Researching Hospitality and Tourism

Bob Brotherton

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781446287545
• eBook ISBN: 9781473933576
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

"Takes readers systematically through the entire research process from the formulation of the aim to the presentation of the dissertation... a key subject-specific resource in our fields."
- Dr Peter Lugosi, Oxford Brookes University "Currently the leading book of its kind... students and other novice researchers will find it accessible and user-friendly. Highly recommended."
-Professor Roy C. Wood, University of Macau Bob Brotherton offers an uncluttered guide to the key concepts and essential research techniques in hospitality and tourism. By providing an authoritative introduction, students are taken through the issues and decisions that need to be considered to conceive, plan, conduct and write up a research project. With updates to every chapter and an array of practical examples, this new edition takes students step-by-step through each decision and action stage of the research process, from identifying a topic and formulating the research question to carrying out research and analysing findings. A companion website will provide a host of student resources including links to video and web resources, suggested further reading, free to download journal articles, and test questions for each chapter.

1 The Nature and Relevance of Research

Chapter Content and Issues

• The nature of research.
• Experience, common sense and theory.
• Thinking about research.
• The characteristics of scientific research.
• Good and bad research.
• Pure and applied research.
• Theoretical/empirical and primary/secondary research.
• Exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research.
• Inductive and deductive approaches to research.
• Issues that require research solutions.
• Some problems that may be encountered.

1.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with a clear understanding of what research is and what it is designed to do. To achieve this, we will explore the nature of research in terms of its main purposes, functions and characteristics. We will also examine different types of research and focus on how these might be used to address or solve theoretical or practical problems, as well as the two basic approaches used to design and conduct research. We will also consider the features that characterise research regarded as good or bad and highlight some of the problems and issues that can arise in any research project, regardless of its scope and size. At the end of this process, you should not only have a clearer understanding of these issues but should also feel more confident that undertaking research is perhaps not quite as daunting as you may have believed and developing research skills is not just something you have to do because it is required on your course but that these skills will actually be useful to you when you become a practising manager.

1.2 The Nature of Research

Research is often seen by students on hospitality or tourism courses as a necessary evil to be confronted. This is especially the case when tutors inform students that they will have to undertake an undergraduate research project or dissertation. This type of activity may be viewed as something different, larger and much more challenging than the normal pattern of learning on a programme and, because it is outside the normal experience of attending lectures and seminars, writing relatively short pieces of coursework and/or sitting the examinations that tend to characterise most modules or units on a programme, there may naturally be some apprehension about having to undertake such a venture.

In many respects, hospitality and tourism courses, and the people engaged in them, have strong practical and applied emphases. Indeed, it is perhaps unlikely that you see yourself as a traditional high-flying academic who naturally wishes to engage in theoretical or applied ‘research’ within a chosen academic field or discipline. That sort of thing may be seen as okay for the physicists, chemists, computer scientists, economists and historians of this world, but you might be asking what relevance does it have to the more practical and pragmatic world of hospitality and tourism? Well, before we go on to consider this question, read the material contained in the Research Reality Scenario box – Do I Need to Be Einstein to Do It? – as this may help to demystify some of the misgivings you may have about doing research.

Hopefully this scenario will have helped to convince you that research is less highbrow and complicated than you may have thought! As an aspiring hospitality or tourism manager, you will know that most of your time as a manager will be spent managing, dealing with real-time, practical issues and problems. Decisions will have to be made within tight timescales, often on the spot, and this implies a more pragmatic approach to solving problems and answering questions. Experience, common sense and quick thinking will be important in this type of environment. There may not be time for an extended investigation, reflective theorising and procedures designed to ensure that the answer arrived at is based on sound and comprehensive facts or data and, therefore, the most valid and reliable one available.

1.2.1 Experience and common sense

That said, however, and notwithstanding the value of timely managerial decision-making, not all managerial decisions can be successfully made on the basis of experience, common sense or quick thinking. One of the problems with these as a basis for determining answers, finding solutions and making decisions is that they are likely to have, at best, a fairly shaky evidence base and tend to be idiosyncratic and inconsistent over time.

