Service value shift based on cultural background of hospitality applied to the japanese “motenashi” service

Abstract

In order to produce sustainable and competitive service, it is important to identify proper competence rooted in the cultural background based on traditional features. Moreover, the service must provide service value shifting in time along with the changes in the needs of customers. This paper show the “motenashi” hospitality cultures as a root of Japanese style service to focus on the host-guest relations and generalize their relations by the anthropological theory of rituals and reciprocity principle as historical point of view at the service for describing the relationship between contemporary services and their cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, based on their considerations of the cultural background, the framework of the degree of customer participation and the level of service needs is applied to real service cases. Results on application to the case of Japanese traditional “motenashi” minded service with heartfelt treating as a major service concept clarify the potential of the framework for considering service business strategy by comparison with their cultural backgrounds.