Bridging the Service-Quality Gap in International Hospitality Business in Emerging Markets

This study explores how the elements of internal service quality recognised in developed markets can be implemented in a culturally diverse emerging market by using a context-sensitive approach linked to the material experiences of employees and customers who deliver and consume services, respectively. We draw on the service profit chain model (S-PCM) and semi-structured interviews with 35 employees of two subsidiaries of a multinational hotel in a global south country, Nigeria. Our findings extend the existing five elements of the service profit chain model, focusing on the ‘business case’ to reveal the ‘stakeholder case’ for internal service quality. By using the S-PCM, the study develops an empirically grounded framework which demonstrates that to be adaptive, responsive, dynamic, and locally meaningful, the transfer of service quality in a culturally diverse emerging market involves much more than standard-guarding and standard-setting by the parent company. A focus on relational/interpersonal and informal institutional drivers remain fundamental for profitability and fairness. These insights, however, cannot be generalised to all emerging markets. This study responds to calls in the broader management literature for studies that explain how context impacts management practices more nuancedly.