Let us just consider this issue for a moment. An individual’s experience is unique to that individual and is comprised of all the experiences he or she has encountered and how that person has thought about, reacted to and learnt from those experiences. Therefore, one person’s experience can never be the same as another’s. Even if the people concerned share similar past experiences, the ways in which they perceive them and learn from them will differ. Thus, answers, solutions and decisions based on experience will tend to be idiosyncratic because the underlying evidence base – the individuals’ experiences and cognitive abilities – used to generate them varies from one person to another.

Similarly, what is common sense? Common sense is a generally accepted view or belief of what is seen to be a sensible way to act or understand certain questions, issues or events. Such a view or belief may indeed be accurate, but, equally, it may not. The problem is that there is rarely, if ever, an opportunity to prove or validate views based on common sense because it is invariably unclear where the origins of the commonsense view in question lie and any evidence base underlying the view is likely to be fragmented, diffuse and indistinct at best. Hence, when challenged, the person using common sense as the rationale or justification for an answer, solution or decision only has recourse to the, rather mythical, strength of the commonsense belief as evidence to support it. Typically the question ‘How do you know that is correct or the right way to do things?’ is answered with the statement ‘Because it’s common sense’ – an answer that invites the questioner to agree with the commonsense belief of the proponent. What happens, though, if the questioner does not accept this? Can there be a logical discussion, with reference to data that could support or refute the claim, to establish which view is correct? No, of course not. The very nature of a belief is just that – it is something people believe for some reason, but is not something that necessarily can be proved one way or the other. I may believe in God, you may not, but there is no way that we could find irrefutable or incontestable evidence to support either view.

So, although not without value, answers and solutions based on experience or common sense alone may have inherent flaws and lead to inconsistent, if not conflicting, policies and practices if they are the sole basis for managerial decision-making. In addition, where questions arise that cannot be answered by reference to prevailing common sense or accumulated experience, perhaps because they are entirely new or much more complex, we have to resort to other techniques and methods. Among these is research.

Research Reality Scenario

Do I Need to Be Einstein to Do It?

Sarah has just started her final year as an undergraduate student on a BA (Hons) International Tourism Management course and she also works as a part-time waitress at the Mexican Sunrise restaurant. She is usually very bubbly and enthusiastic in her work and well liked by regular diners at the restaurant. However, Carlos Ramirez, the restaurant manager, has noticed that Sarah has looked worried and preoccupied during her recent shifts and this is beginning to affect how she deals with the customers. So, he asks her if she can come to see him in his office after her current shift finishes.

Carlos said, ‘Hi, Sarah, come in and have a seat and don’t look so worried – I’m not about to sack you! It’s just that I’ve noticed lately that you don’t appear to be quite your effervescent self with the customers and I wondered if there was a problem I could help with.’ Relieved, Sarah said, ‘Well, you’re right, I am a bit worried about something. When I started the final year of my course, the tutors told me that a major part of this year was going to be taken up with the individual research project and this will account for 30 per cent of my final marks and have a major impact on the degree I get. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they then scared us out of our wits by saying it would be the real test of how good we are and, because we have never done anything like this before, we had better get on with it quickly because we will have to deal with things like research philosophy, deduction and induction, hypothesis testing, collecting empirical data and probably use inferential statistics to analyse this. My God, it’s like another language and I don’t think I can cope.’

Carlos smiled, ‘Ah, so that’s it. I knew there was something up. Okay, Sarah, let’s see if we can’t put your mind at rest a little over some of these things. When I was in your position I felt the same. I felt like I needed to be Einstein to be able to do it, but I learned that, really, all this research stuff is not as daunting as you think. A lot of it is new jargon that you haven’t encountered before and, once you learn the research language a little, it will not be so frightening. Let me give you an example. Remember when you first came to work here, you were a little lost because of the jargon we use in the restaurant until I explained it for you in terms you were already familiar with?’ Sarah nodded. ‘Well, it’s pretty much the same with research,’ Carlos said, and continued, ‘You know more than you think you do. Do you remember when I asked you to come up with some ideas on how we could improve the service in the restaurant?’ Sarah nodded again. ‘Well, you did, and some very good ones as well. So how did you do it?’

