Strategic sustainable service design for creative-cultural hotels: a multi-level and multi-domain view

ABSTRACT

This paper combines sustainable development, service design, and strategic thinking to develop a holistic framework for sustainable service design within the context of creative-cultural hotels. We examined this framework through a qualitative exploratory multi-case study. The framework comprises strategic, organizational, and interface levels. It is based on a strategic perspective which integrates the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development to describe the design and implementation of service offerings that co-create value within a multifaceted network of actors. The findings of this study show that incorporating local arts and culture into sustainable service design can generate unique value and experiences for customers. This study contributes to the topic of sustainable service development for hotels by creating a hierarchical approach to service design that emphasizes the opportunities represented by local culture. It is imperative that hotels adopt sustainable service design and provide innovative service not only to increase their competitive advantage but to reduce society’s overall environmental impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Strategic sustainability
• service design
• local culture
• triple bottom line
• value co-creation
• sustainable development

Acknowledgments

The author thanks all the anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions to the article. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 106-2410-H-144-002) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).