Research On Hotel's Core Competence Based On Knowledge Capital

Nowadays knowledge and technology have been becoming the dominant factors instead of labor, capital and other factors in economic growth. The key of success in hotel industry has been transforming from physical capital into knowledge capital. Faced with the increasingly fierce competition in knowledge-based economy, hotels and other service enterprises need to establish a knowledge-based core competence and implement knowledge capital management in order to obtain and maintain competitive advantage.To start with, this paper makes a literature review on core competence theory and knowledge capital theory, based on which the article defines the hotel's core competence and its structure. According to the definition, it builds an evaluation index system and an evaluation model for hotel's core competence. Then, this paper designs a questionnaire to conduct empirical research. Through Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) we can evaluate the core competence of a hotel, and get the knowledge capital elements impacting a hotel's core competence. Finally, the paper analyzes the operation status and existing problems of China's hotel industry. According to the previous evaluation results, here proposes some specific strategies of building a hotel's core competence.Through research, we reach the following conclusions:First, a hotel's core competence has the nature and characteristics of knowledge. A knowledge capital-based core competence of a hotel is, a unique collection of knowledge and ability getting from long-term accumulation and learning in a competitive market. It can achieve customer perceived value through coordinating and integrating strategic resources. Secondly, knowledge capital is the cornerstone constituting a hotel's core competence, and can be divided into three parts:staff capabilities based on human capital, management capabilities based on structural capital and market capabilities based on customer capital. Third, empirical analysis shows that the evaluation model based on knowledge capital has scientific rationality, and can be applied to core competence evaluation. Finally, knowledge capital management can improve a hotel's core competence, the specific strategies include:Shaping hotel brand and focusing on products development, cultivating corporate culture and establishing a learning organization, implementing customer relationship management and improving customer satisfaction, training knowledge-based talents and promoting innovation, raising the level of information and building marketing network.The paper uses literature review, empirical research, AHP and other research methods, and makes some innovations and attempts on research object, research perspectives and evaluation indicators, also discusses hotels' core competence as the representative of service-oriented enterprises.