Sarah replied, ‘I’d already had some ideas from what I’d read and studied on the course, from my experience of working here and I went to suss out how a couple of other restaurants operated. Then I thought, well, if we could do X then that might improve Y because I could see the connection between the two. So, if you remember, we set this up as a trial for a couple of weeks to see if it was true.’

‘And how did we decide whether it was or not?’ Carlos asked. ‘We compared the restaurant’s performance before the trial with its performance during the trial and then I wrote this up in a report for you, which proved my original thoughts were right,’ said Sarah.

‘Exactly,’ said Carlos. ‘So, let me put this into research jargon for you, because this is what you did, you conducted a piece of research! You began by examining existing evidence on how to organise restaurant service, then you used this to formulate some educated guesses, or hypotheses, on likely causes and effects. What we then did, through our trial, was to set up a type of experiment to test your hypotheses to see if they were correct or not. How did we find these out? By analysing the restaurant’s performance figures, or data, and then we came to the conclusion that this information indicated the original hypotheses were correct. So, when you wrote up these findings in the report, this gave us the rationale for changing the service system.’

‘Wow, when you put it like that, I guess I do know more than I thought I did and maybe it’s not going to be such a worry after all. Thanks, Carlos – you’ve put my mind at rest and I think I’ll be okay now. It’s really very good of you to take the time and trouble to help me in this way.’

‘No problem, Sarah’, Carlos said, ‘After all, I do have an ulterior motive. If you’re happier and more relaxed, you’ll be back to your old self at work and the customers will be happier again.’

‘Ah,’ said Sarah, ‘what was it you said about Einstein earlier? I think you are smarter than you let on!’

1.2.2 Thinking about research

As a practising hospitality or tourism manager, you will have to engage in various aspects of research then – because the questions and problems facing the contemporary manager are increasingly becoming ones that are new and complex and cannot be answered or solved by using experience or common sense alone – but you do actually undertake research in your daily life now. Consider the following issues for a moment: you want to go on holiday, you want to buy a car, you want to find a suitable venue for your twenty-first birthday party, you want to get the best return you can on your savings. How do you decide where to go on holiday, which car to buy, where to hold your party and which form of investment will give you the best return? In a word, research. All of these issues have alternative answers or solutions and you need to find and select the one that fits your needs or criteria the best. How would you do that? Simply by collecting information to identify the options associated with each, then by analysing the information and selecting the best option. In short, you would research the issue in order to identify the most suitable solution.

Many textbooks refer to, or define, research in terms of it being an activity that creates or generates new knowledge or as something that produces a contribution to the existing body of knowledge. The types of words that are commonly used in definitions of what research is include ‘discovery’, ‘investigation’, ‘new facts’, ‘advancement of knowledge’, ‘original insights’ – all of which seem to suggest that undertaking research is likely to be a rather daunting task and create the impression that all research is something very difficult, complicated and requires a high level of intellectual ability on the part of the researcher. However, as we have seen above, in the example of undertaking some research to choose a holiday, a car, a party venue and so on, even these simple ‘research projects’ will involve investigation,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustration List
• Illustration List
• About the Author
• Preface
• About the Companion Website
• 1 The Nature and Relevance of Research
• 2 Research Philosophies and Schools of Thought
• 3 Developing the Research Proposal and Plan
• 4 Sourcing and Reviewing the Literature
• 5 Developing the Conceptual Framework
• 6 Choosing the Empirical Research Design
• 7 Collecting the Empirical Data
• 8 Sampling
• 9 Analysing Quantitative Data
• 10 Analysing Qualitative Data
• 11 Writing Up the Research Project
• Index