Orchestrating firm-specific resource integration to achieve customer service performance: an investigation in the hotel context

Purpose This study aims to identify factors that can improve customer service performance by verifying the relationships between these factors, such as customer orientation, firm-specific resource integration, transactive memory system and service innovation capability. In other words, this study identifies the determinants of customer service performance from the perspective of the resource advantage theory of competition. Design/methodology/approach This research was conducted through an online survey of hotel managers and supervisors in Indonesia, which produced 327 questionnaires that could be processed with a response rate of 70.6%. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses with the help of AMOS 23. Findings This study confirms that firm-specific resource integration can improve customer service performance, with the antecedents of the former being customer orientation and a transactive memory system. Research limitations/implications This research was conducted with a sample of three-, four- and five-star hotels, which have different conditions. In future research, it would be interesting to compare how such hotels over a larger geographical area behave in improving customer service performance using the investigated variables. Originality/value This research provides additional insight into the resource advantage theory of competition, namely, that integrated enterprise-specific resources are good antecedents for innovation and customer service performance.