types of encompassing gaps: information and feedback-related gaps; design-related gaps; implementation-related gaps; communication-related gaps; and customers’ perceptions and expectations related gaps. Additionally to this model amplification, other authors (e.g., Brown & Swartz, 1989) have pointed to relevant SQGs that have not been considered previously. This paper integrates current models and a group of SQGs dispersed through the literature in a new comprehensive model. It draws a link between the model and the stages of a strategy process, emphasising the SQGs’ impact on the process and raising relevant research questions.
- Insucesso na gestão estratégica, tema pouco conhecido e controversoPublication . Cândido, CarlosO insucesso de pequenas e grandes empresas aflige diariamente empresários, gestores, famílias e várias outras entidades. Aflige ainda mais em períodos de recessão ou de crise económica como o que se vive. Contudo, a realidade é que este fenómeno do insucesso é ainda bastante desconhecido, quer por parte dos gestores, quer dos investigadores. O desconhecimento subsiste por razões de índole económica, social e cultural, nomeadamente, o facto do insucesso ser sempre uma possibilidade escamoteada, o fracasso lançar um estigma social sobre os empresários mal sucedidos e a preocupação dos investigadores estar mais voltada para o estudo dos factores que contribuem para o sucesso do que para a medição rigorosa das taxas de insucesso
- Certificação pela ISO 9000 não é gestão da qualidade!Publication . Cândido, CarlosMas o que disse então este nosso conferencista de tão estimulante? O Professor apresentou os resultados de um estudo que efectuou em Espanha. Com base num inquérito realizado aos turistas no seu país, construiu um indicador do grau de satisfação para cada destino turístico (Costa da Luz, Costa do Sol, etc.). Paralelamente, o estudo recorria ainda à consulta do número total de empresas turísticas certificadas pela ISO 9000. Analisando estes dados, seria de esperar que os destinos que apresentam graus de satisfação mais elevados dos turistas fossem aqueles com maior número de empresas certificadas. Ora, surpreendentemente, o que aquele Professor descobriu foi exactamente o contrário. Os destinos turísticos com maior número de empresas certificadas apresentavam indicadores de satisfação dos turistas mais baixos!
- Estudos I - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do AlgarvePublication . Covas, António; Cândido, Carlos; TRIGUEIROS, DUARTE; Rebelo, Efigénio; Silva, João Albino; Guerreiro, J.; Rodrigues, Paulo M. M.; Nunes, RuiPublicação da produção científica da Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve.Os artigos que constam desta edição abrangem muitos temas com actualidade nos campos científico e da política económica e empresarial.
- Strategy implementation: what is the failure rate?Publication . Cândido, Carlos; Santos, Sérgio Pereira dosStrategy implementation has attracted the interest of researchers from the strategic management field almost since its foundation and has been the subject of much debate, in part, due to the ‘high’ percentage of organisational strategies that fail. It is often claimed that 50 to 90 percent of strategic initiatives fail to succeed. These claims have often been used to propose new management tools and to dismiss others. As we intend to show, although these claims have had a significant impact in management practice and theory, they are, however, controversial. In this paper we aim to clarify why this is the case and to emphasise that any attempts to produce a generic estimate of the rate of failure based on the current state of affairs are of little practical value. To this purpose an extensive review of the literature is presented and discussed. Based on the analysis of this literature, we conclude that whilst it is widely acknowledged that the implementation of a new strategy can be a difficult task, nobody seems to really know what the true rate of implementation failure is. Much of this uncertainty is due to the fact that some of the estimates presented in the literature are based on evidence that is eitheroutdated, fragmentary, fragile, or just absent. Careful consideration is therefore advised before using these estimates to promote changes in the theory and/or practice of strategic management.
- Inserção Profissional e Progressão na Carreira dos Antigos Alunos de Mestrado da Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve no Período de 1992 a 2006Publication . Cândido, Carlos; Pinto, PatríciaPassados mais de dez anos desde que os primeiros alunos de mestrado da Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve conclufram os seus cursos, tornou-se necessario conhecer urn pouco melhor a trajectoria da sua insen;ao profissional e progressao na carreira. Adoptou-se uma metodologia semelhante a ja empregue anteriormente em estudos realizados junto de recem-licenciados,essencialmente descritiva e baseada numinquerito atraves do correio. Os dados obtidos permitem retirar conclusoes relevantes para os actuais e futuros mestres, bem coma para a propria Faculdade de Economia. Em geral, as conclusoes saDpositivas e sugerem que, apesar do contexto economico menos favoravel de alguns dos anos do periodo em estudo, a insen;ao profissional e a progressao na carreira são satisfatorias essencialmente descritiva e baseada numinquerito atraves do correio. Os dados obtidos permitem retirar conclusoes relevantes para os actuais e futuros mestres, bem coma para a propria Faculdade de Economia. Em geral, as conclusoes saDpositivas e sugerem que, apesar do contexto economico menos favoravel de alguns dos anos do periodo em estudo, a insen;ao profissional e a progressao na carreira saDsatisfatorias.
