Study of the Dimensions of Customer-Based Hotel Brand Equity

Abstract

With the fierce competition in the hotel market, hotels have paid a great deal of attention to hotel branding to acquire competitive advantages. Therefore, hotel brand equity (HBE) has gradually become the focus of research in the industry. This article discusses HBE's dimensions and their relationships from the information economics point of view and the cognitive psychology point of view and proposes an HBE dimensions relationship theory based on them. Empirical research is provided and validates the proposed theory. The conclusion is that HBE dimensions contain perceived quality, brand credibility, brand image, brand awareness, information cost saving, and perceived risk. Among them, perceived quality, information cost saving, brand awareness, and brand image have a positive effect on brand equity, whereas perceived risk has a negative effect on brand equity. Furthermore, brand credibility is the mediating variable between perceived quality, information cost saving, and brand equity. Also, through the two dimensions of brand awareness and perceived quality, four HBE types are suggested: excellence, potential, crisis, and infantility.

近年来，随着饭店业市场的竞争加剧，饭店企业通过饭店品牌化来获取竞争优势，因此饭店品牌资产逐渐受到关注。本文从信息经济学和认知心理学视角探讨饭店品牌资产维度及其关系，并通过实证研究验证了所提出的理论，认为：饭店品牌资产维度包括感知质量、品牌信任、信息成本节约、感知风险、品牌认知和品牌形象。其中，感知质量、信息成本节约、品牌认知和品牌性相对品牌资产具有显著的正向影响，而感知风险对品牌资产具有负向影响，更重要的是，品牌信任是感知质量和信息成本节约与品牌资产之间的中介变量。同时我们也通过感知质量和品牌认知两个变量划分出了四种饭店品牌资产：优质型、潜力型、危机性和幼稚型，并针对每种类型提出了相关的管理建议。

KEYWORDS:

• Customer
• hotel brand
• hotel brand equity
• hotel brand equity dimensions

关键词:

• 顾客
• 饭店品牌
• 饭店品牌资产
• 饭店品牌资产维度

Notes

1. It should be pointed out that there is some controversy regarding the inclusion of brand loyalty as a dimension of brand equity. Although Aaker (1991; 1996) defined brand loyalty as a dimension of brand equity, Erdem and Swait (1998), from the view of information economics, noted that brand loyalty is the consequence, not the reason, of forming brand equity and should not be included in the dimension of brand equity. Also, Keller's (1993) studies of brand equity dimensions, in the cognitive psychology account, exclude brand loyalty. In this article, brand loyalty is not taken as a dimension of brand equity.

2. If the surveyor is not familiar with the hotel brand that the respondent filled in the questionnaire, he also asks the respondent to finish the questionnaire. After the survey, on the basis of consulting relevant materials, we decide whether to use these questionnaire or not.

3. An “entry” method has been adopted mainly because “in view of empirical management studies, it is generally testing the theories rather than using the existing data to explore theories, so it is not suggested to use the ‘stepwise’ method to analyze, rather than use the method of making all the variables enter into the equation to mandatory regression” (Liu, 2008, p. 258).