- Service quality strategy implementation : a model and the case of the Algarve hotel industryPublication . Cândido, CarlosThis is the third of a series of papers addressing the problem of service quality strategy implementation. The first paper focuses on service quality as a function of quality gaps and proposes a comprehensive model that amplifies the areas where to look for service quality gaps (Cândido & Morris, 2000). The second paper focuses on strategy implementation and proposes three interrelated models: a static model of the organisation; a dynamic model of the strategy process; and a mixed model, which integrates static and dynamic models (Cândido & Morris, 2001). Taken together, the four models can help to implement a service quality strategy that simultaneously avoids quality gaps and resistance to change. Now, this paper undertakes a tentative validation of the models. Sample data has been collected through two complementary questionnaires, both implemented in the population of four and five star hotels of the Algarve (FFSHA). Data analysis involves descriptive statistics and statistical tests. In general, the descriptives and the statistical tests do not provide evidence against the models thus supporting their validity. Descriptives have also raised concerns about some possible inconsistent management practices during the implementation of a quality strategy. The paper concludes with insights to managers interested in implementing such a strategy.
- Estudos II - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do AlgarvePublication . Covas, António; Cândido, Carlos; TRIGUEIROS, DUARTE; Rebelo, Efigénio; Silva, João Albino; Guerreiro, J.; Rodrigues, Paulo M. M.; Nunes, RuiPublicação da produção científica da Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve.Os artigos que constam desta edição abrangem muitos temas com actualidade nos campos científico e da política económica e empresarial.
- Implementation of a service quality strategy: application to the Algarve hotel industryPublication . Cândido, CarlosThis dissertation addresses the problem of service quality strategy implementation. The problem has been defined more precisely as how to implement a strategy of quality, which focuses on customers’ needs, in a service organisation, or alternatively, as how to integrate coherently a strategy of service quality, centred on the customers, with the requirements and idiosyncrasies of operationalization, in order to make it successful. The nature and scope of this research problem is based in the confluence of the areas of service quality, strategy and strategy implementation. Thus, addressing this problem naturally requires a review of the literature on service quality, on strategy and on strategy implementation. The literature review on service quality revealed, first, that service quality is a function of service quality gaps; second, that there are some models of service quality gaps; and, third, that there are several service quality gaps in the literature which are not integrated into any model; thus revealing a need for an encompassing synthesised model. This dissertation consequently considers the existing service quality gap models and a list of other gaps to propose a comprehensive model. Similarly, the literature review on strategy and on strategy implementation revealed, first, that there is a lack of clear, detailed and general strategy implementation models; second, that existing strategy implementation models can be separated into two distinct types, the static and the dynamic models; and, third, that existing static models exhibit many relevant aspects but differ strongly on the number and on the nature of the aspects included; thus revealing insufficiencies and the need for an integrative effort. The same happens with the existing dynamic models. This dissertation consequently considers several existing models to propose a synthesised static model and a synthesised dynamic model. The synthesised static model is a representation of an organisation, of all aspects relevant for strategy implementation, at a given instant. The synthesised dynamic model is a generic process of strategy formulation and implementation that explicitly addresses the requirements for success. Note that whilst the two kinds of models address the implementation problem from different perspectives they are not in competition. In fact, it is the view of the author that static and dynamic models are complementary and have to be integrated into a “mixed model”, in order to provide a better understanding of strategy implementation. Thus, besides the already mentioned three comprehensive models, that have been synthesised, this dissertation goes further to suggest a mixed model which, simultaneously and harmoniously, considers all relevant organisational dimensions and all relevant stages of the strategy process. The model shows what dimensions can be changed and at what stages. It can be adapted to the specific circumstances of any organisation. Such model, unique in the literature, as far as the author is aware, is finally combined with the service quality gap model to propose: (1) a map of the pattern of the quality gaps occurring at each implementation stage; (2) the organisational variables that can be manipulated, at each stage, to prevent and eliminate the gaps; and (3) several relevant implications to practising managers. The gap, static, dynamic and mixed models suggested are confronted with some evaluation criteria and with sample data from the four and five star hotels of the Algarve. The data does not provide evidence against the models thus supporting their validity. This tentative validation of the models thus provides some relevant theoretical contributes to the service quality and strategy implementation literatures. Sample data is also used to describe (1) how these hotels are implementing service quality strategies and (2) how they prevent and eliminate service quality gaps. This description has raised concerns about the absence of a consistent model for the implementation of service quality strategies in many four and five star hotels of the Algarve. It also provides some insights to managers interested in implementing a service quality strategy, especially to those of the Algarve Hotel Industry